Basic Electronics Refresher

The other day, I signed up with Tinkercad. The site offers some neat tutorials. So far there are two main categories. The first category is 3D Design. Which offers a set of lessons for using their CAD program. The other category is Circuits. In this category, they offer a series which covers the basics of using their tool and building circuits. Their system is based on a simulator in which you build and test a circuit.

I was able to work through the first four lessons (Start Simulating, Editing Components, Wiring Components, and Adding Components) very quickly. It was a nice set of lessons that refreshed some old knowledge that I have not used in awhile.

I then moved to the next set of lessons (Introducing the Breadboard, Ohm's Law, and Series and Parallel Circuits) which are on Circuit Design. It was nice to get a small refresher on Ohm's Law. I enjoyed messing around with the Multimeter Component. I encountered a few places in the lessons where the text did not line up with what was happing on screen. The instructions about how to duplicate a component were wrong.

In digging up some more information about Tinkercad Circuits, there was Electronics Lab. Electronics Lab as moved to being part of Tinkercad Circuits. The blog post about the move can be found here. As far as I can tell Electronics Lab also used the name Autodesk Circuits. On YouTube, the Autodesk 123D channel has the playlist Autodesk Circuits.

Starting to close down the Year

YearCompass is a booklet that you print yourself. This booklet is a neat way of closing down a year and get a good start on planning the next year. I came across this booklet just after 2017 started. It took me about two hours to work through the booklet. I felt that it was time well spent. I discovered that 2016 had a lot of highlights that I had forgotten about. The booklet also helped me to put together a plan for 2017. I wish that I have taken the time to revisit the booklet at least once a quarter.

 I am really looking forward to spending the time to working filling out the booklet for 2017/2018. I will be adding reviewing the booklet monthly to my 2018 plan.