1. ElectronicswithTechnical Drawing
pg. 1
The History of Electricity
Here is some information on the book, Electrical History by Tom Henry. This book was written
in appreciation of the more than 15 million men and women that work in the electrical industry to
keep the lights burning every second, every minute, 24 hours a day, everyday.
Did Edison invent the light bulb, Marconi the radio, Bell the telephone, Morse the telegraph?
The answers are no. They didn't invent the wheel. They were instrumental in making it better
and, in some cases, obtaining the patent.
Electrical history goes back before Christ and brings us to the computer age. Along this journey
you will discover it took several people, along the way, to make the light bulb glow.
The journey won't end with this book, as we are constantly discovering new inventions that will
someday even take us to the stars.
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)
His kite experiment demonstrated that
lightning is electricity. He was the first to
use the terms positive and negative
charge.
Franklin was one of seventeen children. He quit school at age ten to become a printer. His life is
the classic story of a self-made man achieving wealth and fame through determination and
intelligence.
James Watt (1736-1819) was born in Scotland. Although he conducted no electrical
experiments, he must not be overlooked. He was an instrument maker by trade and set up a
repair shop in Glasgow in 1757. Watt thought that the steam engine would replace animal
power, where the number of horses replaced seemed an obvious way to measure the charge
for performance. Interestingly, Watt measured the rate of work exerted by a horse drawing
rubbish up an old mine shaft and found it amounted to about 22,000 ft-lbs per minute. He added
a margin of 50% arriving at 33,000 ft-lbs.
William Thomson, Lord Kelvin (1824-1907) was best known in his invention of a new
temperature scale based on the concept of an absolute zero of temperature at -273°C (-460°F).
To the end of his life, Thomson maintained fierce opposition to the idea that energy emitted by
radioactivity came from within the atom. One of the greatest scientific discoveries of the 19th
century, Thomson died opposing one of the most vital innovations in the history of science.
Thomas Seebeck (1770-1831) a German physicist was the discoverer of the "Seebeck effect".
He twisted two wires made of different metals and heated a junction where the two wires met.
He produced a small current. The current is the result of a flow of heat from the hot to the cold
junction. This is called thermoelectricity. Thermo is a Greek word meaning heat.
Michael Faraday (1791-1867) an Englishman, made one of the most significant discoveries in
the history of electricity: Electromagnetic induction. His pioneering work dealt with how electric
currents work. Many inventions would come from his experiments, but they would come fifty to
one hundred years later.
2. ElectronicswithTechnical Drawing
pg. 2
Failures never discouraged Faraday. He would say; "the failures are just as important as the
successes." He felt failures also teach. The farad, the unit of capacitance is named in the honor
of Michael Faraday.
James Maxwell (1831-1879) a Scottish mathematician translated Faraday's theories into
mathematical expressions. Maxwell was one of the finest mathematicians in history. A maxwell
is the electromagnetic unit of magnetic flux, named in his honor.
Today he is widely regarded as secondary only to Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein in the world
of science.
Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931) was one of the most well known inventors of all time with
1093 patents. Self-educated, Edison was interested in chemistry and electronics.During the
whole of his life, Edison received only three months of formal schooling, and was dismissed
from school as being retarded, though in fact a childhood attack of scarlet fever had left him
partially deaf.
Nikola Tesla was born of Serbian parents July 10, 1856 and died a broke and lonely man in
New York City January 7, 1943. He envisioned a world without poles and power lines. Referred
to as the greatest inventive genius of all time. Tesla's system triumphed to make possible the
first large-scale harnessing of Niagara Falls with the first hydroelectric plant in the United States
in 1886.
October 1893 George Westinghouse (1846-1914)was awarded the contract to build the first
generators at Niagara Falls. He used his money to buy up patents in the electric field. One of
the inventions he bought was the transformer from William Stanley. Westinghouse invented the
air brake system to stop trains, the first of more than one hundred patents he would receive in
this area alone. He soon founded the Westinghouse Air Brake Company in 1869.
Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922) born in Scotland, was raised in a family that was
interested and involved in the science of sound. Bell's father and grandfather both taught
speech to the deaf. A unit of sound level is called a bel in his honor. Sound levels are measured
in tenths of a bel, or decibels. The abbreviation for decibel is dB.
