- #1
e-o
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Hi everyone,
I have a question for anyone who considers themselves adept at designing circuits. I was wondering, how do you approach the design of complicated circuits? What stages do you go through to get from a concept to a real working circuit?
I myself am not an electrical engineer, nor do I have a great understanding of circuit theory. I'm interested in learning more, but when I look at some complicated circuits (like the interior of an op-amp), they essentially appear random to me, and there doesn't seem to be anything I could learn that would let me figure out how the circuit works.
In my experience, designing a circuit goes something like this:
1) Figure out the objectives of the circuit (what am I trying to build?).
2) Block out the different stages of the circuit (I'll have an oscillator, it connects to a pre-amp, the pre-amp feeds through a filter etc.).
3) Start looking through my textbooks/online for designs for the different stages of my circuit (I'll use an active low-pass filter here, and an astable 555 time there etc.).
4) Sort out all of the actual component values. A large part of my effort here always seems to be trying to match impedances (I'm not sure if that's typical).
5) Make sure the circuit works properly, fix any problems that come up.
However, when I look at something like the interior of an op-amp (it's not just op-amps of course), my approach doesn't seem to work. There are so many unusual connections, which tend to loop-back or overlap one another and it seems to defy my 'linear' (one stage after another) design approach.
I also have problems with my step 3. Some circuits seem simple at first, but their behavior is so odd that I wonder if anyone deliberately came up with the circuit, or if it was an accident haha.
So anyways, if you managed to read through all of that, I thank you. And I'd like to hear your input as to how you go from a concept into a working circuit.
I have a question for anyone who considers themselves adept at designing circuits. I was wondering, how do you approach the design of complicated circuits? What stages do you go through to get from a concept to a real working circuit?
I myself am not an electrical engineer, nor do I have a great understanding of circuit theory. I'm interested in learning more, but when I look at some complicated circuits (like the interior of an op-amp), they essentially appear random to me, and there doesn't seem to be anything I could learn that would let me figure out how the circuit works.
In my experience, designing a circuit goes something like this:
1) Figure out the objectives of the circuit (what am I trying to build?).
2) Block out the different stages of the circuit (I'll have an oscillator, it connects to a pre-amp, the pre-amp feeds through a filter etc.).
3) Start looking through my textbooks/online for designs for the different stages of my circuit (I'll use an active low-pass filter here, and an astable 555 time there etc.).
4) Sort out all of the actual component values. A large part of my effort here always seems to be trying to match impedances (I'm not sure if that's typical).
5) Make sure the circuit works properly, fix any problems that come up.
However, when I look at something like the interior of an op-amp (it's not just op-amps of course), my approach doesn't seem to work. There are so many unusual connections, which tend to loop-back or overlap one another and it seems to defy my 'linear' (one stage after another) design approach.
I also have problems with my step 3. Some circuits seem simple at first, but their behavior is so odd that I wonder if anyone deliberately came up with the circuit, or if it was an accident haha.
So anyways, if you managed to read through all of that, I thank you. And I'd like to hear your input as to how you go from a concept into a working circuit.