Electronics From Scratch is Easy

Workshop: Electronics From Scratch is Easy - a Nottingham Hackspace geek's introduction to electronics and why you can do it!

Many a geek has come to electronics late and thinks that there's just a bit that he/she doesn't get. The subject appears "hard". Why isn't it straightforward like software? Well, the good news is that it IS straightforward and all that is needed is a particular way of looking at things.

This stuff just works but why? An inquisitive mind.

• Electromagnetic phenomena
  • WTF is electricity? I mean, seriously, WTF is electricity? !!!!!
• why the correct words are important
  • a common understanding
  • common misunderstandings

Let's look at the "stuff"

• electrical charge - electrons!
• static electricity - making it, storing it, using it!
• experimental science
• a galvanometer!
• real world analogies - some good, some bad, but most "good enough"!
  • water
  • air
  • stone
  • movement and potential
• current - the "flow" of electrons
• conductivity
• electrical potential and voltage

The physics and mathematics of electromagnetic flux with Lorentz and Maxwell's equations (and why you can immediately forget this!)

• maths: too abstract?
  • Euclidean/Greek viewpoint (a love of mathematics and the equations) vs. Babylonian viewpoint (a love of physics and the concepts)
• Lumped Matter Discipline
  • moving from the realm of maths and physics to the realm of hands-on engineering
  • we use components!
  • Open the black box - take a look - close it forever!
  • as long as we treat these things nicely, everything will work!
  • play, fail, try again!
  • hold on, this is taking too long -- back to the drawing board: we can do it with maths!

 Only after I've attained a visual and gut-level understanding of something, 
 only then is the math useful to me for refining it and adding all the details. 
 However, for me the math alone is not a genuine explanation. 
 Math is just a tool or a recipe, a crutch for those who want nothing 
 except the final numerical result, and it certainly does not confer expert knowledge. 

William Beaty (1995) http://amasci.com/ele-edu.html

Components

• resistance to current flow - resistors
• storage of charge - capacitors
• other forms of impedance and inductance (conversely, reactance!)
• silicon semiconductors - a diode!
• valves
• bipolar transistors
• building neat things
• logic circuits
• bigger and bigger systems
• ICs
• microcontrollers/SOCs/computers
• ferrite core memory
• supercomputers!
• ?????
• world domination!