Introduction To Electronics

Welcome to the modular book on electronics.

This is the first book in a series, providing electronics in fundamental building blocks. The reader can jump forward or backward in the book by selecting the desired link on the left-hand panel.

The materials are suitable for classroom instruction as well as for the hobbyist. Additional books, materials and kits are available through our online catalog.

What makes this modular approach a bit unconventional is how we view the field of electronics in a holistic manner. Topics such as direct current, and alternating current are covered in our homogeneous environment. This is how they are used in the real world, and this is how they are presented in this series.

This modular approach also provides the flexibility to continuously improve and updated the materials. The materials in this book will combine some traditional theory, some chemistry, some mathematics and some easy to build experiments (kits) to enhance the learners experiences. Take time to look beyond the surface of the learning and ask yourself how each technology learning experience can be applied in today’s world. Think about how you might adapt your new-found knowledge in new and different ways and above all to have fun in the process.

Lets start by sharing a story.

The Story

Once upon a time, I was working for a multi-national engineering and OEM company. One of the many product lines was called a triplex control system. This system uses three controls (computers) at its core. These were not your everyday systems. They managed the operational functions of a large utilities plant. The individual computers “talk” with each other, sharing information. In effect, they watch over each other as well as the plant functions. When one of the three goes awry, the other two would vote it “out-of-control”, sending an alarm to the control tower and shut the failing system down.

The state of control technology keeps advancing, and the power of computers and microcontrollers have advanced considerably. Today, technology exists to enable computers to identify and auto-heal or auto-configure other systems.

Using an example of a university student computer lab, the technician might place a newbie, partially configured computer into a lab environment. The existing (cloud) systems realizing a new member has joined their group. The newbie system is quickly evaluate by the group, its applications, and its patches, and then promptly rebuild as a clone of the member systems themselves.

Once you get past any discomfort of existing computers assimilating newbie computers into their fold, there is a great financial and technical impact here. A technical service group could support and service a vast array of networked systems across the cloud, whether supporting retail stores, medical clinics, auto repair facilities or manufacturing. This opens a new field for service industries operating from a core location. Using a block of virtualized services, the service group would connect to any remote system and rebuild it with minimal or no onsite support needed.

This is Electronics at its best. Well, before we bite off this level in electronics, in the next few pages we will start much smaller. Let’s say, with an atom.

A Change In Our Thinking

This book will be blending some new ideas with some traditional ideas. The goal is for you, the learner, to challenge your own understanding and question the WHY of the learning experience.

“Once you learn to think outside-the-box you are free of the box.” (Soldner-1977)

Watching Out For Barriers

One of the barriers to innovation is, when we are taught to think in specific ways. We stop looking for other options, and other answers. Recall the saying “I found it the last place I looked.” Well, just think what would happen if you looked 5 more places after you found what you were looking for? Simple! You would have found more then what you were looking for! That is increased knowledge.

I call this: There is something else here! thinking!

To be successful, the S&T leaders need to “think outside of the box” and start applying common technologies, using uncommon mythologies. In this series there are some “Rules” of technology as the starting points. These are NOT limiting points. These may be the extent of today’s humans understanding as to the state of the science. Human understanding can be expanded, thus changing the rules.

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Disclaimer

This online book is a part of a series and it is provided free, for educational and training in the classroom and for personal consumption. The author and this site gives no warranty that these materials are accurate, or safe. The author holds no liability and the user holds sole liability and responsibly for properly and safely using the materials and ideas contained within this site. The materials contained within this site are copyright protected materials, thus are not to be reproduced in part or in whole for commercial use, for repackaging or for sale. Most materials in this site are the property of the author with some content being considered in the general public domain. As of the writing of this document there are no identified trademark and patent infringements.

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