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Anyone recommend me a book?

R

Robert Hill

Hi all,

I've just finished reading 'electronics for dummies' which I've enjoyed and found helpful. it's given me a good basic understanding of components like resistors, capacitors etc as well as using ICs, a little bit about op amps and radio as well as microcontrollers and logic gates

I'm looking for a book to follow on and learn some more and wondering if anyone can recommend me one. I've taken a look at the 'book reviews' thread on the forum as well/

My math level isn't great, I can handle algebra but probably not calculus so i'm not looking for a book full of electronic laws and equations (though I know I won't be able to avoid them completely).

I want something quite practical which will enable me to design circuits to solve problems as well as to understand others designs and potentially modify them for my own ends. Something which describes different ICs and their functions could be useful as well.

I've just bought an Aduino Uno so any recommendations of a good introductory book on using that (especially the programming side would also be welcome.

Thanks in advance!
 
Gryd3

Gryd3

Robert Hill said:
Hi all,

I've just finished reading 'electronics for dummies' which I've enjoyed and found helpful. it's given me a good basic understanding of components like resistors, capacitors etc as well as using ICs, a little bit about op amps and radio as well as microcontrollers and logic gates

I'm looking for a book to follow on and learn some more and wondering if anyone can recommend me one. I've taken a look at the 'book reviews' thread on the forum as well/

My math level isn't great, I can handle algebra but probably not calculus so i'm not looking for a book full of electronic laws and equations (though I know I won't be able to avoid them completely).

I want something quite practical which will enable me to design circuits to solve problems as well as to understand others designs and potentially modify them for my own ends. Something which describes different ICs and their functions could be useful as well.

I've just bought an Aduino Uno so any recommendations of a good introductory book on using that (especially the programming side would also be welcome.

Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...
Many swear by this book : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Art_of_Electronics

I personally have taken 'Electronics Common Core' in college, and the rest has been self taught from experiments, reverse engineering (fancy word for taking stuff apart) and various internet resources.

As far as an 'Arduino' book... don't bother, hop online and find Arduino tutorials. They typically start with a 'hello world' type of application that makes an LED light up, then blink, then respond to a button, then .... you get the idea. Each lesson gives you a little more detail.
http://arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/HomePage
 
Arouse1973

Arouse1973

Adam
Robert Hill said:
Hi all,

I've just finished reading 'electronics for dummies' which I've enjoyed and found helpful. it's given me a good basic understanding of components like resistors, capacitors etc as well as using ICs, a little bit about op amps and radio as well as microcontrollers and logic gates

I'm looking for a book to follow on and learn some more and wondering if anyone can recommend me one. I've taken a look at the 'book reviews' thread on the forum as well/

My math level isn't great, I can handle algebra but probably not calculus so i'm not looking for a book full of electronic laws and equations (though I know I won't be able to avoid them completely).

I want something quite practical which will enable me to design circuits to solve problems as well as to understand others designs and potentially modify them for my own ends. Something which describes different ICs and their functions could be useful as well.

I've just bought an Aduino Uno so any recommendations of a good introductory book on using that (especially the programming side would also be welcome.

Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...

Your math is not good because you have not had a good teacher that told you what its good for. I bet you I could get you learning and understanding math you never thought you would learn. Dont let this limit you, just ask and explain what you dont understand. Dont get me wrong there are others like Steve and Laplace who know far more than I do. But I know enough to get by.
I think for you its going to be a mixture of projects and theory.EA is a good book but lacks projects. Tell us what you are interested in. We can then help
Adam
 
R

Robert Hill

I've just found this book: Practical electronics which looks like it might be a good next book as it covers a lot of topics the first book didn't as well as a little more theory.

Your right about the Maths. I only did it up to GCSE (End of mandatory school at age 16 in the UK) so I expect I could get more of it if I tried. I've not at present had to do calculations for things like RC time constants but understand the theory of those sorts of things though I know it gets much harder than that.

Thanks for the Arduino suggestion, I've found a few good tutorials already which I shall follow up.
 
R

Robert Hill

Just nabbed myself a new hardcover copy of the art of electronics 2nd edition on Ebay for £19 including free postage! I know there is a new edition due out very soon but it will cost more than I want to spend so i'm very pleased to have got a copy of the older book for a good price.
 
Arouse1973

Arouse1973

Adam
Robert Hill said:
Just nabbed myself a new hardcover copy of the art of electronics 2nd edition on Ebay for £19 including free postage! I know there is a new edition due out very soon but it will cost more than I want to spend so i'm very pleased to have got a copy of the older book for a good price.
Click to expand...
Good book Robert, mine is 20 years old and only a few weeks ago I looked in it. A good place to start.
Adam
 
C

Colin Mitchell

You can download almost any book for FREE by simply looking on the web.
I have hundreds of articles on theory and circuits on Talking Electronics website.
Most books seem wonderful until you see my reviews and my attitude as to how a book should be presented.
I have taught thousands of students by simply building projects and taking readings.It gets around the mathematics and hundreds of my students are now CEO's of large businesses.
In general, brilliant electronics design-engineers are not mathematicians and I have proven this is not a stumbling-block.
In fact you can rarely work things out mathematically because capacitors are +/- 20% and transistors are +/- 50%.
It's much better to Build it, Test it, and Adjust it.
 
R

Robert Hill

Yeah i've found some good ones on arduino that people have put out for free. I tend to find that unless I print something out or have a physical book I don't tend to read something.
 
A

AndreeU17

Colin Mitchell said:
Practical Electronic for investors is filled with mistakes. I would not read it.
Click to expand...
Could you explain as too why it isnt a good book to read? I find it filled with interesting information. I dont think there is any book worthy to be called the best ! I use it as my resource apart from my textbooks from college.
 
Arouse1973

Arouse1973

Adam
Wow, how did this book ever get published? I haven't gone through all the mistakes picked up to validate them but an initial look seems that this book should have never been published.

Funny though isn't it how a document picking up typos have their own :)



"p. 32, last line: The quantity (0.100A) in the denominator should be squared, and the


final answer should be 100, not 10. Also, the foloowing sentence on the top of p.

33 should refer to a 100 resistor. [N.R.]"
 
Arouse1973

Arouse1973

Adam
A

AndreeU17

That sucks!!! I got this book all excited cause I finally found a good book with decent information on literally everything and it turns out it's a failed attempt :(
 
C

Colin Mitchell

"Who is it doing the corrections to this document?"

About 20 different contributors are all supplying material.

Look, the situation is this.
If an author makes one single mistake, it can be overlooked.
But if he makes two mistakes, the book should be canned.
A well-known writer for Electronics Australia made a simple mistake about charging a battery and I thought "he has never charged a battery in his life."
The comments came thick and fast in the next issue of the magazine.
He never wrote for the magazine again.

I have found dozens of mistakes in many text books, with circuits that obviously don't work and comments that are incorrect.
I pity the newcomer who takes the text as gospel and finds himself absorbing incorrect material.
I used to send corrected work back to the publishers.
These books were never reprinted again.
Things like numbering the pins of a chip around the wrong way.
Adding a LED to the output of a CD4017 without a current-limiting resistor.
Putting an 8 ohm speaker on the output of a 555 IC . . .
I commented to Everyday Practical Electronics and they banned me.
In fact you cannot get on to any of the book-selling sites and (Amazon etc) and warn readers of the faults.

Faulty books like: Practical Electronic for inventors are the best to buy as the reader can go through the 120MB of corrections and learn a lot about how the formulas should be written.
I think they do this to add an extra degree of learning.
I recommend Practical Electronic for inventors.
 
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