DEV Community: Sadie Rose

An Afternoon Around Cornell Engineering

Sadie Rose — Fri, 02 Oct 2026 10:55:48 +0000

Today was one of those days where I didn't really have a big plan.

I grabbed coffee, threw my backpack on, and ended up spending a good part of the afternoon around the engineering buildings.

There seemed to be something happening everywhere.

People walking between classes, little groups talking in the atrium, tables set up, posters everywhere, people stopping for conversations and then disappearing again five minutes later.

It felt busy without feeling chaotic.

I Like Campus More When I’m Not Rushing Somewhere

I think I usually experience campus as a route.

Leave one place.

Walk quickly.

Get somewhere else.

Repeat.

Today I wasn't really doing that, so I actually noticed things.

People sitting outside with laptops.

Someone eating lunch on the grass.

Friends running into each other and somehow turning a thirty-second hello into a twenty-minute conversation.

The random person walking at a suspiciously fast speed because they are definitely late.

Normal campus stuff.

But when you're not the one rushing, it's actually kind of nice to watch.

I Wandered Into the Atrium for a While

There were tables, displays and groups of people talking inside, so obviously I had to walk around and see what was going on.

I didn't have some serious networking mission.

Mostly I looked at posters, listened to conversations here and there, and talked to a few people.

I always find events like this slightly funny because everyone seems to have a different strategy.

Some people walk straight up to a table and immediately know exactly what to ask.

Some stand nearby pretending to read a poster until they feel brave enough to say something.

I am definitely somewhere between those two.

There were conversations about classes, projects, research, future plans and the usual question that somehow follows every student around:

So what do you want to do after college?

I still think that is a wildly ambitious question to ask someone holding an iced coffee.

The Best Part Was Probably Just Talking to People

Nothing huge happened.

No dramatic life-changing conversation.

I just met a few people I wouldn't normally talk to and heard about things they were interested in.

And I actually liked that more.

University can sometimes feel strangely small when you keep seeing the same classrooms and the same people every week.

Then you walk into one busy space and suddenly remember how many completely different lives are happening around you.

Someone is thinking about grad school.

Someone is applying for internships.

Someone has been working on the same project for months.

Someone changed their mind about what they want to study.

Someone else clearly has their entire life planned out.

Or at least they look like they do.

I Took a Break With My Coffee Afterwards

Eventually I found somewhere to sit and went through a couple of things I had picked up.

My notebook was already messy, my coffee was almost finished, and I had written down a few names and random thoughts that probably won't make sense to me next week.

Pretty standard.

But I like days like this.

Not everything needs to become a big lesson or a productivity achievement.

Sometimes it's enough to go somewhere, talk to people, notice things and come home knowing slightly more about the world around you than you did that morning.

Walking Back Was Probably My Favorite Part

By the time I left, campus had started getting quieter.

The light was different, fewer people were moving around, and the whole place felt completely different from a few hours earlier.

I think that was my favorite moment of the day.

No event.

No conversation.

Nothing I needed to be doing.

Just walking back with my backpack, probably thinking about dinner.

A very ordinary day.

But a good one.

Wait… AI Can Help Design PCBs Now? 🤖💚

Sadie Rose — Wed, 30 Sep 2026 08:10:58 +0000

A few days ago, I barely knew what traces, pads, and vias were.

Then I started learning how schematics work.

Then I learned the basic path from:

schematic → footprints → placement → routing → manufacturing

And right when I was starting to feel like:

Okay… I can finally see how PCB design works.

I discovered something.

Apparently AI has entered the chat. 😭

And not just in the:

“Ask a chatbot what a resistor does”

kind of way.

There are now tools trying to help with actual parts of the electronics design process.

Schematics.

Component selection.

BOMs.

PCB layout.

Routing.

Design checking.

Even going from a description of what you want to build toward something much closer to a real board.

So obviously I went down the rabbit hole. 🤖💚

First Question: What Does “AI PCB Design” Actually Mean?

