
Concise Electronics for Geeks (2010) - nbmh
http://lcamtuf.coredump.cx/electronics/
======
Afrotechmods
Shameless but possibly relevant plug... Here's my introduction to electronics
series of tutorial videos:
[http://afrotechmods.com/tutorials/category/tutorials/beginne...](http://afrotechmods.com/tutorials/category/tutorials/beginner-
tutorials/)

It's about an hour's worth of material and it is very concise.

Also here in Youtube playlist format:
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gvJzrjwjds&list=PLzqS33DOPhJ...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gvJzrjwjds&list=PLzqS33DOPhJkRn6e9_OTdQwRojO8qlusI)

~~~
Hasz
Just wanted to say I love your videos. Do you have any plans to continue
uploading new content?

~~~
Afrotechmods
Thank you. I will surely upload more stuff in future but it won't be on any
sort of regular schedule.

~~~
throwawaybbqed
I'm another big fan. Watched your videos some years ago and it started me on a
fairly intense electronics hobby. Your videos on op-amps and radio are simply
brilliant. Thank you!!

------
joshvm
Of interest this is the guy that developed American Fuzzy Lop[1], and the
Guerrilla guide to CNC machining[2] (which is similarly well written).

[1] [http://lcamtuf.coredump.cx/afl/](http://lcamtuf.coredump.cx/afl/)

[2] [http://lcamtuf.coredump.cx/gcnc/](http://lcamtuf.coredump.cx/gcnc/)

~~~
f-
But wait, there's more! I also make tables [1] and doomsday predictions [2].

[1] [http://lcamtuf.coredump.cx/table/](http://lcamtuf.coredump.cx/table/)

[2] [http://lcamtuf.coredump.cx/prep/](http://lcamtuf.coredump.cx/prep/)

~~~
zxcmx
Yeah there is a conspiracy theory that you are the bourbaki of computer
security.

Difficult to see how you can really be just one human.

~~~
wolfgke
> Yeah there is a conspiracy theory that you are the bourbaki of computer
> security.

Nicolas Borubaki wrote in a very abstract and badly readable style. So: no.

~~~
aisofteng
Bourbaki was a pseudonym for a collective, which is what GP was referring to.

------
hackits
One thing that took me a long time to `get` was the concept of voltage is a
bit miss-leading if you look up the definition even in the video of
([http://afrotechmods.com/tutorials/2016/10/03/basic-
electrici...](http://afrotechmods.com/tutorials/2016/10/03/basic-electricity-
what-is-voltage/)).

Everyone wants to talk about the penitential energy and what-not. Though that
is mostly pointless unless you grasp the first fundamental concept of voltage.
Voltage is just simply the effort exerted by electromagnetic field on
neighboring electrons.

As soon as you grasp that all definition of voltage relate to the real world
of doing `work` eg... heating, moving then the concept of voltage of amps is a
lot easier to understand.

~~~
Chris2048
I think there is a caveat here:

force on electrons is "EMF",
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromotive_force](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromotive_force)

This scan be measure in volts, or joules.

"potential difference" seems to be the relative difference between the "EMF"
of two conductors, which is analogous to pressure-difference and is the
relevant factor wrt current, power, etc.

~~~
hackits
Cheers Chris, cleared up the issue I had with potential difference didn't see
it that way.

------
smoyer
This is awesome and great as a short-form resource. For years, my long-form
(non-concise?) go-to book has been "The Art of Electronics" [0] by Paul
Horowitz (and others depending on the edition). It has everything you need in
a single reference book!

[0] [http://amzn.to/2iZfjbG](http://amzn.to/2iZfjbG)

~~~
acidburnNSA
So true. The associated Lab Manual is even more fun if you want the hands-on
experience. It's top notch.

------
vvanders
Just skimmed but looks pretty comprehensive.

Another great reference is the Art of Electronics.

