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Concise Electronics for Geeks (2010)
- leggomylibro 9y agoNice, this looks really cool! Although...it is going onto a 'read this soon' list, and I'm probably not alone in that. With these sorts of concise primer articles, have you considered providing a .pdf or .tex of the page?
- ZenoArrow 9y ago> "providing a .pdf or .tex of the page" I'm not the author, but in the case of .pdf, couldn't you just use a 'Print to PDF' solution? On Windows I've used PrimoPDF before, don't know what OS you use but guessing all the major platforms have something similar.
- leggomylibro 9y agoYeah, good point, I guess there are already tons of existing solutions for that which wouldn't eat up the author's bandwidth; the modern web really has spoiled us with so many 1-click conveniences, huh?
- Bromskloss 9y agoPoor man's LaTeX in Firefox: about:reader?url=http://lcamtuf.coredump.cx/electronics/ http://lcamtuf.coredump.cx/electronics/ :-)
- lovelearning 9y agoBoth Chrome and Firefox provide built-in print to PDF feature on Linux and Windows (possibly other OSes too, but I'm not sure). Just click Print and select "save as PDF" or "print to file". Chrome even allows removing the URLs and other metadata from headers and footers.
- ghostDancer 9y agoI like to convert this kind of things to en epub to read later in an ebook, I use https://dotepub.com/?lang=en https://dotepub.com/?lang=en
- vvanders 9y agoJust skimmed but looks pretty comprehensive. Another great reference is the Art of Electronics. Tons a practical advice for selecting components and building circuits that is still relatively relevant even today.
- newman8r 9y agoI can second that. I've been using that book since the 90s and it has served me well.
- ZenoArrow 9y agoPrevious discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9653898 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9653898
- dantle 9y agoGreat review as an embedded SW guy to nourish my EE background. Nicely peppered with practical tricks and techniques that are useful in the field. I enjoyed seeing the low-pass and high-pass filtered wave signatures along with the explanation of what the problem might be (long/close connections and broken traces, respectively).
- cweagans 9y ago20,000 word document titled "Concise electronics for geeks". Excellent choice of title! Also, this looks like a really awesome primer!
- reificator 9y agoRelative to the kinds of things geeks read, I think the title is valid.
- joshvm 9y agoOf interest this is the guy that developed American Fuzzy Lop[1], and the Guerrilla guide to CNC machining[2] (which is similarly well written). [1] http://lcamtuf.coredump.cx/afl/ http://lcamtuf.coredump.cx/afl/ [2] http://lcamtuf.coredump.cx/gcnc/ http://lcamtuf.coredump.cx/gcnc/
- Varcht 9y agoThank you for pointing to these, I was going to pass on the electronics.
- f- 9y agoBut wait, there's more! I also make tables [1] and doomsday predictions [2]. [1] http://lcamtuf.coredump.cx/table/ http://lcamtuf.coredump.cx/table/ [2] http://lcamtuf.coredump.cx/prep/ http://lcamtuf.coredump.cx/prep/
- l4yao 9y agoHey, I really enjoy your hardware work! Ever since finding your website over 5 years ago, I've been checking in regularly for new projects and updates. The highlight for me is probably your precision resin casting projects.
- zxcmx 9y agoYeah there is a conspiracy theory that you are the bourbaki of computer security. Difficult to see how you can really be just one human.
- xelxebar 9y agoI've been learning about basic circuit design recently and realized that I don't have any clue how things relate to the underlying electrodynamics. Does anyone have some good textbook recommendations that derive things like Ohm's law and concepts of capacitance, etc, from first principles?
- compumike 9y agoI try to get into this at least a little bit in https://www.circuitlab.com/textbook/ https://www.circuitlab.com/textbook/
- lorenzq 9y agoOhm's law was not derived. It probably shouldn't be called a law either. Capacitance, etc. can be found in Introduction to Electrodynamics by Griffiths, which is a standard E&M college text.
- blackguardx 9y agoHyperphysics does a decent job of providing some insight: http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/electric/pplate.html http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/electric/pplate.h... The "first principles" part of E&M has some tricky math which can be mitigated by a well chosen problem domain. If you really want to dive into it, I hope you love (or learn to love) multi-variate calculus, linear algebra, and switching coordinate systems (cartesian, polar, spherical) multiple times to solve a problem.
- jeffwass 9y agoThose are two very different things (Ohm's Law and Capacitance). Capacitance is basically the relation between electric field and charge, whereas inductance is the relation between magnetic fields and currents. Those follow from fundamental equations, if you want a calculus intensive derivation from the "first principles" of Maxwell's Laws. Someone on this thread mentioned Griffiths, which is a good text, it's what I used in E&M undergrad. Wangsness has a good E&M text too I liked. Ohm's Law is a macroscopic statistical mechanical Law that happens in bulk. It can be derived from even some of the simplest electron models (eg the very simplistic Druude Model). Where it can be shown that the current density through a chunk of material is proportional to the applied electric field. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drude_model https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drude_model But it breaks down in smaller systems, where statistical averages don't hold (for example ballistic conductance in a nanowire). Or other systems when quantum mechanical effects will dominate (eg bandgap non-linearities of a PN Junction or Quantum Well, or how the bandgap of a semiconductor causes an increase of resistance at lower temperatures as opposed to decrease of resistance for metals). I used to have a nice presentation of the latter on my old uni website called A Quick and Dirty Preview to Solid State Physics, but alas they disabled my old account after nearly a decade past graduatiOn. (Had to make the webpage for a class early in grad school, and it was linked by many other solid state physics classes interestingly).
