← Electronics Bench

Lessons

Each lesson opens a live circuit. Steps tick themselves when you get them right.

Basics: voltage, current, resistance School

Build your first circuit, light an LED, and measure with a real multimeter.

  1. Your first circuit: light an LED · 10 min
  2. Ohm's law with a multimeter · 15 min
  3. Series circuits and the voltage divider · 12 min

Analog electronics School & college

Capacitors, diodes, transistors, sensors, op-amps and voltage regulators — seen on the meter and the scope.

  1. Capacitors and the RC time constant · 15 min
  2. Diodes, the 0.7 V drop and the zener · 15 min
  3. The transistor as a switch · 15 min
  4. MOSFET switch vs BJT · 12 min
  5. Sensors: an automatic night-light · 15 min
  6. The op-amp: follower and amplifier · 18 min
  7. A regulated 5 V supply with the 7805 · 12 min

Digital electronics: logic, clocks and counters School & college

HIGH and LOW, logic gates, the 555 clock, flip-flops, counters and shift registers — on real 74-series chips.

  1. HIGH, LOW and the logic probe · 10 min
  2. Logic gates and truth tables · 15 min
  3. NAND can build anything · 15 min
  4. The 555 clock · 15 min
  5. Flip-flops: memory and divide-by-2 · 15 min
  6. Counting with the CD4017 · 15 min
  7. Shift register: 8 outputs from 3 wires · 15 min

Microcontrollers: Arduino, Pico and Raspberry Pi School & college

Write real code that blinks LEDs, reads buttons and knobs, and talks over Serial — on an Arduino Uno, a Raspberry Pi Pico and a Raspberry Pi 4.

  1. Arduino: blink an LED and print to Serial · 12 min
  2. Arduino: read a button with INPUT_PULLUP · 12 min
  3. Arduino: fade an LED with PWM · 12 min
  4. Arduino: read a knob with analogRead · 12 min
  5. Raspberry Pi Pico: blink with MicroPython · 12 min
  6. Raspberry Pi Pico: read a knob with the ADC · 12 min
  7. Raspberry Pi 4: blink an LED with gpiozero · 12 min
  8. Raspberry Pi 4: react to a button · 12 min

Solar: an off-grid 12 V system School & college

A 55 W panel, a 10 A PWM charge controller and a 12 V 26 Ah battery running a fan, a phone and a WiFi router — wired, measured and broken safely.

  1. Wire the whole system in the safe order · 15 min
  2. The solar panel: Voc and Isc · 12 min
  3. The charge controller and the low-voltage cut (LVD) · 15 min
  4. Battery voltage tells its charge · 10 min
  5. The multimeter on a solar system — and the 10A trap · 10 min
  6. Wires, fuses and a short circuit · 12 min
  7. Run a WiFi router from the battery with a DC-DC · 15 min
  8. An inverter for 230 V loads — and how long it lasts · 12 min