Terminology

Basic Electrical Terminology

Volts (Power), V:

• The potential difference in charge between two points
• The size of the force that sends the electrons through a circuit

Amperes (Current), Amp, I

• The unit used to measure electric current
• The number of electrons flowing through a circuit. 
  

Watts, W

• A measure of the rate of energy transfer of an appliance
• The rate of energy generated or consumed
  

Ohms (Resistance), 𝝮

• A measure of the opposition to current flow in an electrical circuit

Circuit:

•  A closed loop of conductive material.
• Continuous flow of electric current. Positive to negative or ground. (+, -)

Series: 

• Components are chained together from positive to negative to positive, etc.

Parallel: 

• Negative to Negative and Positive to Positive

CANchain:

• The chain of CAN devices and their connections gives information to each other. Also referred to as CAN bus, there may be multiple for different parts of a robot.
• Electrically, the FRC CAN network is a two-wire bus, designed to allow dozens of devices to talk to each other with a single network. 
• Needs two 120-ohm resistors to terminate the ends of the bus.
  

Bandwidth:

• The ability to measure a signal

Multimeter: 

• Electronic measurement tool
• Used to measure various electrical values
• Analog vs Digital