MITx - 1st Course online is "Circuits and Electronics"

[El Zombre]

This is great. Open Courseware's been a really cool initiative. Now they're having an automated online class, with problem sets, solutions, "grading" and a certificate for completing the course at the end. First course to be offered is 6.002x - Circuits and Electronics.

Anyone else going to try for this class?

[VOLVO)))]

You fuckin' bet!

[jibberish]

that's awesome of you who are going to do this.
learning new stuff rules.

[xayk]

Came for circuits, stayed for chainsaws and bolo ties.

I think I'll try for it, but I worry that my math won't be good enough.  (Actually I *know* my math won't be good enough.)  I'm interested, however.

[jibberish]

speaking of math....

i'm not sure what department this circuits class is being given under. the department COULD make a difference in the math requirements.

as an example. i took physics when i was a biology major. physics with algebra.  ok, the standard hooke's law formula for mass/inertia/resistance was actually dealt with using algebra.  it is a 2nd order differential equation and is child's play using calculus to solve hookes law problems. it got cumbersome with only algebra.

later i took engineering physics which took advantage of calculus, and actually let more things be explained with th emore powerful math

hooks law is the same for inductance/capacitance/resistance. the same layout 2nd order diff eq. you WILL deal with this law.

Another problem may occur. With inductors and caps, you deal with phase shifts. to correctly define and work with phase stuff, you have to deal in the frequency realm, not the time realm. you have to use the square root of -1 and things called phasers and other mind bender concepts. ohm's law only gets you so far.

hopefully they wont deal with fields/magnetic induction too much. 3d gradients are easily defined with integral calculus, and any limit based crap.

you may also need to know how to do numerical analysis using linear algebra to solve arrays for certain problems

not trying to scare you, but full blown engineering dept 200 and up level classes assume you can speak the requisite math.

[El Zombre]

6 is the computer science/electrical engineering department at MIT. 6.002 is a first introduction to ee course. That said, the video did mention something about "transitioning from physics to electrical circuits" so maybe a semester of Electricity and Magnetism from the Physics department is assumed to have been taken?

[jibberish]

if these are seriously the same courses you would be taking on campus in a standard degree sequence, there is probably a guide and lists of pre-requisite classes to help you put together an overall battle plan, then your quarterly/semester-?ly heh schedules to follow the sequence.

certain brand new topics can be cheated on a bit, like an intro to computer logic class. you learn about gates and flip flops and solve little games with 1's and 0's. tht type of class anyone interested could roll with immediately. everything is brand new. you are learning logic more than math. mostly true/false and-nand nor, that stuff..
if you like games, that's a blast of a class.  then you can build logic circuits with op amps and you automatically know the bottom line theory to any computer. with registers and shifting bits etc

ok, the electric circuits sort of is new, but physics is first and the engineering physics is pretty punishing, but most of it gets a bit way out there. and most of it does not apply. induction, emf, right-hand rule, that crap is important.just the model of what goes on when current flows down a straight wire, either ac or dc is probably enough to get you started. there are fields around that wire, so knowing that stuff may help.

you may want to dabble ahead of the curve and find something like an op-amp project site. i had the most fun of all my classes with a 300 level class. i think it was non-linear circuits or something like that.  the theory was voodoo lol, but all the amazing things you could do with diodes and op amps, i went apeshit. i hit the electronic surplus store hard and piled up on logic crap, diodes and op amps, timers counters lol all kinds of shit. the theory was more like instructions and not deep at this point. they assumed you knew the background why, but you didnt need it cold to get this stuff so i think you can cheat. just do the equations fo setting the levels and stuff of your circuit to generate values for components w/e

also op-amps are little black boxes that you dont care what's in them(w/e 25transistors and a bunch of passive crap<-but you dont care )all you care is that it has 2 inputs, an output, and a couple power leads. you read the little instruction sheet so you dont fry it. you look at examples of different amp techniques involving the differnt feedback circuits to to all kinds of crap. amps, waveform generators, integrators etc etc. they are a blast. cheap as hell and easy to get started right up actually building stuff. you will learn so much about gain, too much gain(hit the power rails, but usually not biggy, that's all a transistor switch is). and the feel for what feedback is and how awesome useful it is. that right there is huge regarding amplifier knowhow. you get a fiddy cent amplifier that is a full blown amplifier

anyway, im thinking you wont need much of the deep theory they give you , especially if you just want to have it together for music gear. that is sound reproduction and that surrounding set of circuitry and electrical issues. engineering degrees have to cover all the bases in a general way, so a ton will not even apply to your interests. hence why im thinking about sort of cherry picking

btw, i'll help you with math issues, if there isnt a huge learning curve you need. no replacing math classes for a huge catch-up, but i can get you through small things showing you the trick minus the deep theory

[jibberish]

a pc powersupply is an excellent el cheapo and really nicely regulated dc supply for 12v and 5vttl projects, 3v led projects. they are so super mass produced that their quality far exceeds their price compared to buying a bench supply. anyone you know that has a motherboard die or is shitcanning an old PC= free bench supply for you

there is one pin you trick on the motherboard connector, that is looking for the motherboard to be alive. it just needs to see a voltage so you jump it to a hot line( i forget the details, ez2 find the info for you rparticular era of supply. old ones had a hard power switch heh, but all the new ones are soft starts)

remember though, it is not a constant current supply so watch it with weirdo stuff like diodes, including LED's