Amplifier theory

[fdeck]

Why not transistor woman?

Because she prefers MOSFETs.

 

[cfsporn]

I guess equality took a back seat to the added cost of doing new artwork. It's still a dude.

 

[beans-on-toast]

Well at least Transistor Man T-shirts are available for both men and woman from Adafruit: Transistor Man Shirt ID: 838 - $19.95 : Adafruit Industries, Unique & fun DIY electronics and kits.

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There is also a companion student manual with course lectures, labs, exercises, etc. The third edition manual is not available yet. Good for someone studying on their own that would benefit from the additional resources. See the books web site: The Art of Electronics 3rd Edition.

NOTE: there is an errata section at this site. There are a number of changes to the third edition listed: Errata.

 

[Woodstockz]

Well at least Transistor Man T-shirts are available for both men and woman from Adafruit: Transistor Man Shirt ID: 838 - $19.95 : Adafruit Industries, Unique & fun DIY electronics and kits.....

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I like the description on the Adafruit site:
"Did you know that inside every transistor is a little man whose job it is to watch the incoming base current and adjust the collector-emitter impedance to match the datasheet? Its true! "

 

[agedhorse]

One of the biggest challenges I have is deciding which way to go. Often I will come up with 4 or 5 or more ideas, and each has it's advantages and disadvantages.

One of the best parts of my R&D job is that I get to create stuff, not just the hardware, but the entire concept. That's where theory and practice come together. I'm kind of excited about how some of these concepts are coming together and where they might take us in amplification in general.

To the digital guys... analog isn't dead, if fact it's very, very far from it. I'm doing more hard core analog design now than at any time in my career, and it's gotten pretty fun. Sure beats writing code

 

[Mark Reccord]

Why not transistor woman?

(A sign of the times, very few women were interested in EE!)

Not much has changed. I'm a fairly recent graduate (2005) and women only made up about 10% of our class and that has stayed about static since according to the stats from the university. It was and is much closer to 50/50 in the other disciplines. I don't know why, it's not like the electrical and computer discipline was any more of a misogynistic old boys club than the other disciplines or the faculty as a whole.

 

[Woodstockz]

Not much has changed. I'm a fairly recent graduate (2005) and women only made up about 10% of our class and that has stayed about static since according to the stats from the university. It was and is much closer to 50/50 in the other disciplines. I don't know why, it's not like the electrical and computer discipline was any more of a misogynistic old boys club than the other disciplines or the faculty as a whole.

Well, that's up from 1 or 2% in the '70's. Still not a lot, but progress.

I think that EE is down in general, and CS has taken over.

 

[beans-on-toast]

Women outnumber men in undergraduate enrollment in general, numbers like 3 to 2 are cited. The traditional fields such as electrical, mechanical, and chemical engineering are not growing like other areas. Although enrollment numbers continue to climb, there are spikes in manufacturing, environmental, and bio engineering. Not surprising as jobs are readily available in those fields.

It is improving. But it comes down to good math and science programs at high schools and encouraging students to take an interest. There are some great community organizations under the Maker umbrella that helps open kids eyes to technology, electronics, and engineering.

 

[Woodstockz]

One of the biggest challenges I have is deciding which way to go. Often I will come up with 4 or 5 or more ideas, and each has it's advantages and disadvantages.

One of the best parts of my R&D job is that I get to create stuff, not just the hardware, but the entire concept. That's where theory and practice come together. I'm kind of excited about how some of these concepts are coming together and where they might take us in amplification in general.

To the digital guys... analog isn't dead, if fact it's very, very far from it. I'm doing more hard core analog design now than at any time in my career, and it's gotten pretty fun. Sure beats writing code

Yeah, I don'miss writing code. And audio is fun. And, like RF, everything is in dB.

Have you ever looked at your 4 or 5 ideas, weighed the advantages and disadvantages, run your calculations, gotten your prototype going, and almost up and running. Then when it is 80% done, then you get a new idea on how your new design would be better if...

Maybe something more efficient, or more performance, or just cooler if...

Maybe it is something that you could extract from one of the other 4 or 5, or something new...

That new idea takes over your thinking, and you totally consumed with it. Problem is, you can't just add the new idea. You would have to start over from scratch.

Now what do you do?

A) Finish what you started, or B) start over from scratch?


I struggled with this for a while.


If it's B, then with feature creep, you might never finish anything.
If it's A, at least you will finish something. Then when you start the next project, then you can also add great idea number 2 and any other new ideas that come along.

Sometimes, it's A, and sometimes, it's B. But I think mostly A unless B is too compelling.

 

[agedhorse]

Always, Woodstockz. Successfully fighting feature creep (and marketing meddling with the product) are big challenges, but they tend to get easier with experience.

 

[icke2433]

You guys rule! I've been away from talk bass for a few and came back to find this! I'm currently engrossed in Design and Construction of Tube Guitar Amplifiers by Robert Megantz. I'm digging it so far, there are a few things that I'd have preferred had been added but I've found that when it's harder to get and you have to dig yourself you learn it that much better

 

[cfsporn]

Back to the whole "woman EE" thing, I remember reading somewhere that originally, computer programming was considered "woman's work" along the lines of cleaning and cooking. I believe this had to do with the fact that programming was/is typing intensive and requires little to no physical work, but that is just conjecture based on twenty four years of ingrained sexism. From personal experience, during my one year at a college renowned for it's engineering program, the majority of women I knew were majoring in some sort of biology related field (Biomedical engineering and Biochemistry/Biophysics were the two big ones) with some computer science being the second most popular.

In other news, my bookshelf got a bit bigger recently!

 

[beans-on-toast]

A lot of good information in the Radiotron Handbook. It shows you that they new what they were doing.

Back then, if you had that book and an engineering slide rule, you were all set. Well maybe add some log graph paper and some smith charts. Life was a lot simpler.

 

[Bob Lee (QSC)]

You guys rule! I've been away from talk bass for a few and came back to find this! I'm currently engrossed in Design and Construction of Tube Guitar Amplifiers by Robert Megantz. I'm digging it so far, there are a few things that I'd have preferred had been added but I've found that when it's harder to get and you have to dig yourself you learn it that much better

Bob Megantz is a friend of mine whom I know through the AES. I've worked on a few AES convention committees with him.

 

[icke2433]

Really? Tell him he wrote a great book for me! I'm a bit confused on a couple of parts but for the most part it's been a great read thus far!

 

[ReidK]

Why not transistor woman?

(A sign of the times, very few women were interested in EE!)

But the EEs (most of them, anyway) were interested in women, which would seem to be a point in favor. Oh well, maybe Transistor Woman would have been too distracting. Wonder Woman certainly was...

Reid

P. S. Wait a minute... that diagram shows an NPN transistor... suppose we looked inside a PNP... do think... maybe?

 

[ReidK]

I remember seeing this ad when it came out, so I did a quick search and found it: http://cdn.theatlantic.com/assets/media/img/posts/Screen Shot 2013-10-09 at 1.11.02 PM.png

It's still relevant, even the part about women being better represented in the ranks of software developers than elsewhere.

Reid

 

[ReidK]

What do you suppose Transistor Man is holding in his right hand? A work order? A letter from home (I imagine it's a lonely job)? A print of Shockley's patent? A cheat sheet that says "Not Pointing iN" (that's the BJT equivalent of "Righty-Tighty")?

Does the text explain this?

Reid

 

[cfsporn]

What do you suppose Transistor Man is holding in his right hand? A work order? A letter from home (I imagine it's a lonely job)? A print of Shockley's patent? A cheat sheet that says "Not Pointing iN" (that's the BJT equivalent of "Righty-Tighty")?

Does the text explain this?

Reid

I think he is holding the data sheet for the transistor he calls home.

 

[Bob Lee (QSC)]

Really? Tell him he wrote a great book for me! I'm a bit confused on a couple of parts but for the most part it's been a great read thus far!

I'll probably see him in New York at the end of this month, assuming he'll be attending the AES convention.

I'll have to check out the book myself!