First things first, this is the second part of the whole post. You might want to go to the [first part]({{ site.baseurl }}{% post_url 2018-08-18-simplified-introduction-to-electronics-1 %})
in order to get the context but if you have read it or have an idea about the related topics, then let's continue on.
Now that we have discussed the non-tangible part of the electronics section, let's go and talk about the stuff that we are actually going
to see a lot when we practically apply our electrical skills: electronic components and their functions, circuits, and more things to come as
we go on our way.
So let's get started into the very first thing to do when introducing our topic:
<!-- TODO: Ohm's Law -->
## What is electronics?
Yes, we haven't started discussing what electronics is.
Taking the whole definition of the word according from the book *Electronics For Dummies, 3rd Edition*:
> The word electronics describes both the field of study that focuses on the control of electrical energy and the physical systems (including circuits, components, and interconnections) that implement this control of electrical energy.
**In other words, electronics is a subject where we need to precisely control electrons to flow throughout an electronic system in order to do the things we would expect.**
"How do I make the lightbulb lit up"? Simple, we just need some wire that can conduct things, connect it to our bulb, connect them through a
source and make a complete circuit.
"Now I want to make an LED lit up". We also just make a circuit similar to it and then... Oh, it burned out. It probably has too much current
on there, we need a resistor that can reduce the electric charge flowing through our LED. Also, we need a new LED.
That is just some of the experiences I've had when trying out these things and I'm sure you will have those moments, too. Well, that's enough
out-of-persona writing for today, I suppose.
In the world of electronics and when we actually do a practical application of the subject, it is mostly composed of controlling electrical
charges in a precise manner. It is really a matter of getting our components to work on our circuits and hoping that it doesn't blow up. The
way how electricity and circuits work is the little details that goes with it. Any slight misadjustment to our circuit arrangement may cause
for the circuit to not entirely work. One electronic component that isn't working is all it takes to not make our circuit work, depending
on the type of circuit that we built, of course.
With those things that you'll expect, this contributed to the impression that starting out electronics is hard (aside from money that you'll
shell out). However, this emphasizes why we need to study a bit about the inner workings of the electric circuits through their very
components: the particles.
## Electrical circuits
OK, now that we have discussed what electronics is all about, let's talk about what all you're going to encounter: electrical circuits.
**Electrical circuits are made up of electronic components that lets electrons to flow around them completing a loop**.
We, as aspiring electrical engineers, have the objective of building circuits to make sure we have led electrons to flow to their destinations
and do the tasks that we want them to do: lighting up an LED, making a running light, building a sound amplifier, and all sorts of good stuff.
Basically, circuits are classified according whether the circuit has been *closed* or *open*.
Closed circuits are basically what circuits are, providing the electronic components the amount of energy they needed in order to make them
work since electrons continuously move.
Take note of a switch circuit as an example. Referring to the schematic given above, we have a simple circuit with an LED, a resistor, and a
push button switch which will only let electric charges flow when the button is pushed. An inactive switch basically makes the circuit open
but triggering it will cause it to be a closed circuit, thus the circuit will work and the LED will be lit up.
*Open circuits* may also refer if there is an accidental break in the path, something like an unintentional placement of components on a
breadboard or a damaged component that renders it to be unusable and does not let the electrons flow through it.
Certainly like all things in life, circuits can get complex but we can break them all down into their basic components:
- *Source* — The origin of the force that causes the electrons to move around or in other words, *voltage*. Components that include in this category are batteries, electrical outlets, and a power module.
- *Load* — Similar to the term that we use to describe that one member of the group (although this one is more useful), the load is a component that consumes electricity. It is also the component that represents the function of the circuit from the lightbulb that illuminates an area to the robotic arm that can sense hotdog in its vicinity. Otherwise, there is really no point of building a circuit with the electrons just circling around, waiting to be converted into work.
- *Conductive path* — This refers to the conductors that provide the path for the electrons to flow through. Common examples include wires,
metal strips, and metal sheets.
## Schematics
Building a circuit schematic is basically a way to represent our circuit but its purpose does not end there. It also helps us to plan out
our circuit to see where the electrons are flowing to and later on, monitor the variables of the circuit like the resistance, voltage, and
current once we are more familiar with those elements integrated into circuit building.