Heinrich Hertz (1857-1894) a German physicist, laid the ground work for the vacuum tube. He
laid the foundation for the future development of radio, telephone, telegraph, and even
television. He was one of the first people to demonstrate the existence of electric waves. Hertz
was convinced that there were electromagnetic waves in space.
Otto Hahn (1879-1968), a German chemist and physicist, made the vital discovery which led to
the first nuclear reactor. He uncovered the process of nuclear fission by which nuclei of atoms of
heavy elements can break into smaller nuclei, in the process releasing large quantities of
energy. Hahn was awarded the Nobel prize for chemistry in 1944.
Albert Einstein (1879-1955). Einstein's formula proved that one gram of mass can be
converted into a torrential amount of energy. To do this, the activity of the atoms has to occur in
the nucleus. E = energy, M = mass, and C = the speed of light which is 186,000 miles per
second. When you square 186,000 you can see it would only take a small amount of mass to
produce a huge amount of energy.
ELECTRICITY FUNDAMENTALS
3. ElectronicswithTechnical Drawing
pg. 3
Electricity is an apparent force in nature that exists whenever there is a net electrical charge
between any two objects.
Basics of Electrostatics:
Electrical charges are either negative (electrons) or positive (protons)
The unit of charge, q , is called the coloumb.
When there are equal numbers of positive and negative charges there is no electrical
force as there is no net charge. This is the case for a neutral atom.
Electrical force is created when electrons are transferred from one material to another
(e.g. rubbing a wool cloth with a plastic comb).
Electrical charge is conserved; charge is neither created nor destroyed
Source of Electricity
Hydroelectric power plant
The most common type of hydroelectric power plant is an impoundment facility. An
impoundment facility, typically a large hydropower system, uses a dam to store river water in a
reservoir. Water released from the reservoir flows through a turbine, spinning it, which in turn
activates a generator to produce electricity.
There are three types of hydropower facilities: impoundment, diversion, and pumped storage.
Some hydropower plants use dams and some do not. The images below show both types of
hydropower plants.
Many dams were built for other purposes and hydropower was added later. In the United States,
there are about 80,000 dams of which only 2,400 produce power. The other dams are for
recreation, stock/farm ponds, flood control, water supply, and irrigation.
Hydropower plants range in size from small systems for a home or village to large projects
producing electricity for utilities. The sizes of hydropower plants are described below.
IMPOUNDMENT
The most common type of hydroelectric power plant is an impoundment facility. An
impoundment facility, typically a large hydropower system, uses a dam to store river water in a
reservoir. Water released from the reservoir flows through a turbine, spinning it, which in turn
activates a generator to produce electricity. The water may be released either to meet changing
electricity needs or to maintain a constant reservoir level.
Geothermal energy
4. ElectronicswithTechnical Drawing
pg. 4
Geothermal energy is the heat from the Earth. It's clean and sustainable. Resources of
geothermal energy range from the shallow ground to hot water and hot rock found a few miles
beneath the Earth's surface, and down even deeper to the extremely high temperatures of
molten rock called magma.
Photoelectric cell
a device that generates an electric current or voltage dependent on device whose electrical
characteristics (e.g., current, voltage, or resistance) vary when light is incident upon it. The most
common type consists of two electrodes separated by a light-sensitive semiconductor material.
A battery or other voltage source connected to the electrodes sets up a current even in the
absence of light; when light strikes the semiconductor section of the photocell, the current in the
circuit increases by an amount proportional to the intensity of the light. In the phototube, an
older type of photocell, two electrodes are enclosed in a glass tube—an anode and a light-
sensitive cathode, i.e., a metal that emits electrons in accordance with the photoelectric effect.
the degree of illumination.
Piezoelectric Effect
Piezoelectric Effect is the ability of certain materials to generate an electric charge in response
to applied mechanical stress. The word Piezoelectric is derived from the Greek piezein, which
means to squeeze or press, and piezo, which is Greek for “push”.
One of the unique characteristics of the piezoelectric effect is that it is reversible, meaning that
materials exhibiting the direct piezoelectric effect (the generation of electricity when stress is
applied) also exhibit the converse piezoelectric effect (the generation of stress when an electric
field is applied)
.
5. ElectronicswithTechnical Drawing
pg. 5
Solar power
Solar power is energy from the sun that is converted into thermal or electrical energy.
