Noob alert!

Mr Bloat

I'm a complete noob regarding everything to do with electronics but I have been considering changing that for a while now. I work in IT and have always had a keen interest in the field of electronics (being a geek and all). Recently I got myself a Raspberry Pi and while looking at how I could go further with that, I saw things like the breakout kit but I think that might be a bit too advanced for me.

I browsed the electronics supplies links thread and found a couple of interesting looking starter kits, especially the ones from Bitbox and Oomlout. However, I don't just want a kit that says put tab A into slot B, I want to learn why! Which of these kits (or something else, if you know of it) would be most suitable for me?

Also, does anyone know of any electronics night courses in the Cork area?

Chet T16

I wouldn't bother with a pi from an electronics point of view, an arduino like in the oomlout kit is much better for interfacing with hardware.

The bitsbox kit has a nice selection of components to learn how they work.

How much/little do you know? Anything in particular you'd like to do?

Mr Bloat

Thanks for the reply, Chet T16. I work in an IT network administrator role so that is why I was interested in the Pi, to kind of take me back to the basics of when I got my first computer in my early teens. The idea behind getting the electronics kit is pretty much the same, to take me back to (and teach me) the basics. I have a very basic working knowledge of electronics but I wouldn't be able to name all the components on any given PCB, for instance. I can do basic soldering, I have soldered mod chips onto a few original Xboxes (purely for educational purposes, of course ) and repaired some of my kids toys, things like that but while I was doing those things, I was following some online instructions, I didn't actually know what the particular parts were and what they were used for.

Basically I just want to learn the basics and do a few fun projects, that will do me for now, so I'm looking for a kit that will teach me what the components are and how they interact with other things. I don't want just to follow instructions to get to a final goal, I want to know why too.

From what I can see, the bitsbox kit will probably do that best, I think the arduino, while it would be educational, would be like trying to run before I could crawl.

Knifey Spoony

Mr Bloat wrote: »

From what I can see, the bitsbox kit will probably do that best, I think the arduino, while it would be educational, would be like trying to run before I could crawl.

Tbh, I would say the exact opposite. Now, I haven't work with the Pi, but from what I've heard it sounds like it would be harder to get into than the Arduino. Plus, with the Arduino, there is a huge online community that would have answers for practically any problem you would have with the Ardunio.

But then again, I could be biased by the fact that I spent a couple of mounts working with Ardunios for my final year project.

Fysh

It depends on what you're trying to do, I'd say.

The Pi is much more oriented towards coding, and while you can get breakout kits to facilitate interfacing with hardware, there's an expectation of extra work involved in learning how to code for that hardware. Whereas if what you want is pure straightforward electronics without having to involve a computer, something like the Arduino's your man.

One thing to bear in mind is that starting off with a non-solder-based kit is a good idea - breadboards are great for learning, but for anything that you want to deploy on a medium- or long-term, you'd probably want to be using solder.

If you want to learn more about theory of electronics, you could do worse than take a look at MIT's 6002x online course. Be warned, though - it's at undergraduate level and is not easy going. Rewarding if you have the time to put into it, though. (You can also see it on the MIT OpenCourseWare site which has the videos in a more straightforward setup if you eg want to download them and watch offline).

Mr Bloat

Thanks for all the tips guys. I think though, that I may have explained myself badly regarding the Pi. I'm not a noob when it comes to computers/programming, far from it in fact. I got the Pi as a hobby project to bring me back to my computing roots. I was reading about different projects that others have done with their Pi and that led me to this add-on board that was developed for the Pi. I was interested in doing more with the Pi than just programming (as I said, I have a decent programming background already) but my electronics knowledge is far from sufficient to enjoy such projects. I want to expand my electronics knowledge, which brings me here. I'm in my forties but think of me as an enthusiastic teenager starting his leaving cert engineering course!

Knifey Spoony wrote: »

But then again, I could be biased by the fact that I spent a couple of mounts working with Ardunios for my final year project.

So, if you were to look at it objectively and consider that 1) I wouldn't have anywhere near the electronics knowledge that you have but 2) I have no problem working with the likes of a Raspberry Pi, the ardrunio would be a better launchpad into the world of electronics than a basic starter kit packed with resistors, capacitors, switches, etc?

Fysh wrote: »

It depends on what you're trying to do, I'd say.

The Pi is much more oriented towards coding, and while you can get breakout kits to facilitate interfacing with hardware, there's an expectation of extra work involved in learning how to code for that hardware. Whereas if what you want is pure straightforward electronics without having to involve a computer, something like the Arduino's your man.

One thing to bear in mind is that starting off with a non-solder-based kit is a good idea - breadboards are great for learning, but for anything that you want to deploy on a medium- or long-term, you'd probably want to be using solder.

If you want to learn more about theory of electronics, you could do worse than take a look at MIT's 6002x online course. Be warned, though - it's at undergraduate level and is not easy going. Rewarding if you have the time to put into it, though. (You can also see it on the MIT OpenCourseWare site which has the videos in a more straightforward setup if you eg want to download them and watch offline).

Thanks, I'll look at those courses. The pure straighforward electronics is exactly what I am looking for. Disregarding the Pi from the equation completely for the moment, if you knew someone that was looking to learn electronics from scratch (like that enthusiastic teenager I likened myself to) would you recommend the Ardruino to them or a traditional basic electronics starter kit?

Fysh

Mr Bloat wrote: »

Thanks, I'll look at those courses. The pure straighforward electronics is exactly what I am looking for. Disregarding the Pi from the equation completely for the moment, if you knew someone that was looking to learn electronics from scratch (like that enthusiastic teenager I likened myself to) would you recommend the Ardruino to them or a traditional basic electronics starter kit?

To be honest, you could approach it either way. The Arduino is particularly useful in that it's easy to program for interfacing with other systems or sensors, but there's nothing to stop you picking one up and using it as a workbench for learning electronics from scratch.

My girlfriend got me the Sparkfun Inventor's Kit for my birthday this year, and it's really decent - the printed manual in particular is very useful. (Sadly I've just realise the kit's not for sale any more, but you could try picking up the parts separately, downloading the manual and working through it in your own time).

In terms of background I'm not exactly new to electronics (did several modules on it as part of my physics undergrad, as well as a hardware module in a compsci course) but that was going on 10 years ago and I've not really done much with it since. I was taking part in the 6002x trial program while it was running earlier this year but about half way through I had to drop out - I was really enjoying it, but didn't have the time to commit to it properly. The lectures are well worth going through, though - as long as you can grasp the maths involved they're very good at explaining what's going on, even when you get to the point of increasingly complex circuit designs.

Mr Bloat

There is an updated version of the Sparkfun kit and it looks really interesting. Thanks for that. I think I may go with one of the Arduino kits alright. I will most likely be back soon with many questions!