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BASIC ELECTRONICS

Electron theory and atoms

All matter is comprised of molecules, which in turn are comprised of atoms, which are again
comprised of protons, neutrons and electrons. A molecule is the smallest part of matter which can
exist by itself and contains one or more atoms.

Electron theory and atoms

Resistance

In the topic current we learnt that certain materials such as copper have many free electrons.
Other materials have fewer free electrons and substances such as glass have practically no free
electron movement therefore making good insulators. Between the extremes of good conductors
such as silver, copper and good insulators such as glass and rubber lay other conductors of
reduced conducting ability, they "resist" the flow of electrons hence the term resistance..

Resistance
Ohms Law

Ohms law, named after Mr. Ohm, defines the relationship between power, voltage, current and
resistance. These are the very basic electrical units we work with. The principles apply to a.c.,
d.c. or r.f. (radio frequency).

Ohms Law
Current

A flow of electrons forced into motion by voltage is known as current. The atoms in good
conductors such as copper wire have one or more free electrons of the outer ring constantly flying
off. Electrons from other nearby atoms fill in the holes. There are billions of electrons moving
aimlessly in all directions, all the time in conductors.

Current
Voltage

Voltage should be more correctly called "potential difference". Voltage is actually the electron
moving force in electricity (emf) and the potential difference is responsible for the pushing and
pulling of electrons or electric current through a circuit.

Voltage

Capacitance

In the topic current we learnt of the unit of measuring electrical quantity or charge was a coulomb.
Now a capacitor (formerly condenser) has the ability to hold a charge of electrons. The number of
electrons it can hold under a given electrical pressure (voltage) is called its capacitance or
capacity. Two metallic plates separated by a non-conducting substance between them make a
simple capacitor. Here is the symbol of a capacitor in a pretty basic circuit charged by a battery.

Capacitance
Inductance

The property of inductance might be described as "when any piece of wire is wound into a coil
form it forms an inductance which is the property of opposing any change in current". Alternatively
it could be said "inductance is the property of a circuit by which energy is stored in the form of an
electromagnetic field.

Inductance
Reactance

Reactance is the property of resisting or impeding the flow of ac current or ac voltage in inductors
and capacitors. Note particularly we speak of alternating current only ac, which expression
includes audio af and radio frequencies rf. NOT direct current dc.This leads to inductive
reactance and capacitive reactance.

Reactance
Resonance

Resonance occurs when the reactance of an inductor balances the reactance of a capacitor at
some given frequency. In such a resonant circuit where it is in series resonance, the current will
be maximum and offering minimum impedance. In parallel resonant circuits the opposite is true.

Resonance

Impedance

Impedance is one of the most confusing aspects of electronics - I will de-mystify impedance by
taking an extremely casual approach. I have known electronic enthusiasts who still couldn't even
mentally visualise the concept of impedance even after 25 years.

Impedance
Diodes

Diodes are semiconductor devices which might be described as passing current in one direction
only. The latter part of that statement applies equally to vacuum tube diodes. Diodes however are
far more versatile devices than that. They are extremely versatile in fact.

Diodes
Transistors

Generally transistors fall into the category of bipolar transistor, either the more common NPN
transistors or the less common PNP transistor types. There is a further type known as a FET
transistor which is an inherently high input impedance transistor with behaviour somewhat
comparable to valves. Modern FET's include some very rugged transistor devices.

Transistors
Transformers

The name transformers is derived from the fact that when two coils are placed in close inductive
proximity to one another the lines of force from one cut across the the turns of the other inducing
an ac current, energy is transformed from one winding to another and this is called transformer
action.

Transformers
Radio Terminology
start in the fascinating and wonderful world of electronics by learning the primary basics - radio
terminology. You need a clear understanding of all radio and electronics terms.

Radio-Terminology A-L

Radio-Terminology M-Z
Soldering

Among the foremost of reasons an electronic project frequently fails to work properly is due to
"poor" soldering practices. This is usually caused by "dry joints" when soldering. Here I discuss
the correct procedures for soldering electronic projects.

Soldering
Electronic project tools

The absolute minimum of electronics projects tools to successfully undertake any electronic
project you need needle nose pliers, diagonal cutters, a quality soldering iron and a digital
multimeter. The pliers are used to bend resistor leads etc, the soldering iron for soldering
components together and the diagonal cutters for removing excess component leads. To test
your electronic project you need a digital multimeter to test for circuit continuity, measure circuit
resistances and voltages.

Constructing electronic projects

Power Supplies

Everybody needs to understand the basics of Power Supplies. Several tutorials including
switched mode power supplies

What is a power supply?

A power supply could be something as simple as a 9v battery or it could be as complex as a

precision laboratory power supply. Here we deal in ac dc power supplies.

Below is the schematic of a very basic unregulated dc power supply. The ac from the transformer
secondary is rectified by a bridge rectifier D1 to D4 which may also be a block rectifier such as
WO4 or even four individual diodes such as 1N4004 types. (see later re rectifier ratings).

The principal advantage of a bridge rectifier is you do not need a centre tap on the secondary of
the transformer. A further but significant advantage is that the ripple frequency at the output is
twice the line frequency (i.e. 50 Hz or 60 Hz) and makes filtering somewhat easier
Figure 1 - schematic of basic power supply

As a design example consider we wanted a small unregulated bench supply for our projects.
Here we will go for a voltage of about 12 - 13V at a maximum output current (IL) of 500ma (0.5A).
Maximum ripple will be 2.5% and load regulation is 5%.

Now the rms secondary voltage (primary is whatever is consistent with your area) for our power
transformer T1 must be our desired output Vo PLUS the voltage drops across D2 and D4 ( 2 *
0.7V), all divided by 1.414.

This means that Vsec = [13V + 1.4V] / 1.414 which equals about 10.2V. Depending on the VA
rating of your transformer, the secondary voltage will vary considerably in accordance with the
applied load. The secondary voltage on a transformer advertised as say 20VA will be much
greater if the secondary is only lightly loaded.

If we accept the 2.5% ripple as adequate for our purposes then at 13V this becomes 13 * 0.025 =
0.325 Vrms. The peak to peak value is 2.828 times this value. Vrip = 0.325V X 2.828 = 0.92 V
and this value is required to calculate the value of C1. Also required for this calculation is the time
interval for charging pulses. If you are on a 60Hz system it it 1 / (2 * 60 ) = 0.008333 which is 8.33
milliseconds. For a 50Hz system it is 0.01 sec or 10 milliseconds.

The formula for C1 is:

C1 (uF) = [ ( IL * t ) / Vrip ] X 10 6

C1 = [ ( 0.5A X 0.00833 ) / 0.92V ] X 10 6

C1 = 0.00453 X 10 6 = 4529 or 4700 uF

Remember the tolerance of the type of capacitor used here is very loose. The important thing to
be aware of is the voltage rating should be at least 13V X 1.414 or 18.33. Here you would use at
least the standard 25V or higher (absolutely not 16V).
Power Supply diode rectifier rating

With our rectifier diodes or bridge they should have a PIV rating of 2.828 times the Vsec or at
least 29V. Don't search for this rating because it doesn't exist. Use the next highest standard or
even higher. The current rating should be at least twice the load current maximum i.e. 2 X 0.5A or
1A. A good type to use would be 1N4004, 1N4006 or 1N4008 types. These are rated 1 Amp at
400PIV, 600PIV and 1000PIV respectively. Always be on the lookout for the higher voltage ones
when they are on special.
Transformer Rating for Power Supply
In our example above we were taking 0.5A out of the Vsec of 10V. The VA required is 10 X 0.5A
= 5VA. For our power supply this is a small PCB mount transformer available in Australia and
probably elsewhere. This would be an absolute minimum and if you anticipated drawing the
maximum current all the time then go to a higher VA rating.

The two capacitors in the primary side are small value types and if you don't know precisely and I
mean precisely what you are doing then OMIT them. Their loss won't cause you heartache or
terrible problems.