When I first heard AI PCB design, my brain immediately imagined this:

“Make me a temperature sensor PCB.”

AI thinks for three seconds.

Boom.

Perfect PCB.

Send it to manufacturing.

😂

Yeah.

It’s not quite that simple.

What I’m starting to understand is that AI can show up at different stages of the electronics workflow.

Some tools seem focused on the beginning:

idea → components → schematic

Others seem more focused on:

existing schematic → PCB layout

And some try to help across several stages.

That distinction matters a lot.

AI Can Help Turn an Idea Into a Schematic

This was probably the part that surprised me the most.

Some AI-assisted tools let you describe what you want to build in normal language.

Something like:

I want a small board with a microcontroller, USB-C power, an LED, and a temperature sensor.

Then the software can help suggest the kinds of components and circuit blocks that might be needed.

That feels very different from the PCB software I originally imagined.

Instead of:

“Here is an empty canvas. Good luck.”

it starts feeling more like:

“Tell me what you're trying to build, and let's work through the structure.”

Which sounds extremely useful for someone who is still learning.

And also slightly dangerous if I blindly trust everything it says. 😭

AI Can Help With Component Selection

This part also makes sense now.

Choosing components apparently involves much more than:

“I need a resistor.”

There are things like:

voltage ratings
power ratings
package size
availability
cost
compatibility
temperature limits

And probably a lot more that I haven't learned yet. 😂

So AI can potentially help narrow down options or suggest parts based on the requirements of the circuit.

That sounds useful.

But it also creates a new problem:

How do I know whether the suggested component is actually a good choice?

Which means I still need to understand the basics.

Then I Found AI-Assisted PCB Layout

This was the part that made everything I learned about placement and routing suddenly feel much more relevant.

After the schematic, the board still needs:

component placement
routing
layer decisions
vias
design constraints

And AI can apparently help with parts of that too.

That doesn’t just mean drawing the shortest line between two pads.

A PCB layout has to consider physical constraints.

Where components sit.

How traces travel.

How crowded the board is.

How many layers are being used.

Whether the design can actually be manufactured.

That is a much bigger problem than I originally thought.

AI Still Has Limits

This is probably the most important thing I learned.

AI PCB tools are not magic.

The board still has to obey electrical rules.

The parts still have to work together.

The traces still have physical properties.

The board still has to be manufacturable.

And eventually...

someone has to power the thing on. 😭

So even if AI helps generate part of the design, that doesn't mean the design is automatically correct.

It still has to be checked.

So What Can AI Actually Help With?

My beginner mental model now looks something like this:

idea

↓

🤖 AI can help understand requirements

↓

🤖 AI can help suggest components

↓

🤖 AI can help create parts of a schematic

↓

schematic

↓

🤖 AI can help with placement and routing

↓

PCB layout

↓

🤖 AI can help check parts of the design

↓

manufacturing files

↓

real PCB

That does not mean one tool does all of those things.

And it definitely doesn't mean every AI-generated board is ready to manufacture.

But now I understand why AI and PCB design fit together.

PCB design contains a lot of decisions, constraints, repetitive work, searching, and optimization.

Those are exactly the kinds of areas where automation can be useful.

But Now I Have a Bigger Question

This is the part I've been thinking about the most.

I'm learning PCB design because I actually want to understand what I'm doing.

So if AI can generate a schematic...

Should I use it before I know how to make one myself?

If AI can route my board...

Should I use it before I understand what makes a route good or bad?

If AI picks a component...

How do I know whether that component actually makes sense?

And I think I'm slowly arriving at an answer.

Maybe the goal shouldn't be to avoid AI.

Maybe the goal should be learning enough that I can question it.

If AI says:

“Use this component.”

I want to understand enough to ask:

Why this one?

If it generates a trace:

Why is it that width?

If it places a capacitor beside a chip:

Why does it need to be there?

If it says the design is ready:

What exactly did it check?

That feels much more useful than either extreme:

“AI should do everything for me.”

“Using AI means I'm not actually learning.”

I'm Still Going to Learn the Fundamentals

After discovering all of this, weirdly...

