Reference materials

Printed and online learning materials

  • Wikibooks Electronics online textbook 
  • Paul Falstad's giant interactive electronics applets site. A good place to start if you're really confused. The interactive animations can give you valuable intuition. 
  • The CU Physics Education and Teaching research group physics apps. These are a great place to go if you're confused on basic quantites. 
  • Exploring Arduino: Tools and Techniques for Engineering Wizardry.  Jeremy Blum 
  • The Analysis and Design of Linear circuits. Thomas, Rosa, & Toussant. Wiley (2012). ISBN-13.  This is the same textbook used for ECEN 2250 Introduction to Circuit Electronics, a core sophomore course.  This book has many edditions, so if you want to use it for 2250, check that class syllabus to verify the edition. 
  • Introductory Engineering Design: A Projects-Based Approach ​.  This online text was developed by ITLL staff for the GEEN 1400 class and has lots of good material on design, presentation etc.  Chapter 17 on electronics covers much of the basic analog portions of our class.

Structure and grading of lab reports

  • Required structure of lab reports
  • MS Word template for lab reports
  • Sample ECEN 1400 labs reports courtesy of Dr. Peter Mathys. These include the prelab, unlike how we are running the class, so you can ignore those sections. These are arranged roughly from worst (first) to best (last). 

Final project portfolio examples

Schematic capture tools

These can help you in understanding, lab reports or your final project.  This is not an endorsement - use your own judgement.  

  • TinyCAD - limited features but easy to use.
  • DesignSpark PCB - a well recommended, fully featured free package including PCB layout.
  • Circuit Lab - a web-based schematic capture and simulation tool. 

Workshops

Manuals for lab equipment

Datasheets and CUno documentation