INDEX A "Pig in a Poke." CAD  - Designing a PC board $70,000 Course $70,000  University Course

 

I am constantly asked if I recommend an online course or a University course for electronics. It depends on what area of electronics you want to study, but a firm understanding of the basics can only be learned AT HOME and by making and building and testing and experimenting with simple projects and kits. You just need the simplest of tools and equipment and lots of circuits to build. No course is going to give you any more instruction than doing everything yourself.  I have taught over 100,000 students and had more than 25,000,000 visitors to my website to read my articles and view hundreds of circuits. There is nothing in any paid course or University course that is not available FREE on the web. All text books have a low-cost .pdf option and many are on the web for FREE. The 3 biggest mistakes a beginner makes is: "I will lean electronics by buying a course or going to school or University." "Buying expensive test equipment will help me design and repair equipment."  "The more I spend, the more I learn." and finally, "A University course will get me an electronics job." It might get you a jab, but not a job. Electronics is the hardest, most difficult, profession in the world. You cannot "see" what you are doing and nothing around you will help you. That's why we have so few technicians. You have to get to the stage where you can look at a circuit and see how it works. You have to read and study everything I have put on my Talking Electronics website because it is information I have used and I am giving you all my knowledge for FREE !!!

Remember this very old saying: "I see, I forget; I do, I remember."

Why are University courses WORTHLESS? Simply because they do not teach the most important electronics skill. This skill is being able to diagnose a fault. Anyone can dream up a circuit, but when it fails to work, you need skill to find the fault. This is the one area that is never taught. Because the lecturers don't have the skill to explain anything. You need to have repaired thousands of pieces of equipment to gain this type of skill. And the only way to get it is to build lots of projects. I am constantly improving the modules I design and when a new Printed Circuit Board comes back from the manufacturer, after a few weeks, I have to try and remember the improvements. The only way to do this is to test each part of the circuit and make sure each individual section is working. That's where the skill comes in. Work slowly and patiently. It can take a whole day. But it is the only was to success. Otherwise you will leave things unfinished and allow them to defeat you and this is the "beginning of the end."

Here's the beginning of our TEST:

1. What will happen:

Nothing
The leads will get hot and smell
You will produce 12 volts
You will produce 24 volts

Always draw a circuit diagram to see what is happening.
You can see the positive terminal is connected to the negative terminal and this will produce a short circuit.
The battery will deliver hundreds of amps and something will go up in smoke.

SUPER CAPACITOR Vs BATTERY

Don't even think of using a super-capacitor in place of a battery. They are two different things. A battery holds its original voltage for a long time during its discharge. The voltage will fall slightly but a capacitor voltage drops as soon as you take energy. Energy is the area under the graph and because the voltage falls in both cases, the current also drops and if you don't know the voltage of the supply, you do not know the performance of the product you are supplying. 

RESISTORS IN PARALLEL AND SERIES
Resistors can be placed in parallel and series to create almost any value of resistance and to create a higher wattage  resistor.
Normally 2, 3 or 4 equal value resistors are placed in parallel to create a higher wattage.
Three 1k resistors in parallel will create 330R and four will create 250R. And the wattage will be 750mW or 1watt for 250mW resistors.

10 More Facts
The stripe on the side of an electrolytic is the negative but the stripe on the end of a tantalum (we can say a tantalum is an electrolytic) is the positive.
TRUE.  That's why you must know how to identify all components.

A 10u ceramic capacitor does not have the same capacity as a 10u electrolytic.
FALSE. If it states 10u, both have the same capacity. One may be better in some parts of a circuit, but the capacity is the capacity.

The marking of 100u on electrolytic tells you how much energy it will deliver.
____  You also need to know the voltage in (across) the leads of the capacitor to determine the energy it will deliver.

An electrolytic connected the wrong way around will perform nearly the same.
FALSE   It will not perform AT ALL.  Any more than a few volts in reverse will damage the insulation layer and the electrolytic will leak and get hot and be totally damaged. Throw it out.

A 100u ceramic capacitor in the form of a surface Mount component will perform the same as a 100u electrolytic.
TRUE.  If they are charged to the same voltage, they will perform the same.

105 on a tantalum is 10 microfarads.
FALSE  It is one microfarad.

A Surface Mount resistor can have zero Ohms.
TRUE.  It is called a "Jumper" or "bridge" and is marked "0" and can be removed and replaced with the correct value or removed for test purposes or has been included to "jump over" tracks.

If you turn a Surface Mount Resistor up-side-down the resistance is halved.
FALSE. The resistance never changes. (Always solder surface mount resistors so you can see the value. This is just a professional way to do things.)

A Surface Mount resistor can have infinite resistance.
TRUE.  It will be damaged. An end cap is broken.

390 on a Surface Mount resistor is 390 ohms.
FALSE. It is 39 ohm.  It is "39" and no more zeros.

4700 on a Surface Mount resistor is 470 ohms.
TRUE.  It is the 4-digit code for 1% resistors and is 47 and then one zero and then the last digit says: "NO MORE ZEROS!"

102 on a surface mount resistor is one hundred and two ohms.
FALSE. It is 1,000 ohms.  Write "1" then "0" then two more zeros.

104 on a Surface Mount resistor is 100k  = 10   0,     000 ohms
TRUE. 

The resistance track for a high resistance resistor is longer than a low value resistance.
FALSE. The tracks are the same length. The amount of carbon is different.

THE 555 and 74c14 
There are 2 IC's that can be used in an enormous number of circuits and need to be studied immediately.
The only problem with the 555 IC is the "quiescent current - standing current" of 10mA taken all the time and that's why the chip is not suitable for some battery projects.
The only problem with the 74c14 IC is the 10mA output current and you may need a driver transistor.
The 74c14 is a hex inverter with Schmitt Trigger input and this means the input voltage must be near 0v to register a low and near rail voltage to register a high.
The 74c14 is also identified as 40106.
It is a CMOS device and consumes only a few microamp when at rest and not supplying current to a load. This makes it ideal for battery projects.
Everything you need to know about the 555 can be found here:

555 Page1
555 Page2
555 Page3
555 Test
50 555 Circuits

Everything you need to know about the 74c14 can be found here:
74c14

CHINESE SOLDER
Do not buy Chinese solder. It does not work.  I bought 10 different brands and none of the solder produces a good connection.
They are absolutely useless. I had to twist the rubbish solder with my good solder to use up the reels of solder.  A lesson learned.

