Good sequential electronics tutorials? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / beginners

author: raspberrypi
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 01, 2017, 01:54:51 am
content: Recommend good sequential electronic tutorials on youtube?What have you guys found that are good to learn from? I have watched all of daves videos (Yeah I'm not working right now) but I'm looking for some that you can start where you know and watch from there. I have found alot of junk on you tube; people with thick accents or computer voices, really dumbed down videos, short videos that skip over the hard parts because the creator doesn't actually know what they are doing etc etc. Also you need to go over the math, some videos just seem lazy because they know their audience doesn't actually want to learn the stuff. If you know the math this stuff is easy. Like understanding quantum physics (not so easy) but with out learning the math there is no way you can understand wave particle duality and speed of light stuff. I would read book after book on quantum physics but skip over the math and really didn't get it until one day I picked up a calculator with the help of a great website.Like afrotechmods is interesting but he doesn't go over the math and its just too basic. Like his LED one didn't go over why you should use parallel or series or much technical things like current drop etc etcEven a series of lectures would be good. I want to get a degree in EE and it would be nice to get a head start.

author: w2aew
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 01, 2017, 05:30:46 am
content: I've got dozens of tutorials on my channel. They are not sequential in nature though. They're getting from very basic, to some that are a bit more advanced. Here is a link to an index file (arranged numerically and by topic) for all of the videos on my channel:http://www.dorkage.com/youtube/W2AEW_video_index.pdfYou can look the videos up by topic to focus on those that you want to see....and the link to my channel:https://www.youtube.com/w2aew

author: rstofer
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 01, 2017, 06:17:04 am
content: I'm confused by your comments on math. It's late and I'm tired...OK, first of all, engineering is ALL math and design is engineering. No math implies copying somebody else's project. This isn't a bad way to go but your future is limited without math. Designing even a simple transistor amplifier will require Ohm's Law and some simple algebra. Kirchoff's Voltage and Current laws will require matrix math.So, I highly recommend Khan Academy for everything related to math. There are hundreds of videos. I watch them all the time!Even the simplest AC circuit analysis brings along a gigantic need for matrix math. Now, it turns out that there are powerful tools for doing the work but you still need to set up the equations. See the thread "Mesh Analysis" in this forum. Toward the end there some very nice computer based solutions.There are many levels in this hobby. You just need to decide where you want to camp out. I have heard great things about W2AEW's videos although I haven'g gotten over there yet.Digilent Inc has a 'Real Analog' series that starts out dealing with circuit analysis.https://learn.digilentinc.com/classroom/Maybe "The Art Of Electronics" (text) and "Learning The Art Of Electronics" (lab manual) are a step in the right direction. They aren't as deep as college courses but they aren't just blinking an LED with a 555 either.

author: ez24
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 01, 2017, 06:22:21 am
content: You may have to do your own homework:https://www.eevblog.com/forum/other-blog-specific/dd/msg1093983/#msg1093983There is no math category

author: MarkF
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 01, 2017, 06:32:33 am
content: I enjoyed the AVR microcontroller lectures of 2012 from Cornell. I see they have a new series using the PIC32 microcontroller. Especially useful was the one on polling switches and keypads with debouncing.Scroll down to the middle of the page for available lectures.https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgpQgWLXEZWSplxs1eB9Gvw

author: ez24
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 01, 2017, 06:47:23 am
content: Quote from: MarkF on January 01, 2017, 06:32:33 amBruce uploaded his latest PIC32 course from 2016 with poor titles for the videos

author: tggzzz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 01, 2017, 09:33:26 am
content: Quote from: raspberrypi on January 01, 2017, 01:54:51 amYour assessment of youtoob videos is accurate. Most are talking heads, or should I say mumbling heads that don't use the unique features of video. Most videos are convenient for the author, but inconvenient for the audience.I suggest videos are the wrong medium for what you want and need: books and articles would be better.Consider how many words are used in a written book or article to get the concepts across. Calculate how long it would take tospeakthe book/article if soemone gabbled them at 60wpm. Not pretty. Then add in the time for you to flick back and forth between different sections as you relate what you are currently learning with what you learned earlier. Not pretty.

author: RoGeorge
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 01, 2017, 11:15:25 am
content: YouTube is an entertainment platform, and is bad for proper teaching/learning.Use books instead of videos, doubled by solving theory problems and hands-on experience.For the hands-on part, you might not always have the required equipment/tools/parts. This is where a good video might help. w2aew have outstanding videos.Many universities publish their courses online for free. Try a few of them to get a taste of EE before committing to it.https://www.coursera.org/is a good place to start.Do not avoid math. You will not get an EE degree without math. A lot of mathematics is required for any engineering diploma, especially for EE. If you want to avoid math, you need to stay away from engineering.If you want to prepare in advance for EE, then do more math, not electronics.

author: LvW
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 01, 2017, 11:19:22 am
content: Quote from: tggzzz on January 01, 2017, 09:33:26 amI completely agree to the above comment. More than that, there are some (many?) videos which contain severe errors - perhaps due to over simplification or because there is no time (or place) to develop formulas and principles in detail.For example, the recommended catalog of videoshttps://learn.digilentinc.com/classroom/contains a video on BJT basics. In this video, the working principle of the BJT isnot correctlyexplained. The explanation is based on current control - and this can be prooved as wrong. The lecturer forgets (does not know?) that correlation does not imply causation.

