Hi all! Im just getting started with electronics and I always seem to confuse myself with whats what and can't seem to make out what branches exist/ what they mean. A Youtube vid will help me a load.
Thanks

 

Hi all! Im just getting started with electronics and I always seem to confuse myself with whats what and can't seem to make out what branches exist/ what they mean. A Youtube vid will help me a load.
Thanks

Welcome to AAC!

In order to give us a sense of your confusion, can you tell us what you think are some branches of electronics?

 

Welcome to AAC!

In order to give us a sense of your confusion, can you tell us what you think are some branches of electronics?

Well,to start, theres analog electronics, there's digital, embedded systems, microelectronics, power electronics, and control systems. These are the ones I know that are relevant to me

 

Well,to start, theres analog electronics, there's digital, embedded systems, microelectronics, power electronics, and control systems. These are the ones I know that are relevant to me

Add electrochemistry to that list and that covers most of the basics.

If you are studying electronics in your spare time, I'd caution against trying fit things into neatly defined categories. The trouble with doing that is complex circuits / systems are rarely so easy to define and they have bits and pieces of each.

I suggest starting with a bottom up approach. This website has an excellent textbook covering a wide range of topics. Start with the first lesson and do the exercises before moving onto the next section.

If you don't do the exercises, you won't be able to solve more complex problems because one concept builds on previous concepts. Eventually you get to a point where solving a large circuit is simply a process of splitting the sections into smaller circuits and solving accordingly.

It's like understanding how a car works. Every part must work together doing it's unique job or you won't have a functioning (or safe) car. How easy it to define what makes a car a race car? How fast it goes? How it looks? Those details are nice to know, but they are not helpful for understanding what the car actually is as a physical machine. In order to understand the car as a machine and not just a race car, you need to look at every part and understand how it contributes to the whole.

https://www.allaboutcircuits.com/textbook/

 

Add electrochemistry to that list and that covers most of the basics.

If you are studying electronics in your spare time, I'd caution against trying fit things into neatly defined categories. The trouble with doing that is complex circuits / systems are rarely so easy to define and they have bits and pieces of each.

I suggest starting with a bottom up approach. This website has an excellent textbook covering a wide range of topics. Start with the first lesson and do the exercises before moving onto the next section.

If you don't do the exercises, you won't be able to solve more complex problems because one concept builds on previous concepts. Eventually you get to a point where solving a large circuit is simply a process of splitting the sections into smaller circuits and solving accordingly.

It's like understanding how a car works. Every part must work together doing it's unique job or you won't have a functioning (or safe) car. How easy it to define what makes a car a race car? How fast it goes? How it looks? Those details are nice to know, but they are not helpful for understanding what the car actually is as a physical machine. In order to understand the car as a machine and not just a race car, you need to look at every part and understand how it contributes to the whole.

https://www.allaboutcircuits.com/textbook/

Wow! That really helps me a lot. I always thought it was better to y'know, read each one of the branches in detail so I can put them together, like a puzzle. But your approach does make a lot of sense. Thanks a lot ! You're the best.

 

Yeah dont try too much to categorize things in groups because there is a lot of overlapping. Maybe you think of these as school subject. I had a subject - optoelectronics, where does that fit into the gorups.
When you think about it, digital electronics is a first approximation of analog

 

It's all analogue. And that includes measurement (reading sensors and the like), audio, video and up into radio.
Make an analogue circuit where the outputs are always either at the positive supply or the negative supply, never in between, and you have a logic gate. Digital is a combination of logic gates. Microprocessors and memory consist of lots of logic gates. Microcontrollers are microprocessors with memory and some more digital stuff.

Think about designing a smart phone. You'll need to know radio to get it to communicate. Analogue sensors to work the touch screen and the tilt sensors, audio to deal with the microphone and speaker, video to deal with the camera, and microcontrollers to make it all work.
And don't think that Sir Jonathan Ive designed it all himself. Apple would have had RF engineers, analogue engineers, audio engineers and software engineers all working together, and probably disagreeing a lot.

 

The distinction between analog and digital electronics is the distinction between continuous and discrete time domain systems. Even things like boolean logic can be important to analog systems (analog computers).

The reasons for the various delineated specialties is not a matter of precision—rather context. There will always be overlapping areas of concern, and the nature of each is no more important than the practice and history.

