[marksk]

when designing a circuit, how do you decide what resister value you would need? for example, if you're looking to have two chips on a pcb, how do you determine if you need a resister between them and what value to use? how do you determine what caps to use? can someone recommend a good site on beginning circuit design?

thanks!

 

[Polaris111688]

Tangentsoft

Go to the Audiologica and Electronics sections. There's quite a bit to read there, but it's quite well done. If you're interested in building amplifiers, I recommend the Chu Moy link within Audiologica.

 

[MoodySteve]

This greatly depends on your electrical knowledge and the complexity/novelty of the circuit you're designing. I honestly don't think that one can just read a book and start designing good, robust, novel circuits. Some of the most intelligent people in the world devote entire years of their life just to learning the background knowledge necessary to make good designs (be they electrical, mechanical, logical, etc).

You should read pretty much any first-year EE textbook to get a good solid understanding of electricity, electrons, magnetic/electric fields and circuit behavior. Check out Horowitz & Hill's 'The Art of Electronics' for a considerably more advanced look at circuit behavior.

What kind of circuit are you trying to design?

 

[appophylite]

To the OP:
I second MoodySteve's analysis. It's one thing to look at a circuit, and just follow the instructions that have been provided to build said circuit. It's another thing to actually understand what each component does, how they work together, and how changing one affects the overall circuit. I definitely recommend that, if you want to learn more about different components and their interactions, go to your local library and check out some EE textbooks. Especially get basic ones that discuss voltage, current, resistors, capacitors and inductors and transistors. They'll help you understand better what to look for and how change affects circuits differently. Another nice way to learn would be to find a copy of Orcad or PSpice, either a full version for sale (which will get expensive) or a demo version. These are programs that are used for designing and simulating circuits in a computer environment, and can be a very helpful tool for learning how things work and for testing ideas.

 

[Uncle Erik]

There are lots of good resources out there. I'm on the iPhone now and can't cut and paste into this post, but here are my suggestions:

1. Beginning Tube Audio, by Bruce Rozenblit (book)
2. The library at Pete Millett's DIY Audio pages
3. Can't remember the exact title, but the Morgan Jones book on valve audio
4. Google Boozhound Labs and read the excellent walk-through of building and designing a tube amp
5. For a good fundamental approach, read "There Are No Electrons," by Kenn Amdahl

The other suggestions here are good, too. Circuit design is tough - it took me a bit of study just to understand what's going on and build the circuits correctly. Anyone who designs has my respect.

 

[Ron.id]

Quote:

Originally Posted by marksk can someone recommend a good site on beginning circuit design?

Read this online course for basic electronics knowledge. Contains lot of animation to visualize the concept. I found it very good as a start point.

 

[Jocko Homo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by marksk /img/forum/go_quote.gif when designing a circuit, how do you decide what resister value you would need? for example, if you're looking to have two chips on a pcb, how do you determine if you need a resister between them and what value to use? how do you determine what caps to use? can someone recommend a good site on beginning circuit design? thanks!

First, you have to know what the chips are, and why you would want to stick one between them in the first place. The answer is as varied as the application. There are no easy answers or shortcuts, in this case.

(Maybe if you gave us some examples, we could give you some hints.)

Jocko

 

[marksk]

i'd like to have the knowledge to design/modify amp circuits, adcs and dacs. a good start to ee is what i'm looking for. took advice from people and chose the wrong major when i went to school.

 

[kipman725]

you can only get so far without decent maths knowlage as all circuits break down into mathmatical functions at there most fundemental levels. So the first thing you should so is get your maths upto scratch. A good book is the art of electronics as it uses maths when only needed which is good for DIY and if you just want results. It all depends how far you want to go. I personaly start my university EEE masters degree later this year (at english unis you only usualy do one thing) and am positivly salivating at the prospect of been able to mathmaticly model things so I can define there performance before actualy construction. The art of electronics also disscuses rel world issues which many other electronics books ommit, these things are important if you actualy build the circuits you design. I often don't build things I design as it costs money and I know that they will work so building them is kind of pointless.

ADCs and DACs:
An Introduction to Delta Sigma Converters
shameless plug: Forum www.Beis.de » Delta Sigma Converter » Anyone interested in my DIY ADC designs?

