ECE3400 L30: BJT Widlar Current Mirrors & Sources (Analog Electronics)

[@CraigHollabaugh]

"Legendary" is an under-statement. Widlar's colorful personality is an interesting read, "every idiot can count to one". Thanks Professor Lanterman, for keeping Widlar's creations alive.

[@Lantertronics]

Thank you for your kind words!

[@MikeEstlick]

Whoa! I have the Bob Widlar photo with the cigarette and middle finger and "digital? every idiot can count to one" quote hanging up in my cube at work, right next to a photo of Don Buchla posing with a 400. They were both born in 1937. It's a little shrine, to inspire me to stay creative designing digital logic.

[@jandobbelsteen8953]

Hi Aaron, I watched the short video clip you mention where Rick Beato talks about education and KZbin. And of course he is right about the fact that we all had to switch instantly from being IRL to getting glued to your chair while trying, without any preparation, to keep students going. It's like comparing apples to oranges, they are completely different. And the learning curve wasn't only in education. Just take a look at Seth Meyers, he was horrible in the early days, and he got better as time progressed. But getting back at education vs KZbin. Education is about content, while most of KZbin is about (at best) infotainment. It's about learning about something vs hearing about it. In Dutch we have a saying: "de klok horen luiden, maar niet weten waar de klepel hangt", which translates to something like "Have only superficial knowledge of". I am impressed with your videos, their content, and their quality.

[@dogbucket]

@5:19: Actually, you can solve for I_o in closed form with the Lambert W function: I_o = (V_T * W[(I_ref * R_e)/V_T]) / R_e. Lambert's W solves a lot of these exponential equations in closed form and is implemented in Mathematica as ProductLog[ ], and in MatLab, too; forget the function name. Nice video, though, clear explanations and good exposition.

[@deviantmultimedia9497]

Electronics Engineering: _Leading the world in Bob's-per-industry since 1939._

[@Lantertronics]

HAH!

[@erikr007]

5:14 - Mathematicians have invented the Lambert W function to solve these kinds of equations.

[@sadeghmollaii9873]

Thank you very much

[@Lantertronics]

You are very welcome! :)

[@bob_mosavo]

Thanks, Prof. Aaron👍 Constructive criticism: It would have been helpful/nice to put the link in the information below your video rather than say, “Go search, buddy!” Nevertheless, I did find that portion of the video and watched 😉 Back in the days of chalk boards and analog oscilloscopes, studying electrical engineering and math, I found it helpful to find a good book on the subject, a book that I could learn from. Not all college textbooks are the same. Once I found a book that worked for me, I could study and restudy until I learned the material. I could not do that in a lecture. These days, cameras are cheap, and I would have loved to have had a camera in those days, so I could go back and rewatch a portion of the lecture that I needed to in order to relearn what I needed to learn. Trying to learn something from a video, that is exactly what I do, whether it’s a lecture on KZbin or downloaded from MIT. I love the ability to go back and watch until it makes sense or to pause and seek help to learn the material before moving on to later material in a subject. Anyway, what works best for me is a video lecture, a good book, and some way to experiment with the material. Being able to experiment with the material is key for me and where I make mistakes to learn from, which is why I HATE graded homework. I do like corrected homework, but homework should never count towards a final grade in a course. When I was studying electrical engineering, the electrical engineering lab closed at 8:00 PM, which is way too early for harried electrical engineering students. No computer lab closed that early, if ever. That’s probably why I never practiced as an electrical engineer and took programming jobs instead. Imagine if professors could spend time answering students’ questions rather than lecturing. With the tools available today, students could watch videos of the lectures, work problems, and get help from their professors during the time that would be otherwise spent on in-person lectures. Anyway, I hope that helps, and thanks again, Prof. Aaron. I have been getting back into HAM radio and have enjoyed your videos posted on KZbin!!

[@CraigHollabaugh]

Just a suggestion for your continuing education, have you tried working with chatGPT to discuss circuit design? I just asked it some specific Widlar current mirror questions and its quite knowledgeable. Even the free tier, works fine.

[@jandobbelsteen8953]

@@CraigHollabaugh Nope, ChatGPT is just a LLM, and it only generates nice texts. No insight there. And trust me, I've checked it thoroughly with some simple embedded coding challenges: syntax and semantics are perfect (of course, because it is a language model), but the code doesn't do what you want it to do.

[@CraigHollabaugh]

@jandobbelsteen8953 I just asked it widlar current source questions for my original reply, no code involved.

[@jandobbelsteen8953]

@@CraigHollabaugh okay, sorry for my too hasty reply 😅

[@CraigHollabaugh]

@jandobbelsteen8953 no problem, I've done it too.

[@CraigHollabaugh]

Watched the Beato clip, it's true what he says. Just having a prof publish a chalkboard lecture isn't going to work well. What will distinguish (provide value) if the lecture is live streamed with full two-way video comm for paying students. Then later publishing the live stream for post consumption. The pre-recorded video/comment/reply isn't worth any tuition amount in this tiktok world.

[@JxH]

0:30 Bob Pease on the left. Jim Williams on the right. Bob really liked his VW Beetle, as he wrote in his Pease Porridge column. Bob very sadly died in a minor car accident leaving a memorial service for Jim (had stroke). A very bad week... Refs: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Pease en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Williams_(analog_designer)

[@Lantertronics]

That's horrible, losing two such brilliant minds like that...

[@third_ear]

I demand the thumbnail be changed back to the rude gesture

[@Lantertronics]

Hah! I'm actually running an experiment. After some time I'm going to switch it back to the rude gesture and see if the view rate goes up. :)