Posted August 14, 2013 by Chris

Starting next week, PyroEDU is introducing a new course: An Introduction To Analog Electronics. Here’s a quick summary of the course and some links with more details.

This course is meant to create a pathway into learning about analog electronics, for people who are scared of the math and general trickery that usually comes with it. A hands-on approach is taken in this course through a combination of lecture and experimentation to teach you about the different basic ideas (AC vs. DC, filters and amplifiers) used in analog electronics.

Posted June 6, 2013 by Chris

Now it’s time for our second bonus lessons on PyroEDU’s Digital Course. We’ll finish the course off by looking at 4000 Series Logic Devices. Here’s a quick intro of what this PyroEDU lesson is all about:

This bonus lesson dives into the more advanced 4000 logic IC’s available to us as designers and looks specifically at 3 interesting IC’s. The experiment for this lesson is to build a 4-bit single IC counter.

Posted May 30, 2013 by Chris

Now it’s time for our two bonus lessons on PyroEDU’s Digital Course. We’ll start by looking at 7400 Series Logic Devices. Here’s a quick intro of what this PyroEDU lesson is all about:

After you have mastered the digital fundamentals you are ready to grow and move to the more complex areas that exist. This bonus lesson dives into the more advanced 7400 logic IC’s available to us as designers and looks specifically at 3 interesting IC’s. The experiment for this lesson is to build a knight rider LED circuit.

Posted May 23, 2013 by Chris

This week we’re going to have some fun with everything we’ve just learned. We’ll Design an LED Chaser. Here’s a quick intro of what this PyroEDU lesson is all about:

Electronics is not all about theory all the time, some moments do come when you get to have some fun. In this lesson we are going to celebrate our wealth of knowledge and just go design something fun. An LED chaser is loosely defined as a system where LEDs follow one another in a certain pattern, so start go start designing!

Posted May 16, 2013 by Chris

This week, we’re looking at binary counters! Specifically, we’re going to look at how to Design A 4-Bit Binary Counter. Here’s a quick intro of what this PyroEDU lesson is all about:

A great strength of digital circuitry is that the clock can act as a timer or counter with appropriate flip-flop circuitry in place. In this lesson, using some LEDs, we will learn how to build a 4-bit binary counter that uses the clock input to tell our circuit to increment a counter with every clock period.

Posted May 9, 2013 by Chris

This week, we’re looking at shift registers! Specifically, we’re going to look at how to Design A 4-Bit Shift Register. Here’s a quick intro of what this PyroEDU lesson is all about:

With all the basics covered, we can start to combine digital logic elements together and make useful devices. In this lesson we will take some flip-flops and other logic elements to build a 4-bit shift register. Some LEDs will be used to show you exactly how the shift register works.

Posted May 2, 2013 by Chris

Time for another new lesson on PyroEDU’s current course: Introduction To Digital Electronics course and it’s called Clocks and Oscillators. Here is what this week’s lesson is all about:

The heart and soul of any digital system is the main clock signal. It drives every single flip-flop that is inside of the system and therefore it is the most important signal. In this lesson we will learn how to use a 555 timer as a clock signal generator and we will also look at using crystal oscillators to generate clock signals.

Posted April 25, 2013 by Chris

It is time for a new PyroEDU lesson in our Introduction To Digital Electronics course and it’s called Digital Flip Flops. Here is what this week’s lesson is all about:

To take another gigantic step into the world of digital electronics, we need to learn about flip-flops. In this lesson we take a look at two types of the flip-flops, the JK and D flip-flops. To learn what they are and how they work, we will put them in some experimental circuits and see how they react. Additionally, we will start to learn about digital clock signals.

Posted April 18, 2013 by Chris

This week we’re rolling out a new less for our Introduction To Digital Electronics course and it’s called Design An SR Latch. Here is what this week’s lesson is all about:

The next step into the digital work is to create stable logic elements. The first such element is called a latch and it can be built using simple logic gates. In this lesson we will explore how to build a latch using NOR logic gates and NAND logic gates. In addition, we will take a look at what timing diagrams are and how to use them.

Posted April 11, 2013 by Chris

Continuing with our new course: An Introduction To Digital Electronics, this week we’ll learn some more on the theory side of digital electronics with Lesson 4: Kmaps. Here is what this week’s lesson is all about:

Moving beyond number systems and logic gates, we have boolean equations and karnaugh maps. In this lesson we will learn two methods for simplifying logic circuits using boolean equations and kmaps and then we will implement the circuits to verify our math. This lesson is a tough one, so get your brain ready to be jammed full with information.