Beginner Course in "Practical Electronic Circuit Assembly"

As recommended by Samson, I took a course offered by HKFTU Spare Time Study Center (translation is pretty straight forward), introducing electronic components and basic circuits. For just HK$780, there are 12 lessons of 1 hour and 45 minutes each, including some hand on experiences to assemble electronic stuff. First lesson tonight, let’s see.

* Updated Jan 23, after 3 lessons.
Mr. Lam, the instructor is an experienced, about to retire, electric engineer originally from Singapore. He spends quite a bit of time writing notes on a white board. So far, his 3 lessons covered a few fundamental physics laws, properties of resistors, capacitors, relays, diodes and LEDs; suitable for people with no electronic background.

He only travels to Hong Kong over the weekends and works mostly in manufacturing factories in China. He offers his limited free time to answer students questions in electronics, including circuit designs or sourcing components. I have tried to get some electronic components and it can be a frustration experience when knowing not enough. He also likes to talk about the “horror stories” in term of quality control in electronics, or rants on culture shocks working in China.

** Updated April 18, upon finished the whole course.
Basic electronic components and concepts of basic circuits were introduced. Every lesson, about 30-40 minutes were used in writing notes on a white board; not the most efficient way to learn. 4 small projects of soldering electronics on printed boards; including making a water-level alarm, “who press the button first” quiz circuit, clap on & off device and a rechargeable-battery charger.

Electronics were made with a sole purpose and meant to be designed as cost effective and reliable. However, after worked with Audrino, processing or Max/MSP; the same electronic components can be programmed to perform multiple purposes. Technically, I was still not able to trouble-shoot if something was not done properly. Personally, I felt like as if I were picking up a new hobby at a very beginning stage. The course was decent, but I would prefer not to pursue further in this manner.