Amplifiers are kind of boring as the existing designs are so numerous there is probobly an amplifer designed exactly to fit the parameters you were thinking of already. Although in the relm of DIY class D amps I have seen very little. Posibly because of the difficulty (same reason there are not many DIY switching mode PSU's).

anyway good luck

 

[Jocko Homo]

Hate to tell you this but......

Getting an EE won't teach you any of that. EE has pretty much become Computer Engineering. So, maybe you didn't pick the wrong studies. It just seems that way.

Back when it was supposed to be Electrical Engineering, most places didn't teach it then, either.

So.......how did I learn so much? I built tons of stuff. Never simulated a damn thing.

Jocko

 

[guzzler]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jocko Homo /img/forum/go_quote.gif Hate to tell you this but...... Getting an EE won't teach you any of that. EE has pretty much become Computer Engineering. So, maybe you didn't pick the wrong studies. It just seems that way. Back when it was supposed to be Electrical Engineering, most places didn't teach it then, either. So.......how did I learn so much? I built tons of stuff. Never simulated a damn thing. Jocko

Fair enough, you need to build things to see how they work in the real world, but any engineering course worth the name will have a strong theoretical and mathematical basis even if toward the end it tends toward software design, which is ultimately where the cutting edge is. The ability to appreciate the theory behind the models is extremely valuable, if only to tell you where the model breaks down.

 

[Jambo]

Jocko Homo, you are right prettty much. But it is justified - only an idiot would try to design an IC without simulating it. And I guess the argument is that once you have the strong theoretical grounding the practical stuff can be pursued pretty easily.

 

[TzeYang]

how about not think too much and start reading?

Google is your friend.
We are your friend.
Books are your friend.

Basically, just READ READ READ READ READ READ READ READ READ.

I'm currently a student doing my foundation year (studying stuffs unrelated to electronics) but i do pretty fine in understanding circuits. For example: I've have quite a decent understanding on how differential amps work and i know how to at the very least calculate resistor values and other parameters for that circuit.

So how did i do it? Simple: Read.

 

[kipman725]

Quote:

Originally Posted by guzzler /img/forum/go_quote.gif Fair enough, you need to build things to see how they work in the real world, but any engineering course worth the name will have a strong theoretical and mathematical basis even if toward the end it tends toward software design, which is ultimately where the cutting edge is. The ability to appreciate the theory behind the models is extremely valuable, if only to tell you where the model breaks down.

there is some software but its the fun low level stuff! Im the type of insane loon who programs with dip switches at times, when making a serial boot loader for a computer I have been building. All the coureses I have looked at are the best in the country and so have a strong mathmatical basis.

*also I have loads of practical knowlage already I'm mostly interested in modeling now so I can design more advanced better perfoming systems

 

[Daroid]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jocko Homo /img/forum/go_quote.gif Hate to tell you this but...... Getting an EE won't teach you any of that. EE has pretty much become Computer Engineering. So, maybe you didn't pick the wrong studies. It just seems that way. Back when it was supposed to be Electrical Engineering, most places didn't teach it then, either. So.......how did I learn so much? I built tons of stuff. Never simulated a damn thing. Jocko

Not here at least, or at least i didn't choose it. I chose signal processing, and there's a lot of both analog and digital electronics. Currently mostly about optimizing op-amp performance to optimize CMRR, intrumental amps, stability and frequency compensation, feedback theory, AGCs and much more to come in the next following weeks.
Last semester contained also signal processing in both analog IIR, and digital bilinear transformation of IIR filters, and also FIR filters.
Everything is proven, not just "hear-say" or assumptions - for analog electronics typically by KVL and KCL.

You're right there's not the practical approach of just throwing components together to beging with, but we still get to experiment, but only when we know what to do and can predict the outcome somewhat.

But I agree that what is promoted at other universities is focusing much on "networks" security and data communications... the field is very broad.

EDIT:
By the way, great to see you around. You helped me understand what was wrong with most off-shelf SPDIF implementations at the Diyhifi forums some years ago... a later semester course in transmission line theory helped me understand it all even better