I want to understand traditional PCB design more, not less.

Because now when I learn about footprints, traces, vias, ground planes, routing, or design rules, I'm also learning what the AI is eventually going to be making decisions about.

A few days ago:

PCB = mysterious green rectangle

Then:

PCB = traces + pads + vias

Then:

schematic → layout → manufacturing

And now:

apparently AI wants to help with all of it. 🤖

This escalated quickly. 😂

Tomorrow I'm Actually Trying One

Reading about this is one thing.

Actually trying it is another.

So next I want to use one AI-assisted PCB tool and give it a ridiculously simple challenge.

Something like:

“Make me a tiny LED circuit.”

Then I want to compare what it produces against everything I've learned so far.

Can I understand the schematic?

Can I identify the components?

Do the footprints make sense?

Can I follow the traces?

Can I understand why it made its decisions?

And most importantly...

Can a beginner actually learn PCB design with AI without letting the AI do all the thinking?

Guess I'm about to find out. 😭💚

If you've used AI for electronics or PCB design already, I'm curious:

Did it actually save you time, or did you spend most of that time checking what it did?

From Schematic to PCB: How Does a Circuit Become a Board? 🧩

Sadie Rose — Tue, 29 Sep 2026 16:35:22 +0000

Earlier today, I finally started understanding how to read a simple circuit schematic.

And naturally, that created another question. 😭

If a schematic is basically a map showing how components are electrically connected...

how does that drawing actually become a PCB?

Because there’s a pretty big difference between this:

battery → resistor → LED → ground

and an actual little green board with copper traces, pads, holes, and components soldered onto it.

So I wanted to understand the steps in between.

Turns out, there’s a whole process.

And weirdly enough, it’s starting to connect everything I’ve learned so far.

Step 1: Start With the Schematic

The schematic comes first.

This is where we describe the electrical relationships between components.

So I might have:

a power source
a resistor
an LED
ground

And the schematic tells me what connects to what.

The important thing is that the schematic doesn’t really care where those components physically sit on the final board.

It’s more like:

“These things need to be electrically connected.”

Not:

“Put this resistor exactly 8 mm away from the LED.”

That physical part comes later.

Step 2: Components Need Footprints

This was a new word for me.

A footprint is basically the physical shape a component needs on the PCB.

For example, a resistor might need two pads.

A chip might need 8, 16, 32, or way more pads depending on the package.

The schematic symbol tells me:

what the component does in the circuit.

The footprint tells the PCB software:

what the real component looks like physically and where it gets soldered.

That distinction made a lot of things click.

So now I’m thinking of it like:

schematic symbol → electrical idea

footprint → physical component

Step 3: Place the Components

Once every component has a footprint, the next job is deciding where everything should actually go on the board.

This is called component placement.

And apparently placement matters a lot more than I expected.

At first I thought you could just throw the components wherever they fit and connect everything afterward. 😂

But where components are placed can affect things like:

how easy the traces are to route
how big the PCB needs to be
noise and signal quality
heat
whether connectors are actually accessible

Even on a simple board, it makes sense.

If an LED is supposed to be visible, maybe putting it underneath another component is not the greatest design decision. 😭

So PCB design is already starting to feel like a combination of electronics and puzzle solving.

Step 4: Connect Everything With Traces

And now something from my previous post comes back.

Traces.

Once the components are placed, the electrical connections from the schematic need to become actual copper paths on the PCB.

So a connection that looks like a simple line on a schematic might become a copper trace running across the board.

Basically:

schematic wire → PCB trace

This was a really satisfying connection for me.

Because yesterday I learned what traces were.

Earlier today I learned what schematic lines meant.

And now I understand how those two ideas are related.

The schematic says:

these components must connect.

The PCB layout decides:

here’s how that connection physically travels across the board.

Step 5: Sometimes the Trace Needs Another Layer

And this is where vias suddenly make even more sense.

Imagine two traces need to travel across the board, but there isn’t enough room for both of them on the same layer.

