Great Courses' Understanding Modern Electronics/ R. Wolfson

Is anyone else doing Richard Wolfson's course from the Teaching Company?

http://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/understanding-modern-electronics.html

It's not always clear to me how he does some of the things with Circuit Lab that he shows in his demonstrations.

Might there be any interest in setting up a user's group to help each other work through the rough spots?

by Dana37
August 25, 2014

Note: Using a named node as a power source (e.g. "+12V") works w/ Firefox but I couldn't get it to work with Safari.

by Dana37
August 25, 2014

I don't use CL with Safari but here's a little more background:

About using implcit named nodes as power sources:

You can set up explicit voltage sources for the power supplies in CL or create an implicit supply using a node or net name. For example, the +1V or +1 node label invokes an implicit 1V source:

https://www.circuitlab.com/circuit/a5bzf7/good-netname-and-a-free-voltage-source/

However, in:

https://www.circuitlab.com/circuit/96br67/bad-net-name/

CL throws an error because the explicit 1V source, V1, is then in parallel with the implied source created by the node label.

by signality
August 26, 2014

Thanks Signality! Simple things like this can drive a guy crazy! Firefox is now my default browser with CL. The Wolfson course is tough sledding but I'm learning a huge amount. It's like plate tectonics: science that simply didn't exist when I was in school. I'm an old dog trying to learn new tricks. ;-)

by Dana37
August 26, 2014

General questions about "How do I do blah?" should get answers but you obviously can't expect too many other people on CL to be using the same course so, if you need help on particular parts of an example from the course then you'll need to recreate the example here and make it public or unlisted so that everyone can see it.

Remember that if you post an example in a thread, you are posting a link to that example not just an image of it.

So, if you then edit that example, it will change in the original posting so if your need original circuit needs to remain unchanged for people to make sense of your posting, copy the circuit, edit it and then - if you need to - post the new one in the next posting to the thread.

:)

by signality
August 26, 2014

BTW:

You might like to raise a Bug Report about this difference between Safari and Firefox ...

See Bug Reports in:

https://www.circuitlab.com/forums/support/topic/8s9n9hav/how-to-use-the-circuitlab-support-forum/

by signality
August 26, 2014

"... but you obviously can't expect too many other people on CL to be using the same course ..."

Probably not "too many", but Great Courses has wide exposure, and Prof. Wolfson uses and promotes CL throughout his 24 lectures. In fact, that's why I subscribed and I'll bet there are others like me.

by Dana37
August 26, 2014

I recently bought the Wolfson course and loved it. I did not try all his simulations as I am struggling with even some basic simulations, i.e. looking at a time domain simulation of a 60hertz, 12 volt sine wave. I see garbage and not a sine wave. https://www.circuitlab.com/circuit/786627/bad-waveform/

by doctorwhen
August 28, 2014

@doctrowhen,

Your

(Stop time)/(Time step)

ratio is too small.

Think about this for a moment: you're trying to view a few cycles of a 60Hz waveform.

Period of 60Hz = 16ms

You'd set the stop time to be 2s, i.e. 2000ms.

Your Time Step was set to 50ms!

Try:

Stop time = 100ms

Time Step = 100us

Why?

See:

https://www.circuitlab.com/circuit/d4qjc5/relaxation-osc-fixed-01/

and:

https://www.circuitlab.com/docs/the-basics/#time_domain_simulation

:)

by signality
August 29, 2014

I just noticed this thread. I am also doing Wolfson's course. I love it, but found that the learning curve on CL is almost as steep as the course content itself. I finally completed (got the same result as Dr Wolfson) Lecture 5.
Did you notice that the course includes videos on how to do the Projects? I did not notice this for a few weeks, and my frustration was getting pretty high until I happened to see a separate option at the bottom of the root menu display.

I think you are ahead of me in the course, so I don't have much to offer yet, but I'm glad to see I have company!

by johnredmond
August 29, 2014

I agree completely about the steep pitch of the learning curves! Wolfson's presentation style is rapid-fire. I find that I have to watch some lectures twice or more before I get it all.

Signality looks like a valuable resource.

I think we've got a self-help group going here, or at least some other folks to commiserate with. ;-)

by Dana37
August 29, 2014

I am also doing his course and am glad to see comments here on how to better understand and use circuit lab

by mikesozio
September 02, 2014

https://www.circuitlab.com/circuit/n9nqmn/common-emitter-inverting-amp/

This is the circuit from the exercise in Ch.8, p.67.

I had trouble getting the time-domain simulation to work despite re-reading the docs (see signality's note above). Turned out it was a very simple problem. I had typed "0.1 ms" instead of "0.1m" (the "sec" part is automatically appended). Doh!

by Dana37
September 07, 2014

Also, there can be no spaces, i.e. "10m" works but "10 m" triggers the error message.

by Dana37
September 07, 2014

Hello, I also have Wolfson's course. I've gone thru it twice. That course is what draw me to CircuitLab. It does have a steep learning curve. I think the a major improvement would be a complete documentation package!

by JGonzalezGUS
March 07, 2016

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