All About Circuits

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Contact “Normal” State and Make/Break Sequence

Contact “Normal” State and Make/Break Sequence

Any kind of switch contact can be designed so that the contacts…


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Digital Lab - Digital Combination Lock

Digital Lab - Digital Combination Lock

In this hands-on electronics experiment, build a digital combination lock with LED output indicators and learn about XOR gate functionality and how to implement NOR logic functionality using diodes.


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Basic Electromagnetic Relays

Basic Electromagnetic Relays

Don’t just sit there! Build something!! Learning to analyze relay…


Worksheets - Electromechanical

DC Lab - Potentiometer as a Rheostat

DC Lab - Potentiometer as a Rheostat

In this hands-on electronics experiment, you will use a potentiometer as a variable resistor to control the speed of a motor and learn how to connect a potentiometer as a rheostat.


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Three-phase Transformer Circuits

Three-phase Transformer Circuits

Since three-phase is used so often for power distribution systems, it…


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Switches, Hand Actuated

Switches, Hand Actuated

A switch is an electrical component that can “make” or…


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Inductive Reactance

Inductive Reactance

Don’t just sit there! Build something!! Learning to mathematically…


Worksheets - Electromechanical

Pulse Width Modulation

Pulse Width Modulation

Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) uses digital signals to control power…


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Stepper Motor Calculator

Stepper Motor Calculator

A tool designed to calculate the maximum speed, minimum time per step and maximum power of a stepper motor


Tools

The Bipolar Junction Transistor (BJT) as a Switch

The Bipolar Junction Transistor (BJT) as a Switch

Bipolar junction transistors (Also known as BJTs) can be used as an…


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Likely Failures in Unproven Systems

Likely Failures in Unproven Systems

“All men are liable to error;” —John Locke Whereas…


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The S-R Latch

The S-R Latch

A bistable multivibrator has two stable states, as indicated by the…


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555 Lab - LED Flasher with Inductive Flyback

555 Lab - LED Flasher with Inductive Flyback

In this hands-on electronics experiment, build a multiple LED flasher and learn how to use inductive flyback to generate a voltage pulse that is greater than the supply voltage.


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Solid-state Relays

Solid-state Relays

Limitations of Electromechanical Relays As versatile as…


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DC Generator Theory

DC Generator Theory

Generators used in battery-charging systems must be regulated so as to…


Worksheets - Electromechanical

Permissive and Interlock Circuits

Permissive and Interlock Circuits

A practical application of switch and relay logic is in control…


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The Silicon-Controlled Switch (SCS)

The Silicon-Controlled Switch (SCS)

If we take the equivalent circuit of an SCR and add another external…


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Hysteresis

Hysteresis

Thyristors are a class of semiconductor components exhibiting…


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Performance-Based Assessments for DC Circuit Competencies

Performance-Based Assessments for DC Circuit Competencies

(Template)


Worksheets - Electromechanical

The TRIAC

The TRIAC

SCRs are unidirectional (one-way) current devices, making them useful…


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Resonance in Series-Parallel Circuits

Resonance in Series-Parallel Circuits

In simple reactive circuits with little or no resistance, the effects…


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Optical Data Communication

Optical Data Communication

A modern alternative to sending (binary) digital information via…


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The Common-collector Amplifier

The Common-collector Amplifier

Our next transistor configuration to study is a bit simpler for gain…


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Ohm’s Law - How Voltage, Current, and Resistance Relate

Ohm’s Law - How Voltage, Current, and Resistance Relate

The first, and perhaps most important, relationship between current,…


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Potentiometers

Potentiometers

Don’t just sit there! Build something!! Learning to mathematically…


Worksheets - Electromechanical

Demultiplexers

Demultiplexers

A demultiplexer, sometimes abbreviated dmux, is a circuit that has one…


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DC Motor Theory

DC Motor Theory

If the ends of a wire loop are attached to two half-circular metal…


Worksheets - Electromechanical

Potential Pitfalls

Potential Pitfalls

Fallacious reasoning and poor interpersonal relations account for more…


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Some Examples with AC Circuits

Some Examples with AC Circuits

Let’s connect three AC voltage sources in series and use complex…


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A 50-Ohm Cable?

A 50-Ohm Cable?