One trace might use a via to move to another copper layer.

Then it can continue underneath and possibly come back up somewhere else.

So the idea becomes:

trace → via → another PCB layer → trace

I already knew vias connected layers.

But understanding why a PCB designer might need them makes them feel much less mysterious.

They’re basically little escape tunnels for electrical connections. 😂

Then the PCB Starts Looking Like a Real Board

At this point, the project has gone from:

circuit idea

to:

schematic

to:

footprints

to:

component placement

to:

copper traces and vias

And now we actually have something that looks like a PCB layout.

That’s kind of wild.

A circuit that started as a bunch of abstract symbols slowly turns into something that could eventually be manufactured and held in your hand.

But You Can't Just Send It to a Factory Yet

Apparently there are still checks to do.

PCB design software can run something called a Design Rule Check, or DRC.

Basically, it checks whether the board breaks certain manufacturing or electrical rules.

Things like:

traces being too close together
pads overlapping
traces being too thin
connections accidentally being left unfinished

Which makes sense.

I'd rather have the software tell me:

“Hey, this trace is wrong.”

before I order 20 copies of the wrong PCB. 😭

Then Come the Manufacturing Files

Once the design is ready, PCB manufacturers need files that describe how to actually make the board.

One format I keep seeing mentioned is Gerber files.

From what I understand so far, these files contain information for the different parts of the PCB manufacturing process.

Copper layers.

Solder mask.

Silkscreen.

Drill locations.

And other board details.

So the overall journey looks something like this:

circuit idea

↓

schematic

↓

assign footprints

↓

place components

↓

route traces

↓

add vias if needed

↓

run design checks

↓

generate manufacturing files

↓

actual PCB 🎉

Seeing the whole process like that makes PCB design feel much less mysterious.

Everything Is Starting to Connect

A few days ago, I was looking at PCBs and basically seeing:

green rectangle + mysterious metal stuff

Then I learned about:

traces, pads, and vias.

Then schematics started making a little more sense.

And now I’m starting to understand how the schematic eventually becomes the physical PCB.

I'm definitely still nowhere near designing anything complicated.

But I finally have a mental map of the process.

And that feels like a pretty big step. 💚

But while I was learning all of this, I ran into something that immediately distracted me.

Apparently...

AI tools are starting to help with PCB design. 🤖

Schematic generation.

Component selection.

Layout assistance.

Routing.

Design reviews.

Maybe even generating parts of a board from plain English.

So tomorrow I’m going down that rabbit hole.

Because now I really want to know:

How much of PCB design can AI actually do?

And maybe more importantly...

If I'm still learning the fundamentals, should I even let AI help me yet? 😭

I guess we're finding out.

If you design PCBs, which part of the process took you the longest to understand?

Learning Schematics: Symbols, Wires & Ground Finally Make Sense

Sadie Rose — Tue, 29 Sep 2026 10:30:47 +0000

Yesterday I said I wanted to learn how to read a circuit schematic without staring at it like it was ancient writing.

So… today I tried. 😭

And at first?

It still looked like someone had invented a secret alphabet specifically for electronics.

Lines everywhere.

Zigzags.

Little symbols.

Ground symbols appearing out of nowhere.

But after breaking it down into tiny pieces, I realized something:

A schematic is basically just a map of electrical connections.

And once I stopped trying to understand the entire diagram at once, it started making a lot more sense.

Schematics Don't Show What Things Actually Look Like

This was probably the first thing I needed to understand.

A schematic isn't trying to show me what the physical circuit looks like.

A resistor doesn't look like a little zigzag in real life.

An LED doesn't look like a triangle or a weird symbol with arrows.

A battery definitely doesn't look like two differently sized lines. 😭

Instead, schematics use symbols to represent components.

So rather than drawing an actual resistor, battery, switch, LED, or capacitor every time, we use simple standardized symbols.

Basically:

symbol = component

Once I started thinking about it that way, the diagram felt less intimidating.

It's kind of like learning a few new letters.

