[extempo]

I'd say the best exercise to start with, is to buy some bare PCBs from an open source project or two, and then try to source all the components yourself. I think I learned a lot about component types/specs/sizing/packaging doing this, even though I had zero EE experience.

I tried modifying some open source designs, as well as designing a board from scratch, using Eagle and Kicad last year. I found the software so cumbersome and maddening, I gave up rather quickly.

I've stumbled upon some better tools since then. I hope one of these will get me from idea to gerber with less heartburn.

* http://www.layouteditor.net/

* http://razencad.com/

Those are both free. On the commercial side, there are a lot of options, but I'm tempted to just buy Diptrace, which seems to have a good array of features and reasonably-priced licenses.

[AlexDanger]

Perhaps someone could comment on simulation software, particularly on the simple/beginner side of things?

For instance, recently I got some supercapacitors and had a few ideas for a simple circuit (consisting of resistors, diodes and capacitors). I did an EE unit when I was at school a long time ago but wanted to get a better understanding of how my circuit would behave, particularly voltage levels and discharge rates over time.

I was expecting there would be some software which would allow me to draw a simple circuit, specify input voltages and press 'play', allowing me to see how the circuit acted as a live simulation and see charts of voltage at particular nodes over time.

However, despite googling around, I couldnt find such software geared towards visualisation of simple analog circuits...

Happy to look at OSS or propriety software, I was expecting to find something used in academia but no such luck.

Any recommendations?

[ximeng]

Have you looked at https://www.circuitlab.com/editor/

[AlexDanger]

Wow, thanks - I played with it for hours and promptly signed up for the paid version. Great tool.

[nitrogen]

MITx's 6.002x hax an online circuit sim. There's also QUCS for the desktop.

[AlexDanger]

Circuitlab is keeping me busy at the moment but thanks I'll check this out.

[Zuph]

Eagle and Kicad have a pretty steep learning curve. Diptrace is far-and-away the easiest to use of the "hobby level" EDA packages. They have a non-profit license (for anyone not looking to sell the fruits of their labor) which works fine for most hobbyist boards.