Hello, noob here.

[Korban]

Well, I'm new to the forum, no avatar yet, no sig, and almost no electronics knowledge. If you said point to the capacitor, I'd probably point to the screen. Where should I start to learn a hobbyists level of electronics? I'd like to get to the modding portion soon, but I'd like to do a good job while I'm at it. Vaccum-forming the case and such, but electronics first. I'd be willing to spend 15 bucks on a electronics for dummies book, but do those things actually teach well?
-Sincerely,

 

[bud]

Depending on what you want to do, go to that section on our index page and read the megastickies. Read them until you have an understanding of what you are doing.

And welcome to the forum.

 

[Snipeye]

There's that option, or there's a company that I really enjoy working with - "Adafruit" - one electronics kit they sell is called the "mintyboost" and it's a portable USB charger (charge phone, iPod, etc) that runs off 2 AA's. They have great documentation, and reading that ought to give you a good place to start. Assembling the kit is some nice soldering experience, and you end up with a nice finished product. The same company also has put this free beginner's guide to electronics out: http://www.adafruit.com/blog/2010/10/25 ... beginners/

I haven't read it, but knowing the company, it'll be pretty good.

 

[Korban]

Thanks, I've been lurking around on these forums reading the megastickies, and they're great, they really are, but I'm at the level of skill called "What the Heck is a transistor?" I think I'll look at Adafruit's guide then. Thanks the for the help and the welcome. It's amazing the stuff you can learn on the internet. Portabalizing, vaccum forming plastic, etc, etc.

 

[Basement_Modder]

I love adafruit.

 

[mymixed]

Try to avoid kits. They do help though and are pretty . Instructables is an awesome place for learning and gives gives you step by step guides for EVERYTHING. Also try building an audio amp.

- mymixed

 

[Hermaphroditus]

The Electronics For Dummy's book is pretty good, but nothing you could have learned going on Wikipedia. It's just a bit more simplified.

It explains in detail what most major components are and what they do. I would suggest watching YouTube videos and reading wikipedia articles for learning some of the basics in electronics. And also read and re-re-re-re-re-read the megastickies, of course.

Also, when you said you'd point to a screen for a capacitor, I automatically thought of a capacitive touch screen. Loool.

Welcome to the forum!

 

[Korban]

Finally got back here. Thanks for all the replies. I looked at Adafruit's guide, which was helpful. I should buy Electronics for Dummies, I looked at it on Google books, but Google excludes pages. I'm going to keep an eye on the megastickies alot too. Thanks for the welcome and all. I love friendly forums. Some are just plain hostile

 

[Majora]

the first thing i tried to do for a project was take apart and put back together an Alltel LG Scoop. i failed epicly and the screen looks like it has a big black hole in it when i turn it on.

 

[samjc3]

Finally got back here. Thanks for all the replies. I looked at Adafruit's guide, which was helpful. I should buy Electronics for Dummies, I looked at it on Google books, but Google excludes pages. I'm going to keep an eye on the megastickies alot too. Thanks for the welcome and all. I love friendly forums. Some are just plain hostile

Well, we can be quite hostile, but only to the deserving. People who come on like, "hai guys hold my hand and help me build the xbox portablenesssaucerawr lol" type crap get ostracized and receive no help. But using real English and punctuation and actually wanting to learn and being willing to work for it will do wonders. This community is comprised of many of the most talented people I have ever seen, and they are more than happy to teach if you'll meet em halfway.

Slightly late, but welcome to the forums.

Try to avoid kits.

Well, thats a bit of an interesting thing. I agree that for many things, like learning to solder, its pretty silly to get a kit. (relocate a cartslot 50 times, you'll get the hang of it) But other times, kits can be a truly excellent thing. In more than one way. They provide a useful end result, and good ones (adafruit) teach you how and why something works, not just what order to put that exact circuit together in. Also, many kits (sparkfun inventor's kit for arduino comes to mind) provide an excellent selection of parts for much less than you could ever buy them for per part. Instructables can be awesome as well. They generally have a pretty high standard of quality, but I have seen a few that are totally screwy.

 

[Korban]

Ahhhh! So much awesome help! You guys spin me round, right round, right round! Must look up instructables and and other things. Thanks again for all the help.