Lines = Electrical Connections

This part connected really nicely with what I learned about PCBs.

On a PCB, we have traces connecting components.

On a breadboard, we might use jumper wires.

And on a schematic?

We use lines.

Those lines show which parts of the circuit are electrically connected.

So if I see a resistor symbol with a line going to an LED symbol, that line is basically saying:

these two things are connected electrically.

It doesn't necessarily tell me what the actual wire will look like or where it physically goes.

It's just showing the connection.

That distinction helped a lot.

The Little Dots Actually Matter

Then I noticed something else.

Sometimes lines meet and there's a little dot where they connect.

That dot usually means:

these wires are electrically connected here.

This becomes important when several lines are crossing each other.

Two lines can sometimes cross on a schematic without actually being connected.

So the little junction dot helps make it clear when there really is a connection.

Which means even a tiny dot on a schematic can completely change how the circuit works.

No pressure. 😂

And Then There Was Ground

Ground confused me for a while because I kept imagining literal dirt.

Like…

Why does my LED circuit need to connect to the Earth? 😭

But for the simple circuits I'm learning right now, I'm starting to understand ground as a common reference point in the circuit.

It's often treated as the 0V reference that other voltages are measured relative to.

So when I see the ground symbol, I can think:

this is our shared electrical reference point.

There's definitely more to ground than that, especially in more complicated circuits.

But for now, this explanation is enough for my beginner brain.

I Tried Reading a Tiny Circuit

So imagine a really simple circuit with:

a battery
a resistor
an LED
ground

Instead of staring at the whole schematic, I can follow the connections one step at a time.

Something like:

power → resistor → LED → ground

The battery provides the voltage.

The resistor limits the current.

The LED lights up when current flows through it.

And the lines show how everything is connected.

That's obviously a very simple example.

But the exciting part is that I can actually look at something like that now and understand what the diagram is trying to tell me.

Schematics Are Starting to Look Less Like Ancient Writing

I'm definitely nowhere near being able to read complicated circuit diagrams yet.

If you showed me a massive schematic full of chips, transistors, capacitors, and mysterious labels, I'd probably still panic a little. 😂

But now I know I don't have to understand the entire thing at once.

I can start with:

What components are here?

Then:

What is connected to what?

Then:

Where does power come from?

And:

Where is ground?

That already makes the diagram feel much more manageable.

Yesterday I was learning how electrical connections physically move around a PCB through traces, pads, and vias.

Today I'm starting to understand how those same kinds of connections can be represented on paper using a schematic.

And suddenly I'm realizing that all these things are connected.

Literally. 😭

Tiny step, but I'll take it. 💚

Tomorrow I think I want to tackle something I've heard about a million times but still don't feel like I properly understand:

voltage vs current.

Because apparently they're different things, and I should probably stop mentally treating them like the same thing. 😂

If you're into electronics, what was the first schematic symbol or concept that finally made circuit diagrams start to make sense for you?

Learning PCBs: Traces, Pads & Vias Finally Make Sense 💚

Sadie Rose — Mon, 28 Sep 2026 08:06:29 +0000

Yesterday I learned the basic idea of what a PCB actually is.

Today I went one tiny step deeper.

I kept seeing all these little lines, circles, holes, and shiny metal areas on boards, and I realized I didn’t actually know what any of them were called. 😭

Turns out, three of the most important things are traces, pads, and vias.

And once I understood those, PCBs started looking a lot less random.

Traces = Tiny Wires on the Board

The easiest way I understand traces is:

they’re basically the wires of the PCB.

Instead of using jumper wires like I would on a breadboard, a PCB uses thin copper paths to connect components together.

Those paths are called traces.

So when I look at a board now, I’m starting to see those little lines as actual electrical connections instead of just decoration.

That was kind of a cool moment.

Pads = Where Components Connect

Then there are pads.

Pads are the exposed metal areas where component pins or leads get soldered onto the board.

So if I place something like a resistor, LED, or chip onto a PCB, the component connects to these pads.

The traces then connect those pads to other parts of the circuit.

