Hi, I have recently got into electronics and have been playing around with various projects with picaxe controllers. To add things like motion sensing etc I have been using the ready built boards and just plugging them in. I have been having a look at different basic projects to get me started like the old plant moisture sensor etc.
I have a basic understanding of how things like resistors, transistors etc work, but when it comes to designing circuits im not sure where to put things or why they go there, I have tried using some of the online circuit creators but they don't seem to tell you if your doing something wrong, e.g they will happily let you connect 12v dc to a 3v led and it continues to work, it doesn't say anything like "your led would be cooked".
My biggest thing is trying to work out why something is where it is, for example I recently learned why you put the resistor on the leg of a transistor....to pull it low, so that it is not in a floating state, but when doing some of the little projects you read the list of parts and think....why does that go there, what is its purpose in the circuit ?.
So.......if anyone has any recommendations of any books, websites, videos, dvd's etc that can enlighten me that would be really helpful .
I have a basic understanding of how things like resistors, transistors etc work, but when it comes to designing circuits im not sure where to put things or why they go there, I have tried using some of the online circuit creators but they don't seem to tell you if your doing something wrong, e.g they will happily let you connect 12v dc to a 3v led and it continues to work, it doesn't say anything like "your led would be cooked".
My biggest thing is trying to work out why something is where it is, for example I recently learned why you put the resistor on the leg of a transistor....to pull it low, so that it is not in a floating state, but when doing some of the little projects you read the list of parts and think....why does that go there, what is its purpose in the circuit ?.
So.......if anyone has any recommendations of any books, websites, videos, dvd's etc that can enlighten me that would be really helpful .