Just want to say that many errors have been corrected and lots of abiguity resolved thanks to some reader feedback! Most all of the graphics are reworked and a Legend and Equation Quick Reference have been added.
However, I am still needing a direction to go in for the next section. Feedback welcomed as always!
Dave Loman
My site: The Rusty Spike
"It's a penny for your thoughts, but you have to put your 2 cents in.... hey, someone's making a penny!"
Okay folks, just finished up the last part of section 2 which covers diodes and LEDs. As for what is next in line, I will leave that up to demand. If there is a topic that hasn't been covered that you would like to see covered, please post it or email it to me!
Along those lines, thank you to all who have given me feed back, technical and non. For those who are true novices at electrical work, how easy was this for you to understand? Any and all comments/ideas for improvements are welcomed! Thanks again
-Dave L
David,
I haven't had a chance to look over Section 2 yet, but I LIKE the addition of the shaded schematic blocks. Nice touch!
Tom
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
Wow, the images look great, with the white and shading around them they appear to jump off the page. Nice touch. Like the buttons, too.
Still hoping to get to Section 2 this afternoon.
FT
Sorry 'bout that. Was re-photoshopping all the imagery... probably why it went offline for a bit.
Changes:
As of 1030hrs PST, the several graphics only show a red X in a white box. Is it just me?
Oops, just glanced up and saw that you know of this. Must be a code issue.
I'll be patient.
I'm looking forward to going over Section 2. Looks like I might learn something.
A couple points on the section 1: 1. The pictures for Example 1.5 are not showing up for me, don't know if I'm doing something wrong or if you have a link set up wrong. 2. It would be nice at the end of each section to have a link to both the previous section and the next section. Then, if I am working through I don't have to go back to the table of contents to go on. Each section should also have a link to the TOC in case I want to go looking for something in particular. 3. I guess I am not a huge fan of the black text on gray background. Maybe you can do a gray border, and then have the body of the page be white with black text. That breaks the page up some so its not such a stark contrast.
I noticed that in your definitions at the top you did put how you would be referring to the different values in the equations. Thanks, I think that helps us 's.
Well, on to Section 2.
tstage wrote:David,Three words: GO FOR IT!!! I've read and dug and scratched and clawed to understand what I know...and it STILL isn't all that much.Personally, I enjoy tutorials. I have three on my web site that I wrote myself and have included them all on the forum, at one time or another.Most of the books and links that I have read on electricity and wiring usually start out okay. But the author soon forgets the novices in his audience and quickly jumps by leaps and bounds into more sophisticated topics on the subject - making assumptions that you know more than you do.So, David, to answer you question again - I would personally welcome a tutorial on basic electrical fundamentals whole-heartedly. Since I'm a visual person, pictures and diagrams are a plus in my book.David, this is just a suggestion. Jon Grant has recently done a very nice step-by-step tutorial on weathering freight cars:http://www.trains.com/trccs/forums/962238/ShowPost.aspxThe one thing that I really like about Jon's approach is that it comes in "installments". I think this method makes it easier on some folks who might feel overwhelmed about a particular topic...say, like electrical principles? The installment method of a tutorial allows the reader to "ruminate" or digest the material in small doses, then move on at his or her's own pace. Joe Fugate is very good at this approach with his tutorials. Anyway, I hope that's a help... TomBTW: to the forum!
Three words: GO FOR IT!!! I've read and dug and scratched and clawed to understand what I know...and it STILL isn't all that much.
Personally, I enjoy tutorials. I have three on my web site that I wrote myself and have included them all on the forum, at one time or another.
Most of the books and links that I have read on electricity and wiring usually start out okay. But the author soon forgets the novices in his audience and quickly jumps by leaps and bounds into more sophisticated topics on the subject - making assumptions that you know more than you do.
So, David, to answer you question again - I would personally welcome a tutorial on basic electrical fundamentals whole-heartedly. Since I'm a visual person, pictures and diagrams are a plus in my book.
David, this is just a suggestion. Jon Grant has recently done a very nice step-by-step tutorial on weathering freight cars:
http://www.trains.com/trccs/forums/962238/ShowPost.aspx
The one thing that I really like about Jon's approach is that it comes in "installments". I think this method makes it easier on some folks who might feel overwhelmed about a particular topic...say, like electrical principles? The installment method of a tutorial allows the reader to "ruminate" or digest the material in small doses, then move on at his or her's own pace. Joe Fugate is very good at this approach with his tutorials.
