All About Circuits

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Batteries

Batteries

If I wanted to build a battery-powered electric drill, would it be…


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Specific Resistance of Conductors

Specific Resistance of Conductors

Given two lengths of metal wire, which one will have the least…


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Rectifier Circuits

Rectifier Circuits

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


Worksheets - Test & Measurement

AC Lab - Automotive Alternator as AC Generator

AC Lab - Automotive Alternator as AC Generator

In this hands-on AC electronics experiment, you will use an automotive alternator to generate three-phase AC voltage and learn how alternators can function as both generators and motors.


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Wire-by-Number project kit introduction

Wire-by-Number project kit introduction

Wire-by-Number project: simple voltage divider Description: Build a…


Worksheets - Test & Measurement

DC Motor Theory

DC Motor Theory

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


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Meter Check of a Diode

Meter Check of a Diode

The Functionality of Diode Polarity Being able to determine the…


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Solving Unbalanced Wheatstone Bridge Circuits Via Mesh Current Method

Solving Unbalanced Wheatstone Bridge Circuits Via Mesh Current Method

An unbalanced Wheatstone bridge cannot be solved using simple series…


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DC Mesh Current Analysis

DC Mesh Current Analysis

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


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Passive Integrator and Differentiator Circuits

Passive Integrator and Differentiator Circuits

∫f(x) dx Calculus alert! Calculus is a branch of mathematics that…


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Simultaneous Equations for Circuit Analysis

Simultaneous Equations for Circuit Analysis

Solve this equation for the value of x: x + 5 = 8 How many exact…


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Digital Logic Signals

Digital Logic Signals

A rheostat (variable resistor) and a switch are both examples of…


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Frequency and Phase Measurement

Frequency and Phase Measurement

An important electrical quantity with no equivalent in DC circuits is…


Textbook

Basic Oscilloscope Operation

Basic Oscilloscope Operation

An oscilloscope is a very useful piece of electronic test equipment.…


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Intro Lab - Resistor Power Dissipation

Intro Lab - Resistor Power Dissipation

In this hands-on electronics experiment, you will examine the heat generated by resistors and maybe even make one smoke! Also, learn to calculate power dissipation using Joule's law and resistor power ratings.


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Flip-Flop Circuits

Flip-Flop Circuits

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


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Si Lab - Full-wave Bridge Rectifier With Output Filtering

Si Lab - Full-wave Bridge Rectifier With Output Filtering

In this hands-on semiconductor experiment, build an improved full-wave rectifier with output filtering and learn about capacitive filtering in AC-to-DC power converters.


Textbook

Oscillator Circuits

Oscillator Circuits

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


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AC Voltmeters and Ammeters

AC Voltmeters and Ammeters

AC electromechanical meter movements come in two basic arrangements:…


Textbook

AC Lab - Musical Keyboard as a Signal Generator

AC Lab - Musical Keyboard as a Signal Generator

In this hands-on AC electronics experiment, an electronic musical keyboard will be used as a variable-frequency AC signal generator to learn the difference between AC amplitude and frequency.


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Conductor Ampacity

Conductor Ampacity

The smaller the cross-sectional area of any given wire, the greater…


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Larger 5 & 6-variable Karnaugh Maps

Larger 5 & 6-variable Karnaugh Maps

Larger Karnaugh maps reduce larger logic designs. How large is large…


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AC Lab - Automotive Alternator as AC Generator

AC Lab - Automotive Alternator as AC Generator

In this hands-on AC electronics experiment, you will use an automotive alternator to generate three-phase AC voltage and learn how alternators can function as both generators and motors.


Textbook

Active-mode Operation (IGFET)

Active-mode Operation (IGFET)


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Non-right Triangle Trigonometry

Non-right Triangle Trigonometry

The Law of Sines (for any triangle) The Law of Cosines (for any…


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The Command-line Interface

The Command-line Interface

If you’ve used DOS or UNIX operating systems before in a…


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Circuit Components

Circuit Components

Remember that this tutorial is not exhaustive by any means, and that…


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Sum and Product Notation

Sum and Product Notation

For reference, this section introduces the terminology used in some…


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AC Lab - Frequency Analysis

AC Lab - Frequency Analysis

In this hands-on AC electronics experiment, use the frequency spectrum display from an oscilloscope program to observe waveforms from a musical keyboard and learn about spectral analysis.