So basically:

component → pad → trace → another pad → another component

Very simplified, but that mental picture helped me a lot.

Vias Were the Most Interesting Part

This one surprised me.

A via is a tiny hole that lets an electrical connection move between different copper layers of a PCB.

So imagine a trace is running on the top layer, but it needs to continue on another layer.

A via can connect those layers together.

That means some of the electrical paths inside a PCB are literally hidden from view.

And suddenly those tiny holes I used to ignore actually look important. 😂

I’m Starting to “See” the Circuit

I’m definitely still a beginner.

But now when I look at a PCB, instead of seeing:

green board + random metal things

I’m starting to think:

Okay, that’s probably a trace.

That looks like a pad.

Wait… is that a via?

And honestly, that feels like progress.

Yesterday I understood what a PCB is.

Today I’m starting to understand how the connections physically move around the board.

Tiny step, but I’ll take it. 💚

Tomorrow I want to start learning how to read a simple circuit schematic without staring at it like it’s ancient writing. 😭

If you know PCBs, what was the first thing that made traces, pads, and vias finally click for you?

I Finally Started Understanding PCBs… and They’re Actually So Cool 💚

Sadie Rose — Sun, 27 Sep 2026 08:25:31 +0000

I’ve been learning electronics for a little while now, and PCBs were one of those things that looked way more complicated than they actually are.

You know those little green boards covered in tiny components and silver dots?

Yeah. Those. 😭

For the longest time, I looked at one and basically thought:

Okay… magic green computer thing.

But I finally started learning what’s actually happening on a PCB, and it’s starting to make sense.

PCB Basically Means “Organized Circuit”

PCB stands for Printed Circuit Board.

The easiest way I currently understand it is:

A breadboard circuit is like the rough draft, and a PCB is the neat final version.

Instead of having jumper wires going everywhere, a PCB has copper traces built into the board.

Those little lines basically connect components together.

So instead of:

wire → resistor → wire → LED

the connections can literally be part of the board itself.

Honestly, once I understood that, PCBs became way less mysterious.

The Little Parts I’m Learning

A PCB has a few things I keep seeing over and over.

Traces are the copper paths carrying signals and power.

Pads are the little exposed metal areas where component pins get soldered.

Vias are tiny holes that can connect copper between different layers of a PCB.

Then there’s the usually green solder mask, which covers and protects the copper.

And the little white labels and symbols?

That’s called the silkscreen.

I always assumed the green color was somehow electrically important.

Apparently… nope. 😂

The solder mask can actually be lots of different colors.

Then I Discovered PCBs Can Have Layers

This part was really interesting.

A simple PCB might have copper on one or both sides, while more complicated boards can have several copper layers hidden inside.

So when I look at something like a laptop motherboard now, I’m realizing there are connections happening that I literally can’t see.

That somehow makes them even cooler.

My New Goal: Design One

Right now, I’m nowhere near designing some crazy motherboard.

I just want to make something tiny.

Maybe:

Battery → resistor → LED → switch

Build it on a breadboard first.

Make sure it works.

Then try turning that circuit into my first PCB.

And hopefully when the board arrives, the LED actually turns on. 😅

One Thing I’m Starting to Love About Electronics

Every time I understand one tiny thing, something that looked intimidating suddenly becomes… understandable.

A PCB isn't just a mysterious green rectangle anymore.

Now I can actually look at one and start recognizing:

Oh, that’s a trace.

That’s probably a via.

That’s where the component was soldered.

And I genuinely love that feeling. 💚

Next mission: learning how to actually design my first PCB without creating a very expensive green coaster.

If you’ve designed PCBs before, what’s one beginner mistake I should avoid?

I’m Learning Electronics With AI — Here’s What’s Actually Helping Me ⚡🤖

Sadie Rose — Sun, 27 Sep 2026 07:46:30 +0000

I’m still very new to electronics.

A few weeks ago, things like resistors, capacitors, transistors, and breadboard connections all felt like a different language.

One thing that has been making the learning process easier for me is AI.

