How to Understand, Present and Invent Electronic Circuits (a brief description of circuit-fantasia.com)

I wrote this description of circuit-fantasia.com in 2000. This was a project. Some of its features are implemented, other not.

Essence

This product is a set of tools for implementing a non-traditional educational technology based on human imagination and intuition in the area of analog electronics. It is being prepared for teachers, students, hobbyists, inventors and for all those who do not make do with traditional formal explanations of electronic circuit phenomena.

Implementation

The product is planned to be implemented in two versions -- a short one (about a few Megs) as a web site and an enlarged one (about a few dozens Megs) on CD. It includes interactive illustrations, sounds and text integrated into a whole by means of Macromedia tools.

Structure

The product consists of three main parts: a general part dedicated to the philosophy of the heuristic approach; collections of heuristic tools, basic operation principles, electronic technical contradictions and electronic circuits; heuristic tutorials of electronics. A brief description of the main parts follows.

Philosophy. Here, the general idea of the heuristic approach in electronics is revealed. It consists of three parts dedicated to the particular interconnected mental activities:

1. Understanding unfamiliar electronic circuits (designed mostly for students and hobbyists)
2. Presenting the already known electronic circuits (intended mainly for teachers and lecturers)
3. Inventing new electronic circuits (orientated to creative thinking students, teachers and inventors)

A set of examples illustrates the application of these techniques to electronic circuits.

Collections. Each of them contains a hierarchic classification (menu) and a set of concrete web pages dedicated to the corresponding devices:

Heuristic tools (heuristic "tool-box") consists of means for heuristic manipulation of electronic circuits based on human intuition and imagination:

• Analogies for electrical phenomena: pneumatic, hydraulic, etc.
• Techniques for visualizing electric quantities: potential bars and diagrams, current loops, superimposed IV curves, etc.
• General methods for solving inventive problems (with links to corresponding web sites).

Basic operation principles (circuit "bag of tricks”). Every electronic circuit, regardless of its complexity, is based on clear and simple basic ideas. In this way, the operation of the whole totality of circuits in a particular field of electronics could be explained by a limited number of basic principles. Here a collection is made of this kind of principles in the field of analog electronics. Every principle of this “kaleidoscope of ideas” is presented by a separate web page divided into the following parts:

1. Posing the problem
2. Looking for an analogy from everyday experience
3. Generalizing the analogies thus derived into a basic principle
4. Applying the principle in the field of electronics (links to web pages of other circuits based on this principle)

Circuit contradictions. New ideas solve existing contradictions in the circuit operation. So, in order to understand electronic circuits, we have to reveal the contradictions behind them. Here a collection of such contradictions in the area of analog electronics is made.

Circuits contains hierarchic classification and a set of specific pages dedicated to corresponding circuit building blocks. The circuits included are samples; many of them are likely to be replaced or changed. Some are probably out of date but interesting because they illustrate certain principles. Each web page is divided into the following parts:

1. Traditional presentation.
2. Generalizing the problem.
3. Looking for a suitable analogy from everyday experience.
4. Deriving the general idea
5. Building and "inventing" the electronic circuit
6. Exploring the circuit operation
7. Revealing the passive circuit imperfections and the active circuit limitations. Inducing ideas for future improvement
8. Basic circuit applications (links to other web pages of Circuit collection)

The first two demo pages are dedicated to the famous passive circuits of voltage-to-current converter and current-to-voltage one. The third page (parallel voltage passive summer) is based on the previous two pages; the last page (parallel voltage active summer) is built using all the previous pages. You may visit these pages browsing through the classification as follows:

How to > Collections > Circuits > Passive Circuits > Time Independent Circuits (for the first three pages) and

How to > Collections > Circuits > Circuits with Negative Feedback > Interacting NFB Systems > Aiding NFB Systems > Series-Connected Aiding Systems (for the last page).

Also, you may directly access these pages using the following path:

How to > Collections > Circuits (click link buttons at the bottom of the last page).

Heuristic tutorials represents systematically certain parts of electronics according to the philosophy of the heuristic approach. At first a tutorial of Analog electronics will be presented. Later, with product enlarging, additional courses in other fields of electronics will be added. All of them will use the same common Principle collection and Circuit collection. In this way a universal relationship between electronic phenomena will be revealed.

The content of the analog circuit tutorial is revealed in three logically connected parts. In the first one, the most elementary passive analog circuits are built. In the second part, the classical transistor circuits without negative feedback and with imperfect one are built. In the third part, the imperfect passive circuits and transistor circuits are converted into ideal ones using corresponding ideas from Principle collection. The circuits "invented" in this way are sent to Circuit collection thus enlarging it.

Searching for Popularity

To convince myself of the product originality, I have searched the web and purchased some up-to-date books in this field. I have not found anything written in an original manner even in books claiming inventiveness and novelty (e.g., Practical Electronics for Inventors of Paul Sherz and Fundamentals of Analog Circuits of Thomas Floyd and David Buchla). I have convinced myself that Student Manual for the Art of Electronics, and to some extent, The Art of Electronics are the only books of this kind written in an original manner.

Creation Problems

I clearly realize that the creation of such a product is too difficult for me; so I do not stop looking for mates. In the beginning, I was an optimist and naively thought that my work is only to generate and outlineideas. The implementation (drawing the diagrams, writing the programs, translating the text, etc.) was, I thought, a work for “others”. The work turned out so specific that eventually I had to do all the work myself. Fortunately, Flash animator proved to be a wonderful media for assembling text, illustrations and sounds into an interactive final form.