TURN A 500WATT MOTOR INTO  1kW GENERATOR
Some motors can be turned into a generator but none will produce more than the motor rating. You might generate 200 to 250 watts out of a motor that consumes 500 watts.
Don't believe anything you see or read on the web. Physics is Physics and designing a generator is a very difficult thing to do.
All those motor-generator FREE ENERGY machines do not work. If anything is 101% efficient you would not have to buy electricity again.
Why can't you turn a 350watt motor into a 500watt motor by increasing the voltage?
If the 350watt motor is operating at its maximum output, the current in each pole of the motor will be producing the maximum flux that the pole will deliver and any increase in current will simply saturate the magnetic core and produce no more flux.
In addition, the flux produced by the armature will match the flux produced by the permanent magnet and produce the maximum amount of attraction or repulsion.
That's why the introduction of super-magnets has increased these forces and produced very powerful motors.
When the area of the pole-face is increased, the torque is increased.
When the diameter if the armature is increased, the torque is increased.
When the RPM is increased, the output POWER is increased.
When the commutator is replaced with an electronic delivery circuit, the efficiency of the motor is increased.

HIGH EFFICIENCY ROOM HEATER
All room heaters are 100% efficient.  It does not matter if it is bar heater, fan heater, heater with oil filled fins, or a ceramic heater.
Understand the Physics. The energy coming in via the wall socket is turned to heat. The output can be 300 watts to 2,400 watts  and the wattage from the heater is the energy you are paying for.
Don't believe any of the hype of heating a room in 5 minutes, using very little energy. Energy is energy and watts is watts.
This OZZI HEAT heater is just 450watts and it says it will heat a room in minutes and save 30%.
This is totally untrue. It will save nothing.
It will take an hour or more to heat a cold room and cost you exactly the same as any other heater.

ON-LINE ELECTRONICS COURSES
There is nothing more in any of the on-line electronics courses that cannot be found on the internet for FREE.
You will find an enormous amount of information on www.talkingelectronics.com website that is not found anywhere else. The site contains hundreds of projects and articles on a whole range of topics as well as 34 pages of SPOT THE MISTAKES and tests.
Talking Electronics has produces magazines and books and educated thousands of hobbyists over the past 50 years and many of them have emailed to say they learnt more form Talking Electronics than their University course.
I suggest you save your money from any course and buy kits and parts and build lots of projects as this is the only way to learn.
Students think they will attend a 4 year course and be qualified in electronics to get a job. This is far from the truth. When you exit from any Master's course you have absolutely no ability to enter any real electronics field. All you will learn is a random assortment of mathematical ways to tackle a problem and gain no practical ability. You don't even learn to solder or build a project or diagnose a problem. You cannot fix anything.
You never learn the basics because the University expects you to know the basics.  And the basics is the most difficult sector to teach and University Professors have never had a soldering iron in their hands and are completely unable to diagnose a problem. 
The only way to learn is to teach YOURSELF.

SURPRISE
Here is something you have never read before.
Learning electronics and mastering the subject is not about mathematical equations but learning how to fix things.
In other words you have to learn how to find a fault and go-about methodically solving the problem. I spend more time getting a project to work than designing the board and building the prototype. 
That's because most of the complications arise when interfacing the inputs and outputs to external devices.
If you can only fix something to 99%, it will never work.
We are not going to cover fault-finding at the moment; but make you aware that no courses cover this topic and for that reason they leave you "in the lurch" to become capable.
A diploma, degree or "Masters" is just a piece of parchment. It has never provided or produced capability, confidence or understanding. It has only provided "rote" answers.
Capability comes from your own experimenting at home and to become capable, you have to "eat, drink and sleep" electronics.
I am thinking of new circuits and inventions, all the time.
I have hundreds of modules on the internet, for everyone to copy and produce.
In 50 years, no-one has copied and sold anything of mine. Mainly because it takes a lot more skill than meets the eye.
You need to buy the components, get the printed circuit boards made and then sit down and populate the boards.
All my modules work the first time, but if someone copies them, some of the parts are special and this will stop the module from working.
But apart from that, hand assembly takes a lot of time and you need lots of different modules to reach any sort of sales figures, that produces an income.

IRRELEVANT
The biggest problem with text books, University courses and videos on the web is the amount of irrelevant material they "dish-out."
Most of the circuits they present in their lectures use components that I have never used in my life and studying these "unworkable circuits" is a waste of time.
But, unfortunately, you will be unaware of the "wasted" teaching and it will just add to the lack of learning that will result in you losing your  $70,000.
I have not found one YouTube video to be "spot-on" with the discussion and you will gain nothing from the presentation.
I have already produced 34 pages of "Spot The Mistake" describing internet circuits that don't work and it's even more frustrating to see "Professors" fumbling around with a circuit that is clearly a "design disaster."  
I have tried contacting these instructors but had no success. They are not interested in being "shown-up" and basically they don't think they are wrong. "There is none so blind as those who do not see."
It all boils down to you doing your own study and building things to gain a "self-taught" knowledge, that no course can provide.  

The image shows three 5 amp diodes.
How much current do you think each diode will pass?


Each diode will get very hot when 2 amps flows.  This is because a diode needs to be heatsinked via the leads, onto pads and tracks on a PC Board, to remove the heat. Raising the diode off the board will reduce its current capability considerably.

When you pick up a woollen blanket, or cotton sheet (bed sheet) or piece of metal from a cold room, they all feel like a different temperature.  Why?
The temp of an item depends on its thermal conductivity. If it conducts heat, like a metal object, it removes heat from your hand and your hand gets cold quickly.
All the items are the same temperature.
The wool blanket removes very little heat and your hand warms the blanket and it feels as warm as your hand.

What determines the wattage of a resistor.
1. The material it is made of.
2. The size of the body
3. The resistance
4. How it is soldered to the PC Board and the size of the lands and copper traces
5. The thickness of the wire leads.
and the temperature the resistors is allowed to rise to.
That's why some small resistors are 0.5watt.  They are allowed to get very hot.

All the above determine the wattage but not the resistance.
A 0.25watt resistor can be any resistance.

LEDs IN PARALLEL
If you put a red, green, blue and white LED in parallel (across each other). Which LED will come on first?
And will the other LEDs illuminate?
As you increase the voltage, the red LED will illuminate.  It will get brighter and brighter and eventually blow up.
During this time the voltage across the combination will never rise above about 1.7v to 1.9v.  A green LED requires 2.1v to 2.4v for it to illuminate.
As soon as the red LED blows up, the voltage will rise above 1.7v and the green LED will be the next to blow up.
A LED is identical to a zener diode with light emitting features. The voltage across a LED will never rise above its characteristic voltage and this is different for each colour.
You should not supply a voltage directly to a LED or zener diode but include a "safety resistor" or "current limiting resistor."  This is two different words for the same thing.  It is a resistor that limits the current to the maximum the LED or zener will allow to flow through the junction without getting too hot. At the same time a characteristic voltage develops across the junction and you cannot change this value.  It is due to the crystal structure or the doping of the junction.
Whenever a voltage develops across a component it is called a "voltage drop" and this might be a diode, resistor, globe or LED. Whenever there is a voltage drop and a current is flowing, there is heat generated.
It is called WATTS and is watts generated or "watts lost"
The number of watts or milliwatts is determined from the formula:
voltage across the device  multiplied by the current flowing in amps.
If you want milliwatts:
voltage across the device multiplied by the current flowing in milliamps.
or
millivolts across the device multiplied by the current flowing in milliamps.
or
millivolts across the device multiplied by the current flowing in milliamps.
For example:   
1.7v x 25milliamps = 1.7 x 0.025 = 0.0425watts = 42.5milliwatts

All the values must be converted to volts and amps for the answer to be correct. 
For example:     150mV  x 10mA  is not 1,500mW
You must convert to amps and volts 
= 0.15v x 0.01A = 0.0015w = 1.5mW
Remember  0.001  = 1 milli  (one thousandth).

LAYOUT DIAGRAMS
Too many projects on the web are showing layout diagram and not including a circuit diagram.

This is teaching students (and potential builders) nothing about what they are building.
A layout diagram means NOTHING to me.
I have no idea what the project does, its capability or any faults in the circuit.
A circuit diagram is a mental picture to me and I can see exactly how it works and if it has been designed correctly.
Beginners are not being taught electronics when they see a layout diagram. It is just a jumble of parts with connecting wires.
Everything is meaningless.
It may work or it may not work.
When it fails to work, how are you going to analyse the circuit?  How are you going to fix it.  I can't, and you can't.
Technicians have always had a book of circuit diagrams.
Give them a book of layout diagrams and they would not have fixed a single item.

ELECTROLYTIC QUESTIONS
An electrolytic has been fitted to a module around the wrong way and is getting hot. 
Do you remove it and solder it the other way around or replace it?
You must replace it.  You don't know how much internal damage has been done to the insulating layer (oxide layer) and it may leak in the future and the capacitance value may be reduced. 

I have a very small 100u 63v electrolytic and a large 100u 63v electrolytic.  What is the difference?
The difference is the ripple current it can withstand. When you are charging and discharging an electrolytic, it gets hot. The large electro will remain cooler.

ELECTROLYTIC VOLTAGE
Why do you think the voltage rating of an electrolytic has been chosen as 16v, 25v, 35v?
It just happens that say 1,000u electrolytic @ 16v has one unit of storage energy. 
1,000u electrolytic @ 25v has two units of storage energy and
1,000u electrolytic @ 35v has three units of storage energy.
This is very important to know when designing Capacitor Discharge Units as a small increase in the voltage across (on) the electrolytic will double the output energy.

A ZENER DIODE
I want to reduce the "source to gate voltage" to 3v3.  Which way around do I place a zener diode:  A or B ?

Ans:  A

As the voltage across the 2k2 increases, it will not rise above 3v3 because at 3v3 the zener diode "breaks down" and the additional voltage you are supplying comes with additional current and this current flows through the zener also through the 4k7 resistor and produces and larger voltage across the 4k7 resistor and that's why the zener does not see a higher voltage.
If the zener is placed as in "B" the voltage across it will be 0.7v and the MOSFET will never turn ON.
You need to have, what we call a "current limiting resistor," in series with the zener for the concept to work. That's what the 4k7 does. If it is a lower value, it simply means the zener will be required to pass a higher current and the current through the 4k7 resistor will be higher.
A zener diode is just like an ordinary diode with a very small reverse break-down voltage.  A normal diode has a reverse voltage of 100v, 200v, 400v or 1,000v.  If you have a normal diode with a breakdown voltage of 50v, you have a 50v zener diode !!!
A zener diode has a reverse voltage of 3v3 or 5v1 or 12v or 18v or even higher.
You can think of a zener diode as a "failed" diode. Instead of being a 100v diode, it fails at 5v1 or any other design-value.
This is due to the "doping" of the crystalline structure of the junction and the voltage can be accurately produced. 
A zener diode is actually an ordinary diode connected around the opposite way as we are using the very low "break-down" voltage as the useful characteristic.
When you understand this feature you can use zeners in many different applications.
Click the following link for our zener diode discussion:   ZENER DIODE

What happens when you fit a zener diode around the wrong way?
Ans: The voltage across it will be 0.7v (and it will fail or "breakdown" if an AC voltage is present that is higher than zener voltage).

What will happen if you put a 11v zener diode across a 12v car battery?
Ans:  It will blow up in either direction.

UNDERSTANDING HEAT-FLOW
A refrigerator is placed in a large empty room that is well-insulated and plugged into the power and turned ON. The fridge door is left open and I leave to room and shut the door to the room. 
We know a fridge is 300% efficient at transferring heat.
Will the room heat-up or cool-down?

The efficiency of the fridge does not come into the equation.
The fact that electricity is entering the room means the room will heat-up. Nothing else comes into the equation.

LAYOUT DIAGRAMS
I mentioned above the ultimate skill is to look at a circuit diagram and see what it does.
After all, that is what a CIRCUIT SIMULATOR does. The person who designed the simulator could see how the circuit works and he put his understanding into a program.
That's what I can do in my mind. I can see a circuit working and that's the ability you have to generate.
You need this a ability to design a circuit and also determine if it will not work and additionally be able to repair it.
That's the ultimate goal.
That's why a layout diagram is of no benefit in this situation. It tells you nothing about how the circuit works and is only good for beginners to place the parts on a board.

LEARNING "IN REVERSE"
The 4-year degree in Electronics Engineering taught me NOTHING about CIRCUIT DESIGNING or REPAIR.
When I was accepted in a "TV and Electronics" repair business I   suddenly realised how incompetent I was.  I has been fooled by the 4-year course. It was practically worthless. I had never used a soldering iron, never fitted a component to a printed circuit board and never been shown how to use test equipment for diagnosis. In fact I had never been given a transistor to handle. I had to buy my own at a cost of over ten dollars in current dollars. The first transistors were so expensive that the training college did not have any on display.
It was all theoretical drivel and vague generalisations and "possibilities. " Nothing concrete, nothing factual, actual or workable.
And that's what you are going to come across after your graduation.
If you don't do your own study and carry out your own practical work, you will have no chance of understanding the real world.
 
I did not get any of my understanding from the course.
I started to really understand how things worked when faced with faulty TV's and audio circuits.
You have a circuit that worked for 10 years and has now failed, what could be the problem?
Originally we had valve circuits and the valves lost "gain" and then we had transistor circuits. Japanese transistors rarely failed but Philips transistors failed all the time.
Sometimes freezing the transistor with CO2 or heating it with a soldering iron, found the problem.
Dry joints were very common.
Tantalum capacitors could very easily short-circuit in some brands of TV and large electrolytics can lose their capacitance.
Things have now improved and dry joints are very rare.

NUTS AND VOLTS MAGAZINE
It was sad to see the demise of another American electronics magazine: Nuts and Volts.
It takes a lot of effort to produce a magazine and I found my magazine got the same number of sales as the other 3 magazines in Australia, even though it was not professionally produced, no glossy paper and no colour pages.
Electronics enthusiasts do not want colour or gloss or professional layout. They just want content and, surprisingly, the simpler the layout, the more sales it gets.
This is the one thing that was present in my magazine and absent from all the other magazines in the world. They did not cater for the beginner.
It is the beginner than buys half the copies and spends the most money on components and equipment.
My magazine concentrated on this group and I got equal sales. But the thing that closed the magazine was the failing back-up of technology in schools.
To prove this I sent 1,240 free magazines to every school, college and learning institute in Australia and got 19 subscriptions in the following 18 months.
The age of encouraging students in the electronics field had dwindled to zero.
The reason is the pool of teachers. None of them understood electronics and none of them could help the student with a project or a kit when it failed to work. They could not even offer advice on soldering or fitting the components to the printed circuit board.
It was no wonder the whole electronics sector disappeared.
And this is what happened to the 3 other magazines in Australia, one in the UK and 2 in the US.
They wanted to be "up-market."
Even one magazine in India has ceased to provide ANY construction articles for the past 2 years. 
I provided it with projects for 18 months and did not get one reply from any of the readers. Absolutely zero.
This is because it takes years of encouragement and back-up with electronics shops providing kits and parts and soldering equipment and test gear. And schools need to provide qualified teachers with equipment for students.
And the one field that is not covered in any electronics magazine is Model Railways.
There is an enormous number of projects to detect, signal and control trains around a layout and there are 3 times more railway hobbyists than electronics hobbyists. I found this out by catering for this area and had enormous success. Model railway enthusiasts spend 10 times more money for kits and made-up modules than all the rest combined.
It is fortunate we have a group of enthusiastic students who are self-taught and understand electronics. These are the ones that are keeping electronics alive and developing and designing the new devices we all need.
Unfortunately you cannot be "taught electronics." You have to have the capability within you and magazine articles and projects just strengthens this ability.
Even now the UK magazine has "packed up" its project sector and imported all its content from Silicon Chip Magazine (Australia) and presented it "intact"  in their magazine 12 months later !!!
That highlights the capability, intent and future of electronics in the UK. It has gone from 3-4 magazines to zero.
I could continue for ages with data and proof, but when something is dead, it is dead. 

DIYODE MAGAZINE
Diyode magazine proved this.
I offered free content and projects to them, but they were "too smart by half."
Their sales never reached anything like mine and the magazine never covered its costs.
They thought they were: "more clever than me" and never presented a model railway project.
They scraped  on for 5 years with sales of less than 2,000 with only a small collection of enthusiastic readers.
The "print media" has died but the internet has made publishing much cheaper and allowed magazines to be produced at minimal cost and mistakes be corrected immediately.
This has enormous advantages for world-wide publishing, but it requires understanding of the areas of interest.
No-one is targeting the most-needed areas and no-one is teaching the most-needed things.
The most-needed area is circuit construction and the most needed advice is servicing and testing and repairing faulty circuits.
This is the only way to learn and is completely lacking in any course. That's because the instructor does not have the understanding or capability to cover this approach.  They have never fixed anything in their life.   And the student will come out with the same incapability.
   
$70,000 UNIVERSITY COURSE
To become a good electronics engineer you have to have a deep feeling and understanding of electronics.
It is obvious the producers of videos on the web have no deep understanding at all. It is simply "Monkey see, Monkey do."
They can't explain why they are giving you mathematical equations and why they are producing a result that is more accurate than the original data and why they arrive at absurd results when the gain of a transistor can be from 150 to 350, swamping any results they produce.
I have never used mathematics in my life as I know it is inaccurate.
No-one, from any University, has produced a video detailing the important facts to know about designing a circuit.
They keep regurgitating the common emitter stage or two stages of amplification using component values that are far from anything I have seen or used in my life.
You are being led "down the garden path" to incompetence.
They teach nothing of importance and it is impossible to know if you are achieving anything of value.
The biggest problem with University lecturers is this:  They know TOO MUCH.
They know the mathematical answer to every problem.
But that's not what a student needs. He is not aiming to become a "professor." (regurgitator).
Most of the mathematical approach is not needed in the work-force.
That's where the practicality of the courses diverge. You need to know things to assist you in the field. Not info to get a "Professor-ship."
The only advice I can give is for you to do things yourself and build things (from the web).  Everything you build will teach you a different part of electronics and this is the only way to get a full understanding.  
You can buy an enormous number of kits and pieces of test equipment for $70,000.
But you must start at a young age.  Many of the readers of my magazine were 12 to 14 years old.  They came back 5 and 10 years later and said how much they learned from the magazine.  (3 of them built the Z-80 computer we designed and went on to own their own IT company.)
 
You only start a $70,000 University course in "Masters Of Electronics" after you have become an expert.
For two reasons.
The course will teach you nothing, but you will understand all the gibberish from the lecturer.
Secondly you will come out with a certificate and have the knowledge and understanding of electronics to enter the work-force.
Below are some idiotic circuits from: Georgia Institute of Technology  Coursera.org    Their course starts with Linear Circuits and discusses Coulombs  and current in the first lesson! They call current "i" whereas it is "I"  And 1000W, 4000W, instead of 1k and 4k. It is supposed to be a DC lesson and they talk about making a capacitor with a 2mm gap!!
What is a "linear Circuit?"
Almost nothing in electronics is linear. Not even a battery voltage is linear or the current through a globe. And certainly not a diode.
I could not understand a single thing about a diode from their gibberish description. It is no wonder a student comes out of the course with no ability. 
University courses make one big mistake. As soon as you introduce a complex word into a discussion, you lose the student. "Superposition" "Norton Equivalent Circuit" and "Thevenin Equivalent Circuit" are not topics for beginners.
Another absurdity is the accuracy of their mathematics. A circuit takes 200mA and yet the current through another part takes 0.0589A.
You cannot quote a result with more accuracy than the data. And another with 10R and 4R has a result of 11.33R  
Apart from the fact that most resistors are 1% or 5%, circuits have worked perfectly for 50 years with 10% resistors.
I am just showing how "out-of-touch" the instructors are.
I could not see any mention of the 555 IC, none of the simple gates such as CD4001 etc or any common emitter transistor circuits, in any of the Georgia Institute of Technology courses.
Only a few weak questions on each topic with poorly labelled diagrams.
It is not until you see the content of a University course that you understand why the student comes out completely unprepared.
The courses are too involved in creating mathematical answers to the 5th decimal place, and all the students are wasting their time doing maths instead of learning electronics.
There are no:  what we call:  "Checks and balances." Are the lessons valid? Are the lessons useful? 
I see them as time-wasting, unnecessary and of no relevance. Basically it is a SCAM. The US student is about $120,000 to $140,000 in debt and Biden is considering Loan Fee Relief. That's an indication of the worthlessness of many courses.
I can only speak for the electronics side of things.
I have not found one lecture, video, discussion, presentation or web page to present anything better than any of the free presentations on the web.  In most cases they are WORSE.
Lots of the articles by individuals have better diagrams, clearer discussions and less mathematics. However none of them come up the simplicity of Talking Electronics discussions.
And none of them tell you to combine your study with building circuits and using test gear to see what is happening and making sure it works.
Nowhere will you find the usefulness of a project like the LED Tester or the IR Detector project to test IR receiver modules. 
Or buying a simple Digital Oscilloscope to view waveforms.
I don't know what they think they are doing, but it is certainly not teaching electronics.