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Transistors, junction field-effect (JFET)

Transistors, junction field-effect (JFET)

Note that the direction of the arrow at the gate indicates the…


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Edge-triggered Latches: Flip-Flops

Edge-triggered Latches: Flip-Flops

So far, we’ve studied both S-R and D latch circuits with enable…


Textbook

Intro Lab - Resistor Power Dissipation

Intro Lab - Resistor Power Dissipation

In this hands-on electronics experiment, you will examine the heat generated by resistors and maybe even make one smoke! Also, learn to calculate power dissipation using Joule's law and resistor power ratings.


Textbook

The Common-base Amplifier

The Common-base Amplifier

The final transistor amplifier configuration (Figure below) we need to…


Textbook

Tube Lab - Vacuum Tube Audio Amplifier

Tube Lab - Vacuum Tube Audio Amplifier

In this hands-on electronics experiment, build an audio amplifier using a vacuum tube (triode) and learn about voltage transformers, how to build a high-voltage DC power supply, and how to use a transformer for impedance matching.


Textbook

DC Lab - Voltage Divider

DC Lab - Voltage Divider

In this hands-on electronics experiment, you will build a resistive voltage divider and observe how Ohm's law and Kirchhoff's voltage law (KVL) function in real circuits using a voltmeter and an ammeter.


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Why digital?

Why digital?

Although many textbooks provide good introductions to digital memory…


Textbook

Ring Counters

Ring Counters

If the output of a shift register is fed back to the input. a ring…


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Special Transformers and Applications

Special Transformers and Applications

Impedance Matching Because transformers can step voltage and current…


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Electrical Noise and Interference

Electrical Noise and Interference

Define what noise means, in the electrical sense of the word. How does…


Worksheets - Test & Measurement

Finite-length Transmission Lines

Finite-length Transmission Lines

A transmission line of infinite length is an interesting abstraction,…


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AC Lab - PC Oscilloscope

AC Lab - PC Oscilloscope

In this hands-on AC electronics experiment, use a PC-based oscilloscope program to observe waveforms from a musical keyboard and learn basic oscilloscope operation.


Textbook

Phasor Mathematics

Phasor Mathematics

Provide a definition for phasor, as the term applies to electrical…


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Kirchhoff’s Voltage Law (KVL)

Kirchhoff’s Voltage Law (KVL)

What is Kirchhoff’s Voltage Law (KVL)? The principle known as…


Textbook

Phase-locked Loops

Phase-locked Loops


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Series-parallel R, L, and C

Series-parallel R, L, and C

Now that we’ve seen how series and parallel AC circuit analysis…


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Introduction to Junction Field-effect Transistors (JFET)

Introduction to Junction Field-effect Transistors (JFET)

A transistor is a semiconductor device that controls current with the…


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Tesla Polyphase Induction Motors

Tesla Polyphase Induction Motors

Most AC motors are induction motors. Induction motors are favored due…


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Design Project: Intercom System

Design Project: Intercom System

Design a passive circuit that will create a "split” ( V/-V) power…


Worksheets - Test & Measurement

Rules for Antiderivatives

Rules for Antiderivatives

Constant Rule     Rule of Sums     Rule of…


Textbook

Power Measurement

Power Measurement

Power measurement in AC circuits can be quite a bit more complex than…


Textbook

Read-Only Memory (ROM)

Read-Only Memory (ROM)

Read-only memory (ROM) is similar in design to static or dynamic RAM…


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Introduction to AC Motors

Introduction to AC Motors

After the introduction of the DC electrical distribution system by…


Textbook

Voltage and Current

Voltage and Current

As was previously mentioned, we need more than just a continuous path…


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Converting Truth Tables into Boolean Expressions

Converting Truth Tables into Boolean Expressions

In designing digital circuits, the designer often begins with a truth…


Textbook

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.


Textbook

Q Factor and Bandwidth of a Resonant Circuit

Q Factor and Bandwidth of a Resonant Circuit

The Q, or quality, factor of a resonant circuit is a measure of the…


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Design Project: AC-DC Power Supply

Design Project: AC-DC Power Supply

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


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Scientific Notation in SPICE

Scientific Notation in SPICE

The SPICE circuit simulation computer program uses scientific notation…


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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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Standing Waves and Resonance

Standing Waves and Resonance

Whenever there is a mismatch of impedance between transmission line…


Textbook