The Art of Doing: Electronics for Everyone

Years ago I bought an Arduino and I can remember how awesome it felt to hook it up, write a program, and blink an LED!  My next question was “How on earth would you do that without an Arduino?!?”.  Don’t get me wrong, I think Arduino’s and all sorts of microcontrollers are awesome, but to me, it abstracted things a little too much.  I’m an avid guitarist and a gear head; I love guitar effects pedals.  Inside those stomp boxes, you won’t find an Arduino.  What you will find is the guts of an analog circuit:  resistors, diodes, capacitors, transistors, and integrated circuit chips…all working together to create, bend, and shape a waveform.

I know there are tons of YouTube videos out there showing various analog circuits but the vast majority of them are the same:  a time lapsed video of someone populating a breadboard or PCB with music playing in the background.  No explanation of what they were doing or why they were doing it, no breakdown of the role of each and every component in the circuit, no conveying of understanding at not just a mathematical level but even a conceptual level.  That is not learning and as someone who wanted to learn, to dive deeper into the subject, so I could figure out how to blink an LED without an Arduino and eventually more, it was a frustrating experience.

These are the reasons I decided to create this course.  These are the reasons I hope you enroll in this course; because I can help lift those learning frustrations for you and help you gain an appreciation for analog electronics.

In this highly interactive course we will go through and cover the following circuit components.  Exploring how they operate (with just enough math to hopefully convey understanding), interact with one another, and behave with DC and AC signals.

• Resistors
• Potentiometers,
• Light Dependent Resistors
• Push Buttons
• Capacitors
• Diodes
• LEDs
• Speakers
• Microphones
• Transistors
• Operational Amplifiers
• 555 Timers
• Decade Counters
• And More!

We will build/explain/explore classic circuits and then have some fun with some more creative circuits through direct instruction, “Challenge Circuits” where you can test your knowledge at various points in the course, and “Build Together Circuits” where we will build and learn together. Example circuits include:

• Tri-Color LED Mixer
• Voltage Dividers
• Transistor Switches
• RC Timing Circuits
• Fading LED Circuits
• Astable Multivibrators
• RC Low Pass, High Pass, and Band Pass Filters,
• Transistor Amplifiers (Common Emitter Amplifier)
• A Sound to Light Circuit
• Op Amp Comparators, Non-Inverting Amplifiers, and Inverting Amplifiers
• A Crude Motion Detector and Volume Meter
• 555 Timer Circuits in Bistable, Monostable, and Astable Mode
• A Toy Theremin, Toy Piano, and Atari Punk Console
• 4017 Decade Counter 10 LED Chaser
• Voltage Controlled Oscillators
• A 4 Step Music Sequencer
• An 8 Step Music Sequencer
• And More!!!

The presentation of material will constantly alternate from a slideshow shared directly from my computer screen with up close pictures of the circuit I am building for reference to live cameras with viewpoints of my breadboard, oscilloscope, and multimeters watching me build in real time.  I will teach, then build, explain, then build with the hopes that you build along with me and at no point in the process experience confusion, frustration, or a lack of desire to continue.

The course was designed so a student could follow along with a breadboard, 9 volt battery, minimal components (parts list included), and a multimeter.  There are times when I will use equipment such as a function generator or oscilloscope but I understand those are expensive items and they are not integral items to the course.  There is also the option to follow along with various online circuit simulators.

I hope you enroll in this course today and together we can figure out “How the heck would I do that without and Arduino?!?”