[bashmelek]

The official arduino starter kit teaches some beginner level information, but it is very rudimentary. It is really hard to penetrate the next level of electronics—electronic engineers will stress the importance of precise calculations where previously I was just used to putting together whatever components I had from a kit, with few caveats.

It was not until I tried buying extra transistors that I realized I didn’t understand anything—-and this was after taking the Georgia Tech introduction to electronics free online course. Suddenly there were data sheets and graphs, and not to mention prices. The Build Your PCB course I found myself similarly in over my head, as it felt geared towards EE’s. But I learned about KiCAD. Maybe I will give Ben Eater another try

[HeyLaughingBoy]

I'll let you in on a secret: engineering the world over is mainly about rules of thumb and knowing when you need to actually do some math.

e.g., when I started my EE career, if you wanted to light up a red LED from 5V, you'd put a 330ohm resistor in series. If it was driven from 12V, then you'd use a 1kohm. Standard values that everyone has in inventory and you don't need to think about it. Similar "rules" would apply if you wanted to use an NPN transistor as a switch and so on.

Actual calculations would only come into play if I needed to e.g., make sure that the LED always had a constant 15mA through it whether the drive voltage was 5V or 24V.