Electronics School

Welcome

Welcome to Electronics School, a free place to learn how electronics really works: not just which button to press, but what’s going on inside. Start with what electricity is, then build real circuits with batteries, LEDs and sensors.

It’s for curious kids, parents and grandparents, homeschool families, teachers and adults who always wanted to know. No accounts, no sign-ups.

How the lessons work

Each lesson starts with a question and a plain-language answer. If you want more, open the deeper layers:

Beginner the big idea, with everyday examples. Intermediate the numbers and how parts behave. Advanced the real physics and engineering.

Levels aren’t ages. Jump to whatever level suits you, in any order.

Stage 1: Discover Electricity

1. What Is Electricity?: What electricity is made of, static versus current electricity, and why electrons drift slowly while the light comes on instantly.
2. Voltage, Current and Resistance: Voltage, current and resistance explained with a hose analogy, then Ohm’s law, power and why LEDs aren’t ohmic.
3. Complete Circuits: What makes a complete circuit, open versus closed circuits, why short circuits are dangerous, and Kirchhoff’s laws.
4. Electrical Safety: Electronics School safety rules for low-voltage battery projects, button battery warnings, and why current through the body is the danger.
5. LEDs and Resistors: How LEDs work, polarity, resistor colour codes and how to calculate the right resistor for an LED, with worked examples.
6. Schematics, Breadboards and Multimeters: How to read circuit symbols, how a breadboard is connected inside, and how to use a multimeter safely for voltage, resistance and continuity.

Stage 2: Understand the Components

7. Resistors in Depth: Resistor colour codes, tolerance, power ratings, series and parallel, voltage dividers, potentiometers and sensor resistors.
8. Capacitors: What capacitors store, ceramic versus electrolytic, polarity safety, the RC time constant, stored energy and filters.
9. Diodes: How diodes work as one-way valves, polarity markings, forward voltage, reverse-polarity protection, rectifiers, flyback diodes, Zener and Schottky types.
10. Transistors: How transistors work as switches and amplifiers, NPN pinouts, current gain, how to calculate a base resistor, PNP and saturation.
11. Switches and Relays: Toggle, slide, pushbutton and reed switches, poles and throws, how relays work, isolation, flyback diodes and switch bounce.
12. Sensors: How sensors turn light, heat, motion and moisture into electrical signals, the sensors in a real weather station, voltage dividers and calibration.
13. Motors and Buzzers: How DC motors and buzzers work, active versus passive buzzers, piezoelectric materials, motor safety, driver transistors, flyback diodes and back EMF.

Stage 3: Become a Circuit Builder

14. Series and Parallel Circuits: How series and parallel circuits differ in current, voltage and resistance, LEDs in series and parallel, and Kirchhoff’s laws in practice.
15. Ohm’s Law in Practice: Using Ohm’s law and power together to design LED circuits, battery life estimates, voltage dividers, tolerance and worst-case design.
16. Measuring Real Circuits: How to measure voltage across parts and current in line with a multimeter, protect the meter’s fuse, check batteries under load, and understand meter accuracy.
17. Troubleshooting Step by Step: A step-by-step method for troubleshooting circuits: power first, the most common breadboard mistakes, following the voltage with a meter, and the half-split method.
18. Introduction to Soldering: An optional, adult-supervised introduction to soldering: safety rules first, how to make a good joint, cold joints, lead-free solder and temperature.

Stage challenge: the Fix-It Challenge, where you find a hidden fault like a real technician.

Stage 4: Explore Digital Electronics

19. Binary Numbers: How binary numbers work, bits and bytes, how text, photos and sound are stored, hexadecimal, and an interactive binary switchboard.
20. Logic Gates: What logic gates are, AND, OR, NOT, NAND, NOR and XOR with truth tables, an interactive gate lab, universal gates and the half adder.
21. Digital Circuits and Memory: Combinational versus sequential digital circuits, feedback and latches, flip-flops, clocks, counters and state machines.
22. Timers and Integrated Circuits: What integrated circuits are, finding pin 1, how the 555 timer makes steady pulses, its frequency formula, and reading datasheets.
23. Microcontrollers: What microcontrollers are, inputs and outputs, getting started with the Raspberry Pi Pico, safe pin currents, pull-up resistors, analog inputs and PWM.
24. Introduction to Programming: Write a first MicroPython program on a Raspberry Pi Pico: setting up Thonny, blinking an LED, loops, delays, reading a button and good programming habits.

Stage challenge: the Traffic Light Controller, your first programmed project.

