Where did everyone learn about how to wire/use electricity and circuits?

[j1345]

Would like to go more indepth in my next build but want to get more knowledge before I do. 

Would you all rec an evening electrician class?  Or is there something online that deals with how circuits/electricity works? 

Thanks in advance...

[adder]

plenty of videos on youtube for electronics, use of multimeters, good soldering technique etc

get a soldering iron (Antex XS25 is a good one) and solder (get '60/40' solder), practice soldering (anything, wires etc) until you get comfortable with it. use youtube videos to see how to solder properly. learn things like applying too much heat from the soldering iron to some components can damage them (eg. small resistors etc)

here's a good start:

part 1:


part2:


part3:


part4

[8BitMonk]

Beginner soldering tutorials:

EEVblog #180 - Soldering Tutorial Part 1


EEVblog #183 - Soldering Tutorial Part 2

[BadMouth]

EEVblog soldering tutorials are great.

I took an electronics class at the votech center after high school, but dropped out because the class moved a painfully slow pace.
At the end of the first semester, all we'd learned was how to read resistors and not to hook capacitors up backwards.  (EDIT: and Ohms Law)
Literally that.  Not even so much as making an LED light up.  So I quit.

A few years ago, I picked up this book:
http://www.amazon.com/Make-Electronics-Discovery-Charles-Platt/dp/0596153740/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1430511713&sr=8-2&keywords=electronics+book

RadioShack used to sell kits that contained all the needed parts for the projects in the book.
They divided it up into a kit for the first half and a kit for the second half.

I never did do the projects from the last part of the book, but I learned enough about how things work to accomplish most things I'd want to do.

You don't really need to know this stuff to build an arcade machine, but it helps for bells and whistles.
If you understand the concept of a switch completing a circuit, that's all you really need to know to build a regular cab.

[yotsuya]

I learned from some of the local arcade collectors who taught me how to fix my own stuff.

[Generic Eric]

I learned in AF Tech School.   Respect of electricity and live voltage is important.  Grounding is important.  It is important to be knowledgeable of Electro Static Discharge to minimize risks.   Understanding Ohm's Law is important.  Reading a schematic is circuit is important.  Understand signal flow is important.  Soldering technique is important. The color codes on the resistors have meaning. 

Good lighting is important too.  Most important is patience or a book. Get a kit and get started.  I remember nuts and volts being a cool magazine. 

There are so many angle to electronics

/edit WTH?

[Nephasth]

I was born with a pair of strippers in one hand... and crimpers in the other.

Or is there something online that deals with how circuits/electricity works? 

Welcome to the internet. Come on in, kick off your shoes, and take a look around.

[yotsuya]

I was born with a pair of strippers in one hand... and crimpers in the other.

Or is there something online that deals with how circuits/electricity works? 

Welcome to the internet. Come on in, kick off your shoes, and take a look around.

Neph taught me about wiring. Rolling my own is one of my favorite activities now.

[ChanceKJ]

Everything i know is from Google, PL1, and Neph.  (not in that order)

 

[Anthony Cole]

I have just began to learn repair this year and have had a load of assistance on this site and through the pinrepair guides. Pdxpinduck is correct this site and the pinheads on it are the single best source for info.

[n3wt0n]

I was born with a pair of strippers in one hand... and crimpers in the other.

Or is there something online that deals with how circuits/electricity works? 

Welcome to the internet. Come on in, kick off your shoes, and take a look around.

Neph taught me about wiring. Rolling my own is one of my favorite activities now.

+1 to what Yots said. Making my own harnesses has been the most rewarding parts of my build.

[mgb]

The internet is full of good sources for learning electronics.
I learned by going to school for it and more so by practical experience.

I have been getting much more into my electronics hobby lately. My 8 year old son is into it too so we're enjoying it together and starting to get into robotics so I've been doing a lot of online study.
The internet has many great resources 
There are many good forums and internet stores like Adafruit, Sparkfun, Jameco and Newark have great articles.
Youtube is also a great source for electronics education.

It is totally possible to do the arcade and mame thing without knowing electronic circuits in depth but it certainly doesn't hurt to have that knowledge.

[offset]

Basic and solid state electronics in high school.

Since then, mostly youtube and practice at home.

Soldering book
https://mightyohm.com/files/soldercomic/FullSolderComic_EN.pdf

[brihyn]

My dad owned and ran a TV store, and had a workshop for customer repairs. Not an exaggeration to say I was raised there.
Also got my degree in computer electronics.
Probably not advice that helps you....

[05SRT4]

If it shocked me I didn't do it again.

[mgb]

If it shocked me I didn't do it again.

That's no fun. I usually find that if it shocks me, I've gotta do it again just to check 

[nitrogen_widget]

My dad taught me to solder in his garage when I was probably 12.
i'm actually not half bad at it and prefer solder & shrink tubing to crimps when it comes to joining wires that don't ever need to come apart.

