How to Begin Analog Electronics Through Projects
Most electronics today is digital, but there are still a lot of analog electronic devices. These devices --like sensors, robotics, radios, automobiles and telecommunications -- are different from digital electronics in fundamental ways. Understanding analog electronics starts with understanding some of the typical analog components, such as coils and capacitors, and proceeds through the basic building blocks of analog electronics like oscillators and amplifiers. Analog electronics also uses some of the same components as digital electronics, such as transistors, in completely different ways.
Other People Are Reading
Instructions
-
Capacitors, Coils and Resistors
-
1
Understand the fundamental components of any analog circuit: capacitors, coils and resistors. The best way to do this is to wire up these basic components and look at how each of them react to both alternating current (AC) and direct current (DC). For example, when DC from a battery is applied to a resistor, the current immediately increases to a value and stays there. When DC is applied to a coil it slowly builds up, and when applied to a capacitor it peaks immediately then slowly declines to zero. These behaviors -- and the reactions of these components to AC -- are fundamental to understanding analog circuits.
-
2
Experiment with transistors and note how transistors are used differently in digital and analog circuits. In digital circuits, transistors are used as fast electronic switches -- a small voltage change to the base can control a large current flowing from the emitter to the collector. In analog devices, the transistor functions more as an amplifier: a small signal on the base is duplicated on a grander scale in the large signal going from the emitter to the collector. Wiring up transistors on a breadboard and watching their behavior with meters and oscilloscopes gives an intuitive understanding that the student can get in no other way.
-
-
3
Build a radio. This is the classic first project for learning analog electronics. It teaches about the interaction of coils and capacitors when the student builds the tank circuit (used to select a radio station) and the filtering circuits to smooth out the output of the power supply. Radios usually have several amplifier stages, each of which uses at least one transistor. There are also other components, such as the speaker and the diodes in the power supply, that introduce the student to how these components behave in an analog setting. Radios also introduce other circuits like the power supply that converts AC to DC and an oscillator that generates signals to mix with the incoming signal.
-
1
Tips & Warnings
\When the radio is functional, the student should trace through the power supply with a multimeter and through the signal processing circuits with the oscillator. One of the problems with any electrical circuit is that we cannot see electricity. Test instruments let us see what the electricity is doing.
Be sure to go over the proper use of test equipment before letting the student use them. Test equipment can be easily damaged if used incorrectly.
References
Resources
- Photo Credit electronics image by Michael Shake from Fotolia.com
