>>39841099First, very basic boring steps, are learn how to put together a current PC. Learn why choices are made where, etc. Every time you don't know something, find something to read on it. Doesn't matter if it's Tom's Hardware or wikipedia, just read it.
This teaches you a bit about hardware, but you may already know this part of things. Time to dig into the nitty gritty.
Pick up an arduino (cheap one is fine). Go through the examples on the
arduino.cc website, build the stuff, program it, change it, etc. Again, every time you don't understand something, read something. Make sure you build things that require more than just the bare arduino, things that require stepper controllers, H-Bridges, sensors, ic2/spi bus devices.
Now start getting lower, down to the gate level.
Start making simple circuits out of 7400 series ICs. They're cheap, and readily available online (hit up amazon if you don't want to hunt around), and even in stores, if there's a Fry's or RadioShack around you. You'll be buying ones that have multiple gates of the same type on each chip: ie 6 NAND gates, or 4 AND gates. Build yourself a single bit of memory. Build a byte. Make a half-adder. Make a full one. Make some multiplexers. Attach them to your arduino.
At this point, take a break for a week or so. Come back, and read up on transistors. Learn what you can do with single transistor, with two or three. Build yourself some logic gates, like the ones you were using from the 7400 series ICs, but form discrete components. Learn how to build a simple amplifier with individual transistors.
Then you can say you know it pretty well.
Oh, and the A+? Worthless.