Stage 5: Electronics in the Real World

25. Radio and Wireless Signals: What radio waves are, frequency and wavelength, AM, FM and digital modulation, tuned circuits and detectors, and how radio is shared and licensed in Canada.
26. Audio Electronics: How microphones and speakers convert sound and electricity, how amplifiers and gain work, clipping, speaker impedance, decibels and hearing safety.
27. Power Supplies and Batteries: Battery types and voltages, which are safe for projects, why bare lithium-ion cells are avoided, linear and switching regulators, and making an energy budget.
28. Solar-Powered Electronics: How solar cells work, a hands-on light experiment, how clouds, sun angle, short Alberta winter days and snow affect output, sizing for worst-case weather and charge controllers.
29. Electronic Weather Instruments: How electronic sensors measure temperature, humidity, pressure, wind and rain, how Environment and Climate Change Canada places thermometers, accuracy, calibration with an ice bath, and sensor drift.
30. Data Logging: How data loggers record readings, choosing a sample interval, CSV files and timestamps, graphing data, and handling missing and bad readings honestly.
31. Automation and Control: How automatic control works: sense, decide and act, thresholds, hysteresis and dead bands, a MicroPython frost alarm, and fail-safe design.

Stage challenge: the Digital Thermometer, tested against an ice bath and a trusted reference.

Stage 6: Advanced Electronics and Engineering

32. How Semiconductors Work: How semiconductors work: N-type and P-type doping, the PN junction, why LED colours need different voltages, bipolar transistors and logic-level MOSFETs.
33. Analog Electronics and Op-Amps: How op-amps work, negative feedback, non-inverting, inverting and buffer circuits, choosing a low-voltage rail-to-rail op-amp, and signal conditioning for an ADC.
34. Frequency and Filters: Low-pass and high-pass filters, the RC cutoff frequency formula with a worked example, LC resonance and radio tuning, moving-average and exponential software filters, and the Nyquist rule.
35. Oscilloscopes: What an oscilloscope shows, volts and time per division, triggering and coupling, bandwidth, sample rate, 1× and 10× probes, ground-clip safety and affordable options.
36. Digital Communication: How chips communicate: serial data and protocols, UART, I²C, SPI and 1-Wire compared, scanning an I²C bus on a Raspberry Pi Pico, and signal integrity on long wires.
37. Circuit Board Design: From breadboard to permanent circuits: stripboard, schematic capture, footprints, layout, design rule checks, Gerber files, trace width, clearance, surface-mount parts and good layout habits.
38. Advanced Troubleshooting: Troubleshooting complete systems: separating hardware from software, signal tracing, known-good comparison, substitution, intermittent faults caused by cold, movement, power or moisture, and fault logs.
39. System Design: Designing reliable systems: requirements, power budgets, watchdog timers, enclosures and IP ratings, condensation and cold, data integrity, staged testing and maintainability.

Capstone: My Weather Station: design, build, test and document your own logging weather station.

Build It Yourself

1. My First LED Circuit: Build a battery-powered LED circuit on a breadboard.
2. Conductor or Insulator? Build a Tester: Turn an LED circuit into a conductor and insulator tester, with predictions, expected results, the science and a teacher guide.
3. Automatic Night Light: Build a dark-activated LED night light with a light-dependent resistor and a 2N3904 transistor.
4. The Fading Light: Build an LED that fades out slowly using a capacitor.
5. Touch Switch: Build a touch-activated LED with a Darlington pair of 2N3904 transistors.
6. Traffic Light Controller: Build and program a model traffic light with a Raspberry Pi Pico, three LEDs and MicroPython.
7. Electronic Dice: Build electronic dice with a Raspberry Pi Pico, seven LEDs and a button.
8. Digital Thermometer: Build a thermometer and overnight logger with a Raspberry Pi Pico and waterproof probe.
9. My Weather Station: The capstone: a logging weather station you design, site, test and document.

Every project runs on small batteries or USB power, with a parts list, safety numbers, step-by-step instructions, a troubleshooting checklist and a teacher guide.

Virtual Workbench

No parts yet? Try the LED workbench: choose a battery, a resistor and an LED colour, flip the switch and see what would happen to a real LED, with the math shown.

Safety first

For teachers and parents

Each project includes a teacher guide with timing, learning goals, risk notes, common misconceptions, discussion questions and a worksheet with answers. All activities work with inexpensive, widely available parts and need no soldering: choose a Raspberry Pi Pico with its header pins already fitted, and treat the stripboard and circuit board steps in Lesson 37 as optional.

The complete course

All six stages are ready: 39 lessons and 9 build projects, from your first LED to a weather station you design yourself. Work through them in order, or jump to whatever interests you. Every lesson has beginner, intermediate and advanced layers, so you can come back to it as you grow.

Related

• Discovery Zone
• Hands-On Weather Science
• VE6DOK.net: amateur (ham) radio, for when you’re ready for radio electronics