Ask HN: What are some nice electronics courses that blend theory and practice? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: What are some nice electronics courses that blend theory and practice?

#21

Post by increment_i » Fri, Jan 02, 2015, 11:53 AM UTC

minthd wrote: post #2

A good book: http://www.amazon.com/Make-Electronics-Discovery-Charles-Pla...

I recently purchased this book, along with three different kits that supplied all the tools and components I would need to carry out the experiments for roughly the first two thirds of the book (total cost: around 300 dollars, I know I could have gotten most of this stuff cheaper but such is life). My experience was...mixed. The book did a great job explaining some of the basic principles of electronics but these kind of cookbook tutorials don't seem to work as well as say a book that will teach you everything you need to know about Ruby programming. Eventually you will need to start from hard theoretic principles in order to design your own circuits.

I've come to the realization that you need to pull from a bunch of different sources to get a good enough background in the domain of electrons to start building a project you want to see realized, and that mastery in this domain is probably a journey that can be measured in decades.

Re: Ask HN: What are some nice electronics courses that blend theory and practice?

#22

Post by grandalf » Fri, Jan 02, 2015, 11:57 AM UTC

maho wrote: post #12

Related question, sorry for hijacking this thread: Are there any simulator-games out there? Like: "Here are available components in your components box, now draw a circuit that lights an LED without distroying it, regardless how the 5V input voltage is connected. Max component count: 4" Something in the spirit of Euler-project, but with electronics.

This is what I want too. I imagine I could learn what I want to learn about 20x faster with such a game.

BTW if you want to collaborate together to spec out the game we want maybe someone who already understands the relevant theory can help create such a game.

I want to start with questions like:

- create a voltage divider to do ___

- what value of resistor is needed to bias the transistor properly to start oscillation? (would show the rest of the context)

- choose three components to create a low pass filter

- which transistor would work with this oscillator circuit? (multiple choice)

- why doesn't the LED in this circuit light?

There are thousands of simple questions/exercises that would (I think) pave the way for slightly more complex questions... it would be such a fun game :)

Re: Ask HN: What are some nice electronics courses that blend theory and practice?

#23

Post by rab_oof » Fri, Jan 02, 2015, 12:20 PM UTC

mafuyu wrote: post #3

I highly recommend the Student Guide to the Art of Electronics: http://www.amazon.com/The-Art-Electronics-Student-Manual/dp/... The book covers the basics of both analog and digital, and focuses on developing intuition without getting _too_ bogged down by theory, with accompanying labs/projects. I took the course taught by the author of the book before going to school to study the same subject area, and it helped me…

TAOE is an awesome book. Leave it to physicists to write a proper electronics textbook.

(The op amp circuit diagram is also neat.)

Re: Ask HN: What are some nice electronics courses that blend theory and practice?

#24

Post by drhodes » Fri, Jan 02, 2015, 12:20 PM UTC

smcl wrote: post #13

platz wrote: post #7

https://www.edx.org/course/circuits-electronics-mitx-6-002x

I actually started looking at this the other day on Open Courseware - as I'd set myself a resolution this year to put together a little embedded\SBC system and needed to understand electronics in more detail[0]. It's a little bit intimidating. For example in the first few sentences he started referring to Maxwell's equations in very familiar terms (something like "we all know about Maxwell's equations already...") wh…

I took it, there is no need to fear, maxwell's equations aren't used at all for the problem sets. The only real mention of it I think was when Dr. Argawal derived Kirchoff's circuit laws, and then later when mentioning cross talk.

So. There's no vector calculus, but there are some easy differential equations later on and the T.A's work through some sample problems to bring people up to speed.

I think you'd be hard pressed to find a better intro to electronics, it is excellent.

Re: Ask HN: What are some nice electronics courses that blend theory and practice?

