Slashdot Mirror
New Interactive Basic Electronics Textbook Launched Online (circuitlab.com)
Long-time Slashdot reader compumike writes: The group that first brought schematics and circuit simulation to the browser has now released the first few chapters of Ultimate Electronics: Practical Circuit Design and Analysis, an interactive online textbook for people learning electronics. The materials released today cover about half of a first semester undergraduate electronics course.
I'm a rank beginner and I'm interested in this subject but I browsed through a couple of chapters and they seem pretty dense and beyond what I would consider a basic undergraduate course, at least for a first-timer. I appreciate the effort though.
Is there something similar for programming?
[Disclaimer] I just skimmed it, I really should be doing something else.
That said, it looks well-organized and done with attention to detail. Kudos for tackling the hard stuff right on -- and to the beginners out there: don't fear to take that first step. It will pay off.
Totally kudos for being *really* usable without javascript. See, I'm the usual anti-javascript whiner around here[1]. Now I understand that the embedded simulations won't work for a javascript-challenged browser, that's OK; moreover, for me the formulae look TeXy -- I understand that they look much nicer to javascript-friendlier browsers, courtesy of (guessing here, didn't look) MathJax, but the thing is I'm fluent enough in TeX (you gotta, if you don't "do" javascript, right?) and TeX is a *much* nicer fallback than (gasp!) MathML or whatever.
It's not often that you can see these days someone going the extra mile to have their pages "degrade" gracefully. *Very* gracefully: the book still looks & feels gorgeous to us ascets.
Kudos, overall.
[1] Yes, I'm one of those folks who learnt as a child to not put everything I find on the street into his mouth.
Even in the comments in the linked Slashdot article from 2012 readers are acknowledging the awesome Java and JavaScript circuit simulator from Falstad that already existed.
When I took first year electronics in community college in the early 1990's, all the formulas were presented with the circuits but the math was never presented in any detail. Second year electronics required taking Electronic Math as a separate course. I didn't finish that course. Mostly because I hadn't taken algebra yet, which wasn't a prerequisite for the class, and the concepts were taught in isolation from any hands-on circuitry. I changed majors anyway since electronics was on the way out and computers were becoming popular. Fast forward a quarter-century, I'm getting back into electronics as an adult. Now that I have money, I can buy all the parts and test equipment I need. Although the first section is a bit dense, I had no trouble going through the math.
The Junior Genius Blinky Lights kit provides a good introduction to electronics and hands-on experience with real electronics parts. It comes with a book that's aimed at total beginners.
We've used with grade school students (grade 4-7), but there's enough content for high-school students or adults getting into electronics for the first time. It uses a breadboard so soldering is not required to connect the parts.
See the Junior Genius Kit
Amazon.com Junior Genius Blinky Lights Kit
It is a good follow up to Snap Circuits (using plastic puzzle pieces) which is designed for a younger audience.
There's more learning and troubleshooting when students have to learn how to use a breadboard. And it gives a lot more flexibility to build your own things. It's like building with Lego instead of building a model.
Junior Genius Home
The title of the book is "Ultimate Electronics: Practical Circuit Design and Analysis", not "Basic Electronics".
The introduction to the book says, "undergraduate-level university course in electronics analysis and design", not "undergraduate basic electronics course".
In the introduction, the prerequisites are "Existing experience in calculus, linear algebra, differential equations, and classical physics (including thermodynamics, electricity, and magnetism) is recommended."
So I recommend changing the Slashdot article's title from "Basic Electronics Textbook" to "Circuit Design and Analysis Textbook".
This is an online course in what circuit simulation is. This is a horrible mistake, many people will be turned off electronics because of this.
Another post says electronics must start from math, and this is true. The math you need has nothing to do with Large Asymptotic Approximations. This is what some programmer was told he had to do when writing their simulator, and he now fancies himself an EE.
Unfortunate.
If it doesn't have Forrest Mims III pictures, I'm out.
You can easily tell that this is not a course in basic electronics: there isn't a single chapter on vacuum tubes. All the basic electronics textbooks I used covered vacuum tubes right after capacitors and inductors.
If you run Adblock+ or uBlock Origin all you will see is a blank white screen.
The simulator requires Perfectaudience.com which is blocked by both Adblock+ and uBlock Origin.