Introduction to Electronic Components

Introduction to Electronic Components - Free Course

This section of the Brunning Software web site is for people who want to learn about the fundamental building blocks of electronics. We make no charge in any way for using the written material on this web site for your own personal use. Our PIC training and development system makes an ideal base unit for doing the experiments, and if you have our PIC system you can go on to learn about microcontrollers.

Using the plugboard. To do the experiments you will need a plugboard.
Reading Resistor Values.
What is a Resistor? Find out what a resistor looks like and what it is used for.
Series and Parallel Resistors. Find out what happens with different combinations of resistors.
What is a Capacitor? Find out what a capacitor is used for.
Discovering Semiconductors. Find out what a diode does.
Using a Transistor for Current Gain.
Using a MOSFET as a Switch.

If you cannot answer the following questions you need to work through this free course.....

1. How much current flows if a 1k resistor has 3 volts across it?
2. What type type of energy is stored in a capacitor?
3. What is the difference between the time constant and decoupling effect of a capacitor?
4. What is a diode?
5. How is a transistor used to amplify current?
6. What is the difference between an ordinary transistor and a field effect transistor?