Analog Electronics — Daily Schedule Term 4

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See also Daily Schedule-Term 5

Week 1 — Voltage, Current, Energy, Resistance

• Tuesday, Jan. 13
  • Theory: What is Voltage?
  • Practice: Radio Shack Learning Lab kit (hereafter just “kit”) Inventory
• Friday, Jan. 16
  • Practice: Load the batteries into the kit and separate out the resistors
  • Theory: What is Resistance?
  • Practice: Resistor color coding
  • Practice: Build the circuit diagrammed in The Simplest Possible Circuit

Week 2 — Power — Circuit Diagrams — Kirchhoff’s Laws

• Tuesday, Jan. 20
  • Practice: The circuit diagram of The Simplest Possible Circuit that you built
  • Theory: Resistance and Power, with Examples
  • Practice: Build the two second-simplest circuits! You’ll be reading circuit diagrams!
    • Build the circuit diagrammed in Two Resistors in Series
    • Build the circuit diagrammed in Two Resistors in Parallel
• Friday, Jan. 23
  • Theory: Come with the 20 problems in the last handout completed!
  • Practice: A circuit that lights an LED solidly
  • Theory: Kirchhoff’s Laws
  • Practice: Let’s build Mims’ first circuit on pp. 14-18, a circuit that flashes an LED

Week 3 — Resistors in Series and Parallel — Voltage Dividers

• Tuesday, Jan. 27
  • Theory: Series and parallel resistors examples from Howard Gerrish, Electronics
    • Threory: How does mileage add? Example: fleet of two vehicles with 15mpg and 30mpg.
  • Practice: Build as much as we can on pp. 19-22, first a black box test circuit, and then a series of circuits that illustrate switches
  • Theory: Resistors in Series and In Parallel (write-up only has the circuit diagrams)
• Friday, Jan. 30
  • Theory: Voltage Dividers and Capacitors

Week 4 — Switches of Various Kinds — Switches in Series and in Parallel — Resistors in Practice — Building a Voltmeter

• Tuesday, Feb. 3
  • Practice: We had a ton of theory on Friday. Today, we’ll just do practice using pp. 20-21 of Mims Workbook I
• Friday, Feb. 6
  • Theory: We started on 10 Practice Problems
  • More Practice: We did pp. 22-25 of Mims Workbook I, which covered relays and re-purposing an ammeter as a voltmeter

Week 5 — Voltage Dividers — Capacitors in Series and in Parallel

• Tuesday, Feb. 10
  • Theory: Go over the 10 Practice Problems handed out on Friday — Derive (on blackboard) formulas for capacitors in series and parallel
  • Practice: Resume at p. 26 of Mims Workbook I
  • Homework for Friday: Come into lab on your own time and do pp. 27-28 of Mims
• Friday, Feb. 13
  • Homework: Any questions on pp. 27-28?
  • Theory: Discussion of the Wheatstone Bridge — Introduction to Alternating Current — Capacitors and Alternating Current
  • Practice: We’ll resume on p. 29 of Mims, then skip pp. 30-31 and continue on p. 32-33 (capacitors)
  • Homework for Monday: Come into lab on your own time, read p. 32, and then do pp. 34-36 and 38 (note I am deliberately having you skip p. 37 which uses the black-box test circuit)

Week 6 — RC Circuits in Practice — Transformers and Inductors — Diodes

• Tuesday, Feb. 17
  • Homework: Any questions on the homework, pp. 32, 34-36 and 38?
  • Theory: Continue discussion of alternating current and capacitors in switched circuits — Also, capacitors interacting with relays
  • Practice: Resume at p. 39 of Mims Workbook I
  • Homework for Friday: p. 40 and 42-44 of Mims Workbook I
• Friday, Feb. 20
  • Homework: Any questions on the homework, pp. 40 and 42-44?
  • Theory: Inductors and Transformers
  • Practice: Resume at p. 45 of Mims
  • Skipping: In the interest of getting to p. 54 for Monday, we will be skipping pp. 48-53 (lots and lots of LED circuits)
  • Homework for Tuesday: pp. 46-47 and pp. 54-55 of Mims (your first transistor circuits)

Week 7 — Transistors!

• Tuesday, Feb. 24
  • Practice: Compare and contrast the transistor circuits on pp. 54-55
  • Theory: Insulators, Conductors, Semiconductors, and the Behavior of NPN transistors
  • Practical homework for Friday: Build the two-transistor circuits on pp. 56-57
  • Theory homework for Friday: Please get a start looking at How Semiconductors Work which we will discuss in the Museum on Friday
• Friday, Feb. 27
  • Practical homework: Would it be profitable to discuss and further understand the two two-transistor circuits you built on pp. 56-57?
  • Theory homework: Discuss How Semiconductors Work
  • Practice: We will skip p. 58, unless someone actually has a portable AM radio, and go straight to pp. 59-60 for our in-class practice
  • Tuesday, March 17 — Nothing new in Mims, but review the transistor circuits up to p. 60, review How Semiconductors Work and read the early history of Silicon Valley and The Traitorous Eight

HAVE A GREAT SPRING BREAK — SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 28 TO SUNDAY, MARCH 15