a good book on electronics- recommendations please!

[Hugh Robjohns]

It appears there are some counterfeit versions of the book floating around at low prices, as warned and described on the official website:

https://artofelectronics.net/category/news/

https://artofelectronics.net/

[seon]

Very interesting.
Since last year I began very interested in electronic for music and I recently started to learn electronic by myself.
Thank you for all those books recommendations.

[Guest]

'Dude, use the search!' was my first reaction, but I remembered it stinks a little here, so here's my two cents.

All the stuff from Mims is fantastic, and if you can find it, it is worth reading.

I will point you to 'Art of Electronics' and several others, and it's my top pick if you're serious about $80-book-grade. Don't wait for the latest version. It's more likely to be an addendum than a substitute.

I've been spending some quality time with the ARRL Handbook lately and I'm increasingly impressed. It's pretty good to start slowly and clarify analog concepts thoroughly. It has an impressive reference section that is actually helpful in the era of the Internet. It's a bit RF-centric, of course, but even if you miss all the stuff related to ham radio, you're left with a lot of helpful content.

[Mike McLoone]

Getting started:

Try Dave's EEV Blog channel on Youtube. There are hundreds of really good explanations from a professional layout engineer.

https://www.youtube.com/user/EEVblog

The EEV Blog site also has extensive forums and there's much to be learned from other engineers.

https://www.eevblog.com/

One series of books which I don't think was mentioned is Floyd. There are many variations on the books, but they all have nice illustrations and really practical circuits and examples. This is a little more inviting than The Art of Electronics for anyone just getting into it in their own time. As was mentioned, the actual amount of mathematics and manipulation of formulae required during day-to-day electronics work is really not that much. It's supposed to be fun, about experimentation and above all, creating magic smoke in the lab! If you're not blowing stuff up then you're missing out on all the fun.

Have a search for Floyd Analog Fundamentals, or Digital Fundamentals, and just buy the cheapest most knackered second hand paper-back copy you can find. The contents of these books, such as how to trouble-shoot an AB audio amplifier, has not changed since the 90's.

Alternatively, if you're on a budget (or no budget!) search for the free "Z Library" project which is a shadow library for scientific works on the net. There are many articles and even entire books on there. Obviously if would make sense to buy any books you end up reading or using from such a service.

For advanced techies:

As well as the Douglas Self books, there is also a Self website worth checking out. There is also a reading list somewhere on there.

http://douglas-self.com/ampins/ampins.htm

Two which I found recently which are more a collection of essays from experienced electronics engineers. The good thing about analogue is that it doesn't really change much from generation to generation. Nor does the mindset of an engineer!

The methods they use and describe casually, such as using an un-etched copper clad board as the ground plane and soldering all the grounded legs of the through hole components directly on to it, to create a "birds nest" prototype, is amazingly sound. You now have a prototype analogue circuit fully soldered, with a completely solid and uninterrupted ground plane to boot. Having studied electronics at several Universities, we were never shown such a technique. So there is specialist knowledge in there. Some of the articles do get a little technical, but it should, if the engineer from Tektronix is explaining how the entire front end of an analogue oscilloscope works!

Analog Circuit Design: Art, Science and Personalities (EDN Series for Design Engineers)
ISBN-13: 978-0750696401
ISBN-10: 0750696400

The Art and Science of Analog Circuit Design (EDN Series for Design Engineers)
ISBN-13: 978-0750670623
ISBN-10: 0750670622

M.

[N i g e l]

Just as an FYI, in the UK ebooks are subject to VAT and paper ones aren't.

That changed

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/vat- ... blications

[blinddrew]

Just as an FYI, in the UK ebooks are subject to VAT and paper ones aren't.

That changed

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/vat- ... blications

I missed that! Good news.