Tons a practical advice for selecting components and building circuits that is
still relatively relevant even today.

~~~
newman8r
I can second that. I've been using that book since the 90s and it has served
me well.

------
ZenoArrow
Previous discussion:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9653898](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9653898)

------
xelxebar
I've been learning about basic circuit design recently and realized that I
don't have any clue how things relate to the underlying electrodynamics. Does
anyone have some good textbook recommendations that derive things like Ohm's
law and concepts of capacitance, etc, from first principles?

~~~
jeffwass
Those are two very different things (Ohm's Law and Capacitance).

Capacitance is basically the relation between electric field and charge,
whereas inductance is the relation between magnetic fields and currents. Those
follow from fundamental equations, if you want a calculus intensive derivation
from the "first principles" of Maxwell's Laws. Someone on this thread
mentioned Griffiths, which is a good text, it's what I used in E&M undergrad.
Wangsness has a good E&M text too I liked.

Ohm's Law is a macroscopic statistical mechanical Law that happens in bulk.

It can be derived from even some of the simplest electron models (eg the very
simplistic Druude Model). Where it can be shown that the current density
through a chunk of material is proportional to the applied electric field.
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drude_model](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drude_model)

But it breaks down in smaller systems, where statistical averages don't hold
(for example ballistic conductance in a nanowire). Or other systems when
quantum mechanical effects will dominate (eg bandgap non-linearities of a PN
Junction or Quantum Well, or how the bandgap of a semiconductor causes an
increase of resistance at lower temperatures as opposed to decrease of
resistance for metals).

I used to have a nice presentation of the latter on my old uni website called
A Quick and Dirty Preview to Solid State Physics, but alas they disabled my
old account after nearly a decade past graduatiOn. (Had to make the webpage
for a class early in grad school, and it was linked by many other solid state
physics classes interestingly).

~~~
alexlarsson
Its still available via the way-back machine:
[https://web.archive.org/web/20150219055858/http://www.pha.jh...](https://web.archive.org/web/20150219055858/http://www.pha.jhu.edu/~jeffwass/2ndYrSem/slide1.html)

~~~
jeffwass
You rock!!

------
nerfhammer
This youtuber has some good videos with animations of visual analogies for
analog electronics:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4jzgqZu-4s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4jzgqZu-4s)

------
cweagans
20,000 word document titled "Concise electronics for geeks". Excellent choice
of title!

Also, this looks like a really awesome primer!

~~~
reificator
Relative to the kinds of things geeks read, I think the title is valid.

------
squarefoot
Another very good source of information is the US Navy Electricity and
Electronics Training Series (NEETS).
[https://maritime.org/doc/neets](https://maritime.org/doc/neets) Also towards
the end of the parent directory check the "Electronics Technician" volumes and
other interesting stuff on welding, repairing etc.

------
dantle
Great review as an embedded SW guy to nourish my EE background. Nicely
peppered with practical tricks and techniques that are useful in the field. I
enjoyed seeing the low-pass and high-pass filtered wave signatures along with
the explanation of what the problem might be (long/close connections and
broken traces, respectively).

------
leggomylibro
Nice, this looks really cool!

Although...it is going onto a 'read this soon' list, and I'm probably not
alone in that. With these sorts of concise primer articles, have you
considered providing a .pdf or .tex of the page?

~~~
ZenoArrow
> "providing a .pdf or .tex of the page"

I'm not the author, but in the case of .pdf, couldn't you just use a 'Print to
PDF' solution? On Windows I've used PrimoPDF before, don't know what OS you
use but guessing all the major platforms have something similar.

~~~
leggomylibro
Yeah, good point, I guess there are already tons of existing solutions for
that which wouldn't eat up the author's bandwidth; the modern web really has
spoiled us with so many 1-click conveniences, huh?

------
mc_crash
From the article: "...consequently, several capacitors in series resemble one
capacitor with a larger plate surface area."

s/series/parallel/ ??

~~~
metahost
Should be parallel given C for a parallel plate capacitor is proportional to
its crossectional area.

------
palash25
A really good article.

------
visarga
too much wall of text and few images

~~~
gbugniot
This is why this article is good.

~~~
visarga
Not when the subject is about graphs of electric components.