Solar energy is the cleanest and most abundant renewable energy source available, and the
U.S. has some of the richest solar resources in the world. Modern technology can harness this
energy for a variety of uses, including generating electricity, providing light or a comfortable
interior environment, and heating water for domestic, commercial, or industrial use.
Nuclear Energy
In nuclear fission, atoms are split to release the energy. A nuclear reactor, or power plant, is a
series of machines that can control nuclear fission to produce electricity. The fuel that nuclear
reactors use to produce nuclear fission is pellets of the element uranium.
Batteries and Cells
An electric battery is a device consisting of one or more electrochemical cells with external
connections provided to power electrical devices. A battery has a positive terminal, or cathode,
and a negative terminal, or anode. The terminal marked positive is at a higher electrical
potential energy than is the terminal marked negative. The terminal marked negative is the
source of electrons that when connected to an external circuit will flow and deliver energy to an
external device. When a battery is connected to an external circuit, electrolytes are able to move
6. ElectronicswithTechnical Drawing
pg. 6
as ions within, allowing the chemical reactions to be completed at the separate terminals and so
deliver energy to the external circuit.
Nature of Electricity
Electricity is the most common form of energy. Electricity is used for various applications such
as lighting, transportation, cooking, communication, production of various goods in factories and
much more. None of us exactly know that what is electricity. The concept of electricity and
theories behind it, can be developed by observing its different behaviors. For observing nature
of electricity, it is necessary to study the structure of matters. Every substance in this universe is
made up of extremely small particles known as molecules. The molecule is the smallest particle
of a substance into which all the identities of that substance are present. The molecules are
made up of further smaller particles known as atoms. An atom is the smallest particle of an
element that can exist.
Motors and Generators
Electrical motors and generators are machines which either convert electrical energy inputs into
forces or applied kinetic energy inputs into electrical energy. In principle, any electrical
generator can also be operated as a motor and vice-versa.
Alternating Current (AC) and Direct Current.
Alternating Current
Alternating current (AC), is an electric current in which the flow of electric charge periodically
reverses direction, which is a stream of charges that reverses direction. Scientists such as
Charles Proteus Steinmetz and Nikola Tesla made great advances when AC power was just a
science experiment.
Direct current
Direct current (DC) is the unidirectional flow of electric charge. Direct current is produced by
sources such as batteries, power supplies, thermocouples, solar cells, or dynamos.
Is the unidirectional flow of electric charge. Direct current is produced by sources such as
batteries, power supplies, thermocouples, solar cells, or dynamos. Direct current may flow in a
7. ElectronicswithTechnical Drawing
pg. 7
conductor such as a wire, but can also flow through semiconductors, insulators, or even through
a vacuum as in electron or ion beams. The electric current flows in a constant direction,
distinguishing it from alternating current (AC). A term formerly used for this type of current was
galvanic current.
Ohm’s law
The potential difference (voltage) across an ideal conductor is proportional to the current
through it. The constant of proportionality is called the "resistance", R. Ohm's Law is given by: V
= I R where V is the potential difference between two points which include a resistance R.
8. ElectronicswithTechnical Drawing
pg. 8
Voltage [ V = I x R ] = 2 x 12Ω = 24V
Current [ I = V ÷ R ] = 24 ÷ 12Ω = 2A
Resistance [ R = V ÷ I ] = 24 ÷ 2 = 12 Ω
Power [ P = V x I ] = 24 x 2 = 48W
Power Law
In statistics, a power law is a functional relationship between two quantities, where a relative
change in one quantity results in a proportional relative change in the other quantity,
independent of the initial size of those quantities: one quantity varies as a power of another.
9. ElectronicswithTechnical Drawing
pg. 9
Electronics Test Instruments
Analog multimeters, although older than the commonly preferred digital multimeter, do come
with several unique advantages. Although both digital and analog multimeters measure varying
units, such as voltage, current, and resistance, they display their readings in distinctly different
ways. Analog multimeters can sometimes be difficult to read because they display data as a
needle moving along a scale—this can be a benefit because the display of increased voltage (or
resistance and so forth) is tangible, but can be hard for those unfamiliar with the scale.
