I'm sorry, that I introduce myself this late, but I have overlooked this thread.
So here I am now, a German student (Yr11), who started with electronics about 3 years ago. With a 40 year old kit from my father (who gave up about 38 years ago
![Wink ;)](https://www.eevblog.com/forum/Smileys/default/wink.gif)
). Before that I was encouraged by a friend to start progamming, but after 2/3 years, it became boring, because you are always sitting in front of a PC. So (after I had a bit of a play around with the kit) I tried a mix of both programming and electronics (Arduino) and a year later with the Stm32f4 dev board (which I killed last year, because I forgot protection diodes for a relais
![Banging Head |O](https://www.eevblog.com/forum/Smileys/default/bangheadonwall.gif)
). But when I started with the stm, I found it very hard (and it was similar when I tried AVR's), because the Arduino is very, very simplified and some basic things (timer, interrupts) are almost never used. While I was doing that, I learned more and more about electronics, until I decided to drop the µC's for a year or two to learn the basics of electronics. I do that with the Art of electronics (currently Chapter 2) and with a lot of YouTube videos (dave, TheSignalPathBlog, Mikeselectricstuff, w2aew (that name...hard to remember correctly), etc.) and with the AmpHour.
About one and a half years ago I bought my first scope (an old Philips, very good one) on ebay, but it failed and I had to send it back. The PM3065, I use now, is also from ebay, and I think it is a really good unit. I 'needed' a scope, to test some basic electronic things (filter, amplifier...).
I also have a UT-61C DMM, which has (in Germany) two(!) HRC fuses and has a TÜV certificate, which is an independent safety test here in Germany. It seems to have a much better input protection, as the one Dave did a teardown of, quite a while ago.
The function generator that I got for Christmas is a Rigol DG1022.
For those who want a short summary:- Beginner, started about 3yrs ago
- Arduino & Stm32f4 (a bit)
- good test equiptment knowledge (due to Dave's and milorton's videos)
- very basic knowledge in general electronics (probably even less, but I'm working on it)
- Equiptment: PM3065 scope; Rigol DG1022 FuncGen and a UT61C DMM