Electronics engineering is awesome; you can make really, really, really cool stuff if you know EE. For a quick idea, look at all the awesome gadgets at these websites:
http://www.brickhousesecurity.com/
You can prob. also get really rich if you use EE to make a cool invention; most of the people out in the world who know EE aren't very imaginative and will never use EE to its full potential, so if you're good at coming up with ideas for cool stuff that people would buy, it could be a very realistic goal to learn EE and then make a mockup of your idea yourself. Lots of people have done that and gotten their invention in stores or on a TV infomercial. Most people just never try.
I think EE has an association w/ being nerdy, and I think the reason for that is that EE has a steep learning curve; it isn't very fun to learn at the moment. And so I suspect that, in general, the people who are willing to go through the hell necessary to learn it are people for whom the opportunity cost of that investment of time is lower; in other words, the people who aren't going out to hang out at the mall every day.
Forums
- http://www.edaboard.com/
- http://www.dutchforce.com/~eforum/index.php
- http://www.electro-tech-online.com/
- http://www.physicsforums.com/forumdisplay.php?f=102
- http://www.electronicspoint.com/
- https://forum.sparkfun.com/
Microcontroller Stuff:
US Raspberry Pi - http://downloads.element14.com/raspberr ... irect=true - This looks like the cheapest way to have a microcontroller with an ethernet port. $25 + shipping
Teensy - http://www.pjrc.com/teensy/ - This looks like it may be the cheapest microcontroller w/ USB port. $16 + shipping
Stepper Motor Control:
Sparkfun $15 Stepper Motor
PC/Web-to-Microcontroller communication:
Breakout - Allows a web browser to talk to a microcontroller using javascript
Seriality - Allows a web browser to talk to a microcontroller; this is Mac OS X only. I think you can use Breakout to do the same thing on Windows.
Arduino and PHP - example 1
RXTX - allows your Arduino to talk to a Java program on your computer [example 1]
Controlling a Stepper Motor via the Web - At first glance this seems to be exactly what I'm trying to do, although he's doing it for a surveillance system
Relays:
Using Relays with Arduino - Turning On the Lights
Learning Tools:
YouTube:
Channels:
Jeri Ellsworth - http://www.youtube.com/user/jeriellsworth
Make Magazine - http://www.youtube.com/user/makemagazine
Individual Videos:
How Breadboards Work
Electronics Kits:
The reviews for the Elenco Snap Circuits kits have been incredible; I have their smallest kit coming in the mail:
Elenco Snap Circuits 100
Elenco Snap Circuits 300
Elenco Snap Circuits 750
One guy writing a review for the Elenco 500-in-1 kit below rec'd this Kosmos kit:
Kosmos Electronics Workshop 2
The kits below sound like they're an older generation that may still be worth going through; I have the 130-in-1 and have found it useful to get myself used to what the circuit diagrams look like:
Elenco 130-in-1 Kit
Elenco 300-in-1 Kit
Elenco 500-in-1 Kit
Websites:
Electric Circuit Simulator
StackExchange - Electrical Engineering
http://amasci.com/amateur/elehob.html
http://www.allaboutcircuits.com/vol_1/index.html
http://forum.allaboutcircuits.com/showthread.php?t=9538
http://www.electronicsinfoline.com
http://www.kpsec.freeuk.com/proj.htm
http://www.electronics-lab.com/projects/index.html
Books:
There Are No Electrons: Electronics for Earthlings
Getting Started in Electronics
The Art of Electronics
Grob's Basic Electronics (11 is the latest edition)
Make: Electronics
How to Diagnose and Fix Everything Electronic
All New Electronics Self-Teaching Guide - seems good from the reviews
AUDEL BASIC ELECTRONICS
ELECTRONIC CIRCUITS - FUNDAMENTALS & APPLICATIONS by Mike Tooley
ELECTRONICS - CIRCUITS AND SYSTEMS, 3RD EDITION by Owen Bishop
ELECTRONICS DEMYSTIFIED by Stan Gibilisco
ELECTRONICS EXPLAINED by Louis Frenzel
STARTING ELECTRONICS CONSTRUCTION by Keith Brindley
STARTING ELECTRONICS THIRD EDITION by Keith Brindley
TROUBLESHOOTING & REPAIRING CONSUMER ELECTRONICS WITHOUT A SCHEMATIC by Homer Davidson
FASHIONING TECHNOLOGY by
BUILD YOUR OWN ELECTRONICS WORKSHOP by Tom Petruzellis
ELECTRONICS AN INTRODUCTION by Jim Stewart
PRACTICAL ELECTRONICS FOR INVENTORS by Paul Scherz
PRACTICAL ELECTRONICS HANDBOOK SIXTH EDITION by Ian Sinclair
Electronics Projects Stores:
http://www.machinescience.org/store/home.php
http://www.electronickits.com/index.htm
Electronics Projects Websites:
http://www.instructables.com/tag/type-i ... ectronics/
http://electroschematics.com/
Other Sites of Interest:
http://www.diyvn.net/ - electronics projects by some vietnamese guy
http://www.buildinggadgets.com/ - website of the guy who wrote "Electronics Projects for Dummies"
Electronics Engineering Terms
Transistors:
It's kind of ridiculous how hard it is to find a satisfying explanation of how transistors work.
Video Explanations:
Make Magazine - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-td7YT-Pums - worth watching but he covers topics w/ too little detail for it to be totally satisfying. The links he gives at the end were very helpful, though.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-Cv7CMHoGM - worth watching but not totally satisfying
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pni5JRJTMN8 - worth watching but not totally satisfying; what's positive current?
SteelWheelsDown - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkX8SkTgB0g worth watching
- first thing he talks about is how important transistors are to the world, and how ridiculous it is that you can't find a decent explantion online of how they work
- the next thing he talks about is what a diode is: there's a low amount of resistance in one direction but a high amount of resistance in the other direction. This got people wondering if they could get even more different levels of resistance, like being able to get clothing custom tailored vs. only being able to buy small or large.
Written Explanations:
http://amasci.com/amateur/transis.html
http://www.kpsec.freeuk.com/trancirc.htm
Elenco 130-in-1 Experiments in Falstad:
17: Resistors in Series and Parallel
18: Light Dimmer