PARTS OF MULTITESTER
The VOM or Voltage Ohm meter or commonly called as Multitester is used by the technicians or
enthusiasts both Electronic or computer technician. This equipment is used to measure both the
voltage AC and DC voltages, Resistance, and current. Remember that you will deal with the
high voltage in using this equipment. So therefore you need to learn more about how to use this
and learn first the parts and functions including the safety precautions.
1. Know what to be measure-
remember that before you perform measurement of a voltage or a device you should
acquaint yourself what type of current your dealing with. Is this high voltage or not,
example: the wall outlet electricity or the convenience outlet or CO that has a standard
wall outlet electricity of 220 VAC minimum.
2. Know the polarity- if we should measure a line of voltages or current we must
understand that a Direct Current (DC) have a two channel, the positive and negative. To
avoid incident, we must always avoid the technician error in considering the trial and
errors.
3. Do not hold the test rod- the test rod is the metal tip of the test probe, consider
always the voltage and electronic component as high voltage. So that you will avoid the
accident of electrical shock and damage of the units you repair.
10. ElectronicswithTechnical Drawing
pg. 10
THE BASIC PARTS OF THE VOM (Multitester)
Remember that there are different type of the analog multitester through the manufacturer, the
unit I’ve use is the Sanwa YX360 TRF and the Sunwa YX360 TRD.
1. The Dial or the Infinity knob- this is the zero collector whenever you calibrate,
the beginning as 0 voltages both the AC and DC measurement. Use your flat screw
driver to set this knob to calibrate the 0 voltages of your tester. The name alone as
Infinity knob because 0 voltage region of the tester is the infinity region of the resistance.
Because the principle of the Multitester is “The higher the measurement of the voltage,
the lower the resistance”.
2. Zero Adjustment or the Zero Ohms collector knob- this use to calibrate the
tester whenever you wanted to measure the resistance. To assure that the tester
calibrated to zero Ohms, just follow this procedure. Take the two metal tip of the test
probe of the VOM connected
Then look at the meter scale of the tester, notice the needle or the pointer if it takes to
the zero ohms situated right of the meter scale. If the needle didn't take to the zero ohms
just rolled the knob clockwise until the middle position in the zero ohms.
3. The pointer or niddle- use to point or read the measurement using the meter
scale base of the range and settings you prepared during the test of a device or line of a
voltage.
4. Meter scales- this is the basis of the measurement where the graduation, bar
drawn in the body, commonly the resistance or ohms scale have a measurement from 0-
2k ohms depend of the range and settings. And the voltage both AC and DC from 0-
250,50, 10 and it depends on the range and settings you sited.
5. Range selector knob- this part of the tester located center down of the body of
the VOM is used to select the range and settings of the VOM the (AC and DC,
Resistance, and the Amperage). Be sure to set this if ever you wanted to measure the
voltage. If you forgot to sit this part, and the settings are the resistance, then you
measure the voltage, this will cause blown off your VOM and may possibly cause
damage of your VOM.
6. Range and settings- position in the whole corner of the range selector knows.
Written here the voltages AC and DC, Resistance or ohms, and the amperage ranges.
So if you wanted to measure be sure to know what you wanted to measure so that you
can sit your settings, example Voltage AC 220 Volts.
7. Test probes- there are two test probes of the VOM, the black is the negative (-)
and the red is the positive (-). If ever you wanted to measure a voltage, example DC just
knows the polarity or the positive and negative. Then connect the test probe red to the
positive line of the circuit and the black probe to the negative or the ground (GND) of the
circuit or of the dry cells.
What is a digital multimeter?
A digital multimeter (DMM) is a test tool used to measure two or more electrical values—
principally voltage (volts), current (amps) and resistance (ohms). It is a standard diagnostic tool
for technicians in the electrical/electronic industries.
Digital multimeters long ago replaced needle-based analog meters due to their ability to
measure with greater accuracy, reliability and increased impedance. Fluke introduced its first
digital multimeter in 1977.
The face of a digital multimeter typically includes four components:
11. ElectronicswithTechnical Drawing
pg. 11
Display: Where measurement readouts can be viewed.
Buttons: For selecting various functions; the options vary by model.
Dial (or rotary switch): For selecting primary measurement values (volts, amps, ohms).
Input jacks: Where test leads are inserted.
Test leads are flexible, insulated wires (red for positive, black for negative) that plug into the
DMM. They serve as the conductor from the item being tested to the multimeter. The probe tips
on each lead are used for testing circuits.