presently i can build virtually any circuits so long programming isn`t involved but my problem is understanding the concept behind it.

You mean build as in assemble, or as in create?

For me personally, the fascination with electronics started I guess around the age of 8 or something, when I was trying to understand how can those boards my dad showed me do what they do and how to learn what more they could do. Later at around 11 I persuaded my parents to start buying me a magazine about electronics, and slowly I started reading through it and learning from the occasional columns for utter begginers. A few years later I was building some small projects I got from other magazines, then audio amplifiers and other stuff since I started playing with a band. Then off to the university, but mostly to broaden my knowledge into the digital world and computer science, and after that into a job and there I started to design things professionaly, where the advice of the more senior does is a huge help.

Also I have to admit, that since I joined this forum at about 18 years old, I have learned a huge amount of things. A lot of it by studying the mentioned topics on my own, but also just by remembering and sticking to the anecdotal advice and rules of thumb I´ve seen here, at least until I could comprehend them why they are so, or prove them to be wrong or too simplified.

 

hello,
i have built some simple circuits but I googled the circuits diagrams to achieve that.then,i asked myself,do people who posted these circuit diagrams two heads?....i want to be like them,i get stucked understanding these things,that`s why i had to bring it up here.

regards

Hi,

Well dont feel too bad just yet, when presented with new circuits we all have to sit down, roll up our sleeves, and dig into the analysis which may take some deep thought sometimes. We also have circuit simulators today that we did not have when i was starting out. They are sort of invaluable in present times so get one and work with it. They allow you to check your hand written analysis results.

But first and foremost is the analysis. If you can analyze circuits then you can soon design circuits. Without that, you'll never do it without copying someone else's work first to some degree. This brings us to the question of how much analysis have you done so far. As a min i would say Nodal analysis on at least resitive circuits. If you can do that you can get pretty far because you'll just start to extend ideas that come from that.

So how much analysis have you had in the past? That will tell us what steps you should take next to get farther along in your quest.

 

Hi,

Well dont feel too bad just yet, when presented with new circuits we all have to sit down, roll up our sleeves, and dig into the analysis which may take some deep thought sometimes. We also have circuit simulators today that we did not have when i was starting out. They are sort of invaluable in present times so get one and work with it. They allow you to check your hand written analysis results.

But first and foremost is the analysis. If you can analyze circuits then you can soon design circuits. Without that, you'll never do it without copying someone else's work first to some degree. This brings us to the question of how much analysis have you done so far. As a min i would say Nodal analysis on at least resitive circuits. If you can do that you can get pretty far because you'll just start to extend ideas that come from that.

So how much analysis have you had in the past? That will tell us what steps you should take next to get farther along in your quest.

i have done nodal analysis,mesh analysis and ac analysis but all in theory

 

You mean build as in assemble, or as in create?

For me personally, the fascination with electronics started I guess around the age of 8 or something, when I was trying to understand how can those boards my dad showed me do what they do and how to learn what more they could do. Later at around 11 I persuaded my parents to start buying me a magazine about electronics, and slowly I started reading through it and learning from the occasional columns for utter begginers. A few years later I was building some small projects I got from other magazines, then audio amplifiers and other stuff since I started playing with a band. Then off to the university, but mostly to broaden my knowledge into the digital world and computer science, and after that into a job and there I started to design things professionaly, where the advice of the more senior does is a huge help.

Also I have to admit, that since I joined this forum at about 18 years old, I have learned a huge amount of things. A lot of it by studying the mentioned topics on my own, but also just by remembering and sticking to the anecdotal advice and rules of thumb I´ve seen here, at least until I could comprehend them why they are so, or prove them to be wrong or too simplified.

i meant to say ASSEMBLE

 

Exactly!

I got in trouble when also dismantled my sister's toys.

Bob

Or my Mom's sewing machine when I was two and she was simultaneously working on it. How I did not electrocute myself there and then has always been a mystery.

