HACKER Q&A
📣 markus_zhang

Does treating analog components as blackbox make sense?


Hi friends,

I have been playing with electronics on and off for a while but never went deep or made anything with anything.

A minute ago I got a revelation: as a hobbyist who is more into digital than analog, I don't need to understand each component. I only need to know things such as, OK I have an electric signal (voltage for example) and I need to bend it a bit or smooth it a bit, so I need certain analog components to make it happen, and I can always play with the values to make the curves look like the way I want.

What I'm trying to say is to throw away the formulas and treat them as Lego blocks or blackboxes. I have an input and I need the output to be of certain value and shape, so I piece together some blocks and make it happen. That's it.

Does it make sense to you? To clarify I had no education on analog electronics and only read a few chapters about them.


  👤 abyesilyurt Accepted Answer ✓
You can treat an analog component as black box if it has very high input impedance and very low output impedance. Generally the digital components satisfy this constraint.

👤 richardjam73
Analog components affect those around them which is why I always preferred digital electronics.