**In other words, schematics is like a map that helps us to locate various components in a circuit.**
You've already saw some examples if you did not skip some parts, mostly referring the open and closed circuit illustration above.
Fun fact, the RAM in your computer is made up of billions of these things representing 0s and 1s. [Put some shameless plugging of one of your articles in here]({{ site.baseurl }}{% post_url 2018-08-7-simplified-introduction-to-the-memory-and-memory-management %}).
Anyways, a capacitor is similar to a battery, containing metal plates holding out ions of both charges. Some of them are simply two metal
plates just held very close to each other not to the point of touching but some of them has a material that keeps them separated, also known
as a *dielectric*. In fact, its symbol resembles the core component of the capacitor: two metal plates on a distance.
As you expect, with all of these similarities with the battery, it still has some difference with the battery.
Both can store energy. The battery can produce and store those energy and the capacitor can only store but the defining feature of the
capacitor is the ability to discharge energy quickly unlike the battery which releases energy gradually throughout the circuit. This makes
the capacitor suitable for tasks that need a quick surge of energy like a flash bulb in a camera.
The way how a capacitor works is when it gains a hold of the ions, it just keeps them separated but it also creates an electric force,
storing the electrical potential energy. Therefore, in order to use a capacitor in a circuit, we have to make sure that it is charged by
letting current through it (obviously). That is simply it.
Capacitors are measured through its *capacitance*, the amount of electrical energy it can store. At usual cases, you can store more energy
by getting two larger metal plates. The larger the capacitor, the more energy it can store but that is usually not the case. It also depends
on the internal composition of the capacitor. When you put a specific kind of material between those metal plates, you can increase the
amount of energy to be stored compared to when you have the metal plates of the same size without the material.
Capacitance, as expected, has a unit to describe the capability of the capacitor to store energy and that unit is called a *farad*, denoted
simply by uppercase F. One farad \\((1F)\\) describe just how much capacitance is needed with one amp \\((1A)\\) of current with a change of
voltage of one volt per second \\((1 \frac{V}{s})\\).
We can describe capacitance mathematically like this:
$$ 1F = 1\frac{A}{\frac{V}{s}} $$
However, we can simplify it into this:
$$ 1F = 1\frac{C}{V} $$
Remember that an amp per second \\((1\frac{A}{s})\\) is equivalent to a coulomb \\((1C)\\). A coulomb describe the magnitude carried by a
specific number of electrons \\((6.241 * 10^{18})\\) in a second.
To put it into words, we can say that a farad describes how much capacitance is needed with a coulomb per volt.
Well, we don't really need to memorize those. Just know that capacitance and the unit, farad, describes something. In fact, all units
describe something as a way to comprehend what is the revolving topic is all about. Current is with amps, voltage is with volts, resistance
is with ohms, capacitance is with farads and they all have one thing in common: they are used to indicate and describe how they relate to
other units.
We know that an amp is considered quite large. So does a farad. When we are starting out and buying out some capacitors to begin with, we
mostly see that a capacitor is usually measured at microfarads \\((μF)\\) or picofarads \\((pF)\\). In fact, that is the unit that the
three-numbering system behind a ceramic capacitor is all about.
You can charge up a capacitor simply by including it in a circuit but it'll have different effects depending on the kind of circuit.
Let's say we want to include a polarized capacitor in our simple LED circuit.
<!-- PICTODO: simple LED circuit with an electrolytic capacitor -->
We'll see that our LED will lit up for a moment before turning off. What's happening with it?
We did charge our capacitor but eventually it got full, blocking the incoming electrons off since they have no way of going through a
fully charged capacitor and this made the LED temporarily lit up in the first place. Depending on the specifications of the capacitor, the
duration that the LED lit may vary, a capacitor with a larger capacitance will make the LED temporarily light up longer since it takes
longer to fully charge it, assuming we have the same current and voltage as we did with a capacitor of a smaller capacitance.
Once the capacitor is fully charged we can actually light up the LED temporarily without the battery and only using the capacitor. Just
make a circuit involving the LED, the resistor, and the capacitor to see the effect. Just make sure the polarity of them are in correct
position to see it.
When we finally get the capacitor to discharge properly, the LED lit up but only for a few moment. The moment the LED turns off, that's the
sign the capacitor is mostly empty, having its stored energy released on the LED enabling it to light up for a short time.
Capacitors can store those energy for hours so you better discharge them first if you want to gain a closer look into the insides of it.
