[HN Gopher] A Summary of Electronics
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       A Summary of Electronics
        
       Author : sharjeelsayed
       Score  : 191 points
       Date   : 2021-09-10 07:17 UTC (2 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (electroagenda.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (electroagenda.com)
        
       | torginus wrote:
       | Hmm, while the website seems quite beautifully designed, the
       | introduction is quite rudimentary. I don't think you'd be able to
       | figure out how a circuit works just by reading this.
        
         | crispyambulance wrote:
         | It's perfectly fine. People have to start somewhere. That
         | summary could be someone's ticket to getting started.
         | 
         | Electronics is such a huge and overwhelming topic. Where is one
         | supposed start? Maxwell's equations? Energy Band theory? Maybe
         | for some, but differently prepared folks need different
         | approaches for starting to learn something that is new to them.
        
         | jowdones wrote:
         | Electronics is a tremendously complex subject, akin to
         | "mathematics". So just replace one with the other and you'd
         | know what to expect: "a summary of mathematics". Ridiculous, to
         | begin with.
        
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       | iammjm wrote:
       | Thank's for making this. How can I export it as a single .pdf to
       | read on my e-reader?
        
         | electroagenda wrote:
         | I will appreciate if you just redistribute the link instead. As
         | you can see there is no ads in the webpage. But I intend to add
         | them in the future. I won't get rich but at least I will pay
         | the server!
        
         | unnouinceput wrote:
         | Links in MSWord, expanded on pages, then print to pdf. In 5
         | minutes you'll have a pdf, even with included links if you
         | want.
        
       | metaphor wrote:
       | If the author is lurking, SS 3.2.2.1 _Passive Components_ [1]
       | table headers are listed in English; SS 3.2.2.2 _Active
       | Components_ [2] are listed in Spanish.
       | 
       | I'm clearly not the target audience here, but I'd be lying if
       | there wasn't a sense of conceit in its objectivity...kind of like
       | those World Book encyclopedia entries I'd read for hours at a
       | time as a kid, becoming aware of the existence of something, but
       | only enough to sow more questions than answers.
       | 
       | [1] https://electroagenda.com/en/a-summary-of-
       | electronics/analog...
       | 
       | [2] https://electroagenda.com/en/a-summary-of-
       | electronics/analog...
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | electroagenda wrote:
         | Thank you for pointing out the mistake with the languages. I
         | will solve it when I get some time.
        
       | lnsru wrote:
       | The Art of Electronics, by Paul Horowitz and Winfield Hill is the
       | way to go. It's over 1000 pages and has an additional exercise
       | book, but at the end one has some basic understanding what's
       | really going on.
        
         | 123pie123 wrote:
         | a long time ago, I considerd that book to be the closest thing
         | to bible I had
        
         | GeorgeTirebiter wrote:
         | I'd also suggest you get the 2nd edition. It had coverage of
         | some circuits (I'm reminded of a particularly clean
         | 2-transistor 'stiff' current source) that are not subsequently
         | covered in the 3rd edition.)
         | 
         | ALSO: if you do buy the 3rd edition, if you are _really_ into
         | this stuff, be SURE to consider buying  "AoE - the X Chapters"
         | which is amazing detail on various corners of EE. There is a
         | particularly beautiful explanation of how to control motors
         | with PWM, why variable resistors to control speed works but not
         | well, and some rules-of-thumb learned. And much more.
         | 
         | And finally, if you are Truly Serious (of course you are!)
         | about learning this stuff: Get "Learning AoE" and buy the
         | components they recommend and do the experiments.
         | 
         | No excuses! Do it! ;-)
        
         | crispyambulance wrote:
         | AoE is an outstanding text, I learned a lot from it, but it's
         | not for everyone. It's optimal, IMHO, for STEM undergrads
         | coming from outside of EE. For EE's it's too broad and shallow
         | of a survey, for casual hobbyists just starting out it's too
         | technical.
        
         | cushychicken wrote:
         | Analog Devices also has a big, free, really high quality
         | electronics course on their wiki.
        
           | bloopernova wrote:
           | Which I think starts here, in case anyone was too lazy to
           | search for it :)
           | 
           | https://wiki.analog.com/university/courses/electronics/text/.
           | ..
        
       | hsbauauvhabzb wrote:
       | This is cool, I'll use this when I get back to studying
       | electronics.
       | 
       | the next and previous page shouldn't open in new tabs though :)
        
         | nmeta wrote:
         | To add to this, on iOS I couldn't get the cookie pop up to
         | clear so after the first 3 sections I had to move on. The
         | writing was indeed great but navigation and screen real estate
         | for mobile made this a bit tough.
        
           | Causality1 wrote:
           | Yes, there are small usability quibbles. The fully-justified
           | text on narrow phone screens often produces ridiculously
           | spaced-out words.
        
       | creamytaco wrote:
       | Terrible website structure, forces you to click and load new
       | pages for every concept, no download option, no see "all in one
       | page" option. Lots of screen area waste.
        