Early in my explorations of electricity, I came across a length of…


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Connectors

Connectors

An electrical connector, is an electro-mechanical device used to join…


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Basic Circuit Troubleshooting

Basic Circuit Troubleshooting

Determine if the light bulb will de-energize for each of the following…


Worksheets - Electromechanical

Magnetic Units of Measurement

Magnetic Units of Measurement

In electric circuits, the three basic quantities are voltage (E or V),…


Worksheets - Electromechanical

Microwave Tubes

Microwave Tubes

For extremely high-frequency applications (above 1 GHz), the…


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Practical Considerations - Batteries

Practical Considerations - Batteries

When connecting batteries together to form larger “banks”…


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Numbers and Symbols

Numbers and Symbols

The expression of numerical quantities is something we tend to take…


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Binary Math Circuits

Binary Math Circuits

Add the following binary numbers:


Worksheets - Electromechanical

RMS Voltage Calculator

RMS Voltage Calculator

This calculator calculates the RMS Voltage value from either the peak voltage, the peak-to-peak voltage, or the average voltage.


Tools

Voltage Divider Calculator

Voltage Divider Calculator

The voltage divider is a circuit used to create a voltage less than or equal to the input voltage.


Tools

Tachogenerators

Tachogenerators

An electromechanical generator is a device capable of producing…


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Si Lab - JFET Current Regulator

Si Lab - JFET Current Regulator

In this hands-on semiconductor electronics experiment, build a junction field-effect transistor (JFET) current regulator and learn some of the advantages of JFETs over BJTs for current regulation.


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Design Project: DC Motor

Design Project: DC Motor

The armature windings of your DC motor will have very low resistance.…


Worksheets - Electromechanical

AC Lab - Noise Cancellation

AC Lab - Noise Cancellation

In this hands-on AC electronics experiment, you will use an AC voltage source connected to speakers to learn about sound waves and the foundational principle used in noise cancelling headphones.


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Digital Lab - S-R Flip-flop Using NAND Gates

Digital Lab - S-R Flip-flop Using NAND Gates

In this hands-on electronics experiment, build an edge-triggered S-R flip-flop, learn the difference between a latch and a flip-flop, and experience how a switch bounce can cause logic errors.


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Boolean Algebra

Boolean Algebra

Don’t just sit there! Build something!! Learning to analyze digital…


Worksheets - Electromechanical

Inductors

Inductors

An inductor is a passive two-terminal electrical component that…


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Resonance in Series-Parallel Circuits

Resonance in Series-Parallel Circuits

In simple reactive circuits with little or no resistance, the effects…


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Bandpass Filter Calculator

Bandpass Filter Calculator

This calculates values of the inductance, capacitance of an inductor and capacitor used in a Butterworth LC bandpass filter.


Tools

ElectroStatic Discharge

ElectroStatic Discharge

At the start of this book, we discussed static electricity and how it…


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Switches, Electrically Actuated (Relays)

Switches, Electrically Actuated (Relays)

The structure behind ladder logic is based on the electrical ladder…


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Metric Prefixes and Unit Conversions

Metric Prefixes and Unit Conversions

Metric Prefixes   Yotta = 1024 Symbol: Y Zetta = 1021 Symbol: Z…


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Introduction to Shift Registers

Introduction to Shift Registers

Shift registers, like counters, are a form of sequential…


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Digital-to-Analog Conversion

Digital-to-Analog Conversion

If a pulse-width modulated (PWM) signal is sent to a passive…


Worksheets - Electromechanical

Latch Circuits

Latch Circuits

What do you think this logic buffer gate will do, with the output…


Worksheets - Electromechanical

The “Buffer” Gate

The “Buffer” Gate

If we were to connect two inverter gates together so that the output…


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Bit Grouping

Bit Grouping

The singular reason for learning and using the binary numeration…


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DC Lab - Rate-of-change Indicator

DC Lab - Rate-of-change Indicator

In this hands-on electronics experiment, you will build an analog differentiator circuit that outputs a signal proportional to the rate-of-change and learn about one of the advantages of analog circuits.


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Design Project: Dual-output AC-DC Power Supply

Design Project: Dual-output AC-DC Power Supply

Safety is very important when designing and/or building a device…


Worksheets - Electromechanical

AC Lab - Using a Transformer to Build a 12 VAC Power Supply

AC Lab - Using a Transformer to Build a 12 VAC Power Supply

In this hands-on AC electronics experiment, build a 12 V alternating current (AC) power supply using a step-down transformer and learn about transformer operation and the purpose of tapped windings.


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Introduction to Network Theorems for Circuit Analysis

Introduction to Network Theorems for Circuit Analysis

Anyone who’s studied geometry should be familiar with the…


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