#25

Post by smcl » Fri, Jan 02, 2015, 12:52 PM UTC

drhodes wrote: post #24

smcl wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually started looking at this the other day on Open Courseware - as I'd set myself a resolution this year to put together a little embedded\SBC system and needed to understand electronics in more detail[0]. It's a little bit intimidating. For example in the first few sentences he started referring to Maxwell's equations in very familiar terms (something like "we all know about Maxwell's equations already...") wh…

I took it, there is no need to fear, maxwell's equations aren't used at all for the problem sets. The only real mention of it I think was when Dr. Argawal derived Kirchoff's circuit laws, and then later when mentioning cross talk. So. There's no vector calculus, but there are some easy differential equations later on and the T.A's work through some sample problems to bring people up to speed. I think you'd be hard pr…

Excellent, thanks for confirming. I've got a lot on my plate so presuming this was the famous MIT "drinking from a firehose" I decided to shelve it for the time being. But if it's one of the better ways to get started, I'll give it another try soon.

Edit: I just watched through the intro again and I clearly wasn't paying attention at all when I first watched this, as he says exactly what you described. I will blame my wandering mind on the fact that I was hungry and my girlfriend was cooking up something tasty in the kitchen at the time :)

Re: Ask HN: What are some nice electronics courses that blend theory and practice?

#26

Post by alansammarone » Fri, Jan 02, 2015, 1:17 PM UTC

maho wrote: post #12

Related question, sorry for hijacking this thread: Are there any simulator-games out there? Like: "Here are available components in your components box, now draw a circuit that lights an LED without distroying it, regardless how the 5V input voltage is connected. Max component count: 4" Something in the spirit of Euler-project, but with electronics.

I'd also be happy to collaborate in such a game. I have little knowledge of the theory behind it, so i would play the developer role. Just mail me.

Re: Ask HN: What are some nice electronics courses that blend theory and practice?

#27

Post by rhys91 » Fri, Jan 02, 2015, 1:44 PM UTC

maho wrote: post #12

Related question, sorry for hijacking this thread: Are there any simulator-games out there? Like: "Here are available components in your components box, now draw a circuit that lights an LED without distroying it, regardless how the 5V input voltage is connected. Max component count: 4" Something in the spirit of Euler-project, but with electronics.

Like it? http://123d.circuits.io/

Re: Ask HN: What are some nice electronics courses that blend theory and practice?

#28

Post by carlosgg » Fri, Jan 02, 2015, 1:45 PM UTC

jestinjoy1 wrote: post #9

I am looking forward to two embedded system courses in EdX. Electronic Interfaces: Bridging the Physical and Digital Worlds: https://www.edx.org/course/electronic-interfaces-bridging-ph... Embedded Systems - Shape The World: https://www.edx.org/course/embedded-systems-shape-world-utau... EdX has got some nice electronics courses: https://www.edx.org/course Between, I am from compsci background

I took Embedded Systems last spring and it was great. Students interface to the outside world by programming an ARM microcontroller using C language. The staff and fellow students provide tremendous support on the boards. Here's the syllabus:

http://edx-org-utaustinx.s3.amazonaws.com/UT601x/syllabus.ht...

Here are some projects from last year:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLyg2vmIzGxXGS3bdIkTF4...

Re: Ask HN: What are some nice electronics courses that blend theory and practice?

#29

Post by wyc » Fri, Jan 02, 2015, 1:46 PM UTC

mafuyu wrote: post #3

I highly recommend the Student Guide to the Art of Electronics: http://www.amazon.com/The-Art-Electronics-Student-Manual/dp/... The book covers the basics of both analog and digital, and focuses on developing intuition without getting _too_ bogged down by theory, with accompanying labs/projects. I took the course taught by the author of the book before going to school to study the same subject area, and it helped me…

Agreed! This book imparts a good mix of theory and "real world" advice. It also comes with strange quirky comics to help you remember things:

http://i.imgur.com/1D5K6PT.jpg

Re: Ask HN: What are some nice electronics courses that blend theory and practice?

#30

Post by lovelearning » Fri, Jan 02, 2015, 2:16 PM UTC

Speaking as someone who picked up hobby electronics not too long ago, I recommend Paul Scherz's "Practical Electronics for Inventors" [1]. Good mix of theory as well as practice.

[1]: http://www.amazon.com/Practical-Electronics-Inventors-Paul-S...