Everyone has given me good advice, which I will follow.  But what I don't understand is how you -- I don't know the words I'm looking for -- how you read a circuit.  If it were a program, I'd could start at the beginning and follow the flow keeping track of variables, like a debugger does.

I think I'm trying to do that with circuits and sort of my question is, am I doing this right, or is there a proper way that I haven't figured out yet?  Do you start at + and work your way to - ? 

I read every single "how it works" I find, and I understand a bit, but I don't quit get it in a way where I could look at a circuit and tell what it does.

I have a theory though. And please let me know if it is in the ball park.  Certain components and groups of components we know do various things.  Like little modules (or subroutines or function libraries).  And that when designing something you know which of these modules to put where to do what. 

My landlady said I could put a floor of sorts up in the attic, and then I can put a desk up there and start playing with electronics again.  I had to stop for about 2 years now because of the cats.  

I just think I'm not looking at the big picture correctly.

Lindy


-----Original Message-----
From: piclist-bounces@mit.edu [mailto:piclist-bounces@mit.edu] On Behalf Of Jinx
Sent: Sunday, January 28, 2007 3:15 PM
To: Microcontroller discussion list - Public.
Subject: Re: [EE:] How do you create and understand circuits? (i.e. why am isostoopid)

> This is a serious question.  How do you "understand" how a circuit
> works and how do you create with your imagination a new one ?

It really really helps if you've got an end product as the goal. Also
a good general knowledge of what devices are out there and what's
probably appropriate to use to reach that goal. Experience and practice
are musts, IMHO. Have a look at magazine articles and the 'How It
Works' panel to see how they accomplished various circuit tasks

For example

http://www.siliconchip.com.au/cms/A_30551/article.html

is a good mix of analogue, digital and PIC, and is well documented

>From a personal perspective, not having had any formal electronics
training, I think the initial idea is more important than the understanding.
That can come later when you try to get the different parts of the
circuit working with selected components

We here would generally be working with components that obey
a few simple rules, so the limits of what you can do with those
components are not too difficult to stay within

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