A Newbie Learner Question

[TheNewbie]

Hi

I'm skilled computer programmer in advanced programming skills in C/C++, Assembly, Delphi, .NET (C#, VB.NET), Python, Perl, PHP and even kernel programming for windows and linux. In a word, I'm so good in computer sciences.

I know a little about math and calculus, I just studied math in high school, like Integral, Functions, etc. calculations... Algebra, Geometry, etc. Not further.

Also I have created some boards and programmed some applications using AVR microcontrollers and my boards working properly, the boards was for some USB data transfer and some other operations, like simulating real keyboard and mouse. I created them on breadboard and I programmed AVR part myself. But board design for USB etc. was ready, I found them on internet and I just placed correct pieces in correct locations. Also I created a simple AVR programmer again on breadboard.

For you Savy Electronic experts, all of the above is nothing. Please explain to me, could I learn electronics and PCB designs by reading books or I should go and study it in University? I studied Software Engineering and I raised it to high levels and I'm now so good in Software, I like to learn PCB designing and electronics.

Should I study it in University or in a class or could I learn it myself? Is there self-taught PCB designer and electronics savies?

If yes, please point me some A B C D E F G books or web sites for electronics and PCB designs which I can understand and could teach to me electronics and PCB design in easy words. I tried to study some books, but they was hard enough for me.

Thanks for reading my newbie question

 

[alexxx]

Should I study it in University or in a class or could I learn it myself?

I know people who learned electronics by themselves. But when they were young they devoted days after days on the workbench to implement circuits that they read about here and there (datasheets, copies from other boards etc). All of them started to study electronics because of their passion on something (like sound systems or radio for example). After some years they managed to work profesionally on electronics. Their needs pushed them to study physics and maths as well. I speak with them and honestly if I didn't know, I could not tell if they have studied something or not.
I understand that if you have so many skills on IT as you claim you have, your time is valuable because of your carreer. Are you willing to spend so much time on electronics to achieve your goal? If so, then yes you can do it. Otherwise it is better to take some courses. In fact I encourage you to do that anyway. But after those courses, still you will be at zero point and you will need to fill with experience in any case. From that point on, your love and passion on electronics will lead (or not) your carrer to electronics engineering.

About layout design, I think it is easy to start designing some very simple boards. It is fun also! Choose a proper software and then as a skilled programmer you are, you defenitely know that google is your friend. By the way I'm walking this path the other way around. I 've learned (not expertized) a couple of visual programming languages from the internet. But of course it is much more easier to learn PC programming if you already know MCU programming.


Good luck!

 

[TheNewbie]

Hi Alexxx, thank you so much for detailed reply!
I always said same words about spending time, studying, experiencing and loving is first needs for learning advanced programming to people who ask me how to learn programming. So I understand it deeply!
Yes, I'm really interested in electronics and learning it, just I want to know good software, good books and good resources to be explained to me.
Please help me on choosing good software, good e-books and resources for learning electronic board designs and basic electronics.

I know general stuff about resistors, capacitors, diodes, etc. I know general stuff about them and general use of them, I already created so many sample boards from internet and deployed them on breadboards etc. But I want to know why board designer put X ohm resistor on Y location, why that's needed, I want to know low level details, not just montage.

So please advice me on it.
Thanks once again

---------- Post added at 23:01 ---------- Previous post was at 22:58 ----------

P.S. Reason I asked is it possible to learn PCB design without university is because a friend from university who studied electronics told to me that it's impossible to learn it without university, he told to me that it has a lot of advanced mathematical formulas and physical problems. So I have to learn math and physics so deeply and I cannot learn them without university. This is why I ask that even if it's possible

 

[alexxx]

P.S. Reason I asked is it possible to learn PCB design without university is because a friend from university who studied electronics told to me that it's impossible to learn it without university, he told to me that it has a lot of advanced mathematical formulas and physical problems. So I have to learn math and physics so deeply and I cannot learn them without university. This is why I ask that even if it's possible

Believe me this is not the case. Electrical and electromagnetic rules are involved that's for sure. Electricity belongs to physics and physics is based on mathematical laws, but "advanced mathematical formulas and physical problems" is far beyond reality on the beginner's level. We are still talking about simple boards for a beginner right? I hope you design a motherboard or an avionics tranceiver someday, but let's start from simple things first. :smile:

Yes, I'm really interested in electronics and learning it, just I want to know good software, good books and good resources to be explained to me.

