Hey all, new to the forums, been involved in the hobby most of my life.
I have done some searching of the forums and found many questions but few correct/complete answers regarding Basic Electrical Fundamentals. I spent 8.5 years in the navy as a nuke electrician and spent many a 6 month deployment sketching and bench testing solid state electronics. I also taught B.E. at the Naval Nuclear Power Prototype (NY) so I am quite comfortable talking on the subject.
My question is this, how much interest is there in having a moderately detailed Basic Electricity Reference Thread/Sticky on this forum? If there is enough interest I can easily type one up with some pictures and post it. If not that I can easily field individual questions.
Welcome to the forum. Some people like tutorials, but for the most part they are either too long or skip too much. There are some good books on the sunject, but they take time to read and we are into other hobbies. They also tend to spend too much time on aspects of the disciple that are not included in the question. Seldom do I want to learn a subject, what I want is an answer.
I do like having people on this forum who can answer my questions in short consise answers that do not go into so much background I get lost. That is what many of us try to do in areas where we do know a little something.
I would certainly welcome your assistance in the area of electricity. As to a tutorial, maybe for others but not me.
Three words: GO FOR IT!!! [:)][tup] I’ve read and dug and scratched and clawed to understand what I know…and it STILL isn’t all that much.
Personally, I enjoy tutorials. I have three on my web site that I wrote myself and have included them all on the forum, at one time or another.
Most of the books and links that I have read on electricity and wiring usually start out okay. But the author soon forgets the novices in his audience and quickly jumps by leaps and bounds into more sophisticated topics on the subject - making assumptions that you know more than you do.
So, David, to answer you question again - I would personally welcome a tutorial on basic electrical fundamentals whole-heartedly. Since I’m a visual person, pictures and diagrams are a plus in my book.
David, this is just a suggestion. Jon Grant has recently done a very nice step-by-step tutorial on weathering freight cars:
The one thing that I really like about Jon’s approach is that it comes in “installments”. I think this method makes it easier on some folks who might feel overwhelmed about a particular topic…say, like electrical principles? The installment method of a tutorial allows the reader to “ruminate” or digest the material in small doses, then move on at his or her’s own pace. Joe Fugate is very good at this approach with his tutorials.
I guess - on one hand - I’m sorta surprised, and - at the same time - not suprised at the answers given on the interest in the aforementioned topic - both on this thread and the similar one posted on the Layout forum. Even if I were only moderately interested, I think it would still be great to have a “bookmarked” reference on a particular topic to refer to when the occasion arose to use that information.
I’ve found that understanding certain things has lead me to desire to understand other things. Then again, I usually was interested in understanding the topic in the first place.
Well, I guess you can’t feed a person…unless they realize they are hungry. But then…you can always offer them a “snack” and see if they’ll stick around for more. [:)]
(Okay, enough pontificating from the peanut gallery. [swg])
Not to step on your toes Claymore , but I’m bored so I’ll try and answer these.
BTW- I think your tutorial is a great idea.
[quote user=“ft-fan”]
Yes, very interested. Here are some things to get the ball rolling.
What is “single pole” as in “single pole-double throw switch”? What does it mean, how does it function, etc?
“Double pole”?
“Double throw”?
A single pole switch has one pole thet either switches a single contact (single throw) or switches between two contacts (double throw). Usually with a neutral position where neither contact is active. This would be used to turn something on or off typically.
A dual throw is essentially a set of single throw switches linked together mechanically to switch two contact between two poles, or sometimes one pole but dual pole single throws are not that common. A dual pole dual throw would be used for a reverseing switch (reverseing electrical polairity)
A resistor keeps current from flowing. How do you know what size to use?
Simple answer…, Ohms law. But that is probably beyond most folks on this board.
Ohms law
V=I x R
R=V/I
I=V/R
Where V=volts I=current in amps and R=resistance in ohms
How do you wire a diode? Is the wiring for a LED the same?
A diode and an LED are the same electricaly but an LED emits light. A diode is a PN junction device. It will let electrons flow in one direction but not the other (zenars not included). A diode has to breakdown the PN junction, usually a .7 volt drop, but beyond that does not resist current flow. Therefore to use a LED you must use a resister in series to limit current and prevent it from blowing. This is where ohms law would come into play. If you have a 16 volt source and want to hook up a diode you must limit the current by the proper amount. If the LED has a max current of .05 amps then
No toe steppin observed! I’d be quite the fool if i though I was the only one who could answer questions in this arena!
But I will field this one. A diode is the equivilent to a piping systems check valve, a valve which only allows fluid flow in one direction. A diode will conduct current only if the + and - voltages applied to it are applied on the correct sides of the diode.