I have received hundreds of emails confirming my approach to learning electronics and here is an email from today:

My name is Reagan Simpokolwe. I am currently based in Kitwe Zambia where I am pursuing a degree in Computer engineering.
I love electronics and computers so much I decided to apply for the program I am in. Unfortunately, I don't like how teaching is undertaken in my country (I believe its the same in many other countries too).
I once had a conversation with Mr Colin in which I asked if I should go into university. The advice you gave me was strictly "NO!", and I must say that I now understand why you said so.
Before I got enrolled in the university, I used to make circuits from the ebooks that are on the Talking Electronics website. It was so much fun and I would impress many of my friends and family. It's now three years and I don't tinker with electronics anymore. I have made a decision to withdraw from the university because I want to get back to what I love doing (electronics).

Last month, I came up with an idea of creating a website where I will be selling electronics circuits and projects. I plan to be purchasing them from your platform. I don't know if it is a good idea but I believe it is because there is no such a platform in my country.

My decision is final and I have already started re-learning how to create websites. I hope I can open the way for many people here to join me in the amazing world of electronics.
Thank you so much for everything.

ooooooooooooooo00000000000000000oooooooooooo

THE FUTURE
Now, here's the problem.
The whole of China has collapsed.  The apartment market, the shopping mall, the take-away, the restaurant, the car market, manufacturing and now the University Degree, have all collapsed.
There are 10 million University graduates in 2024 that will not be able to find a position in the field they have qualified for.
Production-line jobs require a "Masters" and IT positions simply don't exist.
If you think you live in another country or another world, and this will not affect you, you are mistaken.
The down-turn is just starting and the effects of China's collapse will infiltrate everywhere else.
Some countries have minimum wage agreements but working for $20.00 an hour is not going to repay your $70,000 debt.
Before you get yourself into any sort of "bind" or "commitment," you need to investigate the trend and see what is happening in the world.
I know, in my 3 areas of expertise, business has either collapsed or vanished.
Sales are less than 10% of the "good old days" and some of dried up completely as people have little or no spare-change after paying rent and utility bills.
Don't EVER believe things will "pick-up." . . .   things will improve . . . .
The only things that are improving are the SCAMS. The crypto currency scams.
Billions are being poured into these "dreams.  They are worthless. 
It's "Pass the Parcel."  Buy it and sell to to the next mug before it crashes.
Eventually it will crash. When and How and WHY, I do not know. But it will crash because many smart investors have "shorted the market" and will gain from a crash.
Who is the easiest person to scam?
THE MOST INTELLIGENT PERSON IN THE ROOM!!
Don't let it be YOU.

MY SUGGESTION
I have been very lucky with all my interviews. In my day "CD's" were not invented and you mainly rolled up with exam results and maybe a "rolled-up" degree.
All my interviews were well-before gaining any qualification and I simply related my interest in the job and my ability.
Fortunately I was accepted "on-the-spot" and all the "jobs" were very interesting and would have been a life-long position if it were not for my interest to work in other areas.
Most of the time I had 2 or 3 different careers and every new career provided better and better rewards.
But possibilities like this are not available now and the complications of CV's and hundreds of applicants for each position make finding and interesting career very difficult.
So, you have to equip yourself with the tools and knowledge to make yourself "stand-out."
You have to have features and capabilities above all other applicants and the only way to try your success is to try the following approach.
You will need to do some background study and this will involve finding the free University courses on the web and working through the chapters.
Once you have an understanding of the essence of the course you will need to go to the "fake Degree Providers" on the internet and get a document with your name and course details.
These are available for less than $20.00 and can be printed on thick card at your local print-shop.
My suggestion is to apply for a position with the documentation and see what sort of results you achieve.
I contend it is pointless waiting 4 years to apply as the technology will be more advanced, the competition will be more competitive and you will be 4 years older with $70,000 debt.
Now, the secret to success is to take 2 or 3 modules to the interview and maybe some printed circuit boards and take up the whole interview by describing your interest in electronics and how you will able to fit into the requirements of the application.
The interviewer will not be asking you any technical questions as he will know nothing about the requirements and you wont be asked any awkward questions about your previous employment or lack of experience.
Don't think things will be better in 4 years.
Just look at how things have "tracked" over the past 10 years and realise this will be duplicated in the next 4.
It's called an exponential change and electronics has always advanced at an exponential rate.
I have more relevant information on my website than any University course and I personally would not hire anyone presenting a "Masters" as being able to start work in less than a few months.
By attending an interview you will be able to see what is required, the competition and what is required.
It will also give you an indication of the value of the course you have studied.
This will be a "most-valuable" experience.

