CORE 017: Basic Electronics
Syllabus

The topic list for this project is: DC circuits, AC circuits, semiconductor devices and circuits, and digital circuits..

Prerequisite: CORE 011 or the equivalent.

Instructor: George E. Hrabovsky, george@madscitech.org, 608-276-6832.

Task #1: Start and keep a notebook for your study. This should be bound and have at least 300 sheets. You may need more than one notebook of this size. Smaller notebooks than 300-sheets can be used, but the total number of sheets should be at least 300. Each set of 300 pages started and completed is worth a point towards your final total of 4. To begin your notebook you will need a list of topics. The one listed below is only one possible choice. This choice is the default. Any choice other than this one must be approved by your instructor.

Procedure for the Course

If a topic from the list below is underscored that means there is some resource material for it. If there is no resource material for it then you must develop that for yourself.

It is expected that you will develop one or more questions for each topic. Questions can be of the form who, what, when, where, why, and how.

Once you have written down a set of questions for a topic, you either answer each of these qurestions or you explain how you attempted to answer the question and failed. Don't be alarmed; even some elementary questions resist answering. You can learn a lot just by making the effort.

The next step is to ask a set of new questions based on your previous attempts at answering your first set of questions (this can include those questions you were unable to answer before). Answer each of those questions as best you can and create another set of questions for each answer. Answer each of those to the best of your ability and ask another set of questios for each, but do not answer them right away. If you are really interested in one or more of these questions attempt to answer them in a, "topic of personal interest," session; or you may answer them in a personal research project.

Wherever possible give at least three examples of any definition, principle, or procedure.

This course will require three pages of notes for each topic to fill a 300 page notebook.

  1. The nature of electronics
  2. Experimental electronics
  3. Theoretical electronics
  4. Computational electronics
  5. Electrical safety
  6. Basic circuit analysis using Kirchhoff's laws
  7. Series circuits
  8. Parallel circuits
  9. Divider circuits
  10. Series-parallel circuits
  11. DC meters
  12. DC signals
  13. DC networks
  14. Batteries and power supplies
  15. Conductors and insulators
  16. Fuses and breakers
  17. Capacitors
  18. Inductors
  19. RC and L/R time constants
  20. DC circuits in Mathematica
  21. Topic of Personal Interest (including, but not limited to tachogenerators, thermocouples, pH measurement, strain gauges, troubleshooting DC circuits, loading effect of a meter, Wheatstone bridge, theorems of Thevenin and Norton)
  22. Topic of Personal Interest.
  23. Topic of Personal Interest.
  24. Review of topics to date
  25. Waveform voltage sources
  26. The oscilloscope
  27. Reactance and impedence
  28. Resonance
  29. Pulse response of circuits
  30. Mixed-frequency signals
  31. Filters
  32. Transformers
  33. Polyphase AC circuits
  34. Power factor
  35. Transmission lines
  36. Frequency analysis
  37. Noise
  38. Signal recovery
  39. AC circuits in Mathematica
  40. Topic of Personal Interest (including, but not limited to RL circuits, RC circuits, RLC circuits, testing capacitors, testing inductors, troubleshooting AC circuits, integrating circuits, differentiator circuits, small signal analysis)
  41. Topic of Personal Interest.
  42. Topic of Personal Interest.
  43. Review of topics 25-42
  44. Review of topics to date
  45. Active circuit elements
  46. Amplifiers
  47. Semiconductor materials
  48. Solid state devices
  49. Diodes
  50. Rectifiers
  51. Zener diodes
  52. Bipolar juntion transistors
  53. Biasing
  54. Small-signal bipolar amplifiers
  55. Junction field-effect transistor
  56. Insulated-gate field-effect transistor
  57. Metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistor
  58. FET biasing
  59. Small-signal FET amplifiers
  60. Power amplifiers
  61. Amplifier frequency response
  62. Thyristors
  63. Op-amps
  64. Op-amp frequency response
  65. Op-amp circuits
  66. Oscillators
  67. Analog semiconductor circuits
  68. Active filters
  69. Voltage regulators
  70. Electron tubes
  71. Transducers
  72. Semiconductor devices in Mathematica
  73. Topic of Personal Interest (including, but not limited to band theory of solids, Schottky diodes, tunnel diodes, LEDs, laser diodes, photodiodes, varactor diodes, constant current diodes, power supplies, oscillators, radio circuits, measurement circuits, troubleshooting diode circuits, troubleshooting bipolar junction transistor circuits, troubleshooting field-effect transistor circuits, diode testing, transistor testing, pn junctions, amplifier troubleshooting, FET switches, comparators, Schmitt trigger)
  74. Topic of Personal Interest.
  75. Topic of Personal Interest.
  76. Review of topics 45-75
  77. Review of topics to date
  78. Numeration in different bases
  79. Binary arithmetic
  80. Logic gates
  81. Switches
  82. Relays
  83. Logic ladders
  84. Boolean algebra
  85. Karnaugh mappings
  86. Combinatorial logic functions
  87. Multivibrators and flip-flops
  88. Counters
  89. Shift registers
  90. Digital-analog conversion
  91. Networks
  92. Computer architecture
  93. Bus signals and interfaces
  94. Microprocessors
  95. Digital electronics in Mathematica
  96. Topic of Personal Interest (including, but not limited to TTL, CMOS, logic controllers, network topologies, buses, memory)
  97. Topic of Personal Interest.
  98. Topic of Personal Interest.
  99. Review of topics 78-98
  100. Review of topics to date

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