Help me make my first electronic device

[GoodPost]

Hello all.

I'm a guy with big interest into electronics. I have multiple ideas that want to realize in real devices but yet I have only my introduction course in electronics I studied in college as a background. As a first step I want to make an easy electronic device but I have no idea where to start. Will anyone help me with some useful tips to take the first action into electronics? Thanks ^

 

[BvU]

Bit broad ... you mean electronics with tubes and transformers, with transistors and soldering iron, or with a raspberry PI and a breadboard ? Any books with projects you looked at ? Magazines ?

 

[CWatters]

There are many kits on Amazon. Some will make a specific project like a radio or power supply, others are more general purpose and include a breadboard allowing you to roll your own. There are also books of projects. Depends what interests you?

 

[Rive]

yet I have only my introduction course in electronics I studied in college as a background.

Maybe you should pick some basic uController board first and build up your toolbox and confidence in Hello World type applications/circuits.
Pick some widely used type with a strong community, so you will have some buddies to rely on.

 

[anorlunda]

I would suggest a simple solar powered garden light using a PV cell, LEDs, a transistor, and a battery. Do it first with a breadboard to learn how to select the components and how they work together.

Then, as a second project do it again not using a breadboard but in a form suitable for putting outdoors as a durable device (probably using a printed circuit). The second project gives experience with the non-electronic factors needed to make a project practical.

Here's an example https://www.electroschematics.com/6855/automatic-solar-garden-lights-with-leds/

 

[GoodPost]

Thanks all. I liked all the comments and I got more interested to move forward into this. :)

Really I remember a lot from college about electronics; starting from semi-conductors physics up to tuned- and power- amplifiers by transistors and beyond.

I believe I need to gather and guide my scattered field of "electronics background" into a useful result. ^^

To be more specific, I want to realize an idea ( one of my crazy ideas) into real.

The idea for example is to make something (like headphone ) that let the user to select the range of frequencies he wishes to receive from the surrounding. Sometimes I really need to filter a crying child voice ^^.

I don't know if this idea is already existing, however, the idea is what to do to start and accomplish such project myself? Possible?

Thanks.

GoodPost.

 

[NascentOxygen]

The idea for example is to make something (like headphone ) that let the user to select the range of frequencies he wishes to receive from the surrounding. Sometimes I really need to filter a crying child voice ^^.

That is feasible where the unwanted sounds are not spread across most of the desired frequency band. A variation of this forms the basis of noise-cancelling headphones. You have two microphones, one of them located closer to the noise source (the crying baby, the street traffic, the rowdy family on the floor above, whatever). You then pass the signals from those two microphones into a mixer/amplifier which is set to subtract the noise signal from the noisy desired signal, delivering you the desired audio with much of its noise content canceled out.

 

[Rive]

I believe I need to gather and guide my scattered field of "electronics background" into a useful result. ^^

Good spirit, but for first project I believe it would be better to aim for something very easy instead.
Usual first project for cooks is an omelette, not a wedding cake: for programmers it is a 'Hello World', not OCR...

Ps.: actually, how is your skill with the soldering iron? Can you do 0603 ?

 

[Matthew Strasiotto]

IMO - Invest in a cheap WiFi/Bluetooth enabled dev-board such as the ESP8266 (Inbuilt wifi stack, arduino programmable, strong OS community support), ESP32 (Fancier version of 8266 - Has Bluetooth stack) - A good jumping off point for IoT applications - Make a hall effect smart exercise bike - Make it configurable to be used as a bluetooth game controller, or just to track your stats.
Make a laser pointer that can also be used an an input device (Not trivial - But you seem to have a background in the underlying principals) by some sensor array that could be attached to screens.
The arduino community will sort you out for documentation - If you opt for arduino programmable uCs such as those mentioned.

 

[Windadct]

Usual first project for cooks is an omelette, not a wedding cake: for programmers it is a 'Hello World', not OCR...

Some might argue a proper omelette is more difficult than a wedding cake! (;-)

 

[osilmag]

I like your enthusiasm GoodPost. For the project you wish to complete one way you could choose is to make a set of individual bandpass filters, and have a switch to select which one you want.