Furthermore, some of the capacitors uses corrosive material that acts as the insulator so it is wise that we take some precautions if you're
really curious to take a look at it.
Not only we can temporarily store some energy in our capacitor, we can also do some more things with it.
With the right amount of capacitance, we can make an LED fade its light but including a ~1K μF capacitor and see the magic happens. What's
happening here is that the ions are stored onto the capacitor gradually, making the LED gradually lose its light since more and more
incoming particles are blocked off from the capacitor nearing its full charge.
## Inductors
This is a tool that utilizes electromagnetism. How? Well, let's discuss a bit about the longest word in the first sentences in the paragraph,
shall we?
Before we discuss how it works, here's the symbol for the inductor which is just a wavy line or something.
As said from [a video from ScienceBuddiesTV](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WReFkfrUIk):
> To use the breadboard, you need to understand how the strips are connected into each hole.
In a typical breadboard, it usually comes with the two primary parts: the terminal strip and the bus strip. Commonly, you would see that these
parts were being held together by a large piece of adhesive, so that you can place the breadboard anywhere.
### Terminal strip
The terminal strip is simply the centerpiece of the breadboard containing the labels with the numbers on the left and the right sides and the
letters in the top and the bottom sides, if we would orient the breadboard vertically. The numbers part is typically considered as the row
while the letters is the column. This is why most breadboard posts and pictures show the breadboard vertically.
The terminal strip is where you put in your electronic components but you can't just place the components anywhere.
In a terminal strip, we would see that the metal strips that's inside of it goes on horizontally on each row but it cuts out to the center
where the gutter is. That particular gutter exists in order to easily fit our components like the integrated circuit and would not cause our
components' *leads* or the metal legs to shorten. If we want to use the whole row, we need to have a component that can connect the two metal
strips in the same row.
<!-- PICTODO: terminal strip horizontal metal strips -->
Those labels on each side are not meant for show either since they act as a guide to easily reference our components. If you are just starting
out with a simple circuit, you would not probably use it a lot since it is easier to debug our circuit with less components but as you go on
creating more complex circuit, it will certainly be useful as long as you keep track of your components well.
### Bus strip
The bus strip is the two pieces on the two sides of the breadboard. This is where we place the power line for our circuits. There are usually
two columns for the bus strip: one for the supply voltage (the positive terminal) marked with the red line running across vertically on
the left side of the strip and also a plus sign, and another one for the ground (the negative terminal) marked with blue or black line on the
right and also a minus sign. There might be some breadboards that doesn't mark the bus strip (like the one I got) but typically, it also has
the same placement.
As previously mentioned, this is where we place the power line for our circuit so this is where we connect our power supply into its
appropriate place. Let's take a battery as an example.
In a battery, we would connect the positive terminal onto the side with the plus sign and the negative terminal on the ground side or the one
with the minus sign. That is simply how we would supply power onto our circuit.
## Conclusion
There we go, the practical side of electronics. We have a lot of components and tools at our disposal in order to build a working circuit but
above all, we need to be able to get the fundamental mechanics of how those components work at least in its basic core in order to utilize
them properly. It is kind of like grammar: we can understand things even with the wrong grammar but wouldn't be better if we have a proper
understanding of the grammar to get more things correctly. Most likely a bad analogy but the point get across (hopefully).
Electronics is mostly about building circuits and controlling the electrons to get them to the right place and do the right function that
we aim for. Different tools and components are there like with LEDs, capacitors, batteries, transistors, integrated circuits, and our plain
old wire.
For a little summary of things, here they are:
- *schematics* — They're the map of our circuit. It does not only tell where the components are placed but also tell the values associated with them. Each electronic component that we see has a symbol in the schematics. For example, the battery is simply two parallel lines with one line that is longer than the other, and the resistor which can be represented by a zigzag or a rectangle.
- *Ohm's Law* — Basically, the law states that the amount of voltage is directly proportionally to the amount of current. Applying the principle from this law for our circuit is very much important. It let us know the values needed for our circuit to work in an optimal performance and not get our components to fry or not functioning at all. Knowing the formula, \\(V = \frac{I}{R}\\), we can apply it to know how much resistance does it need for our LED to light up in its brightest (given that we know the voltage used and the amount of current needed to work by the LED and other stuff), how much voltage is needed to power up our very elaborative circuit #42, or how much current of charges is required to make this component work, among other things.