Starting with the basics will allow you to understand the underlying unity and arbitrary delineation of the categories far batter than treating each as an otherwise meaningful division and attempting to glue them together into a sensible whole.

 

Indeed, in the real world it is all analog, with different contexts. And in every case all of the basic rules apply, although the numbers will be different. Ohms Law always applies, although some times it gets rather complicated. That is why the first course is DC Circuit Theory, That never goes away, it is in most of the math, along with a whole lot more.
And the good news is that it all builds on the basic relationships between voltage and current and resistance, so you are not leaving the use of what you learn at the start behind.

 

I am a hobbyist. I do tiny, silly projects which any of the pros here could complete in an hour with better quality than I ever achieve.

But, pretty much every project I do includes power electronics, analog, digital and embedded system programming, and sometimes RF and communications. I am nowhere near expert in any of these other than programming, but I need to know something about all of these areas.

You need to get a good broad base before even thinking about specialization.

 

And then there is research, development, manufacturing, sales, and application... Cover all that you can in school so you will be able to recognize it in the real world. Then, once employed, you will center on what is required of you as per the job description. As a young engineer, don't stay in the job for more than 3 years before finding another job in an area that interests you and gain new experience plus a nice raise and possible signing bonus. After doing that several times you will find your niche and become an expert in it.

 

Aside from that good advice, never stop learning. As a designer engineer creating a variety of industrial and research test machines, I also needed to understand hydraulics, pneumatic systems, transducers, and have a basic understanding of kinematics, because a lot of things move as part of their function. That lead to mechanical design work, and understanding what can be built and what is much harder to build. In addition, learn to be a good writer and communicator, because even a great idea that can not be communicated will not provide much benefit. And communication during the design process is vital.

 

I view the basic learning progression as DC circuits, AC circuits, solid-state electronics, electronic components, and basic analog circuits.
From there you branch out into the many specialties.

Logic, programming, and computer design is rather a subset that doesn't necessarily require a broad knowledge of electronics but it's definitely helpful.
There are likely many computer hackers out there who don't know an electron from a hole (and don't need to).

 

Sorry for the late reply.
Thanks a load! someone mentioned something along the lines of me treating this as a school subject, which is true since I'm pursuing a degree in electronics right now where I am studying all these branches individually and nothing really relates together (as of now), so that's made me confused. Just to give context, topics like MOSFET, Digital Logic, and 3-phase transformers? are being taught to me, so I was really confused how these branch out and relate together. Thanks everyone!!

 

I am studying all these branches individually and nothing really relates together

All these branches are about methods of and devices for electrons flow control.

 

Sorry for the late reply.
Thanks a load! someone mentioned something along the lines of me treating this as a school subject, which is true since I'm pursuing a degree in electronics right now where I am studying all these branches individually and nothing really relates together (as of now), so that's made me confused. Just to give context, topics like MOSFET, Digital Logic, and 3-phase transformers? are being taught to me, so I was really confused how these branch out and relate together. Thanks everyone!!

It will all make sense when you enter the industry. Because tomorrow, if you have to design a SMPS, you cannot say "I am good only at THIS part, or THAT part of the circuit".
If you want to focus on subjects that would be your career choice, those branches would be: Circuit Design, PCB Design, Embedded Programming, Industrial Automation...

And it doenst mean you cannot shift from one to another. 5 years ago I was in hand made tube amps manufacturing, now I work as Automation Engineer programing PLCs.. tomorrow might be something else.. thats what makes a good engineer, to adjust to any task engineering-related.

 

Sorry for the late reply.
Thanks a load! someone mentioned something along the lines of me treating this as a school subject, which is true since I'm pursuing a degree in electronics right now where I am studying all these branches individually and nothing really relates together (as of now), so that's made me confused. Just to give context, topics like MOSFET, Digital Logic, and 3-phase transformers? are being taught to me, so I was really confused how these branch out and relate together. Thanks everyone!!

MOSFET + digital logic + 3-phase transformer (+ a bit of analogue) = 3-phase inverter

 

There are different areas of specialization within the field of "electronics", just like in the field of medicine. Consider that there are brain surgeons and foot specialists, both trained in widely different areas, but both able to provide important services.
Of course the whole huge field of software, while sometimes embedded with electronics, is farther away than the other areas.
Three-phase power is an area that not all electronics folks ever need to visit, although understanding it a bit is still important. And embedded systems is an area full of it's own problems. But both require a good grasp of the fundamental concepts about circuits, current, and power.