Suggested basic electronics text?

[guzziguy]

I've decided to get serious about learning electronics.  Tangent suggests this:

The Art of Electronics 2/e

by Paul Horowitz and Winfield Hill
Cambridge University Press, 1989
1125 pages, hardcover
ISBN 0-521-37095-7
 

Would you agree with this or would you suggest something else?

I also plan on getting the Tube Amp text that Birgir recommends.  I just need to find it again someplace in the DIY threads.

Edit:

Would it be "Valve Amplifiers, 4th Ed" by Morgan Jones Birgir?

Or maybe "Building Valve Amplifiers" also by Morgan Jones?

 

Edited November 10, 2015 by guzziguy

[luvdunhill]

AoE is pretty dense - you really need to do the problems to make sure you are grasping the concepts.

[cetoole]

I remember this being pretty good, and free!

http://www.designinganalogchips.com

Not sure how basic you are looking for. 

[sorenb]

Buy two multimeters and  a soldering iron - build a few small projects and hope for that something goes wrong and you need to troubleshoot ...

[shellylh]

Why two multimeters?

[grawk]

so you can solder them together.

 

He's not asking for help with soldering, but rather with help to learn to understand what's going on, I believe.

[Tyll Hertsens]

+1 on the Art of Electronics. It's dense, but very well structured. Read slow.

[sorenb]

Why two multimeters?

I find that I often need at least two ...either for current/voltage ....or simply hook'ing one up monitoring a specific component and it's handy to have another to poke around with ... 

it doesn't have to be TOTL multimeters .... but I'd prefere known brand multimeters

 

In rgrds to the thread starter question; the advice aimed at getting real experience ... something goes wrong, why? in trying to figure it out the theory comes in handy ... AoE is fine .... but like reading a Haynes does make you a qualified mechanic reading AoE doesn't necessary makes you grasp electronics 

[spritzer]

Two DMM's are a good idea just to check if one is functioning ok.  They don't have to be expensive but stay away from the no name stuff.  I like B&K a lot for the cheap stuff but there is also Brymen, Extech etc.  A used Fluke 189 and you are set for life though. 

The Morgan Jones books are excellent and have a lot of practical stuff in them.   All of my books are in storage due to the impending move but there was one which was quite good, Practical Electronics for designers or something like that. 

 

[gepardcv]

I like Tony Kuphaldt's Lessons in Electric Circuits series: https://www.ibiblio.org/kuphaldt/electricCircuits/ — he has not finished all the chapters, but the basic stuff is solid and easy to read. After reading his coverage of a topic, it pays to go over the same topic in AoE. The different presentation made a few things sink in for me that did not make sense from just one book.

iCircuit is a pretty nice little circuit simulator to see what happens without going through the work of building it.

[sorenb]

Two DMM's are a good idea just to check if one is functioning ok.  They don't have to be expensive but stay away from the no name stuff.  I like B&K a lot for the cheap stuff but there is also Brymen, Extech etc.  A used Fluke 189 and you are set for life though. 

 

I have a 289 and find it slow in boot'ing....so usually I use an old 87 rather ....in rgrds to Brymen  ...I have one too, not impressed, a Bryman 867 (not recommended) ...it works but damn slow in readings ...
Stay away from advanced multimeters, what you get isn't worth the extra ...

[guzziguy]

AoE is pretty dense - you really need to do the problems to make sure you are grasping the concepts.

I just noticed that the third edition is out.  So I'd probably get that.

I'd definitely do the problems.  Do you think I should get the Student Workbook too?  

I remember this being pretty good, and free!

http://www.designinganalogchips.com

Not sure how basic you are looking for. 

Edit: Thanks, the prices if right.  I've downloaded it and will check it out soon.

My knowledge is pretty basic.  I understand Ohm's Law.  I'm just about finished reading "Electricity & Electronics" by Gerrish, Dugger and Roberts.  So I now have a little understanding of RL, RC and RCL circuits.  However, the book doesn't provide clear examples and I fall down trying to understand even moderately complicated AC circuits.

Here's an example of not enough explanation for me.  Maybe you or somebody else could explain it.  "Electricity & Electronics" give an example of a crystal oscillator circuit using an opamp.  The output of the opamp is fed through a NAND gate and part of its output is feed back through the crystal.  The authors state that the purpose of the NAND gate is to "start the output from the opamp". They don't explain how it does it.  I'm guessing that at startup, the opamp produces no output, which causes the NAND gate to output the voltage for a "1".  This then feeds back to the crystal charging it up, which then goes through a capacitor and charges it up and the voltage coming out of the capacitor while it charges, goes into the + input of the opamp.  This effectively "primes the pump" and the circuit then operates as a normal AC oscillator.

I never thought of how digital components such as logic gates behave when AC passes through them.  I don't understand the behavior of the NAND gate under AC.  Again, I'm guessing that the output of the digital component either turns on or off as the V1, V2 and V3 levels are passed, depending on the direction of the AC (i.e. going more positive or more negative).  I have no idea how a digital component reacts to less than 0 volts input.

Buy two multimeters and  a soldering iron - build a few small projects and hope for that something goes wrong and you need to troubleshoot ...

I have the meters and soldering iron.  I need to know the basics so I understand how to debug and fix the problem.

so you can solder them together.

 

He's not asking for help with soldering, but rather with help to learn to understand what's going on, I believe.

Yep, I want a reasonable understanding of electron theory and practive.

+1 on the Art of Electronics. It's dense, but very well structured. Read slow.

Thanks, I will.

In rgrds to the thread starter question; the advice aimed at getting real experience ... something goes wrong, why? in trying to figure it out the theory comes in handy ... AoE is fine .... but like reading a Haynes does make you a qualified mechanic reading AoE doesn't necessary makes you grasp electronics 

I'd like to grasp electronics.  I need that to actually understand the circuit and how to debug it.

I think that your Haynes example is backwards.  Haynes manuals have no automotive theory, they assume that one has the basic automotive knowledge and then explicitly tell you the steps to take to do some maintenance specific to a vehicle or family of vehicles.  I doubt that there are many, if any, Hayne's-like manuals for electronics.  About the closest I can think of are the assembly instructions that come with kits.

I'm looking to learn the basic knowledge, not how to assemble or fix a specific implementation.  Certainly I'll also have to actually build and debug circuits along the way as part of the learning experience.  But I need to understand the underlying theory.

Two DMM's are a good idea just to check if one is functioning ok.  They don't have to be expensive but stay away from the no name stuff.  I like B&K a lot for the cheap stuff but there is also Brymen, Extech etc.  A used Fluke 189 and you are set for life though. 

The Morgan Jones books are excellent and have a lot of practical stuff in them.   All of my books are in storage due to the impending move but there was one which was quite good, Practical Electronics for designers or something like that. 

 

I'll look for the practical electronics book.

I like Tony Kuphaldt's Lessons in Electric Circuits series: https://www.ibiblio.org/kuphaldt/electricCircuits/ — he has not finished all the chapters, but the basic stuff is solid and easy to read. After reading his coverage of a topic, it pays to go over the same topic in AoE. The different presentation made a few things sink in for me that did not make sense from just one book.

iCircuit is a pretty nice little circuit simulator to see what happens without going through the work of building it.

I'll check that out too.

I'd like to thank everybody who has replied.  I found all of the input valuable.

Edited November 10, 2015 by guzziguy

[wink]

Basic Electronics - Bernard Grob

 

http://www.amazon.com/Grob-Basic-Electronics-Books-Series/dp/002802253X