The Art of Doing: Electronics for Everyone
Learn the fundamentals of analog electronics and how to build circuits without relying on microcontrollers like Arduino. This interactive course covers resistors, capacitors, diodes, transistors, and more. Explore classic circuits and get creative with fun projects like LED mixers and music sequencers. No expensive equipment required, just a breadboard, battery, and minimal components. Enroll today and discover how to create and shape waveforms with analog electronics. Perfect for tinkerers, hobbyists, and DIYers interested in designing circuits and exploring the world of analog electronics.
What you’ll learn
- Fundamental electronic components such as resistors, capacitors, diodes, transistors, and integrated circuits. Learn how they operate and build!
- How to use various laboratory equipment such as power supplies, multimeters, function generators, and oscilloscopes.
- Both DC and AC applications of electronic circuits including transistor switches and amplifiers, RC timing circuits, and filters.
- The LM 358 Operational Amplifier – how to wire it up using a single supply as a crude comparator, non-inverting amplifier, and inverting amplifier.
- The LM 555 Timer – how to wire it up in bistable, monostable, and astable mode.
- The CD 4017 Decade Counter – how to wire it up as a 10 LED flasher and music sequencer.
- 10 “Circuit Challenge Problems” putting your knowledge (what you’ve learned in the course) to the test.
- 10 “Build Together Circuits” where we walk through, together, building 10 unique electronic circuits.
- Exciting circuits include: a working night light, sound to light show, volume meter, toy theremin, toy piano, 8 bit synthesizer, and 8 step music sequencer.
Years ago I bought an Arduino and I can remember how awesome it felt to hook it up, write a program, and blink an LED! My next question was “How on earth would you do that without an Arduino?!?”. Don’t get me wrong, I think Arduino’s and all sorts of microcontrollers are awesome, but to me, it abstracted things a little too much. I’m an avid guitarist and a gear head; I love guitar effects pedals. Inside those stomp boxes, you won’t find an Arduino. What you will find is the guts of an analog circuit: resistors, diodes, capacitors, transistors, and integrated circuit chips…all working together to create, bend, and shape a waveform.
I know there are tons of YouTube videos out there showing various analog circuits but the vast majority of them are the same: a time lapsed video of someone populating a breadboard or PCB with music playing in the background. No explanation of what they were doing or why they were doing it, no breakdown of the role of each and every component in the circuit, no conveying of understanding at not just a mathematical level but even a conceptual level. That is not learning and as someone who wanted to learn, to dive deeper into the subject, so I could figure out how to blink an LED without an Arduino and eventually more, it was a frustrating experience.
These are the reasons I decided to create this course. These are the reasons I hope you enroll in this course; because I can help lift those learning frustrations for you and help you gain an appreciation for analog electronics.
In this highly interactive course we will go through and cover the following circuit components. Exploring how they operate (with just enough math to hopefully convey understanding), interact with one another, and behave with DC and AC signals.
Resistors
Potentiometers,
Light Dependent Resistors
Push Buttons
Capacitors
Diodes
LEDs
Speakers
Microphones
Transistors
Operational Amplifiers
555 Timers
Decade Counters
And More!
We will build/explain/explore classic circuits and then have some fun with some more creative circuits through direct instruction, “Challenge Circuits” where you can test your knowledge at various points in the course, and “Build Together Circuits” where we will build and learn together. Example circuits include:
Tri-Color LED Mixer
Voltage Dividers
Transistor Switches
RC Timing Circuits
Fading LED Circuits
Astable Multivibrators
RC Low Pass, High Pass, and Band Pass Filters,
Transistor Amplifiers (Common Emitter Amplifier)
A Sound to Light Circuit
Op Amp Comparators, Non-Inverting Amplifiers, and Inverting Amplifiers
A Crude Motion Detector and Volume Meter
555 Timer Circuits in Bistable, Monostable, and Astable Mode
A Toy Theremin, Toy Piano, and Atari Punk Console
4017 Decade Counter 10 LED Chaser
Voltage Controlled Oscillators
A 4 Step Music Sequencer
An 8 Step Music Sequencer
And More!!!
The presentation of material will constantly alternate from a slideshow shared directly from my computer screen with up close pictures of the circuit I am building for reference to live cameras with viewpoints of my breadboard, oscilloscope, and multimeters watching me build in real time. I will teach, then build, explain, then build with the hopes that you build along with me and at no point in the process experience confusion, frustration, or a lack of desire to continue.
The course was designed so a student could follow along with a breadboard, 9 volt battery, minimal components (parts list included), and a multimeter. There are times when I will use equipment such as a function generator or oscilloscope but I understand those are expensive items and they are not integral items to the course. There is also the option to follow along with various online circuit simulators.
I hope you enroll in this course today and together we can figure out “How the heck would I do that without and Arduino?!?”
Who this course is for:
- Tinkerers, hobbyists, and DIYers of all things electronic.
- People who are interested in designing circuits.
- Anyone who has used an Arduino to blink a light and asked, “How would I do that without code?!?!”
- Anyone interested in creating music from electronic circuits; bleeping and blooping.
