Engineering Foundations
The practice every discipline shares
Design process, tolerances, safety factors, datasheets, debugging and documentation are not specific to one branch of engineering, they are what all of them run on. Do this world before the discipline worlds, not after.
Thinking Like an Engineer
Process, tolerance, margin and documentation
- The Design ProcessFreeWhy engineers do not start by building, and what they do instead.12 min
- Tolerance & PrecisionFreeNothing is ever exactly its stated value. Designing for that is the job.12 min
- Safety Factors & DeratingFreeWhy engineers never run anything at its stated limit.12 min
- Reading a DatasheetFreeThe document that tells you everything, and how to find the parts that matter.12 min
Building Systems That Work
Power budgets, debugging, sensors and documentation
- Power Budgets & BatteriesAdd up what your circuit actually draws, size the battery from it, and find out how long the thing will really run.13 min
- Debugging MethodicallyHow to find a fault by bisection and measurement instead of guessing and swapping parts.12 min
- Sensors & SignalsHow a sensor turns the physical world into a voltage, what the ADC does with it, and how to clean up a noisy reading.13 min
- Schematics & DocumentationReading and drawing a circuit diagram, and writing down the things your future self will not remember.12 min
Systems Thinking
Requirements, reliability, control and manufacture
- Requirements & SystemsTurning a vague wish into something testable, and managing the interfaces where most real failures happen.13 min
- Reliability & Failure ModesWorking out what will break before it does, and designing so that when it does, it breaks safely.13 min
- Feedback & ControlOpen loop versus closed loop, why feedback can make a system worse, and what makes a control system stable.14 min
- Manufacture & ScaleWhy the design that works on your bench may be impossible to make a thousand of, and what changes when quantity does.13 min
The first module of every subject is free with an account. No card needed.