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Electronics Explained: Fundamentals for engineers, technicians and makers (2018)

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Re: Electronics Explained: Fundamentals for engineers, technicians and makers (2018)

#51

Post by auxym »

donthellbanme wrote: post #38

This is advice for hobbyists. Guys who want to tinker, wire their home, and fix their car, and maybe fix that broken radio. I have found most people are rusty when it comes to Electronics, and electricity. The Art of Electronics, and it's lab, is very long. I was shocked when I heard Harvard Students completed it in 1 semester. It's recommended here a lot though. There's nothing wrong with it other than being written…

The problem with 3-way switches is that there's (at least) 8 ways they can be wired:

https://www.easy-do-it-yourself-home-improvements.com/3-way-...

And more generally, the difficult part about building electricity is code. Codebooks are absolutely huge, difficult to read, and can vary by locality (not just by country or state but actually at the municipal level). I just don't have it in me to try and memorize a huge code book just so I can do a bit of wiring around the house (already need to memorize a bunch of standards in my day job as a mechanical engineer).

Re: Electronics Explained: Fundamentals for engineers, technicians and makers (2018)

#53

Post by janekm »

TheOtherHobbes wrote: post #45
blippage wrote: post #25

I find the problem with a lot of electronics books is that they are either too deep, or too shallow. Gerry Sussman (yes, that Sussman) explained that the way electronics is taught, and the way engineers think about problems are two separate things. So teaching material tends to fall into two camps: 1) detailed explanations that cover great depth, but are difficult to know how to apply to practical circuits, or 2) cir…

They're not really two separate things because of the way they're taught. They're separate things because they're actually separate. A fully qualified EE understands circuits at a deep mathematical level. Analog circuit design is basically a variant of the same theory used to model masses/springs and various other equivalent systems. (Of which there are many.) It's based on diff eqs with various simplifications (spec…

Great explanation of the differences! I would argue though that even for noise, distortion, and RF/shielding problems you can get quite far with "cookbook" level knowledge (though I'll grant that it's quite likely to get let astray by leaky abstractions with these, like the many answers to "how/whether you should connect the shield of a USB plug/socket to PCB and/or chassis ground").

Re: Electronics Explained: Fundamentals for engineers, technicians and makers (2018)

#54

Post by gadders »

lysp wrote: post #14

One book I saw mentioned a lot in relation to learning electronics is this one: https://artofelectronics.net/ Reviews state it's basically an encyclopedia of knowledge.

That was the bible when I did electronics courses as part of my degree in the early 90's. I hope it's still being updated :-)

Re: Electronics Explained: Fundamentals for engineers, technicians and makers (2018)

#55

Post by xyzzy21 »

TheOtherHobbes wrote: post #45
blippage wrote: post #25

I find the problem with a lot of electronics books is that they are either too deep, or too shallow. Gerry Sussman (yes, that Sussman) explained that the way electronics is taught, and the way engineers think about problems are two separate things. So teaching material tends to fall into two camps: 1) detailed explanations that cover great depth, but are difficult to know how to apply to practical circuits, or 2) cir…

They're not really two separate things because of the way they're taught. They're separate things because they're actually separate. A fully qualified EE understands circuits at a deep mathematical level. Analog circuit design is basically a variant of the same theory used to model masses/springs and various other equivalent systems. (Of which there are many.) It's based on diff eqs with various simplifications (spec…

When I was young I loved magazines like Popular Electronics.

After getting my EE, I looked back at those magazines in my collection I immediately thought "That's so wrong!" or "That omits so/too much" or "I can't believe I thought this was electronics" or "Baby project! How lame!".

:-)

So it's very much about what can be absorbed and tailoring to the audience. You can't start with the math load that an EE student gets with a broad, general audience.

You see the opposite of this with academic papers - either the level of assumed audience is stratospheric OR it's clearly wording to keep the riff-raff out of the field. Mostly the former but sometimes the latter. You often also see this in STEM textbooks - the audience isn't even freshmen oriented!

Re: Electronics Explained: Fundamentals for engineers, technicians and makers (2018)

#56

Post by squarefoot »

gerdesj wrote: post #47
tinco wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At university one of the mandatory courses was Computer Organisation, which teaches how computers are built electronically. Two weeks of that course covered DRAM timings. Recently (almost 15 years later) I was trying to design a simple automation system for my home's ventilation system, and for it I needed to pull my logic signal up to 10v using a FET. I had absolutely no idea how to do that. It's absolutely crazy th…

https://falstad.com/circuit/ - there goes my afternoon ...

Also, Micro-Cap is now free; not Open Source, still better than nothing. Windows only (although I seem to recall a Micro-Cap software running under the Mac Classic in the early 90s), but it works perfectly under Linux+WINE.

http://www.spectrum-soft.com/index.shtm

Re: Electronics Explained: Fundamentals for engineers, technicians and makers (2018)

#57

Post by markus_zhang »

auxym wrote: post #50
hnthrowaway0315 wrote: post #33

I'm wondering if there is a minimum book of analog electronics for embedded electronics (and especially the hacking of). I dabbed into a Tiva launchpad from last Dec to Feb and went through a beginner textbook, but put the project to suspend as I failed to bit bang a few peripherals so got discouraged. Nevertheless I noticed that I only need a minimum amount of analog electronics, basically: 1. Resistors (of course,…

Heard some good from this book: https://www.mheducation.ca/practical-electronics-for-invento... Also a free one: https://www.analog.com/en/education/education-library/linear...

Thanks! Still looks a bit generic than I hope for. What I have in mind is sort of best practice cookbooks for embedded developers but focused on the analog part.

It should provide formulas if needed but avoid any mathematical explanation if possible. It should also be based on scenarios instead of components, in a "You should use an X component parallel/serialized between point a and b for the purpose of Y".

For example: "You probably want to protect the Vcc pin by connecting a capacitor between A and B from spikes, because XYZ will bring these spikes".

It should also supply a real life picture because I found it difficult to translate circuits on books to real life breadboards. On textbooks they usually use ideal components such as power sources with one terminal but it's kinda hard to wrap them around my head sometimes.

I understand it's probably too much to ask and one should build such knowledge slowly. But sometimes I dream a bit :D

Re: Electronics Explained: Fundamentals for engineers, technicians and makers (2018)

#58

Post by thebeardisred »

lysp wrote: post #14

One book I saw mentioned a lot in relation to learning electronics is this one: https://artofelectronics.net/ Reviews state it's basically an encyclopedia of knowledge.

For years I've been hoping for some open courseware which uses this and it's companion book "Learning the Art of Electronics". Alas I keep waiting.

Re: Electronics Explained: Fundamentals for engineers, technicians and makers (2018)

#59

Post by Workaccount2 »

TheOtherHobbes wrote: post #45
blippage wrote: post #25

I find the problem with a lot of electronics books is that they are either too deep, or too shallow. Gerry Sussman (yes, that Sussman) explained that the way electronics is taught, and the way engineers think about problems are two separate things. So teaching material tends to fall into two camps: 1) detailed explanations that cover great depth, but are difficult to know how to apply to practical circuits, or 2) cir…

They're not really two separate things because of the way they're taught. They're separate things because they're actually separate. A fully qualified EE understands circuits at a deep mathematical level. Analog circuit design is basically a variant of the same theory used to model masses/springs and various other equivalent systems. (Of which there are many.) It's based on diff eqs with various simplifications (spec…

This cookbook analogy is pretty true for all fields.

There are tons of software engineers who have never taken a higher math course, the "cookbook" and the intuition is enough to get the job done efficiently enough.

Re: Electronics Explained: Fundamentals for engineers, technicians and makers (2018)

#60

Post by Gracana »

lbriner wrote: post #21
lysp wrote: post #14

One book I saw mentioned a lot in relation to learning electronics is this one: https://artofelectronics.net/ Reviews state it's basically an encyclopedia of knowledge.

Yeah, it's a pretty hardcore book and would only work for most people after High School unless they are super committed. It is good in that it develops why using transistors as switches doesn't work in many scenarios but then basically says, "Op Amps" are better for everything and the rest of the circuits use those instead so you could argue that many people don't need to learn about the underpinning theory. It also…

I felt it worked as a reference. Yeah, it might explain something using concepts you don't understand, but you can backtrack as far as necessary, then start working your way back to where you started.
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