Electronic Components?

Question

1. What are the most common electronic components I would need to understand to be able to develop circuits and invent innovative electronic products? I know theres a resistor, capacitor, transformer etc.

2. What are the functions of each one of them?

Answer 1

Resistors - provide a resistance to current flow by way of voltage drop. Also used in filtering.
Capacitors - To store energy and also filter any transients that may be present on your signal lines (and power lines... always want clean power). Filtering.
Inductors - Well these I have not used much but in filtering circuits. Filtering circuits are good for dropping a signal to zero when the frequency is low or high or somewhere in the middle. High pass, low pass and band pass filters. Anyway, enough on that.

You also will need transistors (bipolar, or FET's) Look those up on wikipedia if you want.

Integrated circuits (IC's): All integrated circuits are is a bunched collection of these devices, smashed together on the molecular/atomic level. So, with a bunch of 2 cent transistors you can make a logic gate. Or you can buy the integrated circuit that has that logic gate function already in it for about 8 cents!

Anyway the 7400 series logic chips are popular. Almost any function you can think of is in that series. Go to fairchildsemi.com to look up any logic chip.

Finally, knowing a good microcontroller can be more useful. You can use software or "firmware" inside the chip to process your signals to give yourself a desired output. You can create any logic chip in firmware. A $3 microcontroller can implement many advanced functions such as Analog to digital conversion, serial communication - talking to a PC, and timing - turn on and off a light ever so many seconds... You can do what you want with these little chips. microchip.com provides a free development tool for firmware and low cost development boards are available to get started.

I'd learn a programming language if I were you, too!

Here is a list of types I personally use in my engineering firm:

Circuit Breaker
Connector
Capacitor
Diode
Display
Ferrite
Fuse
Integrated Circuit
Inductor
Jumper
Memory
Oscillator
Relay
Resistor
Sensor
Switch
Thyristor
TransientSuppressor
Microcontroller
VoltageRegulator
Transformer
Transistor
Crystal

Answer 2

Go to Radio Shcak and buy one of the simple electronics project kits. You'll learn all you need to get started.