Doug Lowe - Electronics All-in-One For Dummies

In contrast, electronic devices do much more. Instead of just converting electrical energy into heat, light, or motion, electronic devices are designed to manipulate the electrical current itself to coax it into doing interesting and useful things.

That very first electronic device invented in 1883 by Thomas Edison manipulated the electric current passing through a light bulb in a way that let Edison create a device that could monitor the voltage being provided to an electrical circuit and automatically increase or decrease the voltage if it became too low or too high.

Don’t worry if you aren’t certain what the term voltage means at this point. You learn about voltage in Chapter 2of this minibook.

One of the most common things that electronic devices do is manipulate electric current in a way that adds meaningful information to the current. For example, audio electronic devices add sound information to an electric current so that you can listen to music or talk on a cellphone. And video devices add images to an electric current so you can watch great movies like Office Space, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, or The Princess Bride over and over again until you know every line by heart.

Keep in mind that the distinction between electric and electronic devices is a bit blurry. What used to be simple electrical devices now often include some electronic components in them. For example, your toaster may contain an electronic thermostat that attempts to keep the heat at just the right temperature to make perfect toast. (It will probably still burn your toast, but at least it tries not to.) And even the most complicated electronic devices have simple electrical components in them. For example, although your TV remote control is a pretty complicated little electronic device, it contains batteries, which are simple electrical devices.

The amazing thing about electronics is that it’s being used today to do things that weren’t even imaginable just a few years ago. And of course, that means that in just a few years we’ll have electronic devices that haven’t even been thought up yet.

That being said, the following sections give a very brief overview of some of the basic things you can do with electronics.

One of the most common applications for electronics is making noise. Often in the form of music, though the distinction between noise and music is often debatable. Electronic devices that make noise are often referred to as audio devices . These devices convert sound waves to electrical current, and then store, amplify, and otherwise manipulate the current, and eventually convert the current back to sound waves you can hear.

Most audio devices have these three parts:

A source , which is the input into the system. The source can be a microphone, which is a device that converts sound waves into an electrical signal. The subtle fluctuations in the sound waves are translated into subtle fluctuations in the electrical signal. Thus, the electrical signal that comes from the source contains audio information.The source may also be a recorded form of the sound, such as sound recorded on a CD or in an MP3.

An amplifier , which converts the small electrical signal that comes from the source into a much larger electrical signal that, when sent to the speaker or headphones, can be heard.Some amplifiers are small, as they need to boost the signal only enough to be heard by a single listener wearing headphones. Other amplifiers are huge, as they need to boost the signal enough so that 80,000 people can hear, for example, a famous singer forget the words to “The Star Spangled Banner.”

Speakers , which convert electrical current into sound you can hear. Speakers may be huge, or they may be small enough to fit in your ear.

Another common use of electronics is to produce light. The simplest electronic light circuits are LEDs, which are the electronic equivalent of a light bulb.

LED stands for light-emitting diode , but that won’t be on the test, at least not for this chapter. However, it will definitely be on the test for Book 2, Chapter 5, where you learn how to work with LEDs.

Video electronic devices are designed to create not just simple points of light but complete images that you can look at. The most obvious examples are television sets, which can provide hours and hours of entertainment and ask for so little in return — just a few of your brain cells.

Some types of electronic devices work with light that you can’t see. The most common are TV remote controls, which send infrared light to your television set whenever you push a button. (That is, assuming you can find the remote control.) The electronics inside the remote control manipulate the infrared light in a way that sends information from the remote control to the TV, telling it to turn up the volume, change channels, or turn off the power. (You learn how to work with infrared devices in Book 4, Chapter 4.)

Radio refers to the transmission of information without wires. Originally, radio was used as a wireless form of telegraph, broadcasting nothing more than audible clicks. Next, radio was used to transmit sound. In fact, to this day the term radio is usually associated with audio-only transmissions, either in the form of music or the ever-popular talk radio. However, the transmission of video information — in other words, television — is also a form of radio, as are wireless networking, cordless phones, and cellphones.

You learn much more about radio electronics in Book 4, Chapter 3.

One of the most important applications of electronics in the last 50 years has been the development of computer technology. In just a few short decades, computers have gone from simple calculating machines to machines that can beat humans at games we once thought humans were the masters of, such as chess, Jeopardy!, and Go.

Computers are the most advanced form of a whole field of electronics known as digital electronics , which is concerned with manipulating data in the binary language of zeros and ones. You learn plenty about digital electronics in Books 5through 8.

Have you ever taken apart an electronic device that no longer works, like an old clock radio or VHS tape player, just to see what it looks like on the inside?

I just took some hefty server computers to an e-waste recycler. You can bet that before I did, I opened them up to see what they looked like on the inside. And I removed a couple of the more interesting pieces to keep on my shelf. (Call me weird if you want. Some people collect teacups, some people collect spoons from around the world, and some people collect shot glasses. I collect old computer CPUs.)

Inside most electronic devices, you’ll find a circuit board (or circuit card; it’s all the same), which is a flat, thin board that has electronic gizmos mounted on it. In most cases, one side of the circuit board is populated with tiny devices that look like little buildings. These are the components that make up the electric circuit: the resistors, capacitors, diodes, transistors, and integrated circuits that do the work that the circuit is destined to do. The other side is painted with little lines of silver or copper that look like streets. These are the conductors that connect all the components so that they can work together.