Universities are: "the blind leading the blind."
Show me where they display the full of content of their course with replies from students to say how much they have learned for their $70,000 and how the Degree helped them find a job.
Show me where the lectures are updated with course structure and cover the latest developments in technology.
Show me where the students are provided with the latest in laboratory equipment, devices and technology.
The latest news about Student loans is devastating. As from now, student loans that are not repaid will impact a students Credit Score by up to 200 points and prevent him getting a home loan or car loan.
On top of this the final cost of the student loan will be more than $140,000 over the life of the loan.
If you knew there would be some sort of guarantee to benefiting from this costs, it would be a different matter.
But 25% to 50% of graduates never get to enter the profession they studied for. If you go back over the past 10, 20, 30 or 40 years you will find this "gap" to be increasing.
It is not a situation that will improve. Layoffs in the tens of thousands are occurring in areas that were once "stable" or "improving."  The market has reached its peak and and the tens of millions of sales in electronic devices have plateaued or fallen.
Even the $2.00 shops and "chain stores" have fallen on hard times and you need to do your own research to see where electronics is needed.
The best place to go is "chat rooms" or "Forums" and find out what is actually happening.
My advice has always been to start at 10 years of age and "eat, drink and sleep" electronics and build and design circuits and modules.
There is no alternative.
No-one is going to teach you more than what you teach yourself.
I have covered this approach in my discussions and now the Student Loan will impact your future buying a house or car, you need to think very seriously.      
The recent number of layoffs is also a point to consider.
University Degrees did not prevent thousands of qualified workers being "retrenched," "dismissed," laid-off," or "sacked" from high-demand jobs in the IT field.
Nothing is safe and secure in this modern world.
China has completely collapsed and you need to see the factual You Tube videos of the situation.
Once thriving technical companies are completely devoid of workers.
You cannot rely on being "wanted." 
Remer the saying: Rooster today, feather duster tomorrow.
You are only of value if the company can make money from your efforts.
It does not matter how talented you are or how much you think you are needed, businesses collapse overnight and no-one can tell you: What went wrong."
I have gone through 3 phases of "collapse" and lost millions. That's why you have to make lots of money to cover the time when a collapse occurs.
The world is changing and the demand is changing and skill-requirements are changing.
The only thing that saved me is having: Three strings in my bow."
I was flexible, adaptable, and pursued two or three avenues at all times and when one "fell over" I continued with the others.
Because I have made millions and lost millions, I can  speak from reality.
Even the most clever person cannot push against the tide of change.
From black-and-white TV's to Colour TV's to Digital TV's to TV's that never need fixing, the service business collapsed over a period of 10 years.
From Share prices rising to shares collapsing over a period of 30 days.
To the electronics design industry in the Western World to the industry being taken over by Japan, Korea, and China.
Nothing is foreseeable and nothing is predictable.
It reminds me of: "the lobster-in-the-boiling-pot."
Everything feels like the: "up-and-up" until the collapse occurs.
So, what am I saying?
What am I advising?
I am firstly advising against getting heavily into debt with a course that has no guarantee of employment.
A $70,000 "noose around your neck" is going to cost over $140,000 by the time interest is added.
The dream that a degree will increase your income is only a "possibility."
You have to find out the "actuality."
Don't forget, you will be in competition with thousands of electronics engineers that have already been "laid-off" and who can possibly fill the requirements of the job, know all the answers for the interview and will be capable of starting immediately.
That's what you are up against.
The world has changed. The tide has turned and the future is different to anything you can imagine.
A lot of the "start-up" technology has already been achieved and the future demand is much more complex.
Much of the growth has already been achieved and has now leveled-off with a flooded market and even the high technology sectors are seeing a stagnation.
On top of this the spending-power of the middle-class has been eroded with astronomical property taxes, rent increases, insurance premiums and even electricity, gas and petrol prices.
The cost of hiring labour has put a dampener on expansion and we are technically at the start of a depression.
These are all things you have to take into consideration when you plan your career and how heavily you will get into debt.  

$70,00 COURSE
Where does any sensible person consider a fee of $70,000 is appropriate to teach someone for a few years?  It is just "talk," no product, no guarantee and no refund . . . . just because the student gets a qualification and maybe an income for life.  That's the role of Government.  That's the requirement of Government.  To educate the nation. That's the only way the country will prosper and with the taxes from the workers, be able to support all those who will not and cannot work.    

How can you have a voltage across a resistor
that is greater than the supply?

What a terrible, ignorant, way to show a
Full Wave Rectifier.
What do they mean by "-" on the LOAD resistor?

Here it is easy to see how the diodes are
connected, with all the arrows on the diodes
facing to the right.
The output voltage is taken between the
V+ and the 0v rail. There is NO negative !!!!!

The output voltage from the bridge is what we call "floating." It is isolated (insulated) from the primary and we connect one side of the bridge to the "chassis."  - or "earth" of the project and call this "zero" or "0v" The other output of the bridge will have a positive voltage and this will be a rising voltage (called an AC voltage) that rises to a maximum and drops to zero.  It does not go lower than 0v and this is what the bridge does. It just produces two rising AC wave-forms during a complete incoming AC cycle. 

The University course is filled with bad diagrams and complex discussions that makes it impossible for ME to understand. 

They spend chapters on idiotic circuits like the one above, asking for the equivalent simplified value of resistance.
I have never come across this problem in 50 years of electronics design and if the problem arises, it is a simple matter of constructing the circuit and measuring it with an ohmmeter.
That's why I say, these courses are so disjointed to be next to worthless.
Here is their pitiful description of GATES:

Pages of complexities, describing gates that are rarely used
 in new products. If everything is based on a microcontroller,
all the "decision-making" is done with instructions and |you won't
see a gate on the module. 
The University never tells you why you need a gate. It just
wastes your time with pages of unnecessary gibberish. 

Here is a activation of a gate to show how and when the
output changes.  See our Basic Electronics-1A course.

The biggest problem with a University course, or any course, is this:
You don't know what you are going to be taught. And most of all, you don't know what you are NOT going to be taught.
From what I have seen of these courses, they don't cover any of the basics. And it is the basics that you need to know to be able to complete a project.
Things like using a CAD program to make a Printed Circuit Board, or being able to interface a transducer to a microcontroller or interfacing to MOSFETs. 
You have to actually design and produce a module to experience the problems.
The notion that: "I designed it, so it must work," is a fallacy. You will very quickly come to a grinding halt with that concept. 
Electronics, very quickly, "pulls you into line." Things must be 100%.

SCAMS
Don't fall for the following two scams:
The biggest work-place scam is applying for a job and being told you the the company will require to "try your" for a week to see if you meet the requirements.
You work for a week and they reject you.
This is heir "modus operandi"  They get  a small amount of work done by new applicants and fail to pay anything.
It will cost you $1,000 for the "free work" ($500apartment rent, $500 lost wages, $200 travel and food).
This is illegal in Australia, but not in the US.  Don't fall for it.
The other biggest SCAM is "qualifications."
There are 10 million Chinese students who have qualified in 2024 in China and will never be employed in their chosen occupation.
China has totally collapsed. Students are living in train stations, on the street or going back to rural China due to the absence of positions.
Many have to work in a "nuts and bolts" factory at $4.00 an hour to earn enough for food.
A "qualification" is no guarantee of a job-placement.
You have to look at the "trend" or "trends."
What is happening in the world.
Look at the housing market, look at the Condominium market.
Look at the foreclosures, the tower reconstructions and property taxes and insurance costs.
All these things are rising more than a salary and if you have a $70,000 student debt, your chances of obtaining a home loan are zero.
What are the answers?
I don't know, but I certainly know: WHAT NOT TO DO.
I know one person. He is a SCAMMER.  He says: sell people dreams.
Dreams like: investing in crypto currency, flipping houses, get-rich-quick schemes.
All these schemes fail. Just like him.  He has nothing to show for all his "schemes."
Building houses was once an honest and reliable future, but now the development market has collapsed.
You cannot rely on providing the most-basic, most-fundamental, item in a person's life. A HOME.