Anyway, I hope that's a help...
BTW: to the forum!
I agree with Tom. I personally like very visual tutorials and although I have a bit of an understanding of electricy, at least within the realms of this hobby, I would certainly welcome the chance to learn more.
Modeling the fictional B&M Dowe, NH branch in the early 50's.
I had mixed emotions about the black on grey also, but then I couldn't decide if black on white images with a grey background would look alright... anyone else having eye strain with the black on grey? If so, I have saved everything in photoshop so no worries.
First, thanks for putting this together; I'm really looking forward to going through it.
Now, a non-technical comment: I find the contrast of the black-on-gray color scheme a bit difficult to read. How about simply black-on-white?
-tom
great new tutorial
I have a basic electronics understanding (I can read a schematic, and know the basic symbols), though I always attributed the circuit to "magic" - the books never really went into the how or why it worked beyond "well, you've got your <electronic component(s)> hooked up to this power source...".
I can't wait to see the more future installments
-Dan
Builder of Bowser steam! Railimages Site
First half of Section 2 is up. Covers ins and outs of series and parallel circuit configurations. Next up: playing Diodes and Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs).
As always, feedback warmly welcomed!
claymore1977 wrote: And the world gets a little bit smaller...Which do you like better?
And the world gets a little bit smaller...
Which do you like better?
Tough call. Probably here, it was too crowded out there even when I left in '92. There's lots of good stuff out there, though. In general, I'd have to say I prefer the winter weather here, too, and probably even the summer, you know, the dry heat thing!
Jeff But it's a dry heat!
claymore1977 wrote: I agree, but I also saw that physics/elec eng relationship, but I had it pounded it in to my head in Nuclear Field A school to never use V, as 12V could mean 12 Volts as easily as it could mean 12*VVail, Az eh? I spent the first 18 years of my life in Florence, AZ just up rt 79 from Tucson! Howdy neighbor! :)
I agree, but I also saw that physics/elec eng relationship, but I had it pounded it in to my head in Nuclear Field A school to never use V, as 12V could mean 12 Volts as easily as it could mean 12*V
Vail, Az eh? I spent the first 18 years of my life in Florence, AZ just up rt 79 from Tucson! Howdy neighbor! :)
And I lived for 8 years in Columbia, MD!
claymore1977 wrote: As I was typing up my last response to FT, I realized I had made a grievous error in all the equations posted. Voltage is not supposed to be represented with a V for the exact same reason, Amperage is not supposed to be represented with an A. Voltage is supposed to be E and current is supposed to be I. I added this clarification to the definitions at the top of the page and updated all equations. The theory and numbers stay the same, just V became E.Sorry!
As I was typing up my last response to FT, I realized I had made a grievous error in all the equations posted. Voltage is not supposed to be represented with a V for the exact same reason, Amperage is not supposed to be represented with an A. Voltage is supposed to be E and current is supposed to be I. I added this clarification to the definitions at the top of the page and updated all equations. The theory and numbers stay the same, just V became E.
Sorry!
I wouldn't go to grievous! I don't recall ever (well that's a long time, but...) seeing current represented by 'A', but rather always by 'I'. But I think that I have seen voltage represented by 'V' quite often. It has been a while (a few whiles, actually) but I'd say that I saw 'E' more in the physics class side, and 'V' more, or at least some on the engineering side. At least, I know that I remember Ohm's law as V=IR, for what it is worth!
cwclark wrote:This is really all fine and dandy, but you know you'll have to write a book for electricity 101. There's no mention of capacitance reactance, resistance thru parallel and series resistors, (I know..divide the parallel resistors by .1) wattage, microfarads, induction coils, resistors, capacitors, integrated circuits, transistors, diodes, zener diodes, bridge diodes, transducers, thermistors, heat sinks, mofets, coil relays, the relationship between voltage output related to the number of transformer coils, the difference between direct current and alternating current and how to measure it with a multimeter or oscilliscope, ...well, you get the picture...the list goes on and on...I took electronics in college for two semesters and still I don't know the nitty gritty of a lot of electrical principles... I think the best way for folks to learn is to get a good book on electricity and study it, and even then it's gonna take a long time to get good at it.....chuck
I agree some and disagree some. Most of that stuff will be covered, eventually. Of all the interest I have recieved on the subject, almost all were geared towards lighting, not making custom PCB's. That being said, the simple subject will be covered first, and if the demand is there, more complex subjects later.
