[sdiy] Horowitz/Hill

[Glen]

At 06:00 PM 6/5/03 , Thomas Holley wrote:
>I will have to agree with both of you. My degree(BSEE 1979) included making
>diodes on a hot plate but mostly it was math. So little hands on experience
>it is shameful. I learned most real engineering on my own by burning up lots
>of old circuits before figuring out what not to to. I learned nothing of
>tube circuits though. Only transistors in a rather primitive way. Now I much
>prefer tubes and am working to design a modular system with mostly tube

I don't have an engineering degree, but was trained as a technician. It was
a two year course. The first 1/4 of the course was almost entirely math,
peppered with real-world electronics problem-solving examples, and some DC
circuit theory. We did some simple circuit building to enhance our grasp of
the DC circuit theory.

Later, we covered AC circuit theory, transistors and other basic
semiconductors (including the UJT!), and finished off with op-amps and
their common applications. We built all sorts of basic RC, RCL, transistor,
and op-amp circuits to enhance our grasp of those concepts.

In the third part of the course, we covered communications more than
anything else. There were some audio circuits, but more RF than audio. I
should also mention that the emphasis was on tube circuits, even though we
did cover transistors and IC's as well.

Finally in the last phase of this course, we covered mostly digital
circuitry. There was some theory and hands-on as well. I remember
assembling a microprocessor circuit on a breadboard, programming it in
assembly, and interfacing it to a DAC to play waveforms on an oscilloscope,
and also listen to them on a small speaker. I remember programming mine to
play the opening notes to "In The Flesh", a Pink Floyd song.   :)

My technician training had a lot of hands-on experience at each stage of
the program. Lots of practical tips were passed on by our instructors
(things that weren't mentioned in the books), and there was certainly
enough theory to understand how and why all the hands-on activities
actually functioned. We covered a lot of ground in 2 years. (We also
attended class all day long, five days a week--just like on a "real" job.)
Most of my instructors were also retired Navy electronics specialists. That
brought a certain sense of dedication and discipline to the course.

After hearing how some of the engineering classes seem so spotty in
coverage, I can better appreciate my "lowly" technician training.
Especially to think, the in-state tuition was only $4 a month!


later,
Glen Berry