DESIGNING A PRINTED CIRCUIT BOARD
If you intend to look for a position designing circuits, modules and PC boards, you will be using an Industrial CAD program, and if you use a FREE program, you will have to learn the new short-cuts when you start employment.
However the knowledge you gain from starting NOW will be invaluable when you state you have designed more than 60 boards and got them to work perfectly.
Industrial CAD programs are enormously expensive and you need to visit the forums to see what other users have to say.
You will be shocked at the reality of the situation.
You will have to use the program supplied by your employer as some of the modules will be modifications of previous designs.
KiCAD has enormous approval and you need to start somewhere and design lots of boards before applying for a position so you can have some presentation at the interview.
I am not going into the complications of designing a layout, but some of the programs have automatic routing from a circuit.
When you are starting, it is best to do everything manually so you gain the basics and the first boards should be copied from the web and modified a small amount.
At the cost of $1.00 to $10.00 for a panel 100mm x 100mm you can fit a few boards on this size and cut them with a hack saw. I have done this for 20 years as you can get more boards on the panel and save the cost of routing.
The important part is learning the technique and getting this to work.
When you take some boards to the interview, you will create an impression and no-one will ask anything technical.
All you are stating is the fact that you are:  "employment-ready."
If you have a module that talks or whistles, you will be "ahead of the queue."

A comment from: Randall Chamberlain.
I got an EE degree and a Masters in telecommunications and I ONLY really learned electronics when I started building stuff in my spare time.
A teacher just rang to say electronics has started as a subject in schools. I think the education department has finally realised electronics is one of the core understandings to designing products of the future.
Australia has always been innovative and developmental in this area, but very few products have seen mass production due to the small population.
50 years ago we had Radio, TV and audio manufacturing but the Japanese competition reduced the output considerably. Then China came in with fierce competition that we could not compete against and as their quality and reliability improved, Australian manufacture declined. When the import tax was removed, $15.00 transistor radios came down to $2.50!!   

GATES
Gates are BUILDING BLOCKS that perform a function of passing a signal through a circuit, with the ability to control it.  The control might be to HALT it, or combine it with another signal or invert it or make another signal turn it ON and OFF.
Before learning about Gates, you need to see circuits where they are used, how they are used and the function.
Then you have to see the component in the circuit that provides the Gate.
Obviously you need know how the gate works and what it achieves and then decide if the circuit can be simplified or included in a microcontroller.
This is the only sensible way to approach "gating."
In most cases, gating can be incorporated into the microcontroller and no additional logic chips will be needed.
These logic chips are "old fashioned" inefficient, and expensive. They take up board space and require fitting.
Sometimes diode-gating can be used or a transistor with diodes. No course explores this procedure and you can be expending a lot of time on unnecessary learning.
University courses don't cover anything "Logically" and introduce terms such as Combinational and Sequential Logic to complicate the learning. You can understand logic blocks without ever coming-across these terms.
The secret to learning is to study the least and gain the most. There is so much to learn that you don't want your efforts to be side-tracked with un-necessities.

THE SOLUTION
Your long-term goal has to be to work for yourself . . .  from your home . . . . with a product that is not a scam or sham . . but something that people want and need. Something that will be saleable (for the next 10 or 20 years) and has a content that cannot be copied or will be expensive to copy.
Microcontroller products fall into that category (as the program can be protected).
This will save you getting up at 2:00 AM to beat the traffic on the freeway and having the threat of being fired for the slightest interaction with another member of staff.
I have provided lots of projects on Talking Electronics website to get you started and the way to get noticed is via videos.
I have not produced a video but I have seen their impact and this is one area that will boost your sales.
The internet is absolutely enormous and you have equal chance with sales as the largest supplier and distributor.   
"Shopping Cart" platforms are available with "one click purchase" and an example of this is Aliexpress where you can buy all your electronic components with instant purchase and minimal shipping costs.
It is pointless reselling someone else's products (drop-ship selling), however this type of selling can be explored.
You need to have something that you have designed to achieve long-term sales and build up a reputation.
Selling platforms will charge about 15% to 20% for advertising, accounting and providing a customer guarantee (and you have to build this cost into the product).
If you feel you have a skill that you can promote and offer to the buyer, this can be a very successful way to earn an income.
But it takes time and money.
This is the way Talking Electronics is focused.  The projects are practical and economical and can be expanded and improved to suit your conception.
5 fields that are ideal for small projects are: health, hobby, motor vehicle, education and physical assistance.  

Here is an example. Model Railway has an enormous following and very few electronics modules are available to improve a layout.
Most of them are "half-baked, unfinished, expensive or unsuitable."
Here is an example:

Instead of using a microcontroller for such a simple activation, you can use 555 ICs when you understand the clever way they can be connected.
On top of this you can use simple IR detectors and wire everything with 1.5metre leads. All the input devices must be identified on the Printed Circuit Board with controls for Sensitivity, Time and Flash-Rate.
If you are going to do something, make sure it is saleable-quality and not a "prototype from your workshop."  I have no idea where the leads are connected on the "prototype module" and any instructions will soon be lost.
Apart from the fact that the three "ready-made" modules look out-of-place and are expensive, why would you use a microcontroller module capable of launching a rocket to the moon, for a Crossing Flasher Module? It just shows a complete lack of understanding.
This sort of complexity has been the downfall of many companies in the past. The original Garrard turntable with 120 arms and levers and components to automatically change a record was replaced with a cam mechanism and 15 components. And a 25 component circuit was replaced with a 5 cent microcontroller. It was the "whistle Key Finder." When you whistled, it beeped. Talking Electronics produced a microcontroller version to show you how the circuit operates.
 
EFFICIENCY OF WORK
Here's a fact no-one has covered.
When designing a new project, you will be delayed by the time it takes to get the Printed Circuit Board manufactured and maybe waiting for some of the components.
This is most-often the case and you need to put all the items relating to the project in a tray and include all documentation and paperwork, and put it to one side.
Include the reason for the delay as well as all your ideas relating to the project. Make it easy to come back to the project and understand what has to be done.
You may have 3 or 4 projects "in the pipeline" and in the meantime you will have to work on other things.
This makes you efficient. Don't "sit around" waiting for the parts or boards to arrive.

 
TEST EQUIPMENT
I use the cheapest and simplest test equipment to prove what I am saying, in all my articles.
Most of the projects I design operate at less than 1MHz and here is the list of my test equipment:
A variable voltage power supply to calibrate things like 4-digit displays and voltage modules. But for everything else, I do not need an accurate supply.
A 12v power supply using AA cells. This is essential when testing a project as the 12v will only deliver 500mA and nothing will be damaged.
9v battery, 3v and 6v supply,
A  $10.00 Digital Multimeter
A $5.00 Analogue Multimeter
LED Tester:  kit from Talking Electronics ($5.50) to test LEDs, speakers, short circuits.  I use it every day.
IR detector and 38kHz signal detector - essential when working with 38kHz signals. 
Logic Probe:   Kit from Talking Electronics  . . . $9.50  Detects HIGH,  LOW and pulses.
Piezo Diaphragm.  Listen to audio, frequencies and amplitudes in projects that transfer signals or produce waveforms. 
A $35.00 soldering station. 
There are two types of constant temperature soldering irons. (stations)
One type uses pulses to heat the barrel and the energy delivered produces a temperature called the "equilibrium state." There is no feedback from the barrel.
The other type sends full current to the barrel and a thermocouple in (near) the barrel detects the temp and when it is reached, the current is turned off. This is a much-faster heating iron but is a little more expensive. There is almost no difference between the two when doing small joints.
Tip cleaner . . . metal sponge in a holder.  Looks like a ball of copper swarf. 
Solder:  0.5mm diameter or 0.6mm or 0.7mm.  But not 1mm.  Do not buy Chinese solder as no Chinese solder is of any use what-so-ever.  It is rubbish.  Australian solder works perfectly. 
Side cutters: $5.00 from Aliexpress
Screwdrivers, pliers, tweezers to hold SM components, twist drills, electric drill
Stand with magnifying glass to hold module.
Spool of 0.25mm dia and 0.5mm dia tinned copper wire.
Spool of 0.25mm dia and 0.5mm dia enamelled copper wire.
hook-up wire, spaghetti,
Kit of all 0.25watt resistors 1R to 10M
Kit of all  ceramic capacitors   10p  to 100n
Kit of all  electrolytics:   1u  to  4,700u.  You can get 16v, 25v, 35v
Kit of 3mm and 5mm LEDs and you can get 10mm and high wattage LEDs.   Most LEDs are now super-bright . . . . from Aliexpress
You can also get surface-mount components:  size 1206 or the smaller type: 0805   . . .  but the 0603 is very hard to work with.
My Printed Circuit Boards are made by www.elecrow.com for less than $10.00 for 10 boards  100mm x 100mm  (10cm x 10cm)  double-sided, plate-through-hole and with a top and bottom legend (the name given to the numbering and lettering), tinned lands and solder mask (the coating that covers the tracks on top and bottom). You can put up to 6 small boards on the "panel" and cut them yourself with a hack saw and sand-paper the edges (linish). Or get the boards separated with a router at additional expense.
Go to www.talkingelectronics.com    "PCB - CAD programs" for a list of CAD programs to make your own artwork. It will take time and skill to learn how to place components, tracks and lands on the artwork.
Always put the value of the components on the board. I never use R1, R2 R3 etc. All my boards can be built with the data on the silk screening as some of the modules are over 20 years old and still in demand.   
Look for a program that allows you to adjust the width of a track, the size of a land and move everything by a distance as small as "one thou."  (0.001inch) Make sure the "trial" program does not have a limit of 1,000 pads or some other limiting factor.  Go to the electronics forums and find out the success of each CAD program.
You can work in metric or imperial measurements but remember that you must keep to the one concept so all previous layouts can be added to new designs.  This will save creating a lot of new track-work . . . . you can "bring-in" sections of a previous design to speed-up the design.
I am still using the first CAD package to be designed, some 50 years ago from engineers in Tasmania. I need to keep to Protel because I often include 30 year-old boards on a new panel. It has never "fallen-over," and everything can be modified, with no limitations.
It does not have auto-routing or schematic capabilities or Bill Of Materials, but it is "stress-free."

$40  DSO
Finally you can get a Digital Oscilloscope (DSO) for less than $50.

This is the best DSO  (Digital Storage Oscilloscope).  It stands-up on the bench and has an internal battery.
You can probe a "test point" on a project and then freeze the display to see the signal. It shows signals very clearly and works to 200kHz.
A 100kHz signal has 10uS between the rise and fall of the signal and a 200kHz has a rise and fall time of 5uS. 
The probe has a x10 switch and this means the switch can be set to "x10"  and a 10v waveform on the screen will actually be 100v in amplitude.
The lines on the display are called graticule markings and the "up and down line" is the "Y-axis" for voltage while the axis across the display is the X-axis and is calibrated in microseconds, milliseconds or even seconds.
The waveform is generated outside the left of the screen and enters the screen at the left and "moves across the screen."
The advantage of DIGITAL STORAGE is the ability to "freeze" the screen and see exactly what the waveform looks like so you can take accurate measurements.
This piece of equipment is ideal for audio projects, DCC model railway projects and home-made computer projects with a clock frequency of 1MHz to 4MHz (as the data lines are running at a much lower frequency than the clock).
I have not seen a good video showing the DSO testing a digital or audio project and if anyone has a link, I will add it.
You are getting a $500 piece of test gear for $40 and the only time you will need something better if when testing projects running at over 1MHz.

Here is the DSO manual.
Here is is instruction manual
Here is a video explaining the features.
Oscilloscope Fundamentals  Part 1
Oscilloscope Fundamentals  Part 2
Oscilloscope Fundamentals  Part 3

The first thing you do is charge the battery for an hour and then turn on the DSO to get a trace on the screen (display).
Connect the probe to the test point on the top of the DSO and make sure the x10 switch on the probe is set to x1 and adjust the controls to get a square wave across the display.
The display is actually a "flying dot" (pixel) travelling across the display very quickly.
It travels from left to right and when the probe sees an increased voltage, the pixel rises on the screen. If the voltage is present for a short period of time it then falls to zero and the trace is a square-wave. The "sweep time"  is the time taken for the pixel to travel from one graticule to the next.
For instance, if the sweep speed is 10uS, it takes 10 microseconds to travel one screen graticule. When the sweep time is one second, you can see the trace moving. This is called the "Time Base" or "Sweep Speed" and you need to convert this to frequency using the following table: