Post by Dan Dawson on Sept 8, 2009 14:36:57 GMT -5
So you want to start circuit bending and making synthesizers but you don't know where to start? First off you must be willing to part with a few bucks and a lot of time in the end it will be well worth it. If you already have a soldering iron you are well over 50% of the way there. Here are a few guides on how to solder and what you will need.
Hack A Day's Guide to Soldering: hackaday.com/2007/10/26/how-to-introduction-to-soldering/
Instructable Guide: www.instructables.com/id/How-to-solder/
Instructable's How To Solder Group: www.instructables.com/group/solder/
These guides have helped me a lot along with a few books and a lot of patience and practice. The next thing you are going to need after you have some basic soldering skills down is parts to build things and things to start working on. If you are like me you may already have years of useless electronics saved up. (I have been saving mice, keyboards, clocks, toys, computers, vcrs, etc. for almost a decade.) If you do not have a stock pile of stuff you are going to have to take a more organized and professional approach, buying parts. You can start buy just picking up interesting things at yard sales and thrift shops. You will be surprised at the inexpensive and interesting things you might find. Next you will most likely need to order parts offline or stop into radio shack. (I highly suggest ordering over the internet as radio shack rarely has what you need and are very over priced, not to mention the customer service.) Here are a few links to some sites that sell inexpensive and high quality parts.
Electronic Goldmine: www.golemine-elec.com
Digi-Key: www.digikey.com
Spark Fun: www.sparkun.com
I hope this guide can help anyone looking to start in digital electronics and please thank the people who own and run the websites listed because they are very helpful.
Hack A Day's Guide to Soldering: hackaday.com/2007/10/26/how-to-introduction-to-soldering/
Instructable Guide: www.instructables.com/id/How-to-solder/
Instructable's How To Solder Group: www.instructables.com/group/solder/
These guides have helped me a lot along with a few books and a lot of patience and practice. The next thing you are going to need after you have some basic soldering skills down is parts to build things and things to start working on. If you are like me you may already have years of useless electronics saved up. (I have been saving mice, keyboards, clocks, toys, computers, vcrs, etc. for almost a decade.) If you do not have a stock pile of stuff you are going to have to take a more organized and professional approach, buying parts. You can start buy just picking up interesting things at yard sales and thrift shops. You will be surprised at the inexpensive and interesting things you might find. Next you will most likely need to order parts offline or stop into radio shack. (I highly suggest ordering over the internet as radio shack rarely has what you need and are very over priced, not to mention the customer service.) Here are a few links to some sites that sell inexpensive and high quality parts.
Electronic Goldmine: www.golemine-elec.com
Digi-Key: www.digikey.com
Spark Fun: www.sparkun.com
I hope this guide can help anyone looking to start in digital electronics and please thank the people who own and run the websites listed because they are very helpful.