 

i have done nodal analysis,mesh analysis and ac analysis but all in theory

Hi,

What do you mean "all in theory" ?
That's what nodal and related are, theory about circuits. Or did you mean you had not done much analysis yet?
Either way if you know how to do analysis you can use that to understand circuits better.

 

Hi,

What do you mean "all in theory" ?
That's what nodal and related are, theory about circuits. Or did you mean you had not done much analysis yet?
Either way if you know how to do analysis you can use that to understand circuits better.

apologies for the late reply, i meant solving them on paper without practical applications.

to me,learning is best understood by doing...

 

apologies for the late reply, i meant solving them on paper without practical applications.

to me,learning is best understood by doing...

Hi,

Oh ok sure. Have you studied Nodal analysis yet?

 

Hi,

Oh ok sure. Have you studied Nodal analysis yet?

yes i have,i have studied both dc and ac analysis

 

yes i have,i have studied both dc and ac analysis

Hello again,

Well that's great and that means you can gain understanding by analyzing circuits that come under question and that will give you more information than a simulator could, although simulators are good to know too of course.

Now some hands on experience with circuits and components unless you have that already. Then specialize in one area and you will become most proficient in that area.

The insight you gain is partly related to the sheer number of circuits you analyze too. The more you do the more you progress. Try to understand every circuit you come across or at least those in the area of your choosing. Look for the most important features. Read data sheets on the components and see if you can find reference circuits.

Just some ideas here.

 

I enlisted in the US Navy at age 17, and they taught me electronics. After discharge I completed electrical engineering college and then graduate school in engineering. I got interested in circuit design in the navy, and made it the emphasis in my training. My interest, not my education made me one of the top discrete circuit designers in the US. Education helped, but desire pushed me through some tough challenges. During the seventies ICs became popular, so I used them to design a combination of circuits and subsystems. I not go into IC design because I smoked and you couldn't smoke in IC labs. I progressed in subsystem design, but being 98% analog I wasn't good at digital design or computers. I like to write and was a natural speaker, so I went into analog applications and became one of the premier apps engs./writers. So you see you decide where and how you want to go.

 

being an electrical engineer requires training, commitment, and the willingness to wonder about questions such as how a flat screen television manages to be energy efficient, etc...

 

My interest, not my education made me one of the top discrete circuit designers in the US.

excellent advise

 

thanks for this input..............can i achieve that by removing components one at a time? or how best can i go about that?

I'm only a hobbyist in this field,
My pasion in this electronics hobby, is to design from scratch transistor circuits, the way it was done in the early days, when everything was transistorized.

The way I learned originally was to buy those radioshack "160 in 1" electronics kits, building the circuits out of the books supplied with the kit, to make sure everything worked right, then I would look at the schematic and try to figure out how the circuit worked, then through my limited knowledge of circuit analysis, I would take out components that I thought would have least effects in the circuit performance, and kept notes on what effects took place when each component was taken out, my goal was to get the circuit down to its minimal amount of components so as to understand the very basic function of the components left in the circuit. then I would one by one replace the components to see the effects improve, and took notes, then I would substitute component values for the passive components, and recorded the effects, finally I would have the circuit transformed into my version of it with my choice of components, and get similar resulting performance, that way I learned the function of the components in the circuit and how important they were for overall circuit performance.

Later I took 3 correspondance courses just to be better at my hobby, and it has opened up my hobby greatly, now I enjoy designing from scratch transistor circuits both in analog and digital design.

But it was all because of the intense desire to learn circuit design.

I hope this too, helps give some insight on what can be done to help build on your interest for circuit design.

 

The interest in electronics started really early. Maybe 3 YO. I woudn't play with a toy that was supposed to have a cord like a clothes iron, until you put a "cord" on it. My father put a string on it. It worked.

I was about 10 YO and I ran the lawn mower without oil and dad said, "Your fixing it!"
So, we rebuild a lawn mower that threw a rod.

I never ran an engine without oil again.

 

Lots of great posts here. If you don't already have a nice little workbench at home with a breadboard and a bunch of components, get one and start putting circuits together (use a book or internet resources). It's fun, even if you just power up a circuit and get expected measurements at different points, or make an LED start blinking, or whatever. Buy a kit and learn to solder well, again, it's fun and the theory you already have will be a lot of help. Good luck!