author: tggzzz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 01, 2017, 12:49:54 pm
content: Quote from: RoGeorge on January 01, 2017, 11:15:25 amI basically agree, but watching a video is absolutely no substitute for hands-on experience. I'll argue it would beworsethan a book because the attention will be grabbed by irrelevant details, whereas books/articles can concentrate on the important core.Doallmaths, electronics theory, electronics practice. Without the maths and theory you would be blind. With only the maths/theory you will be impotent.

author: RoGeorge
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 01, 2017, 02:40:17 pm
content: Quote from: tggzzz on January 01, 2017, 12:49:54 pmTotally agree, my bad (English).I should have better written that: Just in case you lack eg access to an oscilloscope, then you can still learn a lot by watching a w2aew video about how to use one. Also, the emphasize on math was because, in my opinion, a lot of the university drops are caused by a lack of math skills.

author: tggzzz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 01, 2017, 02:54:40 pm
content: Quote from: RoGeorge on January 01, 2017, 02:40:17 pmNo worse than many native English speakers!

author: rstofer
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 01, 2017, 04:40:13 pm
content: Quote from: RoGeorge on January 01, 2017, 02:40:17 pmAround here, you can't even enroll in Electronics 101 until you have finished first semester calculus. If you come to college (community, state or university) without precalculus in high school, that's where you'll start. So, you could be in school for a full year without ever seeing an engineering course. It could be worse, you might have skipped over Algebra II in high school so that's where you start. At our community college, precalculus has been extended into a two semester course. Calculus is easy, it's the precalculus that's hard.I still like the Khan Academy videos although, in general, I don't find videos all that useful. I can't thumb through a video! Khan Academy does have a series on Electrical Engineering. I have only watched 20 of the videos related to AC Circuit Analysis. It really can't hurt to just start at the beginning:https://www.khanacademy.org/science/electrical-engineeringOn the subject of 'thumbing through', I prefer physical books. I am not a fan of ebooks because, again, I can't really 'thumb through'. Well, yes, it is kind of possible but it isn't the same. Now, this may be a generational thing. I'm a little too old to just change my ways. So, when I see a reference to a book I might want, I head over the Alibris.Com to see if I can get it second-hand. Text books are expensive.

author: rstofer
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 01, 2017, 04:59:51 pm
content: BTW, Khan Academy isn't just videos. There are problem sets to solve and hints can be provided as needed. I have done a lot of these for the precalculus stuff but I skipped over them for the EE stuff. I was just looking at the EE stuff to get a feel for the level of presentation.

author: tggzzz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 01, 2017, 06:05:39 pm
content: Quote from: rstofer on January 01, 2017, 04:40:13 pmEbooks: you can search, which can be better than thumbing through. Videos: no search, no thumbing.The browse-vs-search dichotomy is a widespread issue. Modern technology makes searching easy but serendipitous browsing difficult. That's a shame.

author: ez24
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 01, 2017, 10:09:46 pm
content: Quote from: tggzzz on January 01, 2017, 06:05:39 pmI also like ebooks and I print them out and spiral bind them so I can lay them flat and make notes on them.A good way to search is use this at the end filetype:pdf this way only pdf will show upFor example "pic32 filetype:pdf"

author: rstofer
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 01, 2017, 11:55:50 pm
content: Here is a most excellent W2AEW video re: a transistor common emitter amplifier. There's a lot of electronics being shown with only a modest amount of math. The design info is certainly important but, to me, the real value is in the hands-on part of the video. It's one thing to calculate a bunch of values, it's a lot more educational when you actually measure things and they come out very close.I had watched the video comparing the 3 different amplifier configurations some time back. It's really good. Again, more valuable for the hands-on measurements.There is also an oscilloscope training class as a 'sticky' at the top of this forum.

author: Spitruzzello
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: January 02, 2017, 09:21:29 am
content: Quote from: RoGeorge on January 01, 2017, 11:15:25 amI agree. One classic text that we used when I studied elec engineering back in the 1980s is Microelectronic Circuits by Sedra & Smith. I recently purchased the 6th edition from Amazon. It's not cheap but one of the most widely used texts in Electrical/Electronics Engineering courses around the world. In addition, if you want an excellent maths text, Advanced Engineering Mathematics by Erwin Kreyszig is the way to go. It's now in its 10th edition and covers the first two years of a typical engineering syllabus.

author: rstofer
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 02, 2017, 07:40:32 pm
content: Quote from: Spitruzzello on January 02, 2017, 09:21:29 amThere's a .pdf of that math book - free!http://eng.harran.edu.tr/~ukuran/Advanced%20Engineering%20Mathematics%2010th%20Edition.pdfThe book STARTS where most engineering programs END - Differential Equations. Somehow, Statistics is close to the end of the book. It seems to me the author wants to weed out students right up front! <smiley would go here if I knew how to do it!>I think I'll mess around with the book (it's free!), particularly the chapters on DEs. They are a lot of fun to model with my little analog computer. I've only read the first few pages but the presentation is EXCELLENT!

author: lordvader88
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 03, 2017, 04:41:15 am
content: Quote from: w2aew on January 01, 2017, 05:30:46 amHey nice to meet u, I watch your videos, they're great

author: Cerebus
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 04, 2017, 12:49:36 am
content: You might have noticed that the OP hasn't reared their head since the first post. Perhaps the reason for this is that people keep telling the OP that they "must do the maths" or words to that effect. If you go back and read the OP's (only) post the OP complains that many videosomitor gloss over the maths and goes on to comment on the futility of this at length. The OP doesn't need repeatedly telling that maths is important, they have already told us that they think it is.This kind of diversion often seems to ever crop up when someone asks about learning resources here. If the OP had asked "Where can I get some nice red patent leather dancing shoes?" it would be (I hope) obvious to any commenter that they were well off answering the question if they started extolling the virtues of green rubber waders.If anybodycananswer the OP's question then please do so (I can't, I'm not a great consumer of video tutorials) but if you can't answer it, please don't offer your version of the answer to "How do I get a good education in X?" in lieu of an answer to the actual question posed. Please don't say "read books" when the question is "do you know of any good video series".Perhaps the OP just absorbs information better from videos, perhaps they are dyslexic and don't like shouting it from the mountain top; whatever it is, I am sure they had their reasons for asking specifically about videos. People's styles of learning differ, offering the way that suits you as a panacea is not particularly helpful. I can learn just about anything from a book, my other half strongly prefers to go and take a taught class and struggles if a book is the only resource.Nothing else short of direct insult is going to put a beginner off asking questions here faster than having what they have written ignored and then having a different question answered instead of the one they actually asked. Please people, read beginner's questions carefully and answer the actual question asked; ask for clarification if necessary, but please don't sideline onto a different topic.I'm not trying to dissuade helpful comments, just ones that frustrate the original question.The thing I find a bit ironic is that a couple of the people I regard as 'guilty' in this thread are often amongst the most helpful and knowledgable when they are answering the right question (including some of mine).

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 04, 2017, 01:56:31 am
content: Quote from: rstofer on January 01, 2017, 06:17:04 amWhilst I agree with you in sentiment, in practice you can achieve a ridiculous amount in engineering without complex math (i.e. anything more than basic ohms law and other basic level stuff).Engineering is anappliedscience, and you can often understand and apply engineering principles to give you (even complex) desired end result without much math at all.QuoteI've been designing electronics in industry for 20+ years and can't recall ever having to use any form of matrix math. YMMV.I rather see someone skip the math and get into practical engineering then to see then try the math first, hate it, and then drop engineering thinking it's too hard.But of course this has been endlessly debated on this forum.

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 04, 2017, 02:00:04 am
content: MIT (and others) have their entire EE course lectures online for free.https://www.youtube.com/user/MIT/videosBut I don't know if there is any actual list of which videos make up the EE course in what order.In theory thought it's possible to do the entire MIT EE course just with these lectures.

author: iaeen
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 04, 2017, 02:26:47 am
content: Quote from: EEVblog on January 04, 2017, 02:00:04 amhttps://ocw.mit.edu/index.htmhas the videos organized by class as well as a bunch of supplemental information (homework, etc). Many other universities have their own OCW sites, and you can also often find them collected on third party sites likehttps://www.edx.org.

author: ez24
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 04, 2017, 03:50:34 am
content: Quote from: iaeen on January 04, 2017, 02:26:47 amSince these two are major links and can lead to some good videos on electronics, I added them to the Youtube List. I think they deserve to be on the list - hope everyone is ok with this.https://www.eevblog.com/forum/other-blog-specific/dd/msg1093983/#msg1093983

author: tggzzz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 04, 2017, 09:08:04 am
content: Quote from: EEVblog on January 04, 2017, 01:56:31 amThe Maths Faculty member who taught me 2nd year engineering maths summarised that succinctly while still hinting at the the underlying truth. "The best result of maths is that you don't need to use it all the time".QuoteIff, importantly, you stay within the limits of where the maths is valid. To know that boundary needs an understanding of the maths. Similar principles are true in many engineering domains.(Iff is the math's contraction of "if and only if").

author: raspberrypi
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 08, 2017, 12:06:18 am
content: Quote from: Cerebus on January 04, 2017, 12:49:36 amWhy thank you. I thought I had made it very clear on why I DID want to learn the math. And the reason why I asked about videos (although thank you for that .pdf math book, I downloaded it) is I'm legally blind and can't see most print in text books. Plus I have to choose carefully which books I can have made into large print which is a process. The narration of a math problem saves me a literal headache from trying to see an equation just to find that I mistook afor an O or a 0.

author: rstofer
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 08, 2017, 05:59:47 am
content: Here is a set of videos along with course work for something like EE101:https://learn.digilentinc.com/classroom/I have been spending time with the Mesh and Nodal Analysis videos and I had gone previously through some of the earlier sessions.