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Tips for a beginner?

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Immortalacorn

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I'm new to electronics, only a few weeks in, and electronics is already the hardest thing I have ever tried to learn. It seems all the things I read just don't fit together. I'm afraid to go any further in electronics because every time I do, I come across something totally new that just doesn't relate to what I learned in the past. I was reading up on inductor and it completely destroyed my understanding of how current works(I seem to come across this problem with every new component I learn). So I was wondering if any electronics veterans had any tips or book they could recommend to help me better understand the working of electronics.
 
Forrest Mims III has written some VERY good books.

Two that I consider 'required reading' are the Engineers Mini Notebook Volumes 1 and 4.

They will help you out. You will still use them 10 years from now.
FORREST MIMS GETTING STARTED IN ELECTRONICS | BOOKS | ELECTRONICS | SCIENCE FAIR PROJECTS

Also a good eBook is:


There is standard reading, worksheets, videos, interactives, and a forum if you have questions on the books contents.. or anything else.

And Obviously THIS website/forum Electro-Tech-Online ;)
 
For capacitors and inductors, the following will help your understanding, I hope:

caps: The voltage across a capacitor CANNOT change instantaneously.

inductors: The current through an inductor CANNOT change instantaneously.

Ohms LAW: R = V/I is only valid for RESISTIVE CIRCUITS. I will rephrase that to mean that the voltage and the current are in phase. Variations exist such as P=V*I*cos(theta) for SOME AC circuits. It's true for DC because cos(0) = 1.

Most AC voltmeters read the correct AC voltage for sine waves. True RMS voltmeters will have restrictions.
The RMS (Root Mean Square, a calculus term) value of a periodic waveform would be the same DC value that would produce the same power.

Current and electrons flow in different directions. What we normally use is what's called "conventional current". Ben Franklin got the sign wrong and it hasn't been fixed. So, to help us visualize semiconductors, "Hole flow"="conventional current" was invented.

Power disipated is positive. Power generated is negative. But, we never say we have a -10 MW electric plant. In analysys WE know to flip the sign.

Insertion of current meters generally disturb the circuit.

Accuracy and precision of numbers matter. I've had instances where 2E16 and 5e16 were considered the same number. It would be a big difference if it were money.

These are some of the STUPID things that I was never told initially.

AC, DC and 3 phase are very different animals. Similarly I learned in chemistry that there were circular orbits. Later I learned that these are not circular, but rather probablility distributions.

I also took computer courses and I "got the wrong answer", because I wasn't supposed to have the knowledge of the right answer. I argued my way out. You have to answer questions based on what your "supposed" to know.

I can ask: "paper conducts electricity" T/F. I can say T and prove it, but the expected answer is F. Now if I said, "paper is an insulator (T/F)". Again I could pick any answer and argue either way. or "Is air an insulator?". I can argue that too both ways. CONTEXT makes a BIG difference. Basically, there isn't enough information in all of these questions to answer them properly.

I'll leave you with a question: "How do you know what wire to buy"?
 
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Just to make it simple, there are only 6 components in all of electronics. Three are active and the other three are passive.

The passives are resisters, inductors and capacitors. The three active are the trans-conductance amplifier, the trans-resistance amplifier and the negative resistance amplifier. An example of each in order is the vacuum tube, the bipolar transistor and the unijunction transistor. Everything else is just mathamagic and connecting things together in new and interesting ways.
 
I'm new to electronics, only a few weeks in, and electronics is already the hardest thing I have ever tried to learn. It seems all the things I read just don't fit together. I'm afraid to go any further in electronics because every time I do, I come across something totally new that just doesn't relate to what I learned in the past. I was reading up on inductor and it completely destroyed my understanding of how current works(I seem to come across this problem with every new component I learn). So I was wondering if any electronics veterans had any tips or book they could recommend to help me better understand the working of electronics.

My take on this is pretty simple. You don't place the cart before the horse. Be it electronic theory or any other number of fields you start at the beginning. With electronics that generally means gaining an understanding of simple DC circuits that prove out a few laws like Ohm's Law. Then some basis lab exercises are tossed in. Without a complete understanding of the basics there is nothing to build upon. If you look at a higher education cirriculm of electronics they start with DC theory in the beginning then move along. Books? You start with books that parallel how the material is presented in a higher education environment. A really great book about Inductors and Capacitors is as useless as breast on a bull if you haven't read the book about basic DC theory.

For me or anyone else to tell you that a capacitor opposes voltage change and an inductor opposes current change means nothing unless you understand the operation of each and how they do it.

Ask questions as you move along.

Ron
 
A book that I use is Make:Electronics by Charles Platt and is available here: Make: Electronics It is a great buy because it goes over various electronic components, how they work, their symbols in a schematic, and how electricity itself works. It also give you enough knowledge to build circuits from schematics off of the internet before you even get halfway through. You can also purchase 3 different kits along with the book, 2 of which contain parts to work through the entire book and build your own circuits. The third kit is all tools. It has a soldering station, and tools like snips and pliers. With this 4 piece set of the book and kits, you will be well on your way to building circuits from schematics, and even designing your own. The series Make:presents By Collin Cunningham on youtube is also a great help. It goes over 6 or 7 different components and how they work in great detail, and should clear up a few of your questions. He also has videos of basic soldering and building techniques for electronics and enclosures. All in all, Makezine.com is a great source of electronics knowledge, however this forum is the best source of help that I have found. Good Luck
 
One thing I will point out that you'll find and it will confuse you to death is that some prefer to think in terms of conventional current flow while others prefer to think in terms of electron flow. Here I will explain the difference.

