Practical Electronic Design for Experimenters

CHAPTER 5Common Circuit Design Techniques

You will begin your actual design instruction in this chapter. Several basic devices and circuits occur again and again when you are designing something. This chapter is a collection of these fundamental devices and circuits. They include current limiting resistors, voltage dividers, pots, and transistor switches. At the same time, it is a good review of some basic electronic fundamentals, such as Ohm’s law, Kirchhoff’s law, and input and output impedances.

Drawing Circuits

There are lots of ways to draw the schematic diagrams for electronic circuits. However, there are some conventional ways that most engineers use. For example, Fig. 5.1a shows one way to show a battery powering an LED. The preferred ...