Building Circuits on the Whiteboard...

Welcome to Building Circuits on the Whiteboard!

In the classic electronics courses, analog circuits are presented by using one and the same "scenario". First, applying all kinds of formal methods, students are persuaded how imperfect passive circuits are. Then, students are given analogous active versions in their complete, final and perfect stage, and they are convinced formally that these active circuits are almost ideal. However, nobody shows them what they really need in order to comprehend active circuit operation: how the passive and active versions relate and how passive circuits have been converted into active ones.

Following the classical teaching approach, I have never managed to penetrate into circuit operation. That is why, I have gradually built my own simple teaching philosophy of presenting:

In order students to really understand electronic circuits, we teachers have to build them in consecutive steps, every new circuit based on the previous one.

I have started this part of Circuit Stories on the Whiteboard especially for you - creatively thinking teachers who love circuits and your students. It is also intended for all those who do not feel happy with traditional dull presentations of circuit phenomena.

Here, I do not present electronic devices as ready-made circuit solutions to be analyzed in their complete, final and perfect form. Instead, I build circuits step-by-step using more elementary building blocks connected in the conformity with basic ideas derived from real life.

Relying mainly on my intuition and imagination I show the circuit evolution on my favorite whiteboard, in a way that you have never seen before! Following the building "scenarios" proposed, you would be able to understand and even invent any (even completely new) electronic circuit! It sounds wonderful, isn't it? Well, are you ready? Let's begin!

Op-amp converters

Op-amp ammeter

Op-amp RC integrator     roll     short

 

Constant current sources

How do we build a constant current source (philosophy)?