Circuit Idea/How to Create a Circuit Story for this Book
Requirements
[edit | edit source]Circuit Idea is not an ordinary electronics book where particular circuits are described. It is a book about the ideas behind circuits. So there must be some idea in the circuit that you decide to consider on the new page... and you have to reveal it.
Sources
[edit | edit source]You can take the circuit for your story from various places:
Books. Those that describe circuits in an intuitive manner, are most suitable. Best examples are The Art of Electronics and especially, Student Manual for the Art of Electronics. Some of them (for example, Practical Electronics for Inventors) claim to reveal the ideas of circuits but actually provide reference materials. Books can be used not only to obtain information but also to lift the creative mood.
Magazines. Nowadays, magazines are mostly in electronic form. Most of them (amateur) are practical; they describe specific circuits and devices for implementation. Ideas and reflections are in the background; therefore, they are not the most appropriate source for the Circuit Idea. Professional magazines look at circuits in great detail about the elements used, technology, and more. They take into account any shortcomings in the operation of the real elements and circuits. This diverts attention from basic ideas that suggest ideal circuit elements.
Patents. Patents should be the most appropriate source for such a book on invention. Unfortunately, they use specific and difficult-to-understand language and, in general, are difficult to read.
Web sites. On first place, Wikipedia can give us a lot of story ideas. However, the explanations there are often formal and do not emphasize ideas. The problem is that Wikipedians are generally not inventors but, above all, editors who gather information from reputable sources. Own ideas, although original, are defined as "original research" and are rejected.
Valuable are sites that explain circuits in a popular way. In most cases, these are rather superficial explanations but they can work as a source of ideas for circuit stories.
Circuit forums. Undoubtedly, StackExchange is the leader among circuit forums. There are incredible questions there that can give ideas for circuit stories. They get very good but in most cases, standard and formal answers. The original answers are few and not well received (usually "punished" with silence or -1 rather than encouraged). Discussions (the most valuable thing in a forum) are not encouraged but are invited to end quickly. The tone is quite straight and, at times, rough. The majority of contributors are anonymous and this predetermines such an unfriendly atmosphere.
ResearchGate has a scientific forum where interesting questions are also asked. There are interesting and sometimes long discussions. There are no restrictions and the atmosphere is very "academic". Participants are obvious and well represented from their profile pages. There are no conflicts and the tone is good. However, RG discussions are not so dynamic as those of StackExchange.
Quora is another very useful for Circuit Idea purposes forum. It stays between StackExchange and ResearchGate. Unfortunately, many ads are annoying.
Conversations. A natural way to come up with ideas for circuit stories is to talk with like-minded people - friends, colleagues, teachers, students, parents, children...
Your work. If you are a professional (especially, a circuit designer), you can share your experience in designing devices... teacher - your circuit explanations to your students... student - your homework, project... hobbyist - your hand-made electronic device... repairman - a disassembled device...
Of course, many other sources of ideas for new circuit stories can be found...
Technology
[edit | edit source]Here is a typical building scenario for creating a circuit story:
1. Posing the problem to be solved (improving a passive circuit, solving a circuit contradiction, etc.)
2. Revealing the basic idea in the non-electrical domain (looking for analogies, deriving a block-diagram and operation algorithm).
3. Applying the general idea in the electricity domain (building an equivalent and "man-controlled" electrical circuit).
4. Showing the passive circuit applications (building standalone and composite passive devices).
5. Revealing the passive circuit imperfections (revealing and evaluating inherent circuit deficiencies).
6. Improving the imperfect passive circuit and creating a perfect active version (converting the passive circuit into an active one).
7. Applying the idea in the electronics domain (building various active devices based on the same idea).