Complete Electronics Self-Teaching Guide with Projects

by Earl Boysen

  Proofreader: Nancy Carrasco

  Indexer: Jack Lewis

  Cover Image: Earl Boysen

  Cover Designer: Ryan Sneed

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  Copyright © 2012 by Earl Boyson and Harry Kybett

  Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

  Published simultaneously in Canada

  ISBN: 978-1-118-21732-0 ISBN: 978-1-118-28232-8 (ebk) ISBN: 978-1-118-28319-6 (ebk) ISBN: 978-1-118-28469-8 (ebk)

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  To my science and engineering teachers. I'd particularly like to thank Jim Giovando, my physics and chemistry teacher at Petaluma Senior High School, who, even decades later, I remember as having been an inspiration. I also dedicate this book to the physics and chemistry faculty of Sonoma State University in the 1970s, where the small class size and personal guidance by the professors made for a great learning environment.

  About the Author

  Earl Boysen spent 20 years as an engineer in the semiconductor industry, and currently runs two websites, BuildingGadgets.com (dedicated to electronics) and UnderstandingNano.com (covering nanotechnology topics). Boysen holds a Masters degree in Engineering Physics from the University of Virginia. He is the co-author of three other books: Electronics Projects For Dummies (Indianapolis: Wiley, 2006), Nanotechnology For Dummies (Indianapolis: Wiley, 2011), and the first edition of Electronics For Dummies (Indianapolis: Wiley, 2005). He lives with his wonderful wife, Nancy, and two cats.

  About the Technical Editor

  Rex Miller was a Professor of Industrial Technology at The State University of New York, College at Buffalo for more than 35 years. He has taught on the technical school, high school, and college level for more than 40 years. He is the author or co-author of more than 100 textbooks ranging from electronics through carpentry and sheet metal work. He has contributed more than 50 magazine articles over the years to technical publications. He is also the author of seven civil war regimental histories.

  Acknowledgments

  I want to first thank Harry Kybett for authoring the original version of this book many years ago. It's an honor to take over such a classic book in the electronics field. Thanks also to Carol Long for bringing me on board with the project, and Kevin Shafer for his able project management of the book. My appreciation to Rex Miller for his excellent technical editing, and to San Dee Phillips for handling all the mechanics of spelling and grammar in a thorough copy edit. Finally, thanks to my wonderful wife, Nancy, for her advice and support throughout the writing of this book.

  Introduction

  The rapid growth of modern electronics is truly a phenomenon. Electronic devices (including cell phones, personal computers, portable MP3 players, and digital cameras) are a big part of many of our daily lives. Many industries have been founded, and older industries have been revamped, because of the availability and application of modern electronics in manufacturing processes, as well as in electronic products. Electronic products are constantly evolving, and their impact on our lives, and even the way we socialize, is substantial.

  What This Book Teaches

  Complete Electronics Self-Teaching Guide with Projects is for anyone who has a basic understanding of electronics concepts and wants to understand the operation of components found in the most common discrete circuits. The chapters focus on circuits that are the building blocks for many common electronic devices, and on the very few (but important) principles you need to know to work with electronics.

  The arrangement and approach is completely different from any other book on electronics in that it uses a question-and-answer approach to help you understand how electronic circuits work. This book steps you through calculations for every example in an easy-to-understand fashion, and you do not need to have a mathematical background beyond first-year algebra to follow along.

  For many of you, the best way to understand new concepts is by doing, rather than reading or listening. This book reinforces your understanding of electronic concepts by leading you through the calculations and concepts for key circuits, as well as the construction of circuits. Projects interspersed throughout the material enable you to get hands-on practice. You build many of the circuits and observe or measure how they work.

  Helpful sidebars are interspersed throughout the book to provide more information about how components work, and how to choose the right component. Other sidebars provide discussions of techniques for building and testing circuits. If you want this additional information, be sure to read these.

  Understanding the circuits composed of discrete components and the applicable calculations discussed is useful not only in building and designing circuits, but it also helps you to work with integrated circuits (ICs). That's because ICs use miniaturized components (such as transistors, diodes, capacitors, and resistors) that function based on the same rules as discrete components (along with some specific rules necessitated by the extremely small size of IC components).

  How This Book Is Organized

  This book is organized with se
ts of problems that challenge you to think through a concept or procedure, and then provides answers so that you can constantly check your progress and understanding. Specifically, the chapters in this book are organized as follows:

  Chapter 1 DC Review and Pre-Test—This chapter provides a review and pre-test on the basic concepts, components, and calculations that are useful when working with direct current (DC) circuits.

  Chapter 2 The Diode—This chapter teaches you about the diode, including how you use diodes in DC circuits, the main characteristics of diodes, and calculations you can use to determine current, voltage, and power.

  Chapter 3 Introduction to the Transistor—This chapter explores the transistor and how it's used in circuits. You also discover how bipolar junction transistors (BJTs) and junction field effect transistors (JFETs) control the flow of electric current.

  Chapter 4 The Transistor Switch—This chapter examines the simplest and most widespread application of the transistor: switching. In addition to learning how to design a transistor circuit to drive a particular load, you also compare the switching action of a JFET and a BJT.

  Chapter 5 AC Pre-Test and Review—This chapter examines the basic concepts and equations for alternating current (AC) circuits. You discover how to use resistors and capacitors in AC circuits, and learn related calculations.

  Chapter 6 Filters—This chapter looks at how resistors, capacitors, and inductors are used in high-pass filters and low-pass filters to pass or block AC signals above or below a certain frequency.

  Chapter 7 Resonant Circuits—This chapter examines the use of capacitors, inductors, and resistors in bandpass filters and band-reject filters to pass or block AC signals in a band of frequencies. You also learn how to calculate the resonance frequency and bandwidth of these circuits. This chapter also introduces the use of resonant circuits in oscillators.

  Chapter 8 Transistor Amplifiers—This chapter explores the use of transistor amplifiers to amplify electrical signals. In addition to examining the fundamental steps used to design BJT-based amplifiers, you learn how to use JFETs and operational amplifiers (op-amps) in amplifier circuits.

  Chapter 9 Oscillators —This chapter introduces you to the oscillator, a circuit that produces a continuous AC output signal. You learn how an oscillator works and step through the procedure to design and build an oscillator.

  Chapter 10 The Transformer—This chapter discusses how a transformer converts AC voltage to a higher or lower voltage. You learn how a transformer makes this conversion and how to calculate the resulting output voltage.

  Chapter 11 Power Supply Circuits—This chapter examines how power supplies convert AC to DC with a circuit made up of transformers, diodes, capacitors, and resistors. You also learn how to calculate the values of components that produce a specified DC output voltage for a power supply circuit.

  Chapter 12 Conclusion and Final Self-Test—This chapter enables you to check your overall knowledge of electronics concepts presented in this book through the use of a final self-test.

  In addition, this book contains the following appendixes for easy reference:

  Appendix A Glossary—This appendix provides key electronics terms and their definitions.

  Appendix B List of Symbols and Abbreviations—This appendix gives you a handy reference of commonly used symbols and abbreviations.

  Appendix C Powers of Ten and Engineering Prefixes—This appendix lists prefixes commonly used in electronics, along with their corresponding values.

  Appendix D Standard Resistor Values—This appendix provides standard resistance values for the carbon film resistor, the most commonly used type of resistor.

  Appendix E Supplemental Resources—This appendix provides references to helpful websites, books, and magazines.

  Appendix F Equation Reference—This appendix serves as a quick guide to commonly used equations, along with chapter and problem references showing you where they are first introduced in this book.

  Appendix G Schematic Symbols Used in This Book—This appendix provides a listing of schematic symbols used in the problems found throughout the book.

  Conventions Used in This Book

  As you study electronics, you will find that there is some variation in terminology and the way that circuits are drawn. Following are three conventions followed in this book that you should be aware of:

  The discussions use “V” to stand for voltage, versus “E,” which you see used in some other books.

  In all circuit diagrams, intersecting lines indicate an electrical connection. (Some other books use a dot at the intersection of lines to indicate a connection.) If a semicircle appears at the intersection of two lines, it indicates that there is no connection. See Figure 9.5 for an example of this.

  The discussions in this book use conventional current flow to determine the flow of electric current (from positive voltage to negative voltage), whereas some other books use electron flow (from negative voltage to positive voltage).

  How to Use This Book

  This book assumes that you have some knowledge of basic electronics such as Ohm's law and current flow. If you have read a textbook or taken a course on electronics, or if you have worked with electronics, you probably have the prerequisite knowledge. If not, you should read a book such as Electronics for Dummies (Indianapolis: Wiley, 2009) to get the necessary background for this book. You can also go to the author's Website (www.BuildingGadgets.com) and use the Tutorial links to find useful online lessons in electronics. In addition, Chapters 1 and 5 enable you to test your knowledge and review the necessary basics of electronics.

  You should read the chapters in order because often later material depends on concepts and skills covered in earlier chapters.

  Complete Electronics Self-Teaching Guide with Projects is presented in a self-teaching format that enables you to learn easily, and at your own pace. The material is presented in numbered sections called problems. Each problem presents some new information and gives you questions to answer. To learn most effectively, you should cover up the answers with a sheet of paper and try to answer each question. Then, compare your answer with the correct answer that follows. If you miss a question, correct your answer and then go on. If you miss many in a row, go back and review the previous section, or you may miss the point of the material that follows.

  Be sure to try to do all the projects. They are not difficult, and they help reinforce your learning of the subject matter. If you don't have the equipment to work through a project, simply reading through it can help you to better understand the concepts it demonstrates.

  Each project includes a schematic, parts list, step-by-step instructions, and detailed photos of the completed circuit. Working through these projects, you can test your skill by building the circuit using just the schematic and parts list. If you want additional help, check the photos showing the details of how the components are connected. A Camera icon in the margin as shown here indicates that there is a color version of the figure in a special insert in the paperback version of this book. If you purchased an electronic version of this book, and have an e-reader without color capabilities, you can find the color photos on the author's website at www.buildinggadgets.com/complete-electronics.htm.

  This website also provides project pages that include links to suppliers. These pages are kept up-to-date with supplier part numbers for the components you need.

  When you reach the end of a chapter, evaluate your learning by taking the Self-Test. If you miss any questions, review the related parts of the chapter again. If you do well on the Self-Test, you're ready to go to the next chapter. You may also find the Self-Test useful as a review before you start the next chapter. At the end of the book, there is a Final Self-Test that enables you to assess your overall learning.

  You can work through this book alone, or you can use it with a course. If you use the book alone, it serves as an introduction to electronics but is not a complete course. For that reason, at the end of the book are some s
uggestions for further reading and online resources. Also, at the back of the book is a table of symbols and abbreviations for reference and review.

  Now you're ready to learn electronics!