Hello.
Just wondering if most of you folks that are able to answer all the electronics questions are EE's or other highly trained electrical gurus?

How hard would it be for the average Joe (me) to learn enough to be able to create simple schematics such as dc-dc circuits?

Electronics seems to be a massively technical subject requiring TONS of knowledge and I'm in awe of you folks that know so much.

 

Depends on how much you really want to learn?

Start with the various articles in the Education tab above. Any questions just ask.

 

How hard would it be for the average Joe (me) to learn enough to be able to create simple schematics such as dc-dc circuits?

Electronics seems to be a massively technical subject requiring TONS of knowledge

It definitely helps if Electronics is your occupation and also one of your Hobbies.
It is a continuing learning experience.
Max.

 

I think there are about half a dozen to a dozen full blown retired engineers here, but most of us are very good technicians with decades of experience. Nobody can know it all. Electronics is just too big to do that, but a few dozen of us can cover more than 90% of what you need to know.

 

Just wondering if most of you folks that are able to answer all the electronics questions are EE's or other highly trained electrical gurus?

I would guess that most of the regular participants on this forum are either serious hobbyists with plenty of experience, or experienced EE's or Technicians. In my case, electronics started out as a hobby when I was a kid back in the 1950's; I added an EE degree in 1978, and spent 35+ years as a design engineer in industrial and aerospace instrumentation and measurement.

Now I'm in the most important part of my career: retirement.

How hard would it be for the average Joe (me) to learn enough to be able to create simple schematics such as dc-dc circuits?

Not very hard, provided you go about it in an orderly, disciplined fashion.

Electronics seems to be a massively technical subject requiring TONS of knowledge and I'm in awe of you folks that know so much.

As nice as it is to be objects of awe, the plain fact is that very few of us learned this stuff all in one shot. Far more often, the knowledge is gained from years of experience-- and making mistakes.

 

How hard would it be for the average Joe (me) to learn enough to be able to create simple schematics such as dc-dc circuits?

Far more often, the knowledge is gained from years of experience-- and making mistakes.

Right. You can figure out a few DC circuits this week, but it takes years for the accumulated facts to become this huge, pulsing mass of knowledge in your head. In my case, it took 10 years for the light bulb to come on, and that was just the beginning of getting good at electronics.

 

Hello.
Just wondering if most of you folks that are able to answer all the electronics questions are EE's or other highly trained electrical gurus?

How hard would it be for the average Joe (me) to learn enough to be able to create simple schematics such as dc-dc circuits?

Electronics seems to be a massively technical subject requiring TONS of knowledge and I'm in awe of you folks that know so much.

I was in awe until 2008 when I got started. It all depends how much money, free time and space you are willing to give to the topic. If you plan on having everything in a few ziploc bags that you plan to put away in a drawer after each session of play, then you'll never learn.

Invest in:
- few books,
- a multimeter ($5 possible or $50 to 150 recommended)
- used oscilloscope ($100 to $300)
- Variable DC power supply - 1 amp ($100)
- breadboards and jumper wires
- Storage bins for resistors, capacitors, transistors and ICs
- after that, it depends what you want to do - audio amplifiers, guitar effect pedals, synthesizers, microcontrollers and other digital logic to make gadgets and gizmos, ...
For each additional option, you'll need speakers, microphones, various sensors, LEDs, what ever.

Then you'll need space to make circuit boards, a computer to download circuit simulation software, pcb design software and program microcontrollers.

It's a fun hobby.

I've never taken an electronics class but I am really good at teaching myself so, it really depends on how you learn.

 

Good question. I don't know but I'm curious too. Seems like a good opportunity to create a poll. I've always wanted to do one. I'll try it and link back to here.

 

You have to read it.
You have to study it.
You have to drink it.
You have to eat it.
You have to sleep it.
You have to poop it.

A dc to dc circuit is a digital circuit. They can be the most complicated circuits ever built.

 

https://forum.allaboutcircuits.com/threads/sound-off-your-quals.136352/

 

I've had a bachelor of science in electrical engineering for nearly 4 decades, which equals the on the job experience I also have. Also had a 3 year New York State regents course in electronics.

Most of the things I know have been self taught for the most part, though I did have several outstanding circuits courses in college that nailed down my understanding of analysis.

I must add one of the better engineers I worked with has zero formal training. He started off in a shop repairing guitar amplifiers. When I worked with him he was doing an awesome job designing custom switching power supplies. He did several original design improvements. Last I heard of him he was managing a design department.

It starts with talent that's fed with inspiration and dedication.

 

It starts with talent that's fed with inspiration and dedication.

And lots of perspiration, as T. A. Edison would've put it...

 

Hello.
Just wondering if most of you folks that are able to answer all the electronics questions are EE's or other highly trained electrical gurus?

I don't think there's anyone here (or anywhere) that can answer ALL electronics questions. I think all of the more experienced members here would readily admit to having learned numerous things from the other experienced members and at least a handful of things from even some of the least experienced members, who often look at things in a way that requires use to examine even things we know quite well in new and deeper ways.

