Muff's Modules & More

handsfelloff · Posted: Wed Jan 14, 2009 7:01 am Post subject: DIY learning resources

Hey wigglers!

This is my first appearance here so hello! Although I have been lurking around the muff street corners trying to absorb as much diy electronics knowledge floating around here from the many experts.

I wanted to start a thread to share quality diy electronics learning material to help people like myself wanting to build and understand diy circuits.

From my point of view i am after some comprehensive step by step self learning course material that does not jump in at the deep end or bail out at the shallow end. Rather guiding the novice through circuit principle physics and theory backed up with practical experimentation taking them to a level where a schematic makes sense and having and idea how to implement design ideas. Plus make some useful and interesting circuits along the way!

heres some I have found that will hopefully be useful and help get the ball rolling..

(novice - intermediate)
http://www.allaboutcircuits.com
my favorite at the moment. this really fulfills my above wishes from the basics to building tube preamps
all the way making sense of the theory with practical experiments. everything you need to start. very nice resource we're not worthy

http://www.kpsec.freeuk.com
Good for an uncluttered insight into the basic circuit components and simple physics/math theory

(intermediate/advanced)
http://users.ece.gatech.edu/~lanterma/ems/
Electronics for Music Synthesis Course Online (Listed by B13 previously)
A great video resource a full uni course online!
Funny guy....he prances around when he gets excited about circuits
A pity he left auto focus on which can make his board work hard to follow...but hey its free!..Also to bear in mind after scribbling math equations on the board and saying "anyway you guys know all this but any questions?" its futile to raise a hand... so this is a course for people who have the basics under their belt. however even for the novice its worth watching some then jumping to the Internet to find ask questions..

Anyway hello wigglers hope this is of some use and I will watch out with interest for any other resources. Plus will add more to this thread as I come across them

Cheers!

Roycie Roller · Posted: Sat Jan 17, 2009 11:14 pm Post subject:

Welcome! They are some nice links there- Aaron Lanterma's course looks well worth investigating. The freek website is a favourite for CMOS information & theory (schematic symbols, etc). I found Curious Inventor's soldering videos very helpful when i started out-

http://curiousinventor.com/

I tend to bookmark stuff i _plan_ to come back to, but instead i find that i do all my learning when i've got a pcb in front of me that needs to turn into a working circuit, and i learn from the BOM's, notes, and others' trials & errors, while making many of my own along the way (errors). I'm kind of gleaning my way to a self-built modular. But ultimately i want to be at a level where i'm confident enough to build a tube synthesizer (hopefully by the end of 2009).
There are some really exciting DIY circuits being researched and shared on the electro-music forum, and of course Bridechamber seems to be an ever-expanding one-stop shop for excellent kits.

If there's one thing that i see referred to all the time as a benchmark for DIY synth circuits, it's Electronotes-

http://electronotes.netfirms.com/

Roycie Roller · Posted: Wed Jan 21, 2009 7:49 am Post subject:

Holy crap, i just stumbled across this goldmine-

http://www.educypedia.be/electronics/analog.htm

det3 · Posted: Thu Feb 12, 2009 1:18 am Post subject: Shameless plug...

This is something I've maintained and advertised on the Synth-DIY list in the past:

Det3 Synthesizer Book List

I've got everything in there from general engineering books for AC/DC and semiconductors up to bad-ass digital processing and crazy filters.

Plus, if I'm missing anything in print or in treeware format, please let me know.

auricle · Posted: Sat Feb 14, 2009 4:38 am Post subject:

Hi, this is my first post. Hello all!!

I'm just starting to dip my toes into electronics as I plan to build some modules from other people's designs and perhaps even design my own one day.

This thread is a great resource and I'm learning a lot from some of these links. Can I recommend to make this post a sticky?

Luka · Posted: Sat Feb 14, 2009 5:59 am Post subject:

yeah sure
i think this has merit as a resource

Luka · Posted: Sun Feb 15, 2009 4:18 am Post subject:

ok ive been working on some circuits today and had some little calculators that helped me a bunch

resistive divider calculator

basic ohms law calc

parallel and series resistance

resistor power dissipation

also a page that has come in extremely hand is

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operational_amplifier_applications

handsfelloff

Some great links guys.

A few more fish from my daily web trawls...

Impedance a practical understanding and nice tutorials

http://gaussmarkov.net/wordpress/thoughts/input-and-output-impedance/

A nice practical explanation (not too in your face math) on the input impedance subject.
Also generally a good practical happy electronics focused on guitar stompbox for beginners and another perspective for intermediate refesh(helped me audibly click on the impedance subject). Also check out the other electronics tutorials some nice simple and uncluttered circuit explanation.

PCB Layout design

http://alternatezone.com/electronics/files/PCBDesignTutorialRevA.pdf

A Brilliant guide to get you on the right road to designing your homebrew-professional pcb's.

DIY PCB on a shoestring it works well and really cheap

http://myweb.cableone.net/wheedal/pcb.htm
http://www.riccibitti.com/pcb/pcb.htm

A couple of simple step by step tutorials tp great consistantly good pcb etches with toner transfer and magazine paper. Much cheaper than press N peel infact just the cost of toner ink! I can say it works just as well.

Hope these are of use.

Enjoy!

fracinfrucer · Posted: Wed Apr 22, 2009 8:21 am Post subject:

I have been looking at the faceplate etching thread and wondering if there are any good resources or books for teaching metal work that would apply to DIY? I wouldn't know where to begin trying things like some of you are doing. I have wondered how people get silkscreened letters on their own DIY creations, even just drilling holes in metal, etc. I have noticed most DIY metal work books are focused towards jewelry making.

I've never even drilled holes in metal and from what I've found online you need to use a drill press, place a piece of wood behind where you will drill, drill front to back, etc... and I was wondering where all of you started since it seems more complicated than I thought. Or am I overcomplicating things? Thanks for any suggestions!

vinnui · Posted: Tue Apr 28, 2009 11:35 am Post subject:

Faceplate etching:
How to etch aluminum panel labels/designs with a reusable acid mix

fracinfrucer · Posted: Tue Apr 28, 2009 1:28 pm Post subject:

Yeah, ignore me. I think I just had a mental block hoping I wouldn't need to buy a drill press for what seemed in my mind such small jobs...

frijitz · Posted: Mon Jul 12, 2010 10:04 pm Post subject: Scope Tutorial

Here's a halfway decent tutorial on how to use a scope:
http://www.bkprecision.com/support/downloads/pdfs/OAGuide.pdf

grin

Ian