Alright Ladies and Gents, the first section of Basic Electricity 101 is up. More to follow as my kids/wife allow me time Till then, please critique my work so I may make it better. Questions about specific subjects will also help guide the direction the tutorial takes.
I made it through the first couple of sections - i.e. 1.1 and 1.2. I like what you’ve done so far. Just a few minor suggestions, if I may:
Section 1.1
Don’t make assumptions that folks automatically know what m (milli), u (micro), K (kilo), and M (Mega) are. It would also be helpful to know what these terms mean:
m = milli = 1/1000
u = micro = 1/1,000,000
K = kilo = 1000
M = mega = 1,000,000
Schematic - Point out which symbols are what. For instance: “In this schematic, a battery (left) is supplying 12 volts worth of electrical potential and a resistor (right) is offering 1 ohm of resistance to the flow of current.” You can eventually figure it out but the “left”/“right” help to do that quicker and say to the reader, “Oh, that’s a battery symbol.” and “Hey, that’s what a resistor symbol looks like.”
I’m assuming you are not able to display the symbol “omega” and “micro” on your web site?
Section 1.2
Why are you solving for “Ia” and not “I”?
How is Resistor R1 able to “drop” all 12 volts? Through heat?
David, my purpose is NOT to get nit-picky but to make things a little more obvious and intuitve for the newbie. Am I stepping over the line?
Actually this is in progress as I am working on a Legend in Photoshop.
Yeah I got my butt whooped by fonts last night and I gave up. I will make a small 10px x 10px graphic to use instead. Its on the todo list thanks though.
Ia is a force of habit as everything I have done in the past decade represents Armature Current, or current of the main generator, as Ia, or more simply, total Current. I suppose the sub characters on the various I’s to come need some explaining.
As for R1, yes, a resistor performs no other function than converting energy to heat.
[quote user=“tstage”]
David, my purpose is NOT to get nit-picky but to make thing
I found it somewhat confusing with the intermixing of terms. Example 1 has Power = Volts * Amps and Example 2 has Power = Volts * Current. With Example 3, it’s back to Power = Volts * Amps. Now, referring back to Ohms law helps me to know that Current = Amps and that these are saying the same thing. But remember, you are speaking to newbies who just learned this in Section 1.2. My suggestion is to keep the terms consistent: Power = V * I. Or, perhaps using parenthesis more initially until the terms are ingrained. For example: Power = V * Current (amps) or Power = V * Amps (Current). That reinforces that the two terms are synonymous with one another.
Maybe include a table for showing Ohms law being solved for each:
Current: I = V/R
Volts: V = I*R
Resistance: R = I/V
That way, substituting Ohms law for current in Example 1 is easier to see: Power = V * I (or V/R), Power = V * V/R, Power = V2/R (Sorry, Dave, I don’t have “the power” for squaring.
Example 2: Explain, in order to solve the equation for amperage, we need to determine the current. Then show an extra step that, in order to do that, you first need to divide the equation by “Volts”. That way folks see and understand how you made the transition from Power = Volts * Current to Current = Power/Volts.
I’ll keep plugging away at it. David, you are doing a good job. [:)][tup]
this might help with most (maybe all) of the symbols that you couldn’t get. It’s pretty simple to do - pretty much replace the greek letter/symbol with the code that’s in either the “Entity”, “Decimal”, or “Hexadecimal” on your page. Browsers will figure it out (and it’ll look fine too)
And Tom, thanks, I standardarizededed all the eqn’s plus added a simple explaination of whats going on step by step. Thanks again. More to follow after I get home tonight.
Looks good, but I am a little bleary-eyed after one time thru. I am “electrically challenged”, so I will have to read through it a few times to get it. The math is easy, it’s the concepts that are tough. A couple of questions did come up as I read through it.
At the beginning you give us the definitions and all the abbreviations for that, then your first diagram uses I to measure current (granted it is Ia, but it is still I), and that was rather confusing, as above you said current was measured in Amperes, so I was looking for an A to describe that. Can that be cleared up somehow?
All your expamples show the voltage going to the negative side of the battery to be zero. Is the goal of any circuit to get the voltage coming back to the battery down to zero? What happens if this does not happen? For instance, if you put a short wire from + to -, assuming the resistance of the wire is 0, does your battery immediately run dead, or explode or ???
In your last example, if you used a 500 ohm resistor instead of a 600 ohm, would the bulb actually explode, or just immediately burn out? Would it be a good assumption that the lower sized resistor you put on the bulb make the bulb burn out faster (ie. 400 ohm vs 500 ohm)?
I think this will be quite helpful. Thanks for the effort to put it together.
Till then, please critique my work so I may make it better. Questions about specific subjects will also help guide the direction the tutorial takes.