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Author Topic: Cup o' Qs about making a circuit - based on someone else's design for starters  (Read 3641 times)

jhayat

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Hi all :wave:

I am interested in learning about circuits and how to actually make them. I am good with a soldering iron, have a small amount of experience replacing components on a circuit board, and have an uderstanding as to how circuits work. However, I have no clue as to where to start when it comes to building my own.

My first thought was a good book. If anyone has any recommendations, I am all ears. That said, I am the kind of person that does much better with doing, as opposed to reading. So the next thought was to open a piece of gear, and try to build my own curcuit of of that. And from there, make it into my own.

So, the first Q is - does that fall under the category of reverse engineering? Bearing in mind, this is for my own personal use and knowledge, and nothing I make will actually be distributed nor sold.

Secondly, where does one get circuit boards? Do I start with a blank, and then punch out what I need and where myself? Or do I get a board that someone will "pre-cut" (for lack of a better term) for me based on what I tell them?

Any ideas will be appreciated.
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Greg Reierson

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There are lots of good kits on the market if you want something that will work without too much fuss. That's were I started. Once you've built a few kits you can start to introduce your own ideas.
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Greg Reierson
Rare Form Mastering

John Roberts {JR}

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Designing circuitry is a little like writing literature.

So first you need to understand what the words mean (componnets), grammar (Ohms law, Kirkoffnodal analysis, etc), and finally read a lot of other writers (study other schematics).

Dissect schematics from known good designs and try to understand why specific components were used where and why. After you have developed your design vocabulary and grammar, you can start writing your own simple sentences..

You can't read your own writing to critique it without reading others to compare against. Of course real circuits need to work too, so after you feel good about a sentence, built it and see if it holds it's smoke and works as expected.

JR
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Circular Science     http://RESOTUNE.COM

"tune it or don't play it..."

jhayat

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Thanks for the replies.

So where does one get a starter circuit board?
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jamesp

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In the UK we have Veroboard which is perforated paxolin board with strips of copper underneath. You can build all sorts of audio frequency circuits on this although you will have to cut the copper strips in places. If you are using op-amps you might find one of the more specialised versions of Veroboard to be more appropriate as they offer copper strips already laid out to take DIP IC packages.

I started off building op amp circuits from magazines on Veroboard which eventually turned into a DJ mixer. I also tried one of the old Mullard tape head preamp circuits.

In the US you might want to do a search for Stripboard or Prototyping boards for something similar.

James.
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James Perrett - JRP Music
http://www.jrpmusic.net
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