Not to do the work for me — but to help me understand why something works.

I Ask Really Basic Questions

Sometimes textbooks explain something correctly, but not in a way that clicks for me.

So I’ll ask an AI tool:

“Explain a capacitor to me like I just started electronics.”

Then:

“Show me a simple circuit where I would actually use one.”

Being able to keep asking questions without feeling embarrassed is surprisingly useful.

AI Helps Me Debug My Thinking

When a breadboard circuit doesn’t work, my first instinct used to be randomly moving wires around. 😅

Now I try describing the circuit first:

5V → 220Ω resistor → LED → GND

Then I ask what I should check.

Maybe the LED is backwards. Maybe I used the wrong breadboard row. Maybe ground isn’t connected.

AI doesn’t fix the circuit for me, but it gives me somewhere to start.

My Favorite Use: “Quiz Me”

After learning something, I’ll ask:

“Give me 5 beginner questions about Ohm’s Law. Don’t show me the answers yet.”

I solve them myself and ask for an explanation when I get one wrong.

It makes studying feel much more interactive.

I’m Also Learning Not to Trust AI Blindly

AI can sound confident even when it’s wrong.

That matters with electronics because an incorrect voltage, pinout, or current rating can damage a component.

So my rule is becoming:

AI for explanations. Datasheets and measurements for verification.

AI Feels Like a Study Partner

I don’t think AI replaces actually building circuits.

Honestly, finally seeing an LED light after staring at a breadboard for 20 minutes teaches you something no explanation can. 😂

But having something that can explain concepts, quiz me, and help me think through mistakes is making electronics much less intimidating.

I’m still at the beginning, but I’m enjoying it.

If you’re learning electronics too, what are you using AI for?

I Just Started Learning Electronics — Here Are the Components I’m Finally Beginning to Understand ⚡

Sadie Rose — Fri, 25 Sep 2026 08:05:21 +0000

Hi DEV Community! 👋

I’m Sadie Rose, a first-year electronics student from New York, and I recently started seriously learning about electronics.

When I first looked at a circuit board, I honestly saw a confusing collection of tiny colorful parts, strange symbols, numbers, wires, and components with names I had barely heard before.

Resistors. Capacitors. Diodes. Transistors.

I knew they were important.

I just didn’t know what they actually did.

So I decided to start from the basics.

In this post, I want to share some of the first electronic components I’m learning about, explained from the perspective of someone who is still a beginner.

If you’re also starting electronics, hopefully this makes the subject feel a little less intimidating.

1. Resistors — Controlling Current

One of the first components I learned about was the resistor.

A resistor limits the amount of electrical current flowing through a circuit.

You can think of it a little like a narrow section of pipe controlling how much water can flow through.

Its resistance is measured in ohms (Ω).

One equation that keeps appearing in electronics is Ohm’s Law:

V = I × R

Where:

V = Voltage
I = Current
R = Resistance

I’m realizing that understanding this simple equation is going to be incredibly important as I learn more advanced electronics.

One beginner example is connecting an LED to a power source.

You normally don't want to connect an LED directly to a voltage source because too much current can damage it.

Adding a resistor helps limit that current.

2. Capacitors — Tiny Energy Storage Devices

Next came capacitors.

At first, I thought capacitors were basically tiny batteries.

That isn't exactly correct, but the comparison helped me understand the general idea.

A capacitor can temporarily store electrical energy in an electric field and release it later.

Capacitance is measured in farads (F).

You'll commonly see much smaller values such as:

µF  = microfarads
nF  = nanofarads
pF  = picofarads

Capacitors can be used for things like:

Filtering electrical noise
Smoothing voltage
Timing circuits
Energy storage
Signal coupling

I'm still learning when and why different capacitor values are chosen, but it’s already interesting to see how often capacitors appear in circuits.

3. Diodes — Electricity's One-Way Door

A diode allows current to flow mainly in one direction.

The analogy that helped me was thinking of it as a one-way door for electrical current.

One of the most familiar types of diode is the LED — Light Emitting Diode.

When current passes through an LED in the correct direction, it produces light.

That also explains something I didn't understand when I first experimented with LEDs:

polarity matters.

If the LED is connected backwards, it normally won't light.

Learning small things like this has made breadboard experiments much easier to understand.

4. Transistors — Tiny Electronic Switches

Transistors are where electronics started becoming especially interesting to me.

A transistor can be used as an electronic switch or amplifier.

Instead of physically pressing a switch, a small electrical signal can control another electrical signal.

That simple idea is incredibly powerful.

Computers contain enormous numbers of transistors working together to perform logical operations and calculations.

As a beginner, I'm currently focusing on understanding basic transistor switching before going much deeper.

I'm learning about terms like:

Base
Collector
Emitter

for bipolar junction transistors, and:

Gate
Drain
Source

for MOSFETs.

There is definitely a lot more for me to learn here.

5. LEDs — The Most Satisfying Beginner Component 😄

LEDs are probably one of my favorite components so far.

Why?

Because they give you immediate feedback.

Build the circuit correctly?

💡 Light!

Something wrong?

No light.

For someone learning electronics, that immediate visual result makes experimentation much more enjoyable.

A basic LED circuit might contain:

Power Source
     ↓
Resistor
     ↓
LED
     ↓
Ground

Simple circuits like this have helped me connect the theory I'm learning with something physical.

6. Breadboards — Building Without Soldering

Another thing I'm learning to use is a breadboard.

A breadboard lets you build temporary circuits without soldering components together.

At first, all those holes looked completely random.

Then I learned that many of them are internally connected.

Understanding the rows, columns, and power rails suddenly made breadboards much less mysterious.

Now I can experiment with components, move wires around, make mistakes, and rebuild circuits without permanently connecting anything.

For beginners, that feels incredibly useful.

7. Multimeters — Learning to Measure Instead of Guess

One lesson I'm starting to appreciate is:

Don't just guess what a circuit is doing. Measure it.

That's where the multimeter comes in.

A digital multimeter can help measure things like:

Voltage
Current
Resistance
Continuity

Instead of wondering whether voltage is reaching part of my circuit, I can actually test it.

I'm still getting comfortable using a multimeter correctly, but I already understand why it's one of the most important tools on an electronics workbench.

What Electronics Is Teaching Me

The biggest surprise so far is that electronics isn't just about memorizing component names.

It's about understanding relationships.

Voltage affects current.

Resistance affects current.

Components interact with each other.

A tiny change in one part of a circuit can affect everything else.

And sometimes a circuit that looks perfect doesn't work because of one tiny mistake.

Wrong resistor.

LED backwards.

Wire in the wrong breadboard row.

No common ground.

I'm discovering that debugging is probably going to be just as important as building.

My Beginner Electronics Learning List

Right now, these are some of the topics I want to understand better:

Ohm's Law
Kirchhoff's Laws
Series and parallel circuits
Resistors and resistor color codes
Capacitors
Diodes
LEDs
BJTs
MOSFETs
Operational amplifiers
Breadboards
Multimeters
Oscilloscopes
Soldering
Arduino and microcontrollers
Reading schematics
Designing simple PCBs

That's a pretty long list. 😅

But I'm learning one piece at a time.

Why I'm Writing About My Journey

One reason I'm posting here is that writing about something forces me to understand it better.

It's easy to read a chapter and think:

“Yeah, I understand that.”

It's much harder to explain the same idea clearly in your own words.

So as I continue learning electronics, I'm planning to share more of the concepts, experiments, mistakes, and small projects I encounter.

I'm definitely not an expert.

I'm a student learning in public.

And maybe another beginner searching for the same answers will find something useful here.

What Should I Learn Next?

If you're experienced with electronics, I'd love your advice.

What is one electronics concept you wish you had understood earlier when you were a beginner?

And if you're learning too, tell me what you're currently building or studying.

Maybe we can figure this stuff out together. ⚡

Thanks for reading!

— Sadie Rose