Electronics

[PH03N1X]

I study electronics and I'm hoping to do a few modules of it next year at University with my CompSci degree. Everybody grows more knowledgeable when they practise an art or science and I was just wondering, what could I build at home just to practise and further my knowledge of Electronics. This is assuming that I can purchase the components (within reason, I am a student ) and that I can locate the correct resources so that I can write up my own theory and understand it better.

So for those who go by 'tl;dr', I'm looking for ideas that I can afford to build and learn in practical electronics.

[FuyuKitsune]

Check HackADay, they drool over electronics. There are tons of projects of all different difficulties. If you want some cheap stuff then search for submissions to the 555-timer contest.

[ande]

Post up any ideas, progress or alike

[Loverboy]

i made a amplifier, learned a lot from it.
its somewhat costly but not too bad if you build a mosfet one

[PH03N1X]

Just having a general browse, and I found a few interesting articles that use the Arduino technology. It looks like a lot of fun and the Arduino website includes a lot of good documentation on ideas as well.

This is what I was looking for. Thanks for the recommendation to HackADay FuyuKitsune, +1 for you is well deserved I think. Just got to balance out revision and hobby time now haha.

[gh0st]

hey dude what are your skills? I mean do you know programation in deep? if so check this page you may find something cool but you have to register first I think that its the source code of the robot you can modify it and have fun register and tell me then what happens ok?
http://www.aldebaran-robotics.com/en/programmable

[PH03N1X]

hey dude what are your skills? I mean do you know programation in deep? if so check this page you may find something cool but you have to register first I think that its the source code of the robot you can modify it and have fun register and tell me then what happens ok?
http://www.aldebaran-robotics.com/en/programmable

Yeah I'm interested in programming, however I don't feel that my skills are good enough for me to fully enjoy it. I'm waiting until the summer to buy some decent programming books, and get involved with it more all in preparation for Computer Science at Uni. For now I'm just going to stick to electronics and unfortunately that link you sent me only involves programming so I'm going to have to give it a miss.

[techb]

I know this may be a necro, but I don't see a justified reason to start a new thread.

I am big into electronics, and have been for a while now. Other sites besides HaD are hackedgadgets.com, Adafruit, makershed, i.hackedit

HaD has a new forum section too which could be good for beginners.

If you wanna get into the solid-state, fundamentals are a must. Learn about core components like resisters, capacitors, transformers, diodes, and transistors. With a big emphasise on transistors. Then move onto logic gates, OR, NOR, AND, NAND, Inverters and such. You just need to know how this stuff works, and again a big emphasise on transistors. RadioShack sells an "Electronics Learning  Lab" which is an excellent start. I recommend it to anyone getting into hardware.

Once you have a working knowledge of the base stuff, its time to move into the really cool stuff. Microcontrollers are what will bring you the most enjoyment. Arduino has already been mentioned and is what I use. They are AVR based and can be coded using the Arduino IDE which is watered down C++. You can also skip the arduino bootloader and work with C, or ASM. I will mention a strong knowledge in C, memory management and bit wise operators is a must. Arduino isn't the only option though. You can start with PIC based microcontrollers like the BasicStamp family, or some 32bit boards like RaspberryPi and others. Can find most at robotshop.com, solarbotics.com, makershed, and a host of others.

If you want some examples of what arduinos can do, I have a few projects on my blog kbcarte.wordpress.com, I use the Arduino IDE. Also check out the arduino forums at arduino.cc

Again, sorry for the necro. I might start a tutorial series if you guys would be interested.

[iAmLuFFy]

Well do some reserch on WIRELESS ELECTRICITY if you want to do something interesting.
 
And other one is sixth sense technology. its opensource.
 
You can make it usefull around you. i would suggest those two.

[ande]

blablabla sixth sense technology. blablabla

AKA brain EEG? Interesting project, poor technology. The best commercial shit out there now is the Emotive EPOC (http://emotiv.com/). I got the previous generation EEG system for gaming (OCZ NIA) kinda sucks really, but the EPOC looks promising.

[iAmLuFFy]

Its brain computer interface, its also used by some other project then gamig EEG headset.
 
But wireless electricity can change the face of the world if you can succeed in it.
 
Just as perpetual machine can change the face of the word if you can make one.

[ande]

Its brain computer interface, its also used by some other project then gamig EEG headset.
 
But wireless electricity can change the face of the world if you can succeed in it.
 
Just as perpetual machine can change the face of the word if you can make one.

Suggesting perpetual machine and wireless electricity projects/research around here might be a bit optimistic don't you think?

There are probably thousands of scientists and engineers out there every second trying to solve these problems. What chance do we stand against people with PhD degrees in Electronic engineering and so forth?

But then again, anything can happen.

[iAmLuFFy]

Here in my college you just have to give your title and if its selected then you don't have to worry about either it succeed or not. even if it not succeed you will get marks.
 
So i don't know if same for him but if its same in his university then he can try for it.
 
Otherwise he have to select among already made one.
 
How about wireless surface technology. many compnies are working on it like microsoft.

[ande]

Here in my college you just have to give your title and if its selected then you don't have to worry about either it succeed or not. even if it not succeed you will get marks.
 
So i don't know if same for him but if its same in his university then he can try for it.
 
Otherwise he have to select among already made one.
 
How about wireless surface technology. many compnies are working on it like microsoft.

Oh, my bad. Only read the latest replies to this thread lol. As a university assignment it might be interesting. Like you said, as long as you do your research and make an interesting presentation about it(either oral or text) with good references but no final solution, you can still get an A.

[techb]

The best we have so far in wireless electricity transmission is that used in rfid. It takes too much energy to couple inductance over distances greater that a few meters. I have seen research about transmission via microwaves though. Pretty interesting.

I've dabbled with EEG. Nothing fancy, with the MindFlex from Mattel. It one of neuroSky's lesser chips. I can read a variety of wave spectrums though. The headset leaves the TX  line wide open, and is supper  simple to grab raw values. I have two write ups on it at my blog. Just look for the mindflex articles.