- *battery* — The voltage source for our circuit. Batteries are not only the electrical source out there but they're pretty much the kind of source we're fiddling with as a beginner.
- *light-emitting diode* — They are simply a kind of diode that emits light when current passes through them
- *resistor* — It simply serves as a reducer of current since electronic components tend to break down if they receive too much current. You can see a component breaking down yourself simply by making an LED connect to the battery without it. There are many types of resistor but the one we usually see on our beginners electronic kit is the carbon film resistor which is a kind of a fixed resistor. The values of a carbon film resistor can be calculated as indicated by the color values embedded into the film. The colors and the position of the color strip means differently so better have your googling skills ready for the resistor color values.
- *inductor* — A component that uses electromagnetism. There's not much use (or at least I found) for it in a beginner level but know that this component exists and serves as some kind of sensor
- *transistor* — It has two basic functions: switching and amplifying. It has three parts: the base, emitter, and collector. With switching, it depends whether or not there is current entering the base. When there is current from the base, then the transistor is "on" but it can go
from "fully on" to "partially on". Otherwise, the transistor is "off". With amplifying, the function is also dependent on the current from the base. The current of charges from the base will represent how much current is going to flow from the current in the collector. When there is a bit of current from the base, the transistor's "gate" will open up, allowing the current from the collector to pass through. There is much more than this and as I continually revise this, I'm going to link you to this [page](http://amasci.com/amateur/transis.html) if you want a clearer explanation of how transistor works, OK. 😁
- *integrated circuits* — They are simply circuits that are compressed into a small package. Their functions quite vary and you simply have to identify their parts number to get their datasheet and understand better on how they work and what does the circuit inside looks like. The most common form of integrated circuits or IC, for short, is the dual in-line package (or DIP) and it is also breadboard-friendly.
- *breadboard* — It is simply a rectangular piece of material with grid holes and metal strips inside of it. Unlike with soldering which will make the components permanently attach to our circuit, the components that are attached to the breadboard are only stuck through the hole that is reaching to the metal strip. As such, it allows us for a bigger breather when we create a mistake since we can just quickly deattach it and reposition it. This is a tool perfect for creating a prototype for our circuit, testing it out, or a simple quick creative circuit building for fun.
## (Re)Sources:
- ### Books
- [*Electronics For Kids (No Starch Press)*](https://www.nostarch.com/electronicsforkids/)
- [Part 1: DC Circuits on *Fundamentals of Electric Circuits, 6th Edition (Alexander & Sadiku)*](https://www.amazon.com/Fundamentals-Electric-Circuits-Charles-Alexander/dp/0078028221)
- [Part I: Fathoming the Fundaments of Electronics on *Electronics For Dummies, 3rd Edition (Wiley and Sons Inc.)*](https://www.amazon.com/Electronics-Dummies-Cathleen-Shamieh/dp/1119117976/)
- [Part II: Controlling Current With Components on *Electronics For Dummies, 3rd Edition (Wiley and Sons Inc.)*](https://www.amazon.com/Electronics-Dummies-Cathleen-Shamieh/dp/1119117976)
- [Chapter 4: Semiconductors on *Practical Electronics for Inventors, Fourth Edition (Scherz & Monk)*](https://www.amazon.com/Practical-Electronics-Inventors-Fourth-Scherz/dp/1259587541)
- ### Videos
- [Basic Electricity - Resistance and Ohm's Law by *Afrotechmods*](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfcgA1axPLo)
- [Basic Electricity - Voltage by *Afrotechmods*](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBt-kxYfync)
- [Basic Electricity - What is an amp? by *Afrotechmods*](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gvJzrjwjds)
- [Electric Charge from *Crash Courses*](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFlVWf8JX4A)
- [How to use a breadboard by ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WReFkfrUIk)
- [LED Basics by *Afrotechmods*](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yo6JI_bzUzo)
- [Simple guide to electronic components by *bigclivedotcom*](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Maq5IyHSuc)
- ### Web
- [How do batteries work on *Explain That Stuff*](https://www.explainthatstuff.com/batteries.html)
- [Breadboard on *Wikipedia*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breadboard)
- [Coulomb on *Wikipedia*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coulomb)
- [Difference Between EMF and Voltage from *Difference Between*](https://www.differencebetween.com/difference-between-emf-and-vs-voltage/)
- [Electric charge on *Wikipedia*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_charge)
- [Electromotive force on *Wikipedia*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromotive_force)
- [Electronics for beginners on *Explain That Stuff*](https://www.explainthatstuff.com/electronics.html)
- [How do capacitors work? on *Explain That Stuff*](https://www.explainthatstuff.com/capacitors.html)
- [How electromagnets work? on *Explain That Stuff*](https://science.howstuffworks.com/electromagnet.htm)
- [How do transistors work? No, how really they work?, Part 1 by *William Betty*](http://amasci.com/amateur/transis.html) — I recommend this one if you want to have a clarification on how transistors work
- [How do transistors work? Short version by *William Betty*](http://amasci.com/amateur/trshort.html)
- [Learn the Basic Electronic Components from *Build Electronic Circuits*](https://www.build-electronic-circuits.com/dbe-components/)
- [What is the difference between emf and voltage? from *Quora*](https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-difference-between-emf-and-voltage)
- [What You Need to Know About Current, Voltage and Resistance from *Build Electronic Circuits*](https://www.build-electronic-circuits.com/current-voltage-resistance/)
- [Voltage on *Wikipedia*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voltage)
## Choose your own learning adventure
More topics that I haven't discuss that may or may not be included or updated someday:
- Learn how soldering works and how to solder (this is probably the most important part)
- Arduino / Raspberry Pi integration (yes, they are beginner-friendly, don't worry)
- How computers work on a hardware level
- The beginning of the study to embedded systems
- Or you know, the simple DIY projects that you'll do; TRY TO APPLY IT!
## Author's Note
There you have it. The introduction to the whole electronics stuff that you need to know as a beginner. Hopefully not too much confusing. 😅
There is still a lot of stuff under this and you would have to research it for yourself in order to get a fuller picture but for now, all
practical stuff is included in here to see it for ourselves and not get bored on to the theoretical stuff a bit too much, unless you're into
that kind of thing.
If you think this post is confusing, you can simply say it to the comments or message me. That's what feedback and constructive criticisms are
for. Seriously, I feel like this entry is a bad one. I may have to continually update it by the time this got published. I can't also stay
this entry go any longer since I have other entries to go through.
Anyways, I forgot to include the objective of this series in the last post. Even though I can just edit it in, I don't want to edit
an author's note if it is large enough of a point but anyways, here we go.
The very objective of this *Simplified!* series is to explain it in a simplified manner without oversimplifying it. I'm trying to
utilize [Feynman Technique](https://curiosity.com/topics/learn-anything-in-four-steps-with-the-feynman-technique-curiosity/) by writing
this type of posts. Although it is working since I can still remember the details needed to understand the concepts I've posted about,
I am still in need of feedback for my writing. Also, IDK if this goes with the Feynman Technique since I tried to not oversimplify it.
So far, with these two *Simplified!* posts, each of them took me a span of a week simply because I'm writing the whole thing as I'm learning
it, not really as on-the-go but as soon as I have tested and experimented on the subjects I'll write about (in memory and management and
pointers wherein I wrote a bunch of bad code, for example). Plus I only do it on my free time. I simply think that it is better if I
would write a *Simplified!* post a week after I've learned a concept to give it some time to cement the learnings on my head over time.
One of the most effective learning technique as said by this [comment on a Dev.to post](https://dev.to/adarshkkumar/comment/3opf) is to
**learn**, **experiment**, then **teach others** (in this case, writing a blog).
It really forces me to research more about the topic that I will write and learned a lot more from it. From what my initial knowledge as I
begin to write, it continually expands as I write. It's just an amazing process. It just works but also hard especially if I want to
emphasize on the practical application of the topic. I'll figure it out as I write more of this stuff. Who knows, I might go back and improve
my old posts someday.
For now, this serves as a good opportunity for me to solidify the concepts I've learned for this week and improve my writing skills. That's
killing two birds with one stone stuff right there. IT'S EFFICIENCY!
Slightly unrelated note, if I would to write a low-level abstraction version of this, would it be another series that is called
*Complexified!* and if I write a simpler version of a *Simplified!* post, would it be called as an *Oversimplified!* post?
Yeah, now that I think about it, I like those names. 😁 I'll be keeping those names for the future, for sure.
