Learning about electronics through YouTube

Now obviously, while getting some basic knowledge is certainly attainable through YouTube, it's it's also handy to see just what is involved in gearing yourself up to do this electronics hobby effectively. You certainly don't have to get everything at once, but seeing an established "electronics workshop" or "lab" can be helpful to not only know what to by, but why.. and perhaps what not to buy until you're ready.

Setting up your "Electronics Lab" (Or Toolbox):

There are a lot of opinions here. Do you buy a multimeter, any old soldering iron, a bread board, and a few components on the outset? Well... you could, but "it depends".

Some will say, "Get your Electrostatic Dischage (ESD) under control with an ESD mat and wrist strap". Others will say, "Get an oscilloscope because it's the only way to diagnose AC and signal voltages" (Not true BTW). Others will talk about isolation transformers, variacs, differential probes, or AC current finders for safety... but that's not really important until you start working on repairing appliances that work on mains voltage, or fixing a light fitting. In short, that's not a beginner project.

Frankly, if you already have basic hand tools like screwdrivers, pliers and wire cutters... I think the following will help:

• a good ($60-100 Australian) multimeter (two if you can afford it),
• a proper soldering station with adjustable temperature and replaceable tips,
• some desoldering wick,
• some very thin (think 0.5mm or less) leaded (not lead free) solder,
• a few spools of wire for connecting projects,
• something to help you hold your circuits or wire as you solder them (sometimes called "helping hands"),
• something to help you read really small text, and do visual inspections, (magnifying glass, magnifying glasses/goggles, lamp with in-built magnifying lens, or even microscope).

Gets you to a point where you can do basic circuit assembly, removing parts for testing, and simple repair/replacements

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For learning

A few simple things will help you with actual prototyping:

• A breadboard or two
• A breadboard power adaptor
• An educational electronics kit with components and simple projects to start with. Obviously you need instructions, and they're usually, but not always included.

What else do you need?

Now there are a lot of channels out there with excellent lessons on specific topics, or whole series of videos teaching you about the basics of Electronics. While I will list my favourites below, it's important that you find videos that not only teach you the stuff you're trying to learn, but also do it in a way that's effective for you.

Features that I find helpful:

• While I don't mind longer videos, I find my ability to remember things improves if it's limited to 20-30 minutes. Failing that, the use of chapters/bookmarks to skip to certain sections of the video both breaks the video up into more managageable chunks, as well as assisting me to review the information later.
• Great sound quality, and clear speech. Now while I appreciate that people are trying to share their wisdom with the world for free, I find it hard to focus on the material if I'm distracted by background noises, muffled explainations, distorted sound, and heavy accents.
• Quality visuals. The number of times I've had footage trying to show me something important, and it's been:
  • Out of focus
  • Out of the view of the camera
  • Obscured by hands, tools, smudges on the lens, or just unhelpful camera views, etc
  • Nauseating (shaky) hand held camera techniques,
  • Key steps skipped entirely because of some sort of malfunction, lost footage, or never recorded in the first place... sigh!
• Logical, structured, and concise explanations, with less than 30 seconds of intro music, and less than 1m of "pleas to like and subscribe".

I'm sure others may have other features they like and dislike, but this is what I'm looking for.

YouTube video channels I like:

Honestly, there's a lot of good material out there. However, there are three channels who have been particularly helpful to me. In no particular order, they are:

The Electrical Engineering Playlist

This is nearly 200 videos from a variety of different sources. Some of which are from my other recommendations. It starts ultra basic (as in, you know nothing about electronics), works it's way through a variety of components, what they do, and how they work. It covers things like making PCBs (Printed Circuit Boards at home) and builds up to some serious electronics. Don't try to watch this all at once, take it slow, and think about the videos before moving on, as this does build on the lessons of the previous videos.

EEV Blog

Dave has literally got well over a thousand videos on his channel. It's an "off the cuff" blog (one of the biggest on the planet) and is watched by Electronics Engineers, hobbyists, hackers, makers, and a whole host of other people who just want to learn.

