r/embedded • u/ghostsilver • 20h ago

Where to start learning more about hardware?

I am currently working as a yocto developer in junior level with <2 YOE. I did my degree in CS (no physic or EE course) so to be honest, I have little to no "formal" education on hardware/electrical engineering beside maybe some highschool stuffs on physic and stuffs I learned during my job.

While my work is not really hardware-related in a low level, my company also does all the steps in embedded domain, from HW design, to SW, to production,... which means I sometimes works with colleagues in HW department as well.

As mentioned, I don't have a great foundation in EE so I cannot really explain what I am lacking right now, but I usually struggle when it comes to evaluate hardware stuffs:

  • Working with oscilloscope in general, then assess the measured signal

  • Reading the schematic

  • Random stuffs like what a component does to debug a problem,...

That's what randomly pop in my head right now. But surely there are more to it. Usually when I need to work with EE colleagues, it's usually a more serious problem and they themself also expect a certain level of knowledge from me I suppose.

How and where do I start learning more about it? Thanks!

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u/Bergergi 19h ago edited 19h ago

Scherz 'Practical Electronics for Inventors' is a light and effective overview.

Deep-dive: Horowitz&Hill (The Art of Electronics), Agarwal&Lang (Foundations of Analog and Digital Electronics), Sedra&Smith (Microelectronic Circuits), Franklin et.al. (Feedback Control of Dynamic Systems).

If you didn't do physics for your degree, and you're interested: Halliday&Resnick.

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u/ghostsilver 15h ago

thanks for the recommendation, will definitely start on these

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u/Rod_McBan 18h ago

Horowitz and Hill is a treasure. Can't recommend it enough.

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u/Poddster 17h ago

Read Code by Charles Petzold, it's a great introduction to building an electronic computer.

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u/Vbrawl_ 3h ago

What I would do in this situation is, get a simple problem and try to make a hardware solution, for example, try to make a small multiplexer

Maybe some small clock, or stuff like that.

There is SimulIDE which let's you simulate the circuit and kind of help you understand better, it also has a simulated oscilloscope so you can play with it and understand better, break and try to fix stuff and I'm sure you'll understand stuff with some time