Skill Set: Understanding electronic components

Education Technology

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Over the last few years, our very own Collin Cunningham has authored a series of awesome videos called MAKE Presents. Each video covers an electronic component (and one fundamental law of electronics). Understanding how these components function, and that law, are important first steps in understanding electronics. Here are all of the MAKE Presents videos to date. Collin is currently working on an episode on the basics of using a digital multimeter (the Swiss Army knife of electronics testing tools).

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MAKE Presents: The LED – A movie about the origins of the LED and how to make your own from carborundum!

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MAKE presents: The Resistor

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MAKE presents: The Capacitor

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MAKE Presents: The Transistor

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MAKE presents: The Diode

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MAKE presents: The Integrated Circuit

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MAKE presents: The Inductor

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More:
Skill Set: Electronics: Soldering

14 thoughts on “Skill Set: Understanding electronic components

  1. tgmake says:

    I think you meant multimeter, not multimedia.

    1. Gareth Branwyn says:

      Ugh. Yes. Thanks for the catch! Fixed by the Typo Fairy.

  2. James Finnerty says:

    I’ve been interested in electronics on the side for years, finding out how they tick. But this has brought my understanding to another level. Thanks for these awesome videos, I love finding out how things tick and why, and now I know alot more in that :D

  3. migpics says:

    What I really like about Collin’s viddies is that each one has a little project at the end of it that you can do to really get a better understanding of how the stuff works.
    I think this is key to learning. I understand things like making mistakes or having skill sets is important but I think that having small projects with goals such as make an LED blink or make a sound come out of a speaker is what really helps you learn electronics.
    Keep the projects coming!
    Thanks

    1. Collin Cunningham says:

      Glad to hear you found the projects are useful – more to come!

  4. dr.theopolis says:

    I wish I had access to 1,000 of these tutorial videos. They’re quick, to the point, and do a nice job of explaining the concepts. So much more interesting than trying to read an explanation next to a line drawing. I’m looking forward to each one of them, thanks for taking the time!

  5. Laurence Gonsalves (@laurence) says:

    The first category on this page appears to be malfunctioning. Its header image isn’t loading (404), and despite the alt text being “Robotics” and the image’s filename being “mz_skillbldr_july-robotics_600x80_05.jpg”, the links in that category are all just a copy of the links from the photography category (and the image itself links to the photoskills tag, not the robotskills tag).

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Gareth Branwyn is a freelance writer and the former Editorial Director of Maker Media. He is the author or editor of over a dozen books on technology, DIY, and geek culture. He is currently a contributor to Boing Boing, Wink Books, and Wink Fun. His free weekly-ish maker tips newsletter can be found at garstipsandtools.com.

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