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Electronics becomes much easier when components stop being mysterious little plastic objects and start doing something useful.
A flashing LED is a start. A controllable motor is better. A servo that responds to electrical signals from your arm? Now the subject becomes genuinely interesting.
The Udemy course Electricity & Electronics – Robotics, Learn by Building teaches basic electricity and analogue electronics through practical circuit projects. I believe it is a very good course for complete beginners who would rather build, test and troubleshoot circuits than spend hours watching equations appear on slides.
[Electricity & electronics – Robotics, learn by building]
What Does the Course Cover?
Created by Ian Juby, the course currently contains 60 lectures and approximately 10 hours and 47 minutes of video. Udemy lists it as a Bestseller with a 4.6 rating from more than 6,000 reviews and over 42,000 enrolled students. It was last updated in January 2023.
The curriculum covers:
- AC and DC electricity
- Ohm’s law and electrical power
- Multimeter use
- Resistors and capacitors
- Diodes and LEDs
- Breadboard circuits
- 555 timer projects
- Soldering
- Relays and switches
- Transistors and MOSFETs
- Pulse-width modulation
- DC motors and servo motors
- Operational amplifiers
- Sensors and optoelectronics
- Transformers and power supplies
That is a surprisingly wide range for an introductory electronics course.
Learning by Building Real Circuits
The main strength is right there in the title: you learn by building.
Students begin with basic breadboard circuits before moving into projects such as LED flashers, tone generators, a police-style siren, motor-speed controllers and servo-control circuits. The lessons also include troubleshooting when a circuit does not behave as expected—which, let us be honest, is when most of the real learning happens.
The course even demonstrates how simple electronic components can be made from scratch. You will not manufacture professional capacitors in your garage afterwards, but seeing how a component is physically constructed can make its operating principle much easier to understand.
Motors, MOSFETs and PWM
Several lessons move directly into robotics-related electronics.
Students learn how MOSFETs can switch larger loads, how an H-bridge changes a DC motor’s direction and how pulse-width modulation controls motor speed. The course also explains hobby servo operation and demonstrates circuits for controlling servo position.
These topics create a useful bridge between basic electronics and later microcontroller or PLC projects.
The Bionic Servo Project
The most unusual project uses homemade sensors and amplifier circuits to detect tiny electrical signals produced by muscles.
Those signals are then used to control a servo motor. The project introduces differential and instrumentation amplifiers while giving students a memorable reason to understand them.
It is ambitious for a beginner course, and the circuit may require patience. Quite a lot of patience, perhaps. Still, it shows what analogue electronics can accomplish without relying entirely on a programmed microcontroller.
What Equipment Do You Need?
This is a hands-on course, so video access alone is not enough if you want the full experience.
Students need basic electronic components, a breadboard, wire, a multimeter, a soldering iron and solder. Udemy notes that an accompanying parts kit may be purchased, although learners can also source the required components themselves. Basic mathematics is recommended, but no previous electronics knowledge is required.
Are There Any Downsides?
The course was last updated in 2023, and some recordings or presentation elements may feel older than recently produced Udemy courses.
It is also focused on analogue electronics rather than Arduino programming, digital logic or modern embedded systems. Those subjects are covered in later courses within the instructor’s robotics series.
Beginners should also expect occasional frustration while assembling the circuits. Breadboard mistakes, loose wires and reversed components are part of the experience.
Final Verdict
Electricity & Electronics – Robotics, Learn by Building is a very good practical introduction to analogue electronics.
Its strongest feature is the variety of real projects. Instead of memorising component definitions, students build circuits, control motors, use amplifiers and troubleshoot their own work.
Check the current course price and availability here: