Basic Electricity Tutorial Demand.

[claymore1977]

Alright Ladies and Gents, the first section of Basic Electricity 101 is up.  More to follow as my kids/wife allow me time :)  Till then, please critique my work so I may make it better:

http://therustyspike.hyperphp.com/BE101/BE101_01.html

[claymore1977]

My question is this, how much interest is there in having a moderately detailed Basic Electricity Reference Thread/Sticky on this forum?  If there is enough interest I can easily type one up with some pictures and post it.  If not that I can easily field individual questions.

Sounds like a good idea, how about just putting the info on your own web page and post a link, that way you could update it at will... 

 

Outstanding Idea.  I think I will attack the project this way.  Besides, if all else fails, i can use photobucket to host the images and copy paste the HTML out of Dreamweaver into here, as the forums accepts HTML.

 

Thanks! 

[Anonymous]

I would like to see some info on circuits and such.  I wish they would replace the "where's the MRR anniversary car" with something a little more worthwhile.  I think more people would be interested in a DCC forum than basic electricity, though.  I'm presently working on a stepper motor drive circuit to control speed, direction and indexing of my turntable.  The controllers I've seen advertised run from $200-$500.  I suimply can't afford that.  I bought a kit from Fry's for $30.00 and I already had 6 5VDC stepper motors from, of all things, a blood gas analyzer unit.  It also had plenty of rack gear systems (one of which I used to raise and lower my bascule drawbridge.  Tweet.

[kcf955]

My question is this, how much interest is there in having a moderately detailed Basic Electricity Reference Thread/Sticky on this forum?  If there is enough interest I can easily type one up with some pictures and post it.  If not that I can easily field individual questions.

Sounds like a good idea, how about just putting the info on your own web page and post a link, that way you could update it at will... 

[ho doctor]

Welcome, Claymore.

I would be very interested in learning more. I thought that's what this hobby is all about. What confuses me is the symbols used in a schematic. I could follow the wires, but when I get to the symbols, I get lost. If someone could use words( Such as, "Insert 50 Amp Resistor here"), it would be easier for me to work on "whatever".

 

Thanks for posting. 

[tcf511]

I certainly would like to see one. My questions don't center around track electricity, DCC made that pretty simple. But I would love to add lighting to buildings, perhaps some animation and signs, etc. The explanations generally start off assuming that you know what "in series" means and have spoken "resistor" as a second language. I know that when I flip the light switch, the light goes on most of the time.

[Gwedd]

Shipmate,

     To be honest, all I am interested in is where to solder the wires for power hookup, or rather, where to hire someone to do it for me if needs be. Black to black, white to white, etc.

     Now, I'm NOT trying to flippant. I really just DON'T have an interest anymore in the electrical part of the hobby. With the advent of DCC, all anyone really ought to have to know is how many boosters will they need for the layout and how many blocks should work best for safety reasons (IE: in case of shorts, etc).

    I want to build the layout. Lay the track, create the fictional world, etc. That's what I enjoy most, and to be candid, what I do best. Electrical wiring for the layout and "realistic operations" are the two things that are so way down my list of importance as to be out of sight.

    Anyway, that's my 2-cent's worth. When I was a sailor, I had a 1st Class FCC license. I can still remember the color codes and all the pie charts, etc, but I haven't had a need for it in 25 years, and like I said, with DCC, a modeler really oughtn't HAVE to know all that stuff anymore.

   Respects,

[claymore1977]

I just put one together for our club.   I couldn't belive people who had been playing with electric model trains their whole life didn't know about electricity.   It started with the very basics like what is an amp, volt, and ohm,  open and complete circuits.   It moved to ohms law, series and parallel circuits.  Dealt with the practical applications a bit like simple resistance for train control, powering turnouts etc.  Then got into a bit of electronics with diodes, capacitors, and inductors.  Did some practical applications with those and LEDs.  Then finally got to transistors and occupancy detecting etc. 

That is pretty much the approach I am going to take, except I plan on addressing the concepts of Power (Watt, VA, VAR) earlier that most books do, as I feel it provides a real world link to what the readers are reading about :)  I'll start typing when I get home from work!

 

Additionally, I will continue this thread in the General Discussions forum.  Mods, feel free to delete/lock this one!

[Texas Zepher]

I just put one together for our club.   I couldn't belive people who had been playing with electric model trains their whole life didn't know about electricity.   It started with the very basics like what is an amp, volt, and ohm,  open and complete circuits.   It moved to ohms law, series and parallel circuits.  Dealt with the practical applications a bit like simple resistance for train control, powering turnouts etc.  Then got into a bit of electronics with diodes, capacitors, and inductors.  Did some practical applications with those and LEDs.  Then finally got to transistors and occupancy detecting etc.  I avoided all the hard stuff like the math to use when ohms law fails.  That is fortunately where I stopped preparing sessions.

Everyone was really excited about this series.  They said they couldn't wait, really needed this info, etc.  I spent a ton of time preparing the sessions, hand-outs, and excercises (made 30 paper copies).  Spent more time practicing and preparing for questions. But when I gave actually started giving the presentations only a couple of people showed up for the first one, one person for the second, and zero for the third.   This is not because I am a poor presenter, as I get rave reviews in the real classes I teach.  Bottom line was that they didn't really want to learn about this stuff, they just want to know it by magic, or worst yet...They want someone else to work on the parts of the layout they "don't understand."  Or should I say don't want to understand.

 

[selector]

Hi.  I am sure some would be interested, but we have several knowledgeable members, such as rrinker, who make their living, or have at some time, with electronics.  They freely give advice most days and help with problem-solving.

Still, I wouldn't mind reading up on it to see what I can learn.  My soldering skills are so crappy that I am unlikely to ever get to apply what I learn from you, but I would still appreciate the opportunity.

You might get a broader response over on the MR Gen Discussion forum, too.

[claymore1977]

Hey all, new to the forums, been involved in the hobby most of my life.

I have done some searching of the forums and found many questions but few correct/complete answers regarding Basic Electrical Fundamentals. I spent 8.5 years in the navy as a nuke electrician and spent many a 6 month deployment sketching and bench testing solid state electronics.   I also taught B.E. at the Naval Nuclear Power Prototype (NY) so I am quite comfortable talking on the subject.

My question is this, how much interest is there in having a moderately detailed Basic Electricity Reference Thread/Sticky on this forum?  If there is enough interest I can easily type one up with some pictures and post it.  If not that I can easily field individual questions.