THE ELECTRONICS BOOK

EMF, Voltage and Current:

The Electro Motive Force EMF is the energy that makes an electronic device work. For instance, an
electric circuit without a source of energy a battery cannot work. In that case, the battery is the
source of EMF; it sustains the circuit with a flux of electrons which make it do its work. These
electrons flow at the speed of the potential difference and at a certain amount of electrons, that
speed is measured in Volts (V) and is called Voltage and that amount of electrons is measured in
Amperes (A) and is called Current. Every electric device in order to work needs a specific amount of
electrical power measured in Watts (W) and is called Wattage.
The relationship between Voltage, Current and Resistance will be discussed further.

Every conductor has a specific Resistance to the

current flow that makes a metal a better
conductor than another.

The resistance in electronics is measured in

Ohms ().

Resistance:

While a metal wire carries current very well, it is not perfect at the job and so has some resistance
to current flowing through it. The thicker the wire is, the lower the resistance. The shorter the wire
is, the lower the resistance.
The first researchers used this characteristic to control the way circuits operated. Sometimes, as
higher resistances were needed, the researcher used to need long lengths of wire which would get
tangled up. To control the wire, a board with nails along each side was used and the wire wound
backwards and forwards across the board like this:
When drawing a circuit diagram, the researcher would sketch the wire on the board giving a zigzag
line which is still used today to represent a resistor although different methods of construction are
now used.

Conductors, Insulators and semi-conductors:

Some materials such as glass, ceramics, wood and most plastics do not easily carry a current and so
are considered to be insulators.
Current flows easily through metals, especially along the surface of the metal, they are considered to
be conductors, so cables are made from metal wires surrounded by a layer of plastic insulation.
There is a very important, third group of materials, silicon and germanium in particular, which fall
between conductors and insulators. These are called semi-conductors and the amount of current
they can carry depends on the electrical conditions in which they are placed.

Forms of electrical current:

Electrical current can flow through a circuit in either of two ways. When it flows in one steady
direction only, it is classed as Direct Current, (DC). The common sources of Direct current are
Batteries and Solar Panels.

When the electrical current alternates in both directions back and forth it is classed as Alternating
Current, (AC). The common sources of Alternating current are Generators and Wind Mills. The main
household current is 230 AC @ 50 Hz.
Ohms Law and Electrical Power:

The relationship between Voltage, Current and Resistance in any DC electrical circuit was firstly
discovered by the German physicist Georg Ohm.
He found that, at a constant temperature, the electrical current flowing through a fixed linear
resistance is directly proportional to the voltage applied across it, and also inversely proportional to
the resistance. This relationship between the Voltage, Current and Resistance forms the basis of
Ohms Law I (amps) = V (volts) R ().

Transposing the standard Ohms Law equation above will give us the following combinations of the
same equation:

Electrical devices convert one form of power into another. So for example, an electrical motor will
covert electrical energy into a mechanical force, while an electrical generator converts mechanical
force into electrical energy.
Electrical Power (P) in a circuit, commonly called Wattage and measured in Watts (W), is the rate at
which energy is absorbed or produced within a circuit P (watts) = V (volts) x I (amps).
And again, transposing the basic Ohms Law equation above for power gives us the following
combinations of the same equation to find the various individual quantities:

For a further understanding of the relationship between the various values, all of the Ohms Law
equations from above for finding Voltage, Current, Resistance and of course Power are condensed
into a simple Ohms Law pie chart for use in AC and DC circuits and calculations as shown in the
diagram:

It is known that the unit of power is the WATT, but some electrical devices such as electric motors
have a power rating in the old measurement of Horsepower or hp. The relationship between
horsepower and watts is given as: 1hp = 746W.

The power dissipated in a circuit is the same whether the circuit contains high voltage and low
current or low voltage and high current flow. Generally, electrical power is dissipated in the form of
Heat (heaters), Mechanical Work such as motors, and Energy in the form of radiated (Lamps) or as
stored energy (Batteries).

Electrical Energy is the capacity to do work, and the unit of work or energy is the joule (J).
The electrical energy is defined as being watts per second or Joules (1Joule/sec = 1Watt), as it is the
product of electrical power multiplied by the length of time it was consumed.

Electrical Energy (joules) = Power (watts) x Time (seconds)

If the electrical power consumed (or generated) is measured in watts or kilowatts (thousands of
watts) and the time is measure in hours not seconds, then the unit of electrical energy will be the
kilowatt-hours,(KWhr). Thus, the standard unit of energy used by the electricity meter in our homes
is KWhr.