The more experienced folks here, as in many fields, represent quite a spectrum in the mix between formal education/training and practical experience. You really need both -- an overabundance of one can offset a relative lack of the other, but only to a certain degree.

How hard would it be for the average Joe (me) to learn enough to be able to create simple schematics

Not long at all. With just a handful of hours of study you can start building useful circuits. But the scope of those circuits needs to reflect the current limits of your knowledge and skills. To really facilitate learning, choose projects for which your current understanding is almost, but not quite, good enough. Then put in the effort to fill in the small handful of gaps to make that project work. Then find a new project that further expands your new limits a bit.

such as dc-dc circuits?

That depends on what you mean by a "dc-dc" circuit. Usually people use that to refer to a circuit that transforms one DC voltage to another, also known as a "switch-mode power supply". These are not trivial circuits, particularly to do well. But there are many, many useful "DC" circuits that people at all levels can build and learn from.

Electronics seems to be a massively technical subject requiring TONS of knowledge and I'm in awe of you folks that know so much.

That's true of most fields of knowledge. We tend to think that something that we know little about is a lot more complicated than it usually is in reality (though sometimes the opposite happens, too). We rely on our gut impression based on a superficial description and such descriptions are usually very misleading, in one direction or another.

 

Hello,

I never got more education than the secondairy technical school.
On school, we had also practice tests.
There where 13 tests that had to be done in 26 weeks.
In week 6 I had done all the tests and the teacher told me to experiment with the parts available.
I found a static memory chip in the boxes.
I made a circuit around it, programmed my name in the chip and showed it on the oscilloscope in dot matrix.
The teacher could not get the working of the circuit.
I had to explain it to the teacher.

Bertus

 

Started as a hobbyist at age 12. Had fun shocking people by connecting the primary of a transformer to a D cell and releasing it. Had no idea how it worked, but it sure was fun. After I turned 16 and got my drivers license, I started learning by telling my parents I was going to mass on Sunday, but going to the library instead where I read every word in Popular Electronics. Spent my lawn mowing and snow shovelling money on parts at Radio shack, and a Heathkit oscilloscope and Stereo receiver. Got a degree in physics, during which I took electronics lab course. Got a masters in Computer Science which included digital logic in the computer architecture course. Hobbyist for 53 years now.

But, in the last decade, I think I have learned more from participating in forums like this, and the research it triggered than I had learned in all the time before that.

Bob

 

I started learning by telling my parents I was going to mass on Sunday, but going to the library instead where I read every word in Popular Electronics.

Boy, Were you ever lucky, Popular Electronics was just one way for absolution.
Max.

 

Learn the fundamentals, do the math. Get a breadboard and some jelly bean parts. Find some schematics and...Experiment!

You can do that in any order you like but this way minimizes the burned components

 

Engineer's notebooks by Forrest M Mims are a great place to start. A lot of them are free online now.
Maybe start with a 555 timer circuit to make pulses & flash LEDs. Then use a 4518 counter chip to count those pulses and output a 4 bit digital number on LEDs. Then use a 4511 chip to send that number to a 7 segment display.

You don't have to know everything to play with it. As questions come up, you can find answers online or ask here. IC chips are cheap. If you kill a few of them its no big deal.

Look through these circuits and find some that pique your interest. Just have fun.

Index of /science/electronics/Engineer's Mini-Notebooks

• Parent Directory
• 555 Timer IC Circuits.pdf
• Basic Semiconductor Circuits.pdf
• Communications Project.pdf
• Digital Logic Circuits.pdf
• Environmental Projects.pdf
• Formulas, Tables and Basic Circuits.pdf
• Magnet and Magnet Sensors Projects.pdf
• Op Amp IC Circuits.pdf
• Optoelectronic Circuits.pdf
• Schematic Symbols.pdf
• Science Projects.pdf
• Sensors Projects.pdf

Index of /science/electronics

http://thelukens.net/science/electronics/
This interesting thread is from another member that was feeling overwhelmed. https://forum.allaboutcircuits.com/threads/feeling-stupid-32-and-reading-the-chapter-1.118840/

 

A degree is just a piece of paper.. Anyone can read books/perform exercises,etc...
There is no reason one could not do/learn any of the tasks,etc.. that an EE could do without going to "school"..
Same with doctors,etc... They aren't any different than anyone else.. We can all learn..

The smartest people are just the ones that know how to learn on their own...


My favorite quote from "Good Will Hunting"..

See, the sad thing about a guy like you is, in 50 years you're gonna start doin' some thinkin' on your own and you're going to come up with the fact that there are two certainties in life: one, don't do that, and two, you dropped 150 grand on a $#$king' education you could have got for a dollar fifty in late charges at the public library!

 

There is no reason one could not do/learn any of the tasks,etc.. that an EE could do without going to "school"..
Same with doctors,etc... They aren't any different than anyone else.. We can all learn..

I've actually stepped away from electronics projects recently and moved onto DIY Surgery. I've removed my appendix and now looking for other things I don't need to keep practicing.