I'm a software developer (with a degree in computer science) interested in learning electronics as a hobby.

This site has been by far the best resource I have ever seen for somebody learning electronics but I'm wondering if anything else exists to compliment this site and to help me fill in the gaps, etc.

I'm only looking to learn electronics as a hobby and I don't need in-depth electrical theory, etc, etc.

I've taken a look at several books:

Forest Mims - Getting Started in Electronics
Electronics for Dummies
The Art of Electronics
Practical Electronics Handbook

Most of them started going over my head (or were too confusing) except for the Forest Mims book and Electronics for Dummies (but this one was too incomplete).

I'd really like something to hold my hand through a bunch of examples using simple resistors and capacitors in series and parallel circuits, etc.

Also, do any computer programs exist for beginners that will just allow me to fool around with very simple circuits?

Thanks for any help!

 

The Navy has published a free course on electronics that is on-line and quite good.

http://www.tpub.com/content/neets/

Do not purchase the files located on this site.

The below site has a online basic electronics course and a micro-controller course for $20.00. They also allow you to download the NEETS course for free.

Circuit simulation software can be downloaded for free from

http://www.linear.com/designtools/software/switchercad.jsp

This is a very nice circuit simulation program, It mostly uses their components but you can add others.

For around $50.00 you can purchase Tina, a very good circuit simulation and Printed circuit board layout program. The nice feature about Tina is that you can lay out a circuit and then take advantage of an animation feature to watch the circuit work.

If you go to the tina.com web site they also sell a circuit animation package called Edison. I do not have any associations with Tina other than I am happy with their products.

I am also a software engineer that is learning electronics.

Just trying to pass on my personal choices for learning.

Thanks

Joe

 

Thank you very much for the suggestions!

I took a quick look at the Navy's NEETS courses and they seem to have question/answers inside the course material which is really nice, but I can't figure out how to view the answer to the questions. It has a graphic with the word "Answer" next to the question but it doesn't do anything or link to the correct answers...

 

If you download the PDF version, the answers to the questions are listed at the end of each chapter.

Thanks

Joe

 

Ahhh... That version isn't free... It's $10/month, but you can download all of them I think so that really isn't that bad at all.

Thanks!

 

I paid about $10.00 to download the PDF version. You can sign up for 1 month, download the .pdf's and then cancel your subscription.

Thanks

Joe