Getting Started - Top 10 Small and Fun Electronics Projects - DIY Electronics

So a few of years ago, I developed a sudden interest in electronics, don't ask me why, but I did. Up to that point I hadn't really had much experience in the field, though possessed basic soldering skills and electronic circuitry knowledge. Anyhow with this newly developed interest and enthusiasm to get started, I set out to find my first small electronics project!

This article is to give other would be electronic enthusiasts/hobbyists a few small projects to get started and which provide an insight into the world of electronics and electronic engineering. None of these projects are my own, and all credit goes to the original designers/creators obviously. But when I was starting out I had to do a lot of searching to find projects at my ability so I thought this list may be useful, and many of the projects on the lists are ones that I have done myself.

The great thing about some of these projects is that even if you have no interest in the theory behind them and just want a hobby/something to do which you have something to show for, then many of these projects have very easy to follow guides which require no real prior knowledge of electronics to produce the end result, just an ability to buy the correct components as listed. If you choose to do so, you could follow the guide to the end ignoring the majority of 'technical bits' and still manage to have a working end product! I encourage all to learn what you can as it will mean you can take on bigger and better projects in the future.

I would provide the direct links to each project, but am unable to as a result of HubPages policy, so I'm afraid you'll have to find them on the appropriate sites yourself, however here are the links to the sites homepages, each site has a search function so it should be easy enough to find the projects:

Ladyada

Instructables

Bust A TECH

(Be sure to check the list of required tools and components for each project)

MintyBoost - Ladyada

This is a popular first project for quite a few. Gone are the days of paying ridiculous amounts of money to charge many of your USB devices on the go! No really, you can buy one on Amazon for a fairly reasonable price... But that's not the point, so get off Amazon and pick your soldering iron back up!!! 'Cos you can't beat a USB Charger in an Altoids tin(!) or even an enclosure of your own choosing, be creative! This project is great for beginners, it's not very complicated, the guide is brilliant as they are for all the projects on ladyada.net, you can even buy the kit to build it from the website! And unlike many beginners electronics projects you actually get something useful out of it! I strongly suggest you check out more projects from this site too(I will be mentioned a few more in this list)!

Supercapacitor USB Light - Bust A TECH

I'll admit, there may not be much of a practical application for this project, aside from perhaps using it as an emergency light, though you'd have to have your USB device charger ready with you as well... not to mention the fact that you'd have to be able to predict the emergency 10-30 seconds in advance to give you chance to charge it up! 30 seconds can feel like a long time when you've fallen down a manhole! However this is a great quick and simple project, and the concept itself is interesting and if you are interested in the theory then it's great project to learn from as well!

Altoids Tin 1/8" Stero Mixer - Instructables

Another Altoids tin project....for some reason there's so much you can do with Altoids tin, someone once told me you can even store mints in them, though I'm yet to be convinced of this. This is a pretty cool project to allow multiple audio inputs to a something like a car stereo. It's not actually a particularly complicated project as far as electronics go, so don't be put off, there's not an awful lot to it, but it is potentially a pretty useful and nifty device.

TV-B-Gone - Ladyada

Surrounded by TV's distracting you from your soldering? Well firstly I would suggest not practising your hobby in the TV store, or the living room for that matter, I don't think burn holes in the coffee table would be greatly appreciated. My other suggestion would be to make of these! I think the title of the project is fairly self explanatory, this is another project on the ladyada website, check out the excellent guide. You can also buy the kit for this project, which is especially useful as it means if you don't want to get into programming chips yet then the chip with the kit comes preprogrammed!

LED Throwies - Instructables

This is probably the most basic circuit possible, I wouldn't really call this a project, but hey make thousands of them and you could decorate your house...or something. Just thought I'd throw this one in here for a bit fun!

MiniPOV v3 - Ladyada

This is a great little programmable persistence of vision toy! If you've just run off to hide in a cave and return the stone ages because I mentioned programming, then come back! Do not fear, as it says on the site, this project is a excellent introduction to soldering, assembling kits, programming micro-controllers and making blinky stuff. You can download the code to program the micro-controller with from the website, and in order to program your own message into the device you only have to change a small amount of code and the entire process is covered on the website. It's a nice easy introduction to programming micro-controllers as you don't have to do an awful lot but you can look at the code and begin to understand how it works.

RGB LED Mood Lighting - Instructables

LEDs, you can never have too many, right? Regardless of the answer to that question this project remains pretty cool. It is a bit bigger than the majority in the list, and potentially a little bit more complicated and costly, the guide is ok and comes with videos to show you what the end product should look like, so you can look utterly puzzled when comparing your end result with theirs, trying to figure out what went wrong! Hopefully that won't happen though of course! Anyway, it is a great project, though it will require a little bit more work, and I wouldn't recommend this project as a first or even second project or to anyone who's significant other has been complaining about the lack of 'quality' time spent together. But if you have the time, resources and a bit of experience, then this is a pretty cool project to take on!

Jitter Drive - Instructables

One for those bored times. Not really a practical application for this one, but who says everything needs to be practical! It's a basic little circuit, pretty easy to construct. I would definitely recommend using a battery holder for this though(the guide does not use one).

USB Doomsday Device - Instructables

Everyone should have one of these! Ok, it's actual function may not be quit as awesome as the project title sounds, but is still a pretty cool idea! You'd think making your own doomsday device would be much more complicated, but no, it's this simple. Pretty easy circuit, little bit of drilling as well as the normal soldering required, but definitely give it go! You can download the program to use the device as a program launcher from the guide.

Chapstick LED Flashlight - Instructables

There seem to be so many everyday items which are perfect dimensions for electronics projects! I am not really sure whether there is any benefit in being able to disguise a flashlight as a chapstick, but hey, here you have it! I guess if you did want to make a flashlight but didn't want to spend money buying a suitable enclosure, then this would be a 'sensible' option, I use that term loosely. Still, give it a go!

Please feel free to add any projects to this list in comments.

Most of the projects in the list either provide full kits you can purchase and assemble or places you can buy the project components from, but if you are still struggling here are a couple of suggestions:

US

www.jameco.com
www.alliedelec.com
www.digikey.com

UK

www.maplin.co.uk
uk.rs-online.com
uk.digikey.com

Now that you've finally decided to pick up that old rusty soldering iron that's been lying around in your shed for years(which you have no idea where it came from) and now that you've had some experience in electronics, you may find yourself asking: "What do I do now?" or "Why did I bother?" Well hopefully you're asking the former! If that's the case then as I said before I would recommend learning more theory, so you can take on bigger projects and actually understand how things work, and why they work the way they do (knowing this will also help solve any problems that may arise).

Probably the next logical step would be to look at programmable devices, this article on Instructables is well worth checking out:

http://www.instructables.com/id/A-Beginners-Guide-to-Programmable-Logic-Devices/

I would also suggest checking out Arduino, the Arduino starter kits are great for lots of projects:

http://www.arduino.cc/
http://arduino.cc/en/Main/Buy