Electrical components:

In order to build electronic circuits main components used in electronics such as resistors, capacitors,
inductors, transistors, diodes, regulators, transformers and Integrated Circuits (IC) are required.

In electronics there are Active components and Passive components. The Active components are
electrical components that require to be powered in some way to make them work, such as
transistors, operational amplifiers and integrated circuits.
Unlike the Active components, the Passive components do not require any form of electrical power
to operate. They do not provide gain, amplification or directionality to a circuit but instead provide
attenuation. Therefore passive devices can not generate, oscillate or amplify an electrical signal but
can be used individually or connected together within a circuit, either in a series or in a parallel
combination to control complex circuits or signals, produce a phase shift to the signal or provide
some form of feedback.
Passive components are bi-directional components, as they can be connected either way around
within a circuit unless they have a specific polarity marking such as electrolytic capacitors.

Resistors:

The resistor is a passive component that opposes the flow of electrical current through it. They are
manufactured in several sizes and varieties. They come in fixed and variable versions. The higher
the resistance value of a resistor, the less current will flow through it when a voltage is placed across
it. The most commonly used are the fixed carbon E12 range.

The resistance value, tolerance, and wattage rating are generally printed onto the body of the
resistor as numbers or letters when the resistors body is big enough to read the print, such as large
power resistors. But when the resistor is small such as a 1/4W carbon or film type, these
specifications are shown using different coloured rings or bands around them to indicate their
resistive value with each coloured band having a decimal value associated with it.

Each resistor has typically, three color bands to indicate its value. The first two bands are the
numbers and the third band is the number of noughts. The color bands are read from left to right
and the first band is close to one end of the body of the resistor.

The color bands values are:

Black=0, Brown=1, Red=2, Orange=3, Yellow=4, Green=5, Blue=5, Purple=7, Grey or Silver=8, White=9.
As an example, we have:

Green: 5 Yellow: 4
Blue: 6 Purple: 7
Red: 2 noughts Green: 5 noughts
Value: 5 600 ohms or 5.6K or 5K6 Value: 4 700 000 ohms or 4.7M or 4M7

There is often a fourth band which indicates the manufacturing tolerance: you can ignore that band.

The tolerance band has the following codes:

White or Silver is 10% (i.e. a 10K resistor of this type should be between 9K and 11K)
Gold 5% (i.e. a 10K resistor of this type should be between 9.5K and 10.5K)
Red 2% (i.e. a 10K resistor of this type should be between 9.8K and 10.2K)
Brown 1% (i.e. a 10K resistor of this type should be between 9.9K and 10.1K)
Green 0.5% (i.e. a 10K resistor of this type should be between 9.95K and 10.05K)
Blue 0.25% (i.e. a 10K resistor of this type should be between 9.975K and 10.025K)
Purple 0.1% (i.e. a 10K resistor of this type should be between 9.99K and 10.01K)

Recently, however, the addition of an extra band to the coding, have been introduced in order to
allow for very high specification resistors which the average constructor may never come across. As
before, the colour coding is exactly the same.

Red: 2
Purple: 7
Green: 5
Red: 2 noughts
Silver: 10%
Value: 27 500 ohms 27.5K or 27K5 with 10% tolerance
As there are only 12 standard resistor values per decade, there are only 12 sets of the first two color
bands:

10: Brown/Black, 22: Red/Red, 47: Yellow/Purple

12: Brown/Red, 27: Red/Purple 56: Green/Blue
15: Brown/Green, 33: Orange/Orange, 68: Blue/Grey
18: Brown/Grey 39: Orange/White 82: Grey/Red

Below is a list of common Resistors values:

Surface Mount Resistors or SMD Resistors, are very small rectangular shaped metal oxide film
resistors designed to be soldered directly onto the surface, hence their name, of a circuit board.
Surface mount resistors generally have a ceramic substrate body onto which is deposited a thick
layer of metal oxide resistance.

4.7k SMD Resistor

Surface Mount Resistors are printed with either a 3 or 4-digit numerical code which is similar to that
used on the more common axial type resistors to denote their resistive value. Standard SMD resistors
are marked with a three-digit code, in which the first two digits represent the first two numbers of
the resistance value with the third digit being the multiplier, either x1, x10, x100 etc.
For example:

000 or 0000 = 0 ohms = are only short circuits since they have no resistance

390 = 39 1 = 39 ohms = 39s or 39R

392 = 39 100 ohms = 3.9 kilos

563 = 56 1,000 ohms = 56 kilos

105 = 10 100,000 ohms = 1 Mega

A resistor can be used at any combination of voltage (within reason) and current so long as its
Dissipating Power Rating is not exceeded with the resistor power rating indicating how much
power the resistor can convert into heat or absorb without any damage to itself. The Resistor Power
Rating is sometimes called the Resistors Wattage Rating and is defined as the amount of heat
that a resistive element can dissipate for an indefinite period of time without degrading its
performance.

