There I was, a 20-year-old electronics student, not understanding how the transistor worked.
It's a bit embarrassing to admit that it took me so long.
The story starts back in my first year at University.
I had played around with electronics since I was 14, and I was able to build circuits.
But I didn't understand how most of them worked.
Now, I was in one of my first lectures at the University and the professor was explaining how electrons moved through the transistor.
This continued for many lectures.
I had no idea what he was talking about.
In my head I knew that you needed a closed loop to get a circuit to work: A path between plus and minus on the battery.
But I could not see how that related to the three legs of the transistor.
And there was no way that I was going to admit that by asking "stupid" questions in front of the whole class.
So I kept silent while listening to the professor going on and on about "n-doped and p-doped semiconducting materials".
The transistor must be really hard to understand, I thought to myself. Maybe this is not for me?
Fast forward a few weeks/months.
I don't remember how long it took, but one day I was looking at some examples, and it all clicked.
I finally understood how it worked!
It was a moment of mixed feelings.
Because when I finally got it, I realized it was very simple.
One part of me said:
"Great! Now I get it."
But the other part of me said:
"This was so simple! Why didn't someone just tell me this from the start!?"
I've never really had any desire to be a teacher.
But the feeling of not understanding something as important as the transistor for such a long time, then later learning that it's actually really easy - that frustrated me.
And it started giving me this urge to inform people about this.
To let the world know that it's not that hard.
Fast forward a few years and I started writing books, articles, and videos.
...with the intention of informing people about the things in electronics that I realized was actually pretty easy.
Because I wanted more people to build cool things with electronics.
Back in 2016 I created Ohmify - an online academy for learning electronics.
It consists of more than 500 lessons, plus a friendly and helpful community of electronics enthusiasts. Our members learn how to make electronic gadgets from scratch.
And I'm constantly working on improving it.
I've actually received funding from the Norwegian government to further develop the methods I teach at Ohmify.
Click here for more info about joining
[Download free eBook]:
But I don't want to leave you hanging...
My above frustrations made me write a mini eBook.
Download it for free - and learn the simple way how basic components work:
https://www.build-electronic-circuits.com/dbe-components/
Keep On Soldering!
Oyvind @ build-electronic-circuits.com
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