- Afrotechmods 9y agoShameless but possibly relevant plug... Here's my introduction to electronics series of tutorial videos: http://afrotechmods.com/tutorials/category/tutorials/beginner-tutorials/ http://afrotechmods.com/tutorials/category/tutorials/beginne... It's about an hour's worth of material and it is very concise. Also here in Youtube playlist format: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gvJzrjwjds&list=PLzqS33DOPhJkRn6e9_OTdQwRojO8qlusI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gvJzrjwjds&list=PLzqS33DOPhJ...
- Hasz 9y agoJust wanted to say I love your videos. Do you have any plans to continue uploading new content?
- Afrotechmods 9y agoThank you. I will surely upload more stuff in future but it won't be on any sort of regular schedule.
- throwawaybbqed 9y agoI'm another big fan. Watched your videos some years ago and it started me on a fairly intense electronics hobby. Your videos on op-amps and radio are simply brilliant. Thank you!!
- donquichotte 9y agoNice to see you here, I've been a long-time subscriber to your channel! Another great channel for electronics basics is TheGreatScott: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6mIxFTvXkWQVEHPsEdflzQ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6mIxFTvXkWQVEHPsEdflzQ
- smoyer 9y agoThis is awesome and great as a short-form resource. For years, my long-form (non-concise?) go-to book has been "The Art of Electronics" [0] by Paul Horowitz (and others depending on the edition). It has everything you need in a single reference book! [0] http://amzn.to/2iZfjbG http://amzn.to/2iZfjbG
- acidburnNSA 9y agoSo true. The associated Lab Manual is even more fun if you want the hands-on experience. It's top notch.
- icantdrive55 9y agoThis is a great, but difficult very at the same time, book on electronics. It expects student to know trig, exponential functions, and a bit of Calculus. Supposedly, at Harvard, students finish it in one semester. It doesn't seem possible, but who knows. There's always a back story of the supposed feats I have heard about Harvard students. Anyway, everyone interested in electronics should have it as a reference. You can skip, but come back to chapters 5 (first half), 7,12, 13, 14, and maybe 15. Put it this way, if you have mastered everything in this book, you should be able to sit for any EE exam. If you can visualize the topics--you are very, very smart, or have true grit. It's not light reading. If your completely new to electronics, get to know the basic equations. Ohm's law is so important. Remembering VAR saved me so many times. (Vomit=Amps x Resistance). In some circles, they don't like using the word amps; they always use current. I'm not in those circles. Another book I found helpful is Ashly's book Electrical Engineering 101 Everything you should have learned on school but didn't. (There's a need for more honest books like this.) Learn how to wire a house too. I've known EE's who don't know how to wire a modern home, or it's straight from a older reference book. Know a little bit about commercial wiring too. It's not that complicated. Writing this, reminds me I need to brush up on Electric Vechicles. I was looking at new cars for my mom, and realized I didn't know much about hybrid vechicles. And I refuse to do what the dealership mechanic said, "Oh---no one works on their vechicles anymore! They bring it right here" A sign in the Service Department read $270 hr. He also said know one pays in cash anymore. I walked off that lot with 20 grand still in my pocket. All I though about on the way home is I can't belive the number of new cars on the road, and I don't like not being able to repair a new vechicle. I walked off that lot with $20 grand, and a Blue Book. If I had an employee that didn't close on a used car--he would be fired. I guess the economey is doing better than it feels. Sorry, about rambling on--kinda depressed.
- nerfhammer 9y agoThis youtuber has some good videos with animations of visual analogies for analog electronics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4jzgqZu-4s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4jzgqZu-4s
- mc_crash 9y agoFrom the article: "...consequently, several capacitors in series resemble one capacitor with a larger plate surface area." s/series/parallel/ ??
- metahost 9y agoShould be parallel given C for a parallel plate capacitor is proportional to its crossectional area.
- hackits 9y agoOne thing that took me a long time to `get` was the concept of voltage is a bit miss-leading if you look up the definition even in the video of (http://afrotechmods.com/tutorials/2016/10/03/basic-electricity-what-is-voltage/ http://afrotechmods.com/tutorials/2016/10/03/basic-electrici...). Everyone wants to talk about the penitential energy and what-not. Though that is mostly pointless unless you grasp the first fundamental concept of voltage. Voltage is just simply the effort exerted by electromagnetic field on neighboring electrons. As soon as you grasp that all definition of voltage relate to the real world of doing `work` eg... heating, moving then the concept of voltage of amps is a lot easier to understand.
- ianai 9y agoI was taught to think of voltage as a level or “elevation” of sorts. Ie the difference between two charges in relation to one another.
- hackits 9y agoI was taught the same, though I never liked the concept of elevation, water, ect... It easier for me to quantify it when it relates to the real world such as newton force or doing work. The other reason I never really liked the concept of elevation it means nothing if you dont have gravity that is constantly acting on a object.
- solipsism 9y agoThe other reason I never really liked the concept of elevation it means nothing if you dont have gravity that is constantly acting on a object It's an analogy. That's how analogies work. I was hoping for some substantive reasons the analogy doesn't hold.
- Chris2048 9y agoI think there is a caveat here: force on electrons is "EMF", https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromotive_force https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromotive_force This scan be measure in volts, or joules. "potential difference" seems to be the relative difference between the "EMF" of two conductors, which is analogous to pressure-difference and is the relevant factor wrt current, power, etc.
- palash25 9y agoA really good article.
- visarga 9y agotoo much wall of text and few images
- squarefoot 9y agoAnother very good source of information is the US Navy Electricity and Electronics Training Series (NEETS). https://maritime.org/doc/neets https://maritime.org/doc/neets Also towards the end of the parent directory check the "Electronics Technician" volumes and other interesting stuff on welding, repairing etc.