Im just getting back into building circuits on my breadboard and I want to know if there are any tips from the pros on here to help me on my journey. Also some links to resources for projects would be nice.
When you buy components, buy a bag of them. Good for when you let the smoke out of one, and you can have several projects on the go at a time.
Problem with doing that is sooner or later you are going to end up with piles of stuff like esp12f’s and such. I have more packaging tubes of ATtiny85’s than I will ever use.
When I started there was lots of smoke 😀 it’s true that you can easily accumulate random stuff, but I still think it’s better to have spares of the things I use than risking running out and waiting for a delivery. Maybe I’m just disorganised.
These days I mostly apply it to passives. Especially small ones. 0201 are a pain to work with, liable to blow away if you look at them wrong. 0402s are better, but still easy to lose. But if I’m trying to keep size & weight down I tend to need the tiny parts, so it’s easier to design to use common values as much as possible and spend $30-40 for a reel of 10,000 of them. I doubt I’ll ever run out of 10kΩ resistors!
Oh I have spares, probably spares for the spares too. I seldom had smoke but do remember hooking electrolytic caps backwards a few times. The bang will get your attention.
They do not smoke but I found if you plug an ATtiny85 backwards they will burn your hand when you attempt to remove them.
A related tip for components with lots of pins, and especially the slightly-expensive ones like microcontrollers: use sockets instead of soldering them to the board directly. That way you’re less likely to overheat them with the soldering iron, and also when you do let the magic smoke out of one it’s a lot easier to replace.
For inspiration you might enjoy: https://www.instructables.com/circuits/
Thanks!
I like to learn by reading regular old books. There should be plenty availible. Some textbooks, beginners books for hobbyists, some that go along with some experiment box… Starting with what is Ohm’s law to how does an amplifier work, flip-flops / whatever. I borrowed and/or bought some books about Arduino, because that’s something I like more than analog circuits. I have one that is focused more on the programming part, but there are books with like 80 Arduino projects. You could try Fritzing or the official website for material and project ideas. But my current life-hack is visiting the library or buying a book that teaches things in a structured way. Unfortunately I can’t give specific recommendations. My books are old and not in English.
And another bit of advice, don’t do it like me and start like 40 complicated projects and have them all unfinished in some drawer. There aren’t really bad consequences with that approach, but I suppose it’s more healthy to at least stay a bit focused. And don’t get disappointed by starting some projects that are way above your head. You’ll get there but it takes some time and effort.
Thanks. Im definitely going to not start a lot of projects. I don’t have the time to spread myself thin.
If you’ve got 25 minutes, I made this a while back https://youtu.be/Yzfk0t0HfZc?si=YQRNtg5hHbp-CFcO
Thanks. Some good information there. I dont like throwing out components though…
Get double-sided soldering breadboards, not single-sided ones. The reason is that the single-sided ones are prone to having the copper pads lift from the substrate if you apply too much heat.
(I learned that the hard way today.)
LTspice is free
