I want to learn about all those tiny little components that are in all things electronic. I know very little about them. And I don't want to just know what they do, I want to be able to USE them. Recently I took an old toy robot that I got for christmas and decided to play around with him. He was a $15 robot, made for fighting others like him. Well I lost the controller about a week after I got him. I put him in the top of a closet hoping I would find the controller and be able to play with him again. 2 years passed and finally I decided I wasn't going to find that controller, so I took him down and took him apart. He had various PCBs and a couple of IR receivers to pick up the remote control. I took almost everything out, leaving only the motors, gears, and wheels. I wired up his battery compartment straight to one of the leads of his motors, the other to his on/off switch, and finally wired his on/off switch to the other motor lead. I was pretty satisfied, and turning the switch on would make him go straight forward. Unfortunately, that's about the limit of my knowledge and abilities right now. I know how to solder. I know how to connect a battery to a component. That's about it. Now I want to learn all about transistors, capacitors, semi-conductors, resistors, microcontrollers, and all those fun little things. I want to know where to learn those things. My budget is absolutely nothing, and all parts that I use must be taken from old electronics. Fortunately I have lots of those, and most of them are broken so I can take all the little parts out I want. I do not yet own a multimeter. I want to be able to actually take a part, put it in a circuit, and see it make a difference to the circuit. I don't need anything useful, just so I can really see what every part does and learn what they're used for.