There are certain subjects that I will not type up as books are probably a better place for learning. Once the reader is at that level though, they don't need my 'Translated to Engilsh' tutorials.
I think the best way to learn is to grab a few concepts and sit down and blow up a light bulb or two and learn hands on. I taught BE for several years and noticed that most people will only get so far into a book before they get discouraged as even basic elec fundamentals can get complex in a hurry... people need to play and get their LED glowing to perk enough interest to actually care how a capacitor impacts DC and AC circuits.
Just my $0.02 anyways. Like I said, I am not done writing yet!
I like the improvements! Your step-by-step explanations are a big help (for me) in following and understanding what you are trying to convey. And I especially like the section on voltage drop for custom tuning lightbulb brightness and longevity. I'll probably go through it all again.
David, keep up the good work (in progress )....
claymore1977 wrote:Alrighty FT, let me field your questions here and then think about how to best integrate them in to the tutorial. ft-fan wrote: At the beginning you give us the definitions and all the abbreviations for that, then your first diagram uses I to measure current (granted it is Ia, but it is still I), and that was rather confusing, as above you said current was measured in Amperes, so I was looking for an A to describe that. Can that be cleared up somehow?I am going to change the Ia back to I once I get a chance, but as for I representing A, that's going to have to stay the same and here's why. A could be used as the Current variable in the equations, but A is also the abbreviation for Amperes. So the following EQN would be very confusing:12V / 8&Omega = 1.5AIs that 1.5 amps or 1.5 * A ? This is why 'I' was chosen (not my be, but by the electrical gods of long ago) over 'A'.I will put a blurb about 'Why I?!?' in the tutorial, thanks!
Alrighty FT, let me field your questions here and then think about how to best integrate them in to the tutorial.
ft-fan wrote: At the beginning you give us the definitions and all the abbreviations for that, then your first diagram uses I to measure current (granted it is Ia, but it is still I), and that was rather confusing, as above you said current was measured in Amperes, so I was looking for an A to describe that. Can that be cleared up somehow?
I am going to change the Ia back to I once I get a chance, but as for I representing A, that's going to have to stay the same and here's why. A could be used as the Current variable in the equations, but A is also the abbreviation for Amperes. So the following EQN would be very confusing:
12V / 8&Omega = 1.5AIs that 1.5 amps or 1.5 * A ? This is why 'I' was chosen (not my be, but by the electrical gods of long ago) over 'A'.I will put a blurb about 'Why I?!?' in the tutorial, thanks!
Thanks for the reply. Just a statement that in the diagrams I represents current flow as opposed to A being the measure of that flow in Amperes is kind of what I was talking about. I think that would alleviate some confusion - I had to look at that several times the first time to figure it out.
Thanks for the explanations. There may be hope for me yet.
ft-fan wrote: All your expamples show the voltage going to the negative side of the battery to be zero. Is the goal of any circuit to get the voltage coming back to the battery down to zero? What happens if this does not happen? For instance, if you put a short wire from + to -, assuming the resistance of the wire is 0, does your battery immediately run dead, or explode or ???
Not really 'the goal' per say, as more like it's a definite thing. If you have a 12V source, then all 12V WILL be dropped by whatever components are in the circuit. All the circuit analysis in the tutorial is calculated in an 'ideal world' In an ideal world, wires don't have resistance, in the real world they do. In an ideal world, batteries don't have an internal resistance, but in the real world they do (that's why they get hot during charge/discharge). So in an ideal world, if you where to short a battery or other power source from + to - then the following application of Ohm's law would exists:I = V / RI = 12V / 0 ohmsI = infinite current.But, in the real world wire has resistance, albeit very low:I = V / RI = 12V / 0.001 ohmsI = 12,000A
And since 0.1 Amps can kill, 12,000A would probably make you living impaired very quickly. The battery would probably run out of energy in a few nano seconds, and the wire would vaporize.We haven't talked about it yet, but Power can also represent Power Loss. In the short circuit configuration you mentioned, the battery is giving up a massive amount of energy and the only destination for that energy is heat and the only destination for that heat is the wire. The wire will probably not be able to shed that much heat that fast and melt, or just skip the liquid phase altogether and go straight for plasma.Short circuits is the reason why they invented Circuit Breakers :)I'll put in a realworld/idealworld explination somewheres.
