Electronics= I'm confused

[Wiseshockwave16]

I'm new to electronics and want to become an electrical engineer. I have some knowledge about electronics from research via books but the concepts are abstract you me. This past xmas i received an electronics learning lab, radio shack, and while i do understand circuit diagrams i find the circuits in this lab boring Can anyone point me into a more exciting direction in my electronic venture?

 

[Reloadron]

Electronics like many fields is supposed to be confusing. It's a rule.

On a more serious note, yes, building the same circuits from a kit or learning lab can get boring. Building anything over and over again is boring. However, the trick with a learning lab is getting to understand what is really going on within the circuits and why things behave the way they do. Then a whole new understanding of the field begins to happen. So you build a circuit out of the book, yeah, boring. However, things get interesting when you begin to apply imagination. How many applications could the circuit be applied to in the real world? How could the circuit merge with other circuits to actually do something (beyond blink a LED). Until you fully understand the fundamentals all else is moot. So get creative. Eventually the concepts won't be abstract.

Just My Take
Ron

 

[Hippogriff]

Can anyone point me into a more exciting direction in my electronic venture?

I don't mean to be flippant, but I'd focus on LEDs and actually working to create something... a piece of art or a clock or something with sensors that indicates something, or using switches and potentiometers for user input that controls some form of output. Google is your friend here and there's loads of extremely interesting projects out there from mood lighting, to LED output controlled by various sensors to RGB cubes, to the funky PoV propellor things. Personally, I'd also get into microcontrollers as quickly as possible as that's where I found the most 'fun' to come from (that's just me, though, and it might not fit exactly with your desire to be an electrical engineer, I dunno).

 

[DerStrom8]

That's what's so great about that learning lab--you aren't limited to the experiments included in the kit. It has a solderless breadboard and many different components built in. You can build just about any other circuits on it, not just the ones they include. What kind of stuff do you like to make?

 

[nsaspook]

I'm new to electronics and want to become an electrical engineer. I have some knowledge about electronics from research via books but the concepts are abstract you me. This past xmas i received an electronics learning lab, radio shack, and while i do understand circuit diagrams i find the circuits in this lab boring Can anyone point me into a more exciting direction in my electronic venture?

The truth is there are no short-cuts, a vast amount of what you have to learn will be boring until your mind starts to connect the patterns of how it all works. I been working in the field for 35+ years and learn new things everyday.

A fundamental understanding of the basis for electromagnetic energy is necessary because many basic electronics books teach the limited electron flow theory of electricity instead of electrical energy transfer. Electricity/charge (as commonly used today to describe electron flow) is the physical effect of electrical energy. Once you see how electrons guide electrical energy photons by altering it's flow and form in circuits the concept of electronics will be a lot clearer.

**broken link removed**

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

A fundamental understanding of the basis for electromagnetic energy is necessary because many basic electronics books teach the limited (wrong) electron flow theory of electrical energy transfer. Once you see how electrons guide electrical energy photons by altering it's flow and form in circuits the concept of electronics will be a lot clearer.

I would suggest the exact opposite, there's no need to know that, and it only confuses everyone.

How does knowing which way electrons are travelling (bearing in mind it's only a currently accepted theory anyway) help you understand electronics?.

 

[nsaspook]

I would suggest the exact opposite, there's no need to know that, and it only confuses everyone.

How does knowing which way electrons are travelling (bearing in mind it's only a currently accepted theory anyway) help you understand electronics?.

(You slightly misread my point, it's not about electron flow direction but about electron flow in any direction.)
It helps because it's
1: Correct, according to current physics theory/Maxwell's equations of energy transfer and early confusion becomes later enlightenment.
2: Shows the flow of energy (force) instead of current (charge). With a simple battery and lamp circuit the electron flow theory shows a loop with charge going back to the battery but with the correct EM energy theory it shows energy flowing from both ends of the battery into the lamp causing it to glow.
3: Electronics is the science of controlling energy with matter. To understand each parts role in circuits you should start at the earliest point not when you start a upper-level EM theory course and the instructor tell you to forget everything you learned about circuit theory for the last few years.
4: The concept is just as easy to visualize without heavy math but usually it's taught when advanced math is necessary to understand the scope of problems.

https://www.electro-tech-online.com...mical_Theory_of_the_Electromagnetic_Field.pdf

 

[Hippogriff]

Not a terribly exciting approach, though, which we should remember was what the OP's original request was focused on.

 

[BrownOut]

I started with an RS learning lab, and I never found it boring. After building each circuit, I made modifications and observed the effects. Maybe you're not cut out for electronics if it's that boring for you.

 

[Reloadron]

<humor>

Don't even think about getting into that current flow nonsense. The OP is apparently in Delaware US and north of the equator. Everyone knows that north of the equator current flows in one direction and south of the equator it flows the opposite direction.

</humor>

Ron

 

[lebevti]

www.heathkit.com

they make learning kits as well, better than the radio shack ones

 

[nsaspook]

<humor>

Don't even think about getting into that current flow nonsense. The OP is apparently in Delaware US and north of the equator. Everyone knows that north of the equator current flows in one direction and south of the equator it flows the opposite direction.

</humor>

Ron

That why energy flow is better, it only goes one way.
Cleaning negative energy from your Aura is messy.

 

[Wiseshockwave16]

i understand- okay i'll just suck it up and go through the concepts then

 

[Wiseshockwave16]

THANKS for the help

 

[crutschow]

One last thought: Curiosity, which leads to experimentation is an important characteristic of an engineer. You should have a natural interest in modifying the circuits you have built to see the results, and building new circuits to perform a specific task.

If you don't have that type of curiosity, then electrical engineering may be a difficult field for you.

 

[Wiseshockwave16]

One last thought: Curiosity, which leads to experimentation is an important characteristic of an engineer. You should have a natural interest in modifying the circuits you have built to see the results, and building new circuits to perform a specific task.

If you don't have that type of curiosity, then electrical engineering may be a difficult field for you.

Curious about understanding circuitry and implying what i know to create things = yes Curious about lighting the same led and ringing a buzz 100 times over = no

 

[crutschow]

Curious about understanding circuitry and implying what i know to create things = yes Curious about lighting the same led and ringing a buzz 100 times over = no

That's good.

Are you also curious about how that LED works (voltage, current, impedance characteristics)? Do you understand how to properly power one in a circuit?

 

[Wiseshockwave16]

yeah i understand - you need to place it a specific way because its a diode - hook a resistor to limit the current and ground to complete it.

 

[4pyros]

LEDs have a forward voltage and can be used for voltage regulashoin. LEDs can also be used as sensors. Many electric parts have unconventional uses and that's where the fun starts. You should look into BEAM robotics.

 

[Adjuster]

If you wish to be creative, bear in mind that the more you learn the basics, the more you creative you will be able to be without help from other people. In the mean time, you ought to be able to come up with variations on the experiments in the kit. and perhaps build simple circuits found on the internet.

You say that lighting an LED is boring. Do you know how to light a 3.5V LED from a 1.5V battery? Try looking up "Joule Thief" (the spelling is correct.). Can you make a similar but very dim night light that will run for many weeks on a single AA? What about a light that comes on only after dark ? Can you make weird noises with a few transistors, or maybe a couple of 555s? What about a simple AM radio - but hurry up, the transmitters are closing down - your generation may be the last ones able to do that.