Tech Explorations™ Basic electronics for Arduino Makers

What you’ll learn
Understand the concepts of voltage, resistance and current
Use Ohm’s Law to calculate voltage, current and resistance
Use Kirchhoff’s Laws to calculate voltage and current
Understand the meaning of and calculate energy and power
Use resistors in various configurations, like in voltage dividers and voltage ladders
Read the value of a resistor from its package
Use pull-up and pull-down resistors
Understand the use of capacitors
Use capacitors as energy stores and filters
Calculate the RC time constant of a capacitor
Understand diodes
Measure the voltage drop of a diode
Understand how to use rectifier and zener diodes
Protect a circuit from reverse polarity
Understand how to use a transistor to control low and high power loads
Calculate the currents and base resistor for a bipolar transistor
Use the correct voltage regulator for any circuit

Requirements
Small circuits controlled by an Arduino
A basic understanding of electricity and electronics
Have assorted resistors, capacitors, LEDs, diodes, transistors, voltage regulators (see section 1 for details, free to view)
A breadboard, jumper wires and a battery (see section 1 for details, free to view)
A multimeter (see section 1 for details, free to view)
Basic algebra

Description
Are you an Arduino maker, able to make things by following how-to guides and are confident with writing or modifying sketches, yet you are not so confident about things like calculating transistor currents, voltage drops and using capacitors as filters?

You are not alone. I have been teaching Arduino and Raspberry Pi topics for years. During this time I have realized that while these platforms are great for helping you to start tinkering with electronics, you will not be able to truly enjoy their power until you have understood basic electronics.

This is what this course is about. It is about helping you achieve a better level of understanding of the basic electronics principles and components that are commonly used in making on platforms like the Arduino and the Raspberry Pi.

I have designed this course for anyone with a basic understanding of electronics, who has already spent time tinkering with Arduinos.

By the end of this course, you will have learned how to use commonly used components found in Arduino projects. You will also have learned how to do the relevant measurements and calculations to help you select appropriate components for your projects.

To complete this course, you will need a few cheap and common components and tools: resistors, capacitors, transistors, LED, diodes, and batteries. You will also need a multimeter, a small breadboard and jumper wires. All of these are probably things that you already have.

Who this course is for?
Anyone with minimal experience using an Arduino
Anyone with minimal experience using any prototyping platform
Anyone with a need to brush up their knowledge of basic electronics