Learning electronics

[AwDeOh82]

For Dmitri, Synthex, and anyone else with a good working knowledge of electronics -

- what's your background with electronics, how did you get to the point where you could design Megadrum? Self taught, university etc?
- are there any online resources you'd recommend for someone to wants to start learning electronics?

I'm thinking along the lines of the knowledge to be able to design and build projects starting small, like the kit set circuits that electronics stores sell, working up to bigger projects like Megadrum. If there are any books that are really good for a complete beginner, it'd be good to hear about those as well.

[dmitri]

I've graduated from the Moscow Institute of Electronics and Mathematics, specialization - Semiconductors in Space so my education is relevant to electronics. But I think it is neither a prerequisite for developing electronic projects nor a guarantee that you'll be able or interested to do it. I'm sure there are a lot of similar to MegaDrum projects developed by people without university degree in electronics or even without university degree at all.

[jman 31]

I never had any formal electronics education, but I have picked up a ton of knowledge from the internet. If you are willing to read you can get just about anything you need to learn. I am far from able to really design my own projects, but I've picked up enough in the last few months to have a pretty good understanding of how a lot of the components work. I started with small projects that I found (stompboxes and amps) and now I am working on the bigger stuff. We have a pretty good conversation going on over at vdrums about lights that trigger when the drum is struck, and I'm knee deep in the design process. The guys that do have electronics backgrounds are extremely helpful.