Mechatronics Tutorial Information

The following links will take you to various tutorials and references on key subjects in mechatronics. If you come across some other high quality tutorials or references that are not listed here, please e-mail me the URL.

Electronics

(general)

  •  A fantastic site covering electricity and electronics
  •  Extensive e-book with great explanations
  •  Well illustrated, also has a guide to soldering
  •  A nifty tutorial on basic electronics; includes self-tests
  •  A nice overview of basic electronics
  •  Comprehensive coverage of electricity and magnetism concepts
  •  A clear but brief coverage of many concepts in electronics
  •  Glen Willamson's eclectic but very interesting site
  •  MIT OpenCourseWare in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
  • From AVRfreaks community forum
  •  Basic fundamentals of electricity and electronics by Tony Kuphaldt

Digital Electronics

(See the general electronics links also)

  •  A nicely done tutorial on digital electronics
  • Drag-and-drop logic gates and see how combinational logic circuits function
  •  Nice overview of how analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog converters work

Components

(See the general electronics links also)

  •  Resistor color code from Leon Audio
  •  Standard EIA decade resistor value table
  •  How to read a capacitor code
  •  Good overview of diodes
  •  Good overview of LEDs
  •  Good overview of inductors
  •  Good overview of transistors
  •  The history of how the transistor came to be, plus TONS more information!
  •  Good overview of MOSFETs
  •  More in-depth overview of how Power MOSFETs are constructed and function
  •  Nice overview of operation amplifiers from National Semiconductor
  •  Analog Device's extensive coverage of op-amps and their applications
  •  Robert Widlar's classic app note on op-amps
  • Walt Jung's comprehensive guide to op-amps
  •  Extensive collection of applications of op-amps
  •  Texas Instrument's extensive design reference on op-amps
  •  Fantastic tutorial on the highly versatile and useful 555 timer
  •  Extensive coverage of batteries

Motors

  •  An introduction using animations and schematics to explain the physical principles of motors, generators and transformers
  •  Lots of good information about dc and stepper motors from MicroMo Electronics
  • From Portescap
  •  Doug Jones' excellent tutorial on stepper motors
  •  
  •  Has a good overview of dc motors and lots of interesting links at the end
  •  Links to app notes on motors from Microchip

Programming

  •  A good brief overview of C
  •  A comprehensive tutorial for C from fresh2refresh.com
  •  Helpful list of common errors
  • Programming with lcc-win32 A good tutorial on C. See also for a C compiler that is free for non-commercial use
  •  Univ. of Strathclyde's course on C programming
  •  An entire site for learning C and C++ programming
  •  Another good list of C programming resources
  •  Nice collection of links contributed by AVRfreaks
  •  Covers ANSI C, history, culture, and other sources about C
  • Jonathan Valvano's extensive work on embedded systems
  • Michael Pont's excellent books
  • YouTube video 
  • YouTube video by Saravanan AL 
  • MathWorks excellent tutorials on all things MATLAB
  •  Comprehensive Java tutorial
  •  Comprehensive SQL tutorial. See also .

Microcontrollers, et. al.

  •  Gives a nice overview of what a microcontroller is
  •  Focuses on PIC microcontrollers, but the Introduction gives a good overview of what a microcontroller is
  •  A little dated, but has good information
  •  The place for PLC's!

Prototyping

  •  EXCELLENT, 7 minute video showing how to solder!
  •  Great overview of how to solder. Don't miss the photo galleries that accompany this site.
  • blog post with ots of links to other helpful resources related to soldering (thanks to Sophie for this link!)
  •  Good resource on how to solder the more modern surface mount components
  •  Nice guide for soldering surface mount components
  •  A nice collection of links related to soldering for many different situations
  •  Good overview of a helpful prototyping skill
  • Read this before you do any prototyping! Very helpful tips.
  •  Good introduction to schematics, assembly methods, and soldering
  • These techniques can result in very high performance prototypes (see this video for a way to make the 'islands' using a :
  • techniques for working with high frequency op-amps
  •  Freeware (limited) version of a good circuit design and simulation software
  •  Jack Ganssle's archive of articles on embedded systems development

Interfacing

  •  Lots of information on interfacing
  •  Lots of practical information on interfacing computers to hardware
  •  Nice coverage of the standard parallel port and how to interface it
  •  Tomi Engdahl's extensive guide to the parallel port. Very nicely done.
  •  Good coverage on interfacing PS/2 mouse or keyboard
  •  Extensive treatment of data sent by various keyboards and PS/2 mouse

Sensors

  •  Good overview of how an infrared motion detector works.
  •  Introductory guide to antennas and how they work
  • More Q&A A few more questions and answers following the previous article
  •  Simple instructions to create a portable, flexible antenna for 2m and 70cm operation
  •  Huge collection of links to antennas for all bands and antenna theory

Others

  •  Comparison of methods and recommendations for suppressing inductive transients in dc relays
  •  How suppression methods affect relay contact life
  •  A nice example of a complete mechatronics project
  • and for programming the PIC microcontroller
  •  A wealth of resources and links on electronics
  •  How to display custom bit-mapped graphics on a character LCD. Has a link to HD44780 information.
  •  Step-by-step instructions on how to make lots of interesting things
  •  Well organized overview of how to use Linux
  •  Nice online tutorials on Tex
  •  The Not So Short Introduction to LaTEX2e