The power rating of resistors can vary a lot from less than one tenth of a watt to many hundreds of
watts depending upon its size, construction and ambient operating temperature. Most resistors have
their maximum resistive power rating given for an ambient temperature of +70oC or below.
For example : Carbon resistors, are commonly made in wattage ratings of 1/8 (0.125)W, 1/4
(0.250)W, 1/2 (0.5)W, 1W, and 2 Watts.

Generally speaking the larger their physical size the higher its wattage rating. However, it is always
better to select a particular size resistor that is capable of dissipating two or more times the
calculated power. When resistors with higher wattage ratings are required, wirewound resistors are
generally used to dissipate the excessive heat.
 Typical Power Resistor

Wirewound power resistors come in a variety of designs and types, from the standard smaller
heatsink mounted aluminium body 25W types as we have seen previously, to the larger tubular
1000W ceramic or porcelain power resistors used for heating elements.

The resistance value of wirewound resistors is very low (low ohmic values) compared to the carbon
or metal film types. The resistive range of a power resistor ranges from less than 1 (R005) up to
only 100ks as larger resistance values would require fine gauge wire that would easily fail.

Another useful feature of wirewound power resistors is in the use of heating elements like the ones
used for electric fires, toaster, irons etc. In this type of application the wattage value of the resistance
is used to produce heat and the type of alloy resistance wire used is generally made of Nickel-
Chrome (Nichrome) allowing temperatures up to 1200oC.

Commercial high voltage resistors can be found in TV sets and old tube (valve) devices. The picture
below shows some examples.

Commercial high voltage resistors. The shortest

one (3) has only 2MOhm and is good for some
kV at most, above that it becomes too hot. The
slightly longer one (2) below has 200MOhm and
can be used at up to 10kV. The long resistor at
the bottom edge (1) is quite a rare find. It also
has 220MOhm, but is nearly 20cm long and can
be used for up to 30kV. The remaining pieces (4)
and (5) are focus potentiometers from TVs. They
have a very high resistance and are intended for
5-10kV.

All resistors whether carbon, metal film or wirewound obey Ohms Law when calculating their
maximum power (wattage) value. It is also worth noting that when two resistors are connected in
parallel then their overall power rating is increased. If both resistors are of the same value and of the
same power rating, then the total power rating is doubled.

Type Power Rating Stability

Metal Film Very low at less than 3W High 1%
Carbon Low at less than 5W Low 20%
Wirewound High up to 500W High 1%

Resistor power rating is an important parameter to consider when choosing a resistor for a particular
application. The job of a resistor is to resist current flow through a circuit and it does this by
dissipating the unwanted power as heat. Selecting a small wattage value resistor when high power
dissipation is expected will cause the resistor to over heat, destroying both the resistor and the
circuit.

Resistors in series : In a series resistor network the individual resistors add together to give an
equivalent resistance, ( RT ) of the series combination. The resistors in a series circuit can be
interchanged without affecting the total resistance, current, or power to each resistor or the circuit.

The amount of current that flows through a set of resistors in series will be the same at all points in a
series resistor network, but the voltage drop across them is not the same as their individual
resistance values will create different voltage drops across each resistor as determined by Ohms Law
( V = I x R ). Then series circuits are voltage dividers.

As an exemple: if we had three or more resistances in the series chain, we can still use our now
familiar potential divider formula to find the voltage drop across each one. Consider the circuit
below.
The potential divider circuit above shows four resistances connected together is series. The voltage
drop across points A and B can be calculated using the potential divider formula as follows:

We can also apply the same idea to a group of resistors in the series chain. For example if we wanted
to find the voltage drop across both R2 and R3 together we would substitute their values in the top
numerator of the formula and in this case the resulting answer would give us 5 volts (2V + 3V).

Here is an example of a voltage divider using different resistors:

The Voltage Divider Circuit is the simplest way of producing a lower voltage from a higher voltage,
known as Attenuation, and is the basic operating mechanism of the potentiometer.

A Variable Resistor or potentiometer (pot)

A Variable Resistor, potentiometer or pot as it is more commonly called, is a good example of a
multi-resistor voltage divider within a single package as it can be thought of as thousands of mini-
resistors in series. Here a fixed voltage is applied across the two outer fixed connections and the
variable output voltage is taken from the wiper terminal. Multi-turn pots allow for a more accurate
output voltage control.