How much electronics training/experience do you have?

[Aguiluz]

My mother connected a small bulb from a Christmas light to a battery. Then experimentation followed until now.

[Life of Brian]

I'm completely self-taught. I got my start by reading Ben's book and there's been no looking back. I had no experience with soldering and basic electronics before reading it.

[AfroLH]

Well I took a basic course in computer repair and electronics.

Lots of experimentation,
a few small soldering projects.

And here I am

[Mario]

I was 5 when I took apart my first vacuum cleaner.

My dad taught me mostly. I started soldering around 8. Learned about the wonderful things we call transistors about 10. Before that all I knew was LEDs. I learned a lot from those 100-in-One project kit things. A few cheesy library books. And here I am today.

I don't know, I never read books or was directly taught, I guess you just pick up little things as you go along.

[Aguiluz]

Darn. I don't know crap how to use a transistor.

[Kurt_]

It's really simple once you get down to it.

One pin provides an input. One pin provides an output. And the other is called a "gate". Essentially, if you apply voltage to this pin, depending on how much voltage, you get a larger flow going through to the output pin.

[manuba]

I started tearing stuff apart when I was 5 so my Dad started me here;

Principals of Electric Engineering 4th edition -1956
Electronic circuits and applications -1975
Analog Electronics 2nd edition - 1971

Handbook Of Analog Computation -1971
Basics Of Deep Space Audio Modulation and Communication -1972

Atari 2600 VCS Domestic Field Service Manual - 1983 revised edition
Digital Electronics Principles, Devices and Applications -2007

Hacking Video Game Consoles - 2005 Benjamen J Heckendorn !!

Yes I know about the only thing I can do is service an ENIAC or NASA basics

[Tibia]

This is quite interesting.


Valium, is it pathetic that my first thought about hearing your response was "Real-life automail? That's brilliant!" In all seriousness, though, prosthetics has always interested me. I've got more books on anatomy and phisiology than I can keep track of. lol

[Black Six]

Question: What exactly can you do as an EE?

SS

Anything you want.

Seriously though, EE's are generally trained with basic circuit design knowledge, from simple resistors, capacitors, and inductors to transistors, diodes, and more. Depending on there your interests lie you can focus on things like microprocessor design, digital signal processing (which is a LOT of math), wireless communications, or basically anything that involves a circuit board.

Personally, I learned some basic electronics from my dad and some books he had. Now I'm studying computer engineering (similar to electrical, but we focus more on software).

[jleemero]

Personally, I have no formal training in electronics whatsoever.

I don't have a single book on the matter either.

Everything I've learned has been slowly absorbed from the internet
And it's served me well!

Now, I certainly wouldn't mind majoring in Electrical Engineering, though at the moment I don't plan on it.

[XCVG]

Got one book when I was young. Was already horribly outdated and used British names (WTF is a BC108) but I learned a lot. I looked through catalogs, bought some stuff, built some stuff most of which didn't work, etc. I got two of those lab kits over the years and used them quite a bit though mostly I just built the circuits. I read a lot on the internet about electronics, robots, and later videogames. Had an electronics class this year, learned nothing. I learned a bit in robotics club. Almost no real training.

I'm 14 right now. Nobody knew that did you?

[Extreme_Jesus]

when i was in school i got an A in GCSE Electronics, but it was pretty basic and teacher was the worst teacher ive ever had regardless of subject, so it was mostly self taught

I did A level Physics at college as well which helped out wit hthe understanding of what i was actually doing as well.

Electronics used to something of a hobby of mine, but i havent really done anything in a while so ive probably slipped back a bit

[bacteria]

Self taught. Until I started on this site (see date) I couldn't solder as never tried it. Read Ben's book initially, learnt from YouTube videos, videos here; experimentation. Shows what noobs here can do if they want to learn and research: they can; and be experienced quickly. I barely understand electronics, but have excellent soldering skills.

[metalcookie]

it all started when i was 4 and the family's vacuum cleaner broke. i took that thing apart, from top to bottom, and put it back together, and i repeated that process until i was bored of taking it apart. from there on, i took various things apart, to learn how they work. i experimented with other things, and became fascinated with the subject. i watched palmertech's youtube video on his ds case mod, and from there i found videos of benheck's various projects. i heard he was one hell of a modder, and actually got him and life of brian confused, because life of brian's work was so professional and well built.(i hope you take that as a compliment, i really thought he was ben heckendorn with all of his various mods) i found an article with three sections of ben's book, which were his portable snes, pocket tv hack, and PSone screen baclkight mod. i found this website shortly after, and was amazed with the projects these people make. a year after seeing all of this, i decided i wanted a career dealing with this type of stuff, and from watching various episodes of mythbusters, so i applied for a special high school dealing with a variety of careers, all of which weren't in regular high school, and the field i picked was advanced engineering/technology. what really made me want to sign up is these little radios they made with breadboards and various components. i was accepted, and currently waiting for summer to come and go, so i can go to that school a freshman. i also hope that if they do school projects i could spend that period working on a portable.
well, that's my story

[Taiben]

Mythbusters is epic! Exploshins and science in one show!


I did two years at a trade school after high school. Pretty basic crap but I learned a few tricks. I like tearing crap apart even when i cant get it back together.