Electronics Handbook made for Everyone

By James Garfield B.Sc.

Electronics Handbook Made for Everyone, is the result of a long-time dream; writing a book on a complex subject in a way that is easy to understand, approachable and fun. Finally, a book on electronics that is aimed at everyone. You don’t need a college degree or any prior knowledge to fully enjoy and make sense of the fascinating world of electronics. We tackle every major subject that relates to electrons and how we’ve managed to harness the incredible invisible force that emanates from their movement, namely, electromagnetism. A buyer’s guide is also included in the first chapter to help enthusiasts and beginners become familiar with the basic set of tools that should be part of a tech’s workbench. The entire book is meant to offer a solid foundation of theoretical knowledge and basic principles of electronics with minimal mathematics, all explained in plain language, suitable for all ages. If you are looking to pick up a new hobby or simply want to learn how most of our modern day technology works, this is the book for you.

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION TO ELECTRONICS
CHAPTER 2: ELECTRONIC COMPONENTS
CHAPTER 3: DC AND AC POWER SUPPLIES
CHAPTER 4: TRANSISTORS AND OTHER SEMICONDUCTORS
CHAPTER 5: ANALOG AND DIGITAL SIGNALS
CHAPTER 6: WIRED AND WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS
CHAPTER 7: IMAGE & PIXEL SENSING AND EMISSION
CHAPTER 8: ALL ABOUT THE INTERNET
CHAPTER 9: FINAL THOUGHTS

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Jan 9, 2024
• ISBN: 9781304727664

Book preview

Electronics Handbook made for Everyone

James Garfield B.Sc.

Copyright © 2024 James Garfield

All rights reserved

The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.

ISBN-9781304727664

Cover design by: Art Painter

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018675309

Printed in the United States of America

This work is dedicated to Sofia.

Contents

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

CHAPTER 1:​ INTRODUCTION TO ELECTRONICS

CHAPTER 2: ELECTRONIC COMPONENTS

CHAPTER 3: DC AND AC POWER SUPPLIES

CHAPTER 4: TRANSISTORS AND OTHER SEMICONDUCTORS

CHAPTER 5: ANALOG AND DIGITAL SIGNALS

CHAPTER 6: WIRED AND WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS

CHAPTER 7: IMAGE & PIXEL SENSING AND EMISSION

CHAPTER 8: ALL ABOUT THE INTERNET

CHAPTER 9: FINAL THOUGHTS

Electronics

Handbook

Made For

Everyone

James Garfield B.Sc.

Electronics Engineer

CHAPTER 1:​ INTRODUCTION TO ELECTRONICS

Ever since I was a young boy I was fascinated with electronics. Everything from the TV to the Stereo system and my first portable Walkman, all ingenious devices that captured my imagination and begged the question: how in the world do they work? Just about everything around us today is either battery operated or plugs into an electric power source. Electronics, as a whole, is the single most advanced discipline of human research and development, with applications in medicine, military weapons and logistics, communications, home appliances and games, all forms of transportation and more! The average household didn’t have electric power up until the mid 1900s, and yet we can’t hardly even imagine our life without electricity today. There are two groups of books that deal with the subject of electronics; hands on, and purely theoretical. Hands on books focus almost exclusively on how to make or build small devices with lots of pictures and little to no mathematical postulations in sight, pretty much leaving out the physics of electrons. On the other hand, the rest of the electronics books are entirely theoretical, filled with mathematical equations that represent physical phenomena explaining concepts with numbers, with no mention of any practical implementation. My goal is to be somewhere in the middle in order to empower the average person, to explain in simple terms the underlying phenomena, so that you may have the necessary tools to learn just about everything about electronics in a way that is easy to understand and engaging.

Every time we power on an electric device, electrons flow from one place to another, changing something along the way, either by electric or magnetic force. For example, if we connect a speaker to an amplifier connected to a sound source, we obtain an acoustic representation of the electrical sound signal. On the other hand, if we connect an electrical power source to an electrical motor, the rotor will spin. As we all know, the basis of electronics are electrons. The first and most obvious question to tackle is: what are electrons? The short answer is, they are kind of mysterious. That being said, we can describe many of the characteristics of electrons and use their movement as a very stable power source. For example, we know that electrons are very small things that are found in every atom of every element that we’ve managed to identify in the periodic table of elements. In case you don’t remember, atoms are the smallest unit of matter, yet the atoms themselves are also made up of sub-atomic particles, such as protons and neutrons that are packed in the middle of the atom (nucleus) and electrons that move freely or orbit around the nucleus at specific distances. Neutrons are electrically neutral in charge, hence the name. Protons are positively charged and electrons are negatively charged. A simple way to describe electrons is to say they are the smallest negatively charged particle found in nature which, as far as we know, is accurate.

Physicists have come up with recent models of atoms that include many other sub-atomic particles with varying properties, but most of that is irrelevant for traditional electronics applications; all our focus is set on the behavior of the electrons. Electrons are so small that they do not always behave as particles, sometimes they can behave as a pure energy source or wave; this conundrum is referred to as the wave-particle duality and it applies to all quantum particles such as electrons and photons. Quantum particles behave quite differently to everything else, in fact they have their own set of laws of physics that applies exclusively to their unique characteristics; this is known as quantum mechanics. Most electronic devices rely on the behavior of electrons as particles, with very few exceptions such as the electron microscope, where the electron beam propagation relies on the electrons behaving as waves. In any case, these incredibly tiny electrons are so small that we can’t see them even with the most advanced microscope, so for now, we can only imagine what they look like.

Despite the fact that we can’t see them directly, we can see and feel the effects of electrons indirectly, for example when they pass through different materials such as an incandescent light bulb. All electronic devices use some form of electric current as a power source, but not all power sources are the same. For example, the characteristics of alternate current (AC) that is obtained from a typical power outlet in our house are very different to the direct current (DC) that is obtained from an alkaline AA battery. Correspondingly, devices that use AC power will not function with DC power and vice-versa. Not only that, we can permanently damage a device by connecting it to the right kind of power source that is either too low or too high in voltage. That being said, in the wonderful world of electronic design there are electronic components that are used to regulate voltage, stabilize it and even transform voltage from AC to DC and DC to AC. Don’t worry, we’ll get into all that fun stuff further ahead. Electrical power is typically expressed in Watts which is the mathematical equivalent of multiplying two measurable parameters: amperage and voltage. In large enough quantities, electrons can burn skin or even cause death, therefore we must always observe caution when dealing with high current electrical power.

Generally speaking, portable electronic devices that use small batteries as power sources can be considered safe, with the exception of lithium batteries which can burst into flames if punctured, though there is generally a low risk of an electric shock. Conversely, all power outlets in our home, typically either 110V or 220V can deliver large quantities of electrons per second and should be considered lethal. It is important to stress the dangers that are inherent to all home appliances and any plugged-in device. Unfortunately, when we don’t take the necessary precautions, we will inevitably risk an electric shock that is potentially lethal. I have personally received both 110V and 220V shocks by accidentally touching internal leads of devices that were plugged in. My electrical mishaps happened many years ago when I believed I was careful enough not to need to use gloves or double check if the device was still plugged in, so I learned the hard way. I can assure you that receiving an electrical shock of AC electric power is a traumatic and painful experience. Please, always double check that whatever you are disassembling is unplugged, and secondly, use appropriate gear such as electrical insulating gloves, insulated screwdrivers, insulated cutters, and so on. Never take risks due to the lack of appropriate tools; it is better to stop and come back later rather than trying to save time which can result in a deadly affair.

Electronic components come in all shapes and sizes; however, the size usually matches the number of electrons that are coursing through each component. Every electronic component such as resistors, capacitors, transistors, inductors and even simple wires that connect everything together are scaled to adjust for or accommodate an equivalent number of electron density. In simple terms, small components can handle a relatively small number of electrons and large components, along with thick heavy gauge wires can handle an increasing number of electrons per second. Large capacitors, large transformers and very thick conductors are all synonymous with potentially deadly amounts of electrons. On the other hand, the smallest production transistors (in 2023) are so tiny that we could line up over 25 thousand transistors across the width of a single human hair; these are made by high precision machines and are built by layering chemical compounds at only a few atoms of thickness. At that size, the consumption of power a.k.a. electrons, is so small that a very limited number of electrons can fit through the transistors, which makes them require very low current.

We should address and properly distinguish between two of the most important measurable characteristics of electrons: voltage and current. The easiest of the two to describe is current because, just as the name implies, it refers to the number of electrons that are flowing through a conductor. Voltage is measured in Volts (V) and current is measured in Amperes (A) or just amps for short. There are 6.242 x 10¹⁸ electrons per second passing through a conductor in 1 amp. While some muscle contractions can occur with as little as 10 mA or 1/100th of an ampere, 1 amp and above is enough to cause the heart to lose rhythmic pumping action (ventricular fibrillation) and is likely to cause death with extended exposure. 10 Amps or more will cause cardiac arrest and death with short exposure. Current can only be measured when an electric device is connected to a power source and is turned on, therefore it is one of the most dangerous parameters that can be measured. There are two ways to measure current: in-line with the circuit, also called series measurement