[Jugurtha]

Meta:

You can open an account at:

https://www.electro-tech-online.com/

https://www.allaboutcircuits.com/

https://www.edaboard.com/

These are forums with extremely helpful members. The format is different than Stack Overflow's "Question/Answer". It is built on the "Post/Thread". You can have threads that go on for 40 pages and span a year, when someone is doing a project, and these magnificent creatures will accompany the users with feedback.

One thing I've done when starting to do PCB is submitting the design to electro-tech-online.com asking for feedback and how I could improve it. You'll have people there with decades of experience go through it, make actionable suggestions on the design stinks and why they're not good.

You can also share a project you're doing as you are doing it, and they can help with the brainstorming/ideation and implementation, they would ask questions and question assumptions.

If you write firmware for microcontrollers, they can also chime in and help you refine the code. If you get into that community, you'll be on a fast track because you'll have people who can do that in their sleep help you in the nicest way.

PCB Design:

You can get yourself CadSoft EAGLE or KiCad, print the tiny documentation in a booklet format, then read the whole documentation, page by page, annotating it, trying every functionality. Making routes, ground pour, layers, with commands and with the mouse.

Dave Jones' "PCB Design Tutorial"[0], will also be very helpful.

Soldering:

Check out Dave Jones' multi-part videos on soldering[1][2][3]. Part 3 is for surface mount, don't bother with that just yet.

Electronics

Depending on where you're starting from.

Absolute beginner? Take a look at Tony Kuphaldt's "Lessons in Electric Circuits"[4]. It is split into multiple volumes (DC, AC, Semiconductors, etc...)

Somehwat beginner? Take a look at "The Art of Electronics" by Paul Horowitz and Winfield Hill. It's one of the books one has to have just in case civilization is destroyed.

Fun trivia: The chapter on transistors explains them by introducing a figure called "Transistor Man". That figure was drawn by Edward Purcell, which you may have heard of from CPMG (Carr-Purcell-Meyboom-Gill). He also won the Nobel Prize for the discovery of the Nuclear Magnetic Resonnance.

You can get an electronics test board like [5] on which you can experiment circuits without soldering them, and with fewer flying wires. The ones that have the screws that hold power input are nice. Then you can buy a bunch of operational amplifiers, LED, logic cates integrated circuits, resistors/capacitors/inductors and play with that.

A bit more advanced or not:

- Texas Instruments' "Op Amps For Everyone"[6]

- "Op-Amp Concepts" by Greg Kovacs

- "Op-Amp Applications Seminar"

In depth:

- "Troubleshooting Analog Circuits", by Robert Pease.

More in depth:

Application notes from manufacturers to get ideas for designs.

But to sum it up:

- Getting on dedicated forums

- Getting the test board and components (to tinker)

- Getting software for PCB design (just for the design)

- Share the design on forums to improve fast

- Print the board at a PCB shop

- Solder the components following the tutorial

- Learn more and more and go deeper at every phase after every win

So you may first start by getting components and assembling them on the board to make a circuit work, then designing a PCB for them and soldering them to make a working "prototype", but you will also learn more reading the books, exchanging with others, reading application notes or resources from manufacturers.

All the best,

[0]: http://www.alternatezone.com/electronics/files/PCBDesignTuto...

[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5Sb21qbpEQ

[2]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYz5nIHH0iY

[3]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9FC9fAlfQE

[4]: https://www.ibiblio.org/kuphaldt/electricCircuits/

[5]: https://static-resources.imageservice.cloud/4858576/breadboa...

[6]: https://e2echina.ti.com/cfs-file/__key/telligent-evolution-c...

[Roybot]

Wow thanks for the resources - I like the recommendation of getting feedback on your design via the forum. Going to check it out now. And also reading the software documentation for pcb.

Any considerations you'd recommend before deciding on kicad versus the other software available for pcb design?

[Jugurtha]

I have worked much more with CadSoft EAGLE, not much with KiCad. I mentioned its name for more choice, but at this point it doesn't matter. The only thing that matters is to avoid analysis paralysis and searching for the optimal path to learning. Which means avoid any debate on the right soldering iron, the right software, the right board, etc. and just pick any single one and get started.

You can go down the rabbit hole and consume hours upon hours on YouTube videos delving into details on whether this soldering station is best, or this multimeter is best. Pick one that doesn't suck because at some threshold of quality/brand, the differences only matter to those who are advanced enough that a particular capability matters most. It's like optimizing to shave off a millisecond by reducing drag: sure it matters to Formula I drivers, but not to me at my level.

Jump both feet in, experiment, get a bunch of components, and build stuff. When you get into these forums, you'll hear about things and read conversations that recommend designs, or other resources such as books/blogs/courses, and you'll absorb a bit by osmosis. Then you make something with these resources to consolidate knowledge.

You can also follow a couple of channels or Twitter accounts. Even if you don't always understand, familiarizing yourself so you can act on things later is useful:

- https://www.youtube.com/user/EEVblog

- https://www.youtube.com/user/TheAmpHour

- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcs0ZkP_as4PpHDhFcmCHyA

- https://www.youtube.com/user/BTCInstrumentation/videos (more instrumentation, from Tony Kuphaldt)

- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCivA7_KLKWo43tFcCkFvydw (Ben Krasnow)

[Roybot]

Thank you.