As a fellow Aussie, I love his enthusiasm, his down-to-Earth approach, his sheer no-nonsense practicality, and I can forgive him for the occasional swear word. When topics of his video include: "How to pick a multimeter" and "How not to blow up your oscilloscope", trust me, you'll want to know that stuff. This channel is a bit less... err.. structured, but simply pick the videos you like and go.

Dave has explained many concepts very well, complete with drawings and stick figures, about topics that I didn't really grasp when reading from a textbook. So if you get stuck, when reading any book... I highly recommend seeing if he has a video on that topic.

Incidentally, If you're thinking "Wow he's got so much expensive gear, and I must spend loads of money to get started", it's true that you can. However, I thought his video on "Why Fluke multimeters are so expensive" quite well reasoned, insightful, and practical. It gives hobbyists like myself some much needed context about the industries and customers Fluke cater for. He also stated that you don't really need to pay a lot for great test gear, and he offers some amazing gear of his own at a fair price. I can say this, because I bought his EEVBlog branded Brymen 786 Multimeter.... which after years of working with cheaper multimeters, is a joy to use and saves me so much time... and I certainly didn't pay the "Fluke price" for it.

That said, I actually found it cheaper to buy the multimeter from the EEVBlog eBay store, than it would have been if I bought it through the EEVBlog's own site. Crazy eh?

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Learn Electronics Repair

The third, but certainly not the least important channel in my self-education. Learn Electronics Repair is run by Richard, an ex-pat Brit living in the Canary Islands (part of Spain). His channel really does focus on the repair aspects of Electronics. This is advantageous for several reasons:

• Repairs do not require quite the in-depth understanding of electronics that circuit design entails. So complex mathematics, and the detailed understanding of physics is effectively skipped.
• Repair work can obviously save money and the environment. Either by repairing items that would otherwise be thrown away, or by salvaving parts from old devices.
• Repair work, really comes down to four simple tasks:
  1. Obtaining a history/symptoms of the problematic device.
  2. Formulating theories about where the problem(s) might be located
  3. Using observation and measurement equipment to assess components, replacing/reconnecting as needed.
  4. Testing absolutely everything once finished the repair, to ensure that you've solved the problem, and that the fix is reliable... without introducing new issues. :-)

• There's a lot of simple procedures to follow. You need to know how to test various electronic components safely and effectively, knowing what the limitations of each testing method/device might be, what readings should you expect, and what anomolous readings might imply. You'll quickly learn to identify real-world patterns, and how faults may present themselves.
• You'll definitely learn how to solder, un-solder, open up casing, and of course, re-assemble it. These are practical skills.
• Repairing teaches you what real-world circuits look like, they're not conceptual simplifications for teaching purposes. This helps you to identify parts and stages as you get more experience.
• Repetition helps. Once you've seen enough Switch-Mode-Power-Supplies, (SMPS) in everything from Computers, TVs, Printers, Amplifiers, etc, you'll expect filtering caps, a rectifier, some sort of transformer, and these will become not only better understood, but you understand why each part is there, what it does, and the most likely failure points.
• Testing the repairs builds confidence, and really tells you to delve deeper if it doesn't work. You're simply not going to be able to fix everything first time.. Expect this, think about it, and if you get stuck, ask for help. If everything else fails, decide when it's just not worth repairing, and keep parts around for salvage purposes.

I really like Richard because he's not about the editing. It's a real-time, real world repair job. Some are simple enough, while others take him hours. He makes mistakes and shares them openly.

Perhaps the best thing about this channel is his series of videos called: "Everything you need to know about...". He takes the time to explain how things work, how to test them, different designs and their implications, as well as why certain parts are more likely to fail. This is incredibly useful, and he supplies this entirely free of charge.

I have gone through his "Everything you need to know about amplifiers" several times (it's a movie length video) in preparation to work on a couple of broken subwoofer amps that hold a great deal of sentimental value to me. When the repair guys cost hundreds of dollars, shipping it nearly 1000Km away gets seriously expensive. So it's time I learned to do some repairs for myself. We'll see how that goes when I'm finished the latest renovations. :~)

In short, I highly recommend Richard's channel, and I truly appreciate his efforts. They helped to keep me sane during the Covid pandemic.

So without much further ado, here's the three channels linked below: