I believe Youtube videos are a great resource for learning this! I picked up electronics and computer/gpu repair as a hobby over the pandemic lockdowns.
A cheap multimeter and a cheap soldering iron/hot air station combo will get you very far in the hobby. I enjoy these channels:
MyMateVince (a guy who fixes many useful household items): https://www.youtube.com/user/mymatevince
StezStixFix: https://www.youtube.com/@StezStixFix
Electronics Repair School (more advanced, he fixes laptops, tvs, and sometimes gpus): https://www.youtube.com/@electronicsrepairschool
I repair practically anything that breaks in my house -- except heavy work on the car, or the roof. A few things, from me as a kid:
1. Take things apart, and try to figure out how they work. Don't worry too much about getting them back together. But then, trying to reassemble it is good practice too. There's plenty of old electronic junk that you can explore before throwing it away. Build a mental catalog of how things work and are assembled. Among other things, this will help you when you need to come up with a strategy for getting some particular gadget open -- often 9/10 of the problem.
2. Like others have said, YouTube is great. People will make a video of a repair, or even just getting something open, for a few "likes." Also, most of them are just normal genuine people who aren't trying to be influencers, so it's kind of culturally refreshing. Many of my successful repairs started with YouTube, such as my clothes washer and dryer, refrigerator, lawn mower.
3. Many of my most cherished tools are what I call for "demolition," not electronics specific, like picks, pry bars, a slim knife that can get between things, stuff like that. Another set of cherished tools are my magnifying visor, small magnifying glass, bright flashlight, and a stereo inspection microscope that I got second-hand.
4. A lot of "electronic" failures are actually mechanical in nature, and you can just use your general troubleshooting rundown to figure them out. Switches, connectors, cables, etc.
5. Begin to get the hang of identifying parts, and how part numbering schemes work. It will help you in your search for spares.
6. These days I often ask my spouse for a opinion. She's a laboratory scientist, quite sharp and skeptical. I'll have a hypothesis, and she asks the one question that blows it out of the water.
Good luck! Don't get electrocuted or burn your house down.
Roughly in order
Beginner
* Get a Miniware TS101 USB C soldering iron, some solder, solder wick, flux
* Get a mediocre multimeter
* Do a little soldering assembly kit to learn how to solder, there are some good NASA manuals and videos to learn techniques and you won't need to do as good a job as they do
* Learn how to identify and replace broken capacitors
* Learn how to replace power and USB connectors
* ^ (a huge proportion of things that are fixable at all are going to be those two)
Intermediate
* Learn about static (ESD) safety, get the equipment and supplies to prevent frying things yourself
* Get an arduino or other low cost prototyping board and learn to program it and do little projects
* Find some broken consumer electronics with guides on https://www.ifixit.com/Guide and try to fix them, these things are often less about "electronics" and more about glue
* Read the parts of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance about maintaining and fixing things
* Read https://www.eevblog.com and watch https://www.youtube.com/eevblog for information and inspiration
Advanced
* Get an oscilloscope and bench power supply, learn how to probe and analyze signals on boards
* Figure out yourself what next steps to pursue, you should be able to at this point, or at least to ask more specific questions
I've got a friend who has been at this since learning in TV repair shops in the 1950s. His emphasis is always on fast turn-around. He doesn't believe in slowly turning on things with old electrolytic capacitors, for example. I've learned quite a bit from him.
I've learned not to fear B+, but to give very healthy respect to anything more than 500 volts. (Only use 1 hand, keep the other behind you, always have a safety partner, etc)
I've learned to hate Silver Mica capacitors. I've learned how to track down the bad ones that cause the "crashing" sound in old radios.
I've learned that in very old electronics, you can let smoke out, and things will still work. I've gotten good at seeing where the smoke comes from.
You'll definitely need to learn to solder. I'd suggest starting with something like an Arduino starter kit to get a sense of how components actually interact.
But remember, if something is dead, you can't really make it worse. (Just be careful not to make yourself worse along the way)
To debug electronics effectively, you cannot underestimate how much EE knowledge is needed.
Start with something like The Art of Electronics by Horowitz and Winfield.
An example of the kinds of EE stuff you don't heave to know to be an effective troubleshooter of basic issues, might be, oh, say, what it means for the poles of a transfer function lie in the left half of the s-plane.
Just yesterday I fixed a broken wireless N64 controller receiver with the help of ChatGPT. I tried looking for YouTube videos, but didn’t find the exact thing I needed, and since I’m such a newbie I needed a lot of hand holding.
Anyways, I took pictures of the components and described what I was seeing. It walked me through things really well and asked me to do tests and report back. It even told me how to use my specific multimeter after I took a picture of it. I ended up soldering a jumper cable from the console power supply line (not working) to the micro usb power line (working).
It actually works now and really saved me 30 bucks buying a new controller.
The thing is that one needs understanding of an electrical engineer to debug circuits one wants to repair. When you have understanding you can do some voltage measurements and try to identify faulty part. There is gazillion different parts now, that wasn’t the case 2 decades ago.
I know few people who repaired their washing machines just watching youtube videos. No skills and no knowledge. That’s the best error you can find - series error. All the appliances of the same manufacturer built in the 5 years will predictably fail and replacing 20 cent regulator revives the machine.
There are then random faults, that need deep knowledge and hours of debugging. They’re not economically viable to repair unless the machinery is very expensive. Good example is 400€ transistor replacement in €20k Tektronix probe.
Then there are things one shouldn’t touch - Tesla battery packs and open microwave ovens for example. Enough energy to kill or badly injure the unlucky hobbyists (in German): https://www.kosmo.at/tesla-akku-explodiert-mann-schwer-verle...
There are enough analog electronics to repair what requires deep analog design knowledge. Music instruments and radio equipment might fall into this category.
I would say, the repairs make no sense in the future that comes. With more and more electronics and programmable components the repairs are not economically viable. I am designing a motherboard with MPM54304 PMIC and a microprocessor. Both are programmed and without firmware sources and circuit diagram one will not able to recreate desired functionality. After product release I will organize workshop for my colleagues from service department and they will still come to me to discuss the repairs when some early faulty products will be send back by customers.
Head to Craigslist to buy broken electronics on the cheap and practice repairing them.
One upside to this approach is that as you improve it can pay for itself by reselling the fixed items.
The Northwest Repair Discord server is pretty active with people sharing techniques, tips, technical info and gear advice. While NWR's YouTube channel is mainly focused on GPU repair, there's a lot of good knowledge in their vids, and in their Discord channels.
There’s a great (and very entertaining) YouTube channel that really shows what’s possible with minimal knowledge and good troubleshooting skills.
Guess this boils down to what electronics? iPhone grade or Timemore Kettle grade? Latter is accessible (recently repaired a malfuncioning circuit). Former - not so much.
YouTube. Pick any piece of consumer electronics and you'll find videos of people diagnosing and repairing it, at both hobbyist and pro-repair-shop level.
The Nintendo Switch Lite is a fun piece of hardware because they're cheap to buy used/broken and there are many opportunities for component-level repair.
Some great written info (specific to the switch) here:
I am no expert, but I have to imagine it would be quite hard to learn electronic repair without learning some basic circuits.
I've learned a decent amount with some electronics adjacent hobbies, like 3d printing, diy sim racing stuff, mechanical keyboards. Mainly just copying things other people build. Enough that recently I was able to diagnose a broken transformer in an electronic theater chair power supply.
This channel is awesome:
I recommend highly Mend It Mark ( https://www.youtube.com/MendItMark ) ... his techniques are solid and over time he has fixed one of everything. Important is the focus on standard attacks on the problem. Even his occasional mistakes and changes of tactics are well explained and make valuable lessons of their own.
No affiliation; happy customer:
Their kits come with a helpful pamphlet. I have an old hi-fi with a few annoying component failures I’d like to fix.
I’d say they’re intermediate difficulty. I’m going to start with some soldering practice kits, lightbulb replacements, and pot deep cleans. I’m reasonably confident I can get that done without killing my stereo.
If you want to git gud?
Find some popular piece of electronics with a fatal design flaw that’s trivially fixed with some basic rework that you can flip for $25-$1200. Do this a hundred times. Branch out.
This changes year to year but could be fixing joycons, reflowing bga’s, upgrading soldered memory on newer laptops, doing case swaps on consoles or smartphones, and as others have pointed out, lots of automotive, vintage collectible computer, or hifi work.
A plugin hakko soldering iron, a hot air reflow station, Amtech STIRRI-V3-TF flux, some copper braid, and Kester SAC305 lead free solder will get you 95% of the way there.
The financial component means you churn through hundreds of devices rather than dozens or less if you were to do it as a hobby.
"Getting Started in Electronics" by Forrest Mims, if you don't know basic electronics. It's a delightful hand drawn book, even if you do. Also some basic tools. Then, all you need is a broken gadget. If you search for the symptoms, and the name / brand of the gadget, you'll find the most likely causes. Open it up and check for the simplest / most probable cause, and work through them.
My most recent fix was on a washing machine. After ruling out the simpler issues .. it turned out to be dry solder on the main relay on a rather hairy looking control board. Before this the drain pump had died .. it was amazing technology shipped home by someone on ebay for $20!
If you're going to repair electronics, it would be helpful to understand theory as well; it's not just a matter of using tools, but knowing what's going on, too. The Art of Electronics by Paul Horowitz is a book many recommend.
1. Multimeter.
2.Soldering iron, for starting out I suggest spending a little more and getting a Hakko 888 instead of something cheaper.
3. Flux, Leaded solder, Braid.
4. Broken things you want to repair (for me it has been electronic musical instruments).
5. Practice, Patience, and hobby money.
6. Pay for Youtube Premium.
7. Ali Express Account.
What is the pragmatic approach in this mission?
There are a lot of good videos on Youtube, for one. Louis Rossmann has some good stuff (especially his older stuff), Dave Jones has some good repair videos (intermingled with a LOT of other stuff, though), and there are plenty of other channels dedicated to electronics repairs.
Having said that... you'll need to know at least a bit about electronics (qua electronics) before going terribly far with electronics repair. Much the same way that one could only get so far at debugging and fixing code, if one didn't know something about writing code in the first place.
So... there are, again, videos on Youtube. The Vocademy channel, for one, is a great resource for general electronics theory.
And books. Don't forget books.
I'd suggest, depending on your existing knowledge level, find a couple of books on basic electronics, load up some of those videos, get some components and perfboard and a soldering iron and some basic test equipment (a multimeter and an oscilloscope are a good start) and start building simple circuits. And gradually expand the range of circuits you build to become more complex over time. More or less simultaneously, start watching YT videos on "electronics repair". The thing is, there's a difference between knowing "the theory of electronics" and having the debugging / troubleshooting skills, intuition, judgment, etc. to diagnose faults. The two things are related, but are somewhat orthogonal.
At some point, find used junk non-working electronics, either stuff friends/family will give you, or stuff you dig out of a dumpster, or buy at thrift shops, or buy off of Ebay listed as "not working / for parts only" and start trying to fix things.
So basically... "learn theory / build stuff / fix stuff" in an iterative loop. That's about the best advice I can give.
I reckon it will be valuable in the future that comes.
I agree. That's one reason (not the only reason mind you, but one) that I've spent a modest amount of money over the last year or two, upgrading my electronics lab, in terms of tools, test equipment, etc. I mean, I do this stuff for a hobby, and it's been a nearly life-long thing for me anyway. But more and more recently, I find myself thinking that the ability to repair/hack/build electronic "stuff" will be a skill with serious value. I just wish I had more time to commit to it.
I dabble a bit in this but only because one of my hobbies is vintage hi fi (1970s level aluminium faced classic Japanese hi fi really)
I think it helps if you have a specific niche you want to play in. I stick with the era before integrated circuits became dominant because troubleshooting those is next level from replacing blown caps or whatever. Motivation is generally that I want to hear the thing I’m fiddling with and that there is usually some mechanical part of that gear that makes them interesting.
Get a desolder gun when you get a soldering iron.
Also the TechMoan guy on YouTube is fun as he shows his failures repairing things along with the successes
I learned basic electronics repair from modding and building arcade controllers, aka Fightsticks. That eventually evolved into Game Boy repair, and iPod retrofitting, and electronics restoration. It's kind of like cooking; find something you want to make, then follow the directions, and then make something else, and eventually, you'll come across a problem that you have the foundation to solve.
The most basic core of practical electronics repair is that there are things that should be conductive and things that shouldn't be conductive and you need to figure out how to do either.
For repairing old radios check out Jim's Radio Shop channel on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@JimsRadioShop
I believe the best way to learn is getting your hand dirty. Take thing apart, try to understand how it works.
Start with simple thing: A heater, a drill, etc. You won't learn much if you take apart complex gadget like smartphone.
Also learn common failure mode: MLCC usually short itself, or old devices usually have dried out capacitor.
For repairing equipment, you dont need high-end equipment from fluke or keysight. a cheap $20 DMM and $30 soldering iron will get you really far.
Dont stick your hand into where you wont stick your D.
Something that I haven’t seen recommended here so far; soldapullt desoldering pump. Incredible. Much much better than anything except hot air station for very little money.
The thing I keep finding in old stuff, with point to point wiring, is connections that just aren't. One time I found a ground lug on a chassis of a grounded grid amplifier that didn't ground! Another time I found a bad solder joint that left the TV factory like that in 1947 and somehow escaped repair ever since.
It's usually something stupid.
I learned a lot by watching others do it on YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/@EEVblog
Repair manuals are the best way for DIY learning. You can learn the fundamentals with this and an old car:
Watch a lotta NorthridgeFix youtube channel. He is excellent and leads you through his thought processes. Also get tons of hand ons experiences. Disassemble everyday things and try to figure out how they work / how to modify them. Remote controlls, routes, childrens toys, mobile phones.
One way to learn in a very hands on way would be to start building 'hobby' type quadcopters in the 5 to 10 inch propeller size class, such as are built on frames that are cut out of common carbon fiber plate, and use flight controller / ESC stacks in the 'standard' 30x30mm size.
The Pace soldering lessons on YouTube are good.
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL926EC0F1F93C1837&si=U4Jx...
by first learning practical electronics.
you have to know how to make it before you can break it or repair it.
jk, but dammit, man, sometimes I wish that I had learned practical electronics in my school and college days.
in fact, iirc, there was a book by that exact name, practical electronics, by an author named bernard grob. it was in our school library.
I just googled. the book is still around.
https://www.amazon.in/Grobs-Basic-Electronics-Mitchel-Schult...
but it's very expensive for India these days.
also it my day had good Synergy with software development
In my (limited) experience it's almost always a loose solder, usually when something like a headphone jack, or a power connected are being plugged in / pulled out on a regular basis.
In the US we have community colleges where you can take classes cheaply. Here in San Francisco there is a great Electronics class at CCSF you can take for free, providing you finish the course and are an SF resident.
I'd wager learning the basics is probably easier on building new simple things rather than figuring out complex existing ones to repair.
Need electronics basics before you can even attempt to debug
See if there are Repair Cafes around you. Tinkering together with other people can be motivational and there usually are retired craftspeople (such as electricians) around who are happy to share knowledge.
It has become increasingly difficult to repair electronics. The components have become ever smaller and with higher levels of integration. You need access to schematics for the products and datasheets for the components. Of course, you also need sufficient knowledge to use that information. Then there is the issue of sourcing replacement components. If you lack any of the foregoing, then you will have to reverse-engineer the circuits and that is very difficult with multi-layer PCBs.
For any product with microcontrollers, you might be able to locate JTAG connections and use that to debug some of the functionality. But that area requires even greater amount of knowledge and experience.
as a parallel track, PC build/repair is pretty easy but underappreciated and definitely a marketable skill. This could include building peripherals, keyboards, especially, which i consioder a really valuable skill.
I plan to buy some soldering equipment to work on some soldering kits. Soldering is definitely the most important skill in this field.
Would love some written guides if anyone has anything not super specific. I do not gel with youtube.
> the future that comes
...is carrying some baggage there. What you need to learn for, say, a severe economic depression is different from the useful skills to survive a repressive government.
If you look at the things people built in the 1930s, there was a lot of repurposing, make do and mend, etc, to get some basic function restored or working. Barbed wire telephones, that sort of thing. Kind of like the jugaad approach. Whereas surviving repression showed up as home brew radios, mimeograph machines made from cookie tins, etc. For electronics, maybe an understanding of circuits, how to desolder and resue chips, what the popular ones do, etc.? You wont be fixing the finer points of the surface mounted control board of your fancy miele washing machine, but you might at least get the drum to fill, spin, and drain.
i usually just let the magic smoke out for a walk and put back in it.
It's even worse in countries where electronics parts aren't cheap and readily available.
I've done a lot of tinkering and repair of home electronics and appliances and usually the problem is a blown fuse, bad connector, bad switch, worn out battery, or other simple problems. Stocking these items - connectors, switches, fuses, rechargeable batteries - will let you fix the most common problems. A lot of folks have given good advice on resources to learn about electronics and ways to practice, so I wanted to offer a little practical advice about tools and supplies that I've picked up over the years.
Most important equipment is a multimeter and soldering station (with desoldering supplies), good wire cutters and strippers (I like the self-adjusting wire strippers for everything except very large and very small gauge wire), so I'll recommend a couple of additional tips I've learned; first, don't get an auto-ranging multimeter, especially cheap ones are usually not very good. I would also recommend one with a higher "count" like 6000 count, meaning the voltage and resistance measurements ranges go up to 6, meaning you have more range before you have to switch to the next higher range.
Also, I want to really emphasize the importance of good soldering materials and technique - I prefer finer solder because it melts faster and requires less heat. It is easy to destroy some more sensitive items with too much heat. Learn to recognize a cold joint, make sure to use a good flux (I like liquid flux like kester 186). Keep a wet sponge at your station for cleaning the tip, remember to tin the tip, and use a fume extractor. Also, there are a variety of "third hands" you can get, I don't really like the small ones with two alligator clips and a magnifying glass, you can get ones with more clips that can hold more things, but a magnifying glass is really helpful (although it interferes with your depth perception) - I use a gooseneck magnifying glass with a built in light ring to help me solder.
Make sure you have heat shrink tubing and a heat gun. These are great for finishing wires and much more durable than wrapping with electrical tape (although high quality electrical tape like super 33 is much better than the cheap stuff)
Finally, when you're looking at a board, try to identify how the electricity will flow. Learn to identify the ground and vcc traces/planes on a pcb and test your theories with the multimeter (continuity mode on a powered off device is best for this). Build up a mental model of how the device works, and write down a circuit diagram. Seek to learn to identify common circuit patterns and what they are used for - decoupling caps, pull-up/pull-down resistors, ESD protection diodes, debouncing filters, level shifters, voltage dividers, op-amp configurations, serial headers (SPI, UART, JTAG, etc), transistor/mosfet/h-bridges. Learn to identify your ICs and look up the datasheets (I have found that taking a picture with flash with my phone is the best way to read hard-to-read IC labels) - the app notes will usually have a reference circuit with the necessary components, and you can use those to identify which components are related and why they're there. Good luck and have fun!
> I reckon it will be valuable in the future that comes.
If you foresee supply chain or financial difficulties where you are, enough that people will need to keep old machines running...
* Question: Are you thinking for keeping your family's device's working, and maybe teaching them? Or for operating a primary business, or side business?
* If you're currently financially comfortable, you might want to quickly learn what tools and supplies you'll need for several(?) years, and see whether they're currently available and inexpensive where you are. (For example, temperature-controlled soldering irons, desoldering device or braid, a multimeter that has all the features you expect to need, misc. screwdrivers, many sizes and types of security bits, smartphone repair spudgers and suction cups, an assortment of various high-quality capacitors of various specs, an assortment of hookup wire, fuses. Some common parts, like mains power cords, are easy to find from unfixable devices.)
* Repairing power tools and small&large appliances, is a bit different than repairing old radios and televisions, is a bit different than new radios and televisions, is a bit different than older computers, is a bit different than newer computers.
* If this includes keeping old computers working, you might want to think about what kinds, and what parts will wear out and be difficult to cannibalize. For example, some laptop models will need their fans replaced eventually, and then maybe their keyboards. Laptops made 15(?) years ago will soon need new backlight tubes and/or inverter boards, or new panels (possibly LED-backlit, plus the electronics to drive them). Most PCs and laptops will need new thermal compound eventually, especially if you do some kinds of work on them. Fortunately, most PC parts can be cannibalized easily.
* Repairing smartphones requires special parts and supplies, and in some cases might be impossible. You might think ahead to which ones you expect to want to repair, watch (and try to youtube-dl) the tutorial videos, and
* For a business refurbishing old laptops, you might want to start saving repair PDFs now, in case the Internet gets fragmented. For Lenovo/IBM ThinkPad laptops, search for "Hardware Maintenance Manual" and the model numbers.
* Try to avoid IoT, and computers and software that depend on some company's servers to keep running. And move to Linux (such as Debian Stable) if you haven't already. WiFi routers should be running OpenWrt for security and longevity. And consider whether you want to focus on a particular ecosystem of smartphone and tablet (iOS, proprietary Android, "alternative firmware" Android) that you expect to be able to source enough devices for and keep working.
There's a book for people like you (and me): "How to Diagnose and Fix Everything Electronic" by Michael Geier.
Louis Rossmann’s electronics guide was the first time these concepts truly clicked for me: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkVbIsAWN2ltOWmriIdOc5Cti...
Apart from that, just fix broken stuff. Practice like any other skill, like others have said.
Like decide what skills to learn based on what’s broken.
Need to solder something together? Buy the soldering iron. Need to figure out which capacitor you need to replace with? Learn how to identify capacitors and navigate digikey.com