Getting Started with Electronics

Electronics is a fun and rewarding hobby, but how do you begin? You have taken the first step just by searching.
There is so much information available it can be really hard to know which tutorial to follow, which resource to use, and even where to buy the parts.
When I first started, back in the 1970's, I took anything and everything apart, I was a bit of a nightmare for my Mum. It was a few years before I started to learn how to put those things back together. In those early days, it wasn't easy to get much knowledge, Especially as I wasn't old enough to get a library card, thankfully things have moved on a little.
There has never been a more exciting time to be involved with electronics.

Finding out, how to begin

I would like to offer some advice to anyone looking to get into electronics.

• Join a club or after-school class

Ok, not available for everyone, but if it is available to you, do it. Having someone with you as you take your first steps is the easiest way possible, but if you can't, there are lots of online tutorials available. Here are some of my recommendations;

• fearofphysics
• MadLab
• 101Science

Or try the introduction to electronics pages on the Right hand side of this blog.

There is also the good old fashioned book, such as Make:Electronics by Charles Platt

  "Our Absolute favourite, possibly one of the best introductions to electronics ever written

Simple, clear instructions will take you on a journey with 24 practical experiments to work through"

Getting the Components

So now you want to get going, where do you buy the parts?

• Maplin, quite high prices, but they are nationwide with stores No Longer has High street stores
• Farnell, again, quite high prices, online, or from the counter in Leeds, mainly aimed at commercial users
• CPC, the "hobbyists" side of Farnell, worth a look
• Rapid, Online, with next day delivery, postage costs are high unless you reach a minimum spend
• eBay, lots of small sellers offering parts, but be careful, lots of not great parts for the unwary. That being said, it is a fantastic source of low cost components.
• Amazon, recent changes mean that low price parts can now be bought from third party sellers of this site, use the same caution you would for ebay.

The other cool way of getting hold of components is by recycling! Most redundant electronics can be harvested for their bits.

Working at Home

Electronics can be a messy hobby, bits of wire generally tend to not be a healthy thing for hoovers to suck up. Grab yourself a box to keep everything in, a table to work at, and try and stay tidy as best you can. As you get further along, you might consider having a dedicated space for your projects.

Last Words!

BE SAFE

Stay away from using mains voltage until you are competent, it can and does kill! Using a 9v battery will be safe, the worst you are likely to do is destroy some components when things go wrong. I highly recommend that you wear safety glasses. Components can suffer critical failure, and then they will explode. You can replace LED's, you can't replace your eyes.