hevans1944
Hop - AC8NS
@harley quinn I am sorry if it appears that I was a little short in my comments. I am not a big fan of the maker community or the so-called "instructables" that pop up here, usually with "why won't it work?" type questions. There is a lot of misinformation on the Internet and it is difficult for a beginner to learn what is real information and what is not. If you want to learn electronics, experiments such as this one should be well grounded in theory before you even think about wiring something together. With theory you can predict not only what should happen but what will happen if a circuit is properly constructed. Of course that is the complete opposite of the approach taken in Charles Platt's Make: Electronics. He actually encourages you to "experiment" and blow things up out of ignorance, hoping you will learn something from it. I don't buy into that concept of "learning" anything. When I blow shit up I want it to be under my command with my ass at a safe distance behind a protective barrier. I learned this from the rocket scientists in the 1950s.
So you are correct: the book could have been a lot clearer in explaining what is going on. Of course if all you want to do is duplicate someone's flashing LED circuit with no clear understanding of how it works, then maker and instructable postings on the Internet will allow you to do just that... most of the time. Maybe it will even pique your curiosity enough to seek more information, as you did here, and a then a little theory will creep in here and there. So keep asking questions, but you might also search this forum and the Internet to see if your question has already been answered. And if you do find answers, make sure they make sense and agree with established theory. If they do, then you can concoct your own experiments to test the validity of whatever theory you think you might have learned. If you advance far enough to design and build your own original projects, please consider posting them here for other to learn from. There is a forum just for that.
Learning electronics is hard work, and to do it right eventually requires some serious math. But so many people today think they can buy a bag of parts, wire something up according to instructions, and believe they are "learning" electronics. In my day we had Popular Electronics magazine, a well-stocked Radio Shack store nearby, and Forrest M. Mims III to provide circuits along with explanations the layman or novice could easily follow. The Popular Electronics is no more, Radio Shacks are disappearing, but Mims is still alive and publishing. If I were starting afresh today learning electronics, Mims' books would definitely be at the top of my list of things to purchase and study. Notice I said purchase. Mims' copyrighted material is widely pirated. Please don't become a member of that group.
There are other many other authors besides Mims and Platt, some with extensive blogs. Some will swear by (or swear at) the Make Electronics and Electronics for Dummies type of books. You will have to decide which ones provide a true learning experience versus a TinkerToy or an Erector Set type experience. Please don't misunderstand: I loved my TinkerToys and my Erector Set when I was much younger. They inspired me to learn and experiment and to build. They stimulated my imagination. But I don't think I learned much from them that I could apply to the real world... well, maybe keep all your different parts separated and stored in labeled containers was one thing I learned, except I soon ran out of containers. So much for an organized life.
So you are correct: the book could have been a lot clearer in explaining what is going on. Of course if all you want to do is duplicate someone's flashing LED circuit with no clear understanding of how it works, then maker and instructable postings on the Internet will allow you to do just that... most of the time. Maybe it will even pique your curiosity enough to seek more information, as you did here, and a then a little theory will creep in here and there. So keep asking questions, but you might also search this forum and the Internet to see if your question has already been answered. And if you do find answers, make sure they make sense and agree with established theory. If they do, then you can concoct your own experiments to test the validity of whatever theory you think you might have learned. If you advance far enough to design and build your own original projects, please consider posting them here for other to learn from. There is a forum just for that.
Learning electronics is hard work, and to do it right eventually requires some serious math. But so many people today think they can buy a bag of parts, wire something up according to instructions, and believe they are "learning" electronics. In my day we had Popular Electronics magazine, a well-stocked Radio Shack store nearby, and Forrest M. Mims III to provide circuits along with explanations the layman or novice could easily follow. The Popular Electronics is no more, Radio Shacks are disappearing, but Mims is still alive and publishing. If I were starting afresh today learning electronics, Mims' books would definitely be at the top of my list of things to purchase and study. Notice I said purchase. Mims' copyrighted material is widely pirated. Please don't become a member of that group.
There are other many other authors besides Mims and Platt, some with extensive blogs. Some will swear by (or swear at) the Make Electronics and Electronics for Dummies type of books. You will have to decide which ones provide a true learning experience versus a TinkerToy or an Erector Set type experience. Please don't misunderstand: I loved my TinkerToys and my Erector Set when I was much younger. They inspired me to learn and experiment and to build. They stimulated my imagination. But I don't think I learned much from them that I could apply to the real world... well, maybe keep all your different parts separated and stored in labeled containers was one thing I learned, except I soon ran out of containers. So much for an organized life.