As you realize, good software doesn't come for free! Secondly, someone can speak only for tools that he has used. You will defenitely need a layout design tool. I use Pulsonix. It has allmost all capabilities of the "famous" software in this category like Protel and Cadence, but its price is much more friendly. Then you could use a simulation software. Proteus is a good tool (just started to learning that myself also). Finally you will need a compiler. First decide which MCU you will use and then choose a compiler. You said you have used AVR. I use AVR also. Atmel offers AVRStudio, a free programming enviroment for AVR, using GCC compiler. Personally I use IAR EW. It is not free, but it is maybe the best compiler for low level and offers support for many many architectures. Besides those you will need other software also (like gerber editors, graphistic software, some serious hyperterminal software etc). Beeing an electronics engineer means to be a bit of everything!

About resources: I think that you may want to study some basic electricity first, like Ohm's and Kirchhoff's laws, basic power equations, resistors, capacitors etc. Then you will move on to electronic components like diodes and transistors. I will not suggest any books, I leave this on someone who has read many books and can compare them. I have read some books as a student, but from my graduation and then, I fill my gaps from the web. Just to give you a starting point, I googled with "electrical basics" as keywords and I found this reference:

Basic Electrical Engineering Lessons

If you read all of it, you will get a basic idea what you are dealing with, and then you can move on and study each section in separate. What I do when I study something new, is go to wikipedia and read the general description. Then I search again for more references on the same topic, but this time technical and not general. Internet cannot replace books, but if you know what you are searching for, then you will defenitely find answers in the web also.

But I want to know why board designer put X ohm resistor on Y location, why that's needed, I want to know low level details, not just montage.

Circuit design comes after basic stuff understanding! But just to give you a basic idea, imagine you have a 5V supply and you need 10mA current for some reason. What resistor will you need? You will implement Ohm's law and find out. When you discover the ohmic value then you will wonder: what kind of resistor would that be? 10W or 0.125W? Or something else? You wll apply power equations to find that out. Even this simple task is considered to be circuit design. Finally, learn to read datasheets. It is difficult for someone who has not read a datasheet in his life to read one for the first time and understand it. When you study components (like diodes for example), download some diode datasheets from different manufacturers and read them, it will help you improve.

You got work to do, good luck for one more time!

 

[TheNewbie]

Thank you so much alexxx for your detailed response, hope I return some day, like a year later here and prove to you that I followed guidelines and which level of PCB design I reached. I'll do my best to reach that point. Thanks once again!

 

[tsvetelin_velkov]

reading books and articles, exercising electronic circuits is a part of the process that you have to do in order to learn electronics, but academic education is the base, there are obvious things that you need to study and you need to have teacher or mentor or someone to explain them to you. I also know people that learned electronics by themselves, some have good knowledge, but sometimes don't know very basic things ... this is because when you are on your own you don't follow systematic approach and then you can miss some topics.
however the academic education is giving only the base, after that there is a long period of building experience when you apply all that you have learned and fill the missing parts based on your own experience.
I would say - if you have engineering education in computer science, communications, automation and industrial control - you already have the basics for electronics, in case that you have general computer science education / computer specialist - it, programmer, or similar non engineering then you need to fill in big amount of missing knowledge, might be too big for self-learning - electronics is not so simple, most people study at least 4 years for university degree but university degree still don't mean that they know it