Hands-On Electronics for Electricians

Stop guessing at the bench. Start measuring with confidence.

You can wire a panel, land a motor, and troubleshoot a control circuit. Electronics is the part that still feels like guesswork. Hands-On Electronics for Electricians fixes that at the bench. This lab course teaches you what your meter and scope are really loading, then has you measure Thevenin equivalents, time constants, resonance, and power factor for yourself. You build rectifiers and regulated supplies, size a heat sink, drive a contactor with a MOSFET and suppress the flyback, condition a four-to-twenty milliamp loop with an op-amp, and optoisolate a controller input. Sensor chapters cover thermocouples, resistance temperature detectors, current transformers, and encoders. Drive chapters cover pulse width modulation, drive front ends, and harmonics. Each lab asks you to predict before you measure, so you build intuition instead of just following steps.

Written for electricians, maintenance technicians, and apprentices who are adding electronics to their trade, this course bridges the gap between wiring a panel and understanding the electronics inside it. You will work with real components, real instruments, and real circuits. The emphasis is on practical measurement, safe practice, and troubleshooting. By the end, you will be able to look at a schematic, predict what should happen, measure what actually happens, and explain the difference.

What you will learn:

• Set up a safe, effective electronics bench with the right instruments and practices
• Measure DC and AC circuit behavior, including loading effects of meters and scopes
• Analyze reactive and resonant circuits, time constants, and power factor
• Build and test diode rectifiers and regulated power supplies
• Use transistors as switches, including MOSFET drive and flyback suppression
• Apply operational amplifiers for signal conditioning and 4–20 mA loops
• Interface digital logic, controllers, and optoisolation safely
• Work with sensors such as thermocouples, RTDs, current transformers, and encoders
• Troubleshoot power semiconductors, motor drives, noise, and harmonics

This book is for electricians, maintenance technicians, and apprentices who want to move beyond wiring and into electronics with confidence. If you are ready to predict, measure, and understand the circuits behind the equipment you already service, this lab course is for you.