THEY MUST BE HIGH VOLTAGE TYPES SPECIFICALLY RATED FOR A.C. USE

The fuse F1 must be able to carry the primary current but blow under excessive current, in this
case we use the formula from the diagram. Here N = 240V / 10V or perhaps 120V / 10V. The fuse
calculates in the first instance to [ 2 X 0.5A ] / [240 / 10] or .04A or 40 ma. In the second case .
08A or 80 ma. The difficulty here is to find suitable fuses of that low a current and voltage rating.
In practice you use the closest you can get (often 100 ma ). Don't take that too literal and use 1A
or 5A fuses.
Construction of Power Supply

The whole power supply project MUST be enclosed in a suitable enclosure, preferably of the
insulated variety. The main switch, also preferably double pole, must be rated at least 240V or
120V at the current rating. All exposed parts within the power supply box MUST be fully insulated,
preferably with heatshrink tubing.

UPDATE - 20th January, 2002

One very sensible suggestion for housing your power supply project is to use the case of a
defective or surplus Switched Mode Power Supply (SMPS) from a computer!

Think about it? A case, suitable socket - probably with a surplus cable, switch maybe, fuse
maybe, fan if you need it etc.... Possibilities are endless. Just remove the SMPS guts and discard
to the junk box... FWIW. Also I'll try and do some photos.

BOOK - Power Supplies by David Lines

An overview of switched mode power supplies or SMPS

Of necessity this is only a broad overview of switched mode power supplies or SMPS. The
switched mode power supplies or SMPS owes its origins back to the days when valve or tube car
radios needed the large HT supply, e.g. 150V DC to be generated from an automobile power
system of nominally 12V DC.

At the end I provide a link to a 200W ATX PC Power Supply including schematic. This may prove
helpful in troubleshooting PC power supplies.

In those days the switched mode power supply took the form of a "vibrating reed" or vibrator
which "chopped" up the 12V DC by electro-mechanical means and was then applied to a
transformer, rectifier and filtering circuit to produce the much higher DC output.
n principle only the electro-mechanical component has been replaced in favour of solid state
electronics to produce a much more efficient, reliable and durable system.
Switched mode power supplies or SMPS as DC to DC Converters

Essentially switched mode power supplies or SMPS act as DC to DC converters. In these

applications the switched mode power supply acting as a DC to DC converter first rectifes an AC
input voltage (110V / 240V), converts it to DC and depending upon the design considerations
chosen, chops this DC in a "chopper" and converts it to a higher or lower level of DC or perhaps
both a higher AND lower level of DC. Typical modern applications include your computer power
supply and the power supplies in your TV and Video sets.

Older televisions sets had power transformers which were bulky, heavy and quite expensive.
Although modern solid state electronics have considerably reduced the power consumption of TV
sets, the switched mode power supply has entirely replaced the power transformer leading to a
substantial reduction in cost, size, weight and vastly improved efficiency in the use of power in a
modern television set. Similar improvements and efficiencies brought about by switched mode
power supplies can be seen in modern computers. As one example I serviced a video for my
daughter - actually removed pieces of toast - it was a TEAC video and its power consumption
was 240V 50 Hz 14 Watts!
Comparison of switched mode power supplies with other forms of power regulation

We have previously looked at:

Shunt regulated power supplies.
Linear regulated power supplies.

These type of regulators whilst relatively economical for low current requirements are notoriously
inefficient, difficult to regulate with varying loads and suffer from residual power line ripple.

Switched mode power supplies or SMPS on the other hand while extending circuit complexity,
offer significantly improved efficency (perhaps 80%), greatly reduced system weight and size and
in higher current applications, reduced costs.

Figure 2. - comparison of a conventional transformer power supply efficency with a sw

Switched mode power supplies or SMPS as DC to DC converters operate at 20 Khz or higher
and utilize the energy stored during one portion of its operating cycle to supply power during the
remaining segment of its operating cycle. It does however, suffer significantly in the ripple
regulation it is able to maintain.

Linear regulators obtain improved regulation by virtue the series element is always conducting
while the switched mode power supply is operating only during a portion of the overall operating
period.