Course content
The course covers the analog electronics in the "Student manual for
the Art of Electronics". If there is time, the last two labs will
include a demonstration of the digital electronics using Field
Programmable Gate Arrays. (That comprises a whole other lab
course, "Digital Electronics for Physicists".
Book
The excellent "Student manual for the Art of Electronics" by Horowitz and Hayes (ISBN 0-521-37709-9-9). This book is required, but can be obtained used from Amazon.com for about $25. It has been described by some reviewers as "one of the books to bring to a desert island."
A highly recommended suggested reading is "The Art of Electronics" by Horowitz and Hayes -- the electronics bible itself. It runs for $65-$90 new, and from $55 up used. Although this book is not strictly necessary as the "Student manual" contains the necessary material to do the labs, it is quite useful as a reference book. Anybody planning to work with electronics later in life should eventually own it.
Time to work together
The course will meet Tuesdays noon-4 pm (the TA stays until 5 pm) to discuss the material and do the key labs in three or more parallel groups. Discussion and collegial exchange of information is strongly encouraged, as it will sometimes be easier to the students who have just gotten the setup to work to help their less successful colleagues.
Debugging is probably the most
important skill that the students should obtain from this course, as it
is vital in all experimental work in Physics, Engineering and
beyond. Not all components will be connected properly in the
first attempt. Moreover, sometimes the components themselves are
bad, or they are damaged in the process of setting the circuit
up. It is essential to learn how to quickly find out why
something is not working. This can be learned only by tracking
down a number of problems on our own or in a small group, and that is
the main motivation for the structure of the Tuesday afternoon session.
Time to work on your own
Any other time. Some tricks will take longer to `sink in' and
will thus require more playing with the setup to get it to work and
really get a good grasp of what is happening. All students will
have a key of the "Advanced Lab" space, and they are welcome to come
and play with the equipment on their own.
People and mailing lists
Instructor: Petar Maksimovic. Not always in town but reading email fairly regularly.
TA: Vivek Thampy (new TA in training) and Jennifer Pursley (in semi-retirement).
Students:
Joel "Whit" Davis,
Rob Bauer,
Daniel Simon,
Peter Bythrow,
Gregg Occhiagrosso,
Brianna Schuyler,
Michael Schmidt,
Jacob Stern.
Email instructors.
Email everybody.