ft-fan wrote: In your last example, if you used a 500 ohm resistor instead of a 600 ohm, would the bulb actually explode, or just immediately burn out? Would it be a good assumption that the lower sized resistor you put on the bulb make the bulb burn out faster (ie. 400 ohm vs 500 ohm)?I think this will be quite helpful. Thanks for the effort to put it together.FT
Bulb lifespan is completely upto the manufacturer and is really hard to quantify accurately. A light bulb is, at its basic roots, an energy conversion machine... just like EVERYTHING that us humans ever made. And accordingly, any machine (with a few exceptions) can probably handle being operated at >100% for a little while, but the overall lifespan of said machine is probably going to be greatly reduced.As for the lightbulb, there is a current limit that will cause a bulb to instantly blow, but without distructive experimentation (MUWAHAHAHA) you may never truly know where that current limit lay.My reccomendation is to shoot for 75% to 85% of the max current rating for the device. You will get about 75%-85% luminosity but probably double the lifespan of the bulb.And yes, the more current you run through a bulb, the less efficient it is and will burn out sooner.
I will weasel all this info in somewhere, thanks for the Q's
Looks good, but I am a little bleary-eyed after one time thru. I am "electrically challenged", so I will have to read through it a few times to get it. The math is easy, it's the concepts that are tough. A couple of questions did come up as I read through it.
At the beginning you give us the definitions and all the abbreviations for that, then your first diagram uses I to measure current (granted it is Ia, but it is still I), and that was rather confusing, as above you said current was measured in Amperes, so I was looking for an A to describe that. Can that be cleared up somehow?
All your expamples show the voltage going to the negative side of the battery to be zero. Is the goal of any circuit to get the voltage coming back to the battery down to zero? What happens if this does not happen? For instance, if you put a short wire from + to -, assuming the resistance of the wire is 0, does your battery immediately run dead, or explode or ???
In your last example, if you used a 500 ohm resistor instead of a 600 ohm, would the bulb actually explode, or just immediately burn out? Would it be a good assumption that the lower sized resistor you put on the bulb make the bulb burn out faster (ie. 400 ohm vs 500 ohm)?
I think this will be quite helpful. Thanks for the effort to put it together.
And Tom, thanks, I standardarizededed all the eqn's plus added a simple explaination of whats going on step by step. Thanks again. More to follow after I get home tonight.
NeO6874 wrote: this might help with most (maybe all) of the symbols that you couldn't get. It's pretty simple to do - pretty much replace the greek letter/symbol with the code that's in either the "Entity", "Decimal", or "Hexadecimal" on your page. Browsers will figure it out (and it'll look fine too)
this might help with most (maybe all) of the symbols that you couldn't get. It's pretty simple to do - pretty much replace the greek letter/symbol with the code that's in either the "Entity", "Decimal", or "Hexadecimal" on your page. Browsers will figure it out (and it'll look fine too)
Excellent, I use www.w3schools.com as my primary html, xhtml, css, etc resource and didnt find anything there. Thanks for the link!
claymore1977 wrote: tstage wrote: I'm assuming you are not able to display the symbol "omega" on your web site? Yeah I got my butt whooped by fonts last night and I gave up. I will make a small 10px x 10px graphic to use instead. Its on the todo list :) thanks though.
tstage wrote: I'm assuming you are not able to display the symbol "omega" on your web site?
Yeah I got my butt whooped by fonts last night and I gave up. I will make a small 10px x 10px graphic to use instead. Its on the todo list :) thanks though.
I've made it 1/2 way through the next section:
1.3 Power
Current: I = V/RVolts: V = I*RResistance: R = I/V
That way, substituting Ohms law for current in Example 1 is easier to see: Power = V * I (or V/R), Power = V * V/R, Power = V2/R (Sorry, Dave, I don't have "the power" for squaring.
I'll keep plugging away at it. David, you are doing a good job.