Electronics Basics

A common task for a transistor is switching a device on and off. There are two configurations for a transistor switch: low side and high side. The location of the transistor …

One of the best ways to learn how to use a new piece of test equipment is to use it. Sounds easy, right? The problem is, sometimes when you are in the middle of troubleshooting …

Common question that comes up about pull-up resistors: what value do you pick and why not just use a piece of wire? In this follow-up electronics tutorial, the bald engineer looks …

As a kid, I got the book " Upgrading and Repairing PCs." (Now in its 22nd edition.) It was the first book to explain to me the PC architecture. I considered, how were there so few …

Can you use voltage dividers as regulators? What if you add a Zener Diode? In this AddOhms episode, I show what happens when you try to power a complex circuit like an ESP8266 with …

Hey Newsletter Readers: Looking for Best Resistor Sorting Method? My Bad! Here are some ideas of what you can do with the humble voltage divider. This elementary circuit has a few …

A question came up on IRC regarding how to PWM a 3-pin PC fan with an Arduino using analogWrite(). Controlling the fan was seemingly straightforward. The problem was that the hall …

Sharing is the maker community’s foundation. When you share projects with others, you contribute to the community. In the past, you might just post your project on a personal …

When you buy a grab bag of components, you might need to tackle sorting resistors. Here’s how I sorted some bags of random resistor assortments last week. Objectives Then method I …

Current flow (direction) is the topic I’m planning for my next AddOhms tutorial. While preparing the script, I started to realize there are some myths or misunderstandings about …