Part of the Arduino schematic (via)
Mikey Sklar has a good overview of how to get started designing circuits:
A blog reader asked me earlier today how to get started with circuit design. After very little thought I replied directly via e-mail, but I’d like to share my $0.02 with the rest of our readers who might be interested. Hopefully others who are already on this path can drop a line in the comments for this post about how they got into electronics/circuit design/microcontrollers.
Check out the rest of his post here, and please share your own suggestions for budding designers!
2 thoughts on “Getting started in circuit design”
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As a kid in the 80’s, the internet didn’t exist as it does today – so that resource just wasn’t there. Libraries didn’t carry good books on electronics / robotics. And I didn’t know anyone who knew about electronics. So I began as most do by taking things apart to see how they work. I eventually went to college and studied electrical engineering. Through courses like Circuits, Digital Logic, Intro to Microprocessors, and Embedded Systems Design, I learned enough to get a taste of electronics. But the problem with those courses is that there just isn’t enough real-world application. And lab time is cut down to 3 hours per week – barely enough time to complete the laboratory exercise objectives, much less actually learn something! …I spent years staying up late at night tinkering and reading scores of mind-numbingly boring books. For a long time, NONE of my projects worked! But little by little I started having success here and there until it finally snowballed, and I really started to understand electronics. It wasn’t until I got into microprocessors that things really took off. I’ve tried several, and I find the Microchip PICs to be the cheapest, simplest, most versatile, and easiest to learn. (It’s all personal preference.) My advice to newcomers is simply to be diligent! NEVER GIVE UP in your pursuit of electronics knowledge, and you will eventually succeed! Good luck! -Aaron Ward-