[Vigo]

Mostly self taught. I took TONs of 70's and 80's electronics apart as a kid. Randomly bought myself soldering irons, strippers, crimper, multimeter, terminals etc. and played with them until I understood how they work. Also had a couple kids electronics labs that I got from a garage sale when I was little. I learned quite a bit from that. This sort of thing:



Also watched my dad do electrical work on our house as a kid. Wiring a outlets, lightswitches or ceiling lights surprisingly goes a long way to understanding the electrical in a arcade cab.

[HaRuMaN]

I had one of those Radio Shack 200 in 1 circuit kits or something like that.

Flash forward to my college days, needed an encoder for a stand alone MAME controller I was making, so I bought a soldering iron and got practicing.   

[WindDrake]

I had several of those RS xxx-in-1 electronics kits as a kit.

Dad taught me to solder when I was 13 or 14.

Took Electronics in HS, did a lot of reading (Thanks, Mr. Mims) - ended up in IT for a while, but transitioned into the EE side of things as a result of that. Working side by side with a lot of oldschool EE's was also great.

Getting into the arcade hobby also pushed me to improve my skills. This stuff doesn't fix itself, and I'll be damned if I'm paying someone else to do it for me.

Now it's what I do at work all day AND what I do for fun. Can't ask for better.

[lilshawn]

i'm another for the rat shack xxx in 1 kits. started about 8 or 9 following the projects in the book. troubleshooting when it didn't work. understanding why/how.

I read books on computers and electronics. got interested in robotics because it was BOTH. I think the first book i bought with my own money was "robot building for beginners" by David Cook. first edition print... still got it. Learned heaps about electronics and almost more importantly...how to cut stuff up and make things out of it. the book is pretty heavy into using angle iron and brackets and wood to build the bases frames of moving robots.

This is where i learned to make stuff and jerry rig stuff together. Trust me, i've never been stranded on the side of the road. Ever. I've always managed to hack together a fix or cobble together something to get me home. It's also how I learned to look at problems analytically. Something breaks down or fails in some way...i'm not just going to throw it out, i'm going to rip into that thing and find the mode of failure. Understading how something works...and later how it fails, is super important in understanding how to:

-ensure it doesn't happen again
-recognise the signs of impending doom

i know you're probably not reading anymore and are wondering how this has to do with the price of tea in china, but it does.

Electricity is very unforgiving... touch the wrong thing and poof things can blow up...or you can get electrocuted and die.

but understanding "the way things work" (which is coincidentally also the title of an awesome book I had as a kid) will not only keep YOU and your circuit safe, it will also give you the knowledge to not only be a BUILDER but also a MAKER.

I too started to take electronics as my technical in grade 9, but quickly dropped out because they weren't going to be going in the direction I would have enjoyed. (also ended up later dropping out of school completely to work) I probably would have been happier with taking a higher grades up electronics class (grade 11 or 12) since that was probably about where my level was. But the school would not allow anybody to take higher up courses unless you had already done the lower technical courses. (like you couldn't take metal shop for a year and then do electronics or wood shop the next year...you had to continue with metal shop)

my analytical reasoning landed me a job working as a service technician for a office supply company fixing typewriters, photocopiers, fax machines, and the like. I ended up being the only technician certified to service the first color photocopiers we sold. (the Mita ci7500 ... an awesome quality color laser machine for it's time.) which resulted in me being shipped all over British Columbia to service machines in the field. I've touched every single part in every machine in all of BC. at least once. It's been almost 20 years since then, but i could probably still spout off every part number needed for a PM (mostly since we never ordered the kits so I needed to pull onesies off the shelf)

but I digress, I never really LEARNED electronics or anything, I LIVED it. it was always about having solder in every place i'd look for it. it was about sitting on the floor in my junk room and playing with caps and solenoids. it was about building an open frame robot controlled by an "apco" apple ][e clone out of pieces of wood and metal shelving uprights.

[Fursphere]

My father was an electrical engineer, and taught me the trade when I was a youngster (I suspect it was so I could fix my own toys when I got into RC cars..  hmm    )

But like everyone has mostly said.  Google. Youtube. Trial and error. 

[danny_galaga]

I did an apprenticeship as an auto electrician. But you probably DON'T need to spend four years learning what you need to know 

[ark_ader]

If it shocked me I didn't do it again.

That's no fun. I usually find that if it shocks me, I've gotta do it again just to check 

Much more fun touching 240V and having to remove that screwdriver from the brick wall I embedded just afterwards.   

After that I went to a night class on basic electrical.

[nitrogen_widget]

I also took a few electronics classes in high school.
Our teacher had us soldering up proto-type boards for cable TV de-scramblers back when it was all analog.

So when I took electrical tech in college I really only needed to concentrate on the electrical theory part because hands on labs were a breeze for me.