 

It's fun, even if you just power up a circuit and get expected measurements at different points, or make an LED start blinking, or whatever. Buy a kit and learn to solder well, again, it's fun and the theory you already have will be a lot of help.

The mechanics are just a bit easier starting from valves. SMT breadboarding with rather large components isn't too bad, but it can land you into the DIP arena. I keep looking for stuff in the DIP arena and it's not there. "Metrification" has eliminated the 0.001" (2.54 mm) pitch.
You almost have to simulate, make a PCB and debug.

SMT repair gets pretty messy. I can the advantages of working under a video camera.

 

hello all,

i woke up today and found myself worrying on so many things.............the one that tops the list i keep asking myself a thousand times;

what do other electrical engineers do behind the scene that i am not aware of or has been taught so far?...i am in third year of Electrical Engineering courses but i still do not know how circuits are drafted from scratch,where the basic electricity theories are applied?,how circuit diagrams are invented and components arranged in such a way that it gives the required function it is designed for......

what do these people do behind the scene that an electrical engineering student do not know?

i need help!

kind regards

Hi There. You should apply yourself to projects. I feel that project based learning is the best way to learn electronics/electrical engineering. I don't feel like electronics is something you can read about. You have to observe, discover, and apply the concepts to be any good at it.

* Find clubs or projects at your school to get in, join teams that are putting together circuits

* Buy books that are "project-based" oriented. The more circuits you put together, the more observations you will make, the more questions you will ask.

* Even if you read things that are simply technical and just lectures, think of ways that you can apply what you learned into actual circuit projects, no matter how small it may be.
Right now I'm reading through All_About_Circuits online textbook, every time I'm done reading a section or lecture, I think of ways that I can apply what I learned to real circuits, or reference circuits I found online.

 

I'm only a hobbyist in this field,
My pasion in this electronics hobby, is to design from scratch transistor circuits, the way it was done in the early days, when everything was transistorized.

The way I learned originally was to buy those radioshack "160 in 1" electronics kits, building the circuits out of the books supplied with the kit, to make sure everything worked right, then I would look at the schematic and try to figure out how the circuit worked, then through my limited knowledge of circuit analysis, I would take out components that I thought would have least effects in the circuit performance, and kept notes on what effects took place when each component was taken out, my goal was to get the circuit down to its minimal amount of components so as to understand the very basic function of the components left in the circuit. then I would one by one replace the components to see the effects improve, and took notes, then I would substitute component values for the passive components, and recorded the effects, finally I would have the circuit transformed into my version of it with my choice of components, and get similar resulting performance, that way I learned the function of the components in the circuit and how important they were for overall circuit performance.

Later I took 3 correspondance courses just to be better at my hobby, and it has opened up my hobby greatly, now I enjoy designing from scratch transistor circuits both in analog and digital design.

But it was all because of the intense desire to learn circuit design.

I hope this too, helps give some insight on what can be done to help build on your interest for circuit design.

Hi there,

I dont know how much circuit analysis you have had either but i know that can take you a very long way. Just knowing or learning simultaneous equations (systems of linear equations) can take you a long long way. And with today's software, you can solve systems like that almost in the blink of an eye by just following a few simple rules. I believe once you do this if you havent already is you will want to go even deeper into this amazing way of understanding circuits.

It's a time in history where we have tools that make circuit analysis much simpler than ever. Both simulators and symbolic math software make it much easier to understand circuit the way they should be understood both with graphical representations and theoretical equations.

We ask ourselves why something works. We seek the answers. For circuits, the answers today come with simulators and mathematics and some reference documents like data sheets. With a simulator you can simulate circuits that would cost a lot of money to buy the parts for and a lot of time to build. You can add and remove components in a heartbeat so you can gain understanding fast without soldering or unsoldering a single component.

Have fun

 

"Metrification" has eliminated the 0.001"pitch.

wow! those traces must be hard to etch! No wonder they are being eliminated.