         | hsbauauvhabzb wrote:
         | Have you made any public contributions we can critique?
        
           | creamytaco wrote:
           | Entirely irrelevant, empty deflection, to the points I made.
        
             | yissp wrote:
             | I think your criticism would have been better received if
             | you hadn't phrased it so harshly (e.g. "terrible website
             | structure").
        
       | houssem_fat wrote:
       | Nice work. Need a a little more work on the website.
        
         | tomxor wrote:
         | The website is fine, it's simple, legible, responsive,
         | lightweight and does not distract from the content...
        
       | dom96 wrote:
       | It seems like these guides never include the most useful info:
       | safety. Does anyone know guides that talk about electronics
       | safety?
        
         | sva_ wrote:
         | The YouTube channel ElectroBOOM comes to mind:
         | https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJ0-OtVpF0wOKEqT2Z1HEtA
         | 
         | He always does the exact thing you're not supposed to do.
        
         | Cocktail wrote:
         | User or component safety? I think in general electronics do not
         | require much in the way of user safety (Ofcourse I exclude
         | power electronics and other high-energy systems) beyond how to
         | properly use measurement devices. Component safety, eg: the art
         | of not killing your semiconductors is another beast entirely
        
           | tzs wrote:
           | Even low power components can do things that could hurt you
           | if you do something wrong with them.
           | 
           | When I was first playing around with electronics as a kid
           | using kits and individual components purchased from Radio
           | Shack I once put an LED directly across the terminals of a
           | lantern battery.
           | 
           | The LED exploded sending little bits of plastic flying off at
           | high speed. They all missed me, but if I had been in a little
           | different position when hooking up that LED my lesson in the
           | importance of using current limiting resistors with LEDs
           | could have been punctuated by a serious eye injury.
           | 
           | I'd say that a paragraph when each component is introduced
           | covering what bad things that component can do if you exceed
           | its voltage, current, or power limits would be a good idea
           | even if the course is only dealing with low power systems.
        
           | mrob wrote:
           | From Wikipedia's "Electrolytic capacitor" article:
           | 
           | "Applying a reverse polarity voltage, or a voltage exceeding
           | the maximum rated working voltage of as little as 1 or 1.5
           | volts, can destroy the dielectric and thus the capacitor. The
           | failure of electrolytic capacitors can be hazardous,
           | resulting in an explosion or fire."
           | 
           | Even a small one could take somebody's eye out if they
           | happened to be close to it when it failed and not wearing eye
           | protection.
        
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         | rofrol wrote:
         | wtf?
        
           | GuB-42 wrote:
           | I am curious too. It is all reddit links full of sports-
           | related nonsense.
           | 
           | It is not the usual spam. No product link, shady website,
           | obvious scam or political message. Just nonsense.
        
       | dotancohen wrote:
       | Very, very nice. Right from the beginning:
       | 
       | > At a fundamental level, electronics is the branch of physics in
       | charge of controlling the flow of charged particles, typically
       | electrons. In practice, electronic engineering uses the highest
       | level manifestations of said flow of charge to provide solutions
       | to problems or needs.
       | 
       | I absolutely love reading text that state what we already feel
       | intuitively and present it as an eloquent statement of fact.
        
         | TheOtherHobbes wrote:
         | "...branch of physics in charge of... charge"?
         | 
         | I'm not sure who or what the site is for. If you need a one-
         | para explanation of what you can do with electronics - it
         | doesn't really provide that, because it doesn't provide product
         | examples.
         | 
         | If you want a usable introduction to circuit theory - it
         | doesn't provide that either. (Explaining what a transistor does
         | is "beyond the scope of this text"? OK.)
         | 
         | If you want to know how a modern phone works (which is
         | literally _all_ of EE except power electronics in a small
         | portable device) - there 's nothing about RF, comms theory and
         | encoding, error correction, and so on.
         | 
         | So what exactly is this supposed to teach readers?
         | 
         | It looks suspiciously like what's sometimes called Cargo Cult
         | writing - the reproduction of ideas from other texts without
         | fundamental insight into the topic or reader needs.
         | 
         | The main point seems to be to promote the author(s) as an
         | authority, but unfortunately if you want to be authoritative it
         | takes a bit more insight and effort than this. (See also -
         | Horowitz and Hill, for example.)
        
           | gumby wrote:
           | As another poster put it: it's an introductory overview just
           | to give the reader a quick perspective on what I the topic is
           | about, like an encyclopedia description.
           | 
           | I would expect a 12 year old to get something out of it, or
           | an author who knew no physics but wanted to put a bit of
           | electronics into their mystery novel.
           | 
           | There is an important place for overviews such as this.
        
         | andrepd wrote:
         | I too love conciseness in scientific texts.
         | 
         | Were it 90% of tutorials or blog posts nowadays and it would
         | take 5 or 10x as much space to say the same thing, detours and
         | forced jokes and analogies included, in the process making it
         | less understandable.
        
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       (page generated 2021-09-12 23:02 UTC)