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

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

#41

Post by davegoliath »

alansammarone wrote: post #26
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.

How do I mail you? I just graduated with an Electrical Engineering degree. I am looking to start a career with a young company - which gives me flexibility to work on my own projects as I job search. I have kept most of my course work from the past 4 years and would be happy to help with both development, theory, and example class material. You can reach me at davep dot goliath @ gmail dot com

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

#42

Post by davegoliath »

grandalf wrote: post #22
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 oscillati…

I commented below, and I would be happy to collaborate and can provide the theory as well as development. I'd love to get in contact, you can reach me at davep dot goliath @ gmail dot com

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

#43

Post by gshrikant »

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…

Curiously, you linked the Student Manual for TAOE. I was under the impression that the Manual was more of a supplement to the main text than a standalone book. I've been looking to buy a hobbyist-friendly yet comprehensive electronics book for quite a while now. Do you recommend I get the Manual alone or do I need the TAOE book (which appears to be a bit expensive to me at the moment)?

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

#44

Post by gshrikant »

If you are willing to consider eBooks, I find the ones at All About Circuits [1] quite accessible. They are yet to be completed in their entirety but the parts which exist are well-written and do well to cover both the theory and practical considerations (there is a laboratory book supplement available too IIRC). Plus, there is a nice forum to turn to for helpful discussions.

For a free resource, it is right up there with TSEGDSP [2].

[1] http://www.allaboutcircuits.com/

[2] http://www.dspguide.com/pdfbook.htm

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

#45

Post by mafuyu »

gshrikant wrote: post #43
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…

Curiously, you linked the Student Manual for TAOE. I was under the impression that the Manual was more of a supplement to the main text than a standalone book. I've been looking to buy a hobbyist-friendly yet comprehensive electronics book for quite a while now. Do you recommend I get the Manual alone or do I need the TAOE book (which appears to be a bit expensive to me at the moment)?

I think the Student Manual more or less stands as its own text. Obviously, there are some complements to TAOE, but I don't think it's necessary for the manual. TAOE is more like a cookbook than a textbook; it makes for a great reference but I wouldn't recommend trying to learn directly from it.

If you're curious, I have some scans that you can use to preview the book.

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

#46

Post by dmritard96 »

http://mightyohm.com/blog/2008/12/the-greatest-electronics-b...

In elementary/middle and even high school I absolutely loved this book. I even had a backup copy. It might be a bit more basic than you need if you studied it in college though.

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

#47

Post by FrozenCow »

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 was looking for the same thing and found this: http://www.falstad.com/circuit/

It shows blocks traveling across wires/circuits. You can create your own circuits and see what happens. It's not just for logic, but you can see how analog circuits operate as well. The speed of the blocks represents the current flowing and the color of the wires represents the voltage.

I wish more stuff like this was available for circuitry. It gives a nice basic intuition how things work and shows why I need to place a resistor in front of a LED.

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

#48

Post by thro1237 »

thro1237 wrote: post #4

A related question is -- Are there good simulators (preferably over the web) that one can use?

I evaluated few simulators today. Since this is an on-off hobby, I wanted to avoid anything that requires a subscription. I found an app called Everycircuit. The paid version is $10, but there is a limited time free trial as well. Seems very user friendly and nice. LTSpice looked pretty neat and perhaps is very comprehensive, but didn't look very polished and has a learning curve. All these apps use spice behind the scenes. In Linux found an application called ngspice. It is commandline, but pretty nifty.

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

#50

Post by MichaelCrawford »

Enroll in undergraduate physics at a community college, or as an unmatriculated student at a university. The electricity and magnetism theory as taught to physicists is in many ways better than that taught to engineers.

Alternatively - and less expensive - read The Feynman Lectures on Physics by Feynman, Leighton and Sands, followed by the first part of Jackson's Electrodynamics.

University of California Santa Cruz' Physics Department has two good courses that teach how to design and build the electronics for use as experimental apparatus. The first quarter is analog, the second digital. After I took both courses, I did well at a summer job where I repaired electronic gear for the department.

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