The positive side of the supply has a shortage of electrons relative to the number of electrons on the negative side while the negative side has a surplus of electrons relative to the number of electrons on the positive side. Electrons are the only free moving component of an atom as protons and neutrons are locked inside the nucleus of the atom.

A positively charged atom has an electron shortage while a negatively charged atom has a surplus of electrons. A neutrally charged atom (i.e. an atom that is neither positive or negative) has an equal number of charge carriers.

Electrons are negatively charged and again are the only free moving component of an atom.

All this being said, the positive side of the power supply has a shortage of electrons while the negative side has a surplus of electrons. This is what creates the charge differential between two points that is your "potential". It is called a "potential" because when and ONLY when a charge differential exists between two points, there is a potential for current to flow between said two points when a complete circuit is connected between said two points. We measure this charge differential (i.e. potential) as a "voltage".

Now...voltage is always a relative measurement. This means that when measuring a voltage on a wire, you measure it relative to a reference (it is also said "with respect to the reference", which is just a fancy way of saying "relative to a reference"), which is the opposite side of the circuit. This means that if you measure +10V on a wire, that wire is "more positive" or "less negative" than the reference by 10 volts. Conversely, if you measure -10, the wire is "more negative" or "less positive" than the reference by 10 volts. There is no such thing as "absolute voltage". Voltage is always relative to a reference.

When the two points are connected to the circuit, the positive side exerts a pulling force that eminates toward the negative side. This is "conventional current flow". This pulling force which eminates from the positive side toward the negative side pulls the electrons from the negative side toward the positive side. This is "electron flow".

Now...why people speak in terms of conventional current flow in electronics is beyond me. The text book definition of electronics is "the study of ELECTRON flow", not "conventional current flow".

Me personally, I find it easiest to think in terms of electron flow when dealing with electronics due to the way electronic devices operate. Electron flow is always from negative to positive in a DC circuit. I only deal with conventional current flow when working with basic electrical stuff but in electronics it's much less confusing to think in terms of electron flow.
 
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J Wilder hit the nail on the head for me. I too am a noob, but the mentor I have has told me at least a hundred times to go back to the beginning if I get lost. It becomes intuitive after a while, you will start seeing patterns in schematics like caps located in certain places and resistors attatched to certain legs of transistors and Mosfets. Best advice is start at the beginning, stay there till you feel comfortable and then progress only as fast as you feel comfortable. You will have an AH HAH moment at some point and it will all start to fall together and be very understandable after that moment. You just have to stick with it long enough for that moment to happen. Good luck and keep with it, it will happen for you.
Bob
 
Me personally, I find it easiest to think in terms of electron flow when dealing with electronics due to the way electronic devices operate. Electron flow is always from negative to positive in a DC circuit. I only deal with conventional current flow when working with basic electrical stuff but in electronics it's much less confusing to think in terms of electron flow.
Well, it's the opposite for me. I use current flow, partly because it was in the text books I used, but also because it requires less thinking on my part since the forward current flow always follows the direction that the arrows point in the diode and transistor symbols.

Also most circuits have one supply and it is usually positive, so it seems natural to me that the current flow is from the positive power supply voltage, through the various devices to ground. Somehow following electron flow from ground up through the components to the positive supply seems counter-intuitive to me.

The only time you really need to use electron flow is when examining the internal operation of vacuum tube or semiconductor devices.

But that's just my preference. Whichever you use is rather arbitrary and up to you.
 
The only time you really need to use electron flow is when examining the internal operation of vacuum tube or semiconductor devices.

Exactly why I look at it that way. I'm primarily a valve amplifier builder but am just now learning digital devices and microcontrollers all for the purpose of implementing digital and MIDI control to my amplifiers. All of the audio circuitry will be 100% analog, but the means by which the signal path is switched/controlled will be digital. Basically integrating modern technology with vintage technology.

However, the point of my post was to state that both are valid and are not meant to confuse. It's just a matter of knowing when to think in which terms is key.
 
When the two points are connected to the circuit, the positive side exerts a pulling force that eminates toward the negative side. This is "conventional current flow". This pulling force which eminates from the positive side toward the negative side pulls the electrons from the negative side toward the positive side. This is "electron flow".
"Conventional current flow" assumes the carriers are positive. Thus the positive side exerts a pushing (not pulling) force that cause these (virtual) positive carriers to go from the positive to the negative terminal.

The actual electron flow is in the opposite direction, of course, but from an external circuit point-of-view and determining how the circuit operates, there is no difference.
 
"Conventional current flow" assumes the carriers are positive. Thus the positive side exerts a pushing (not pulling) force that cause these (virtual) positive carriers to go from the positive to the negative terminal.

The actual electron flow is in the opposite direction, of course, but from an external circuit point-of-view and determining how the circuit operates, there is no difference.


Technically speaking, yeh, this is true,
But I think he was trying to help the newcomer, who is very new to all this, with less technical terms, and more of a analogical approach, to convey the meaning of electron current flow.
 
great post.
So I was wondering if any electronics veterans had any tips or book they could recommend to help me better understand the working of electronics.

the same there.
 
What is your background after all?

Can you do some maths? If so, go for Malvino's.
 
there are several books on electronics by V.K. MEHTA, R.S.SEDHA, BOYLSTEAD and NASHLESKY, MILLMAN HALKIAS, J.B.GUPTA etc which have indepth knowledge on electronics... you can refer them also...
 
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