(Part 2) Reddit mentions: The best electronic circuits books

There was a book I read 40 years ago that covered basically everything from vacuum tubes and semiconductors up to basically chips. It was in the library, and it was like 800 pages long. I asked on reddit if anyone knew what it was, and someone pointed me at the newest edition. But I don't really have time to go through all my comment history looking for "electronics book" or to write a program to do same, but you should feel free to do so. :-) Then I got into assembly for the 8-bit CPUs, picked up the 16-bit and 32-bit CPUs of the day, and the mainframe stuff. Then I went back to school. :-)

However, all that said, this looks like what I read, and the intro sounds like he's describing the first edition I remember: https://smile.amazon.com/Electronic-Devices-Circuit-Theory-11e-ebook/dp/B01LY6238B/ref=mt_kindle

If you want more about assembler, just flipping through this seems like it starts with the very fundamentals and goes through a fair amount. https://smile.amazon.com/Code-Language-Computer-Hardware-Software/dp/0735611319/ref=sr_1_5 If you already know how to program, and you understand the basics of how (for example) basic assembler language works and how the chip accesses memory and what an interrupt does and etc, then learning new assembler languages is pretty straightforward. Sort of like "I know Java, now I need to learn C#."

But honestly, at this point, I'd look online. When I learned all this stuff, textbooks were the way to go. Nowadays, everything moves so fast that you're probably better off finding a decent description online, or looking up an online class or something and seeing what texts they use.

If you don't want to learn assembler or hardware, but you still want to challenge yourself, the other thing to look into is unusual programming languages and operating systems. Things that are unlike what people now use for doing business programming. Languages like APL (or "J"), or Hermes, or Rust, or Erlang, or Smalltalk, or even Lisp or Forth if you've been steeped in OOP for too long. Operating systems like Eros or Amoeba or Singularity. Everything stretches your mind, everything gives you tools you can use in even the most mundane situations, and everything wonderful and wild helps you accept that what you're doing now is tedious and mundane but that's where you're at for the moment. :-) (Or, as I often exclaim at work, "My kingdom for a Java list comprehension!")

In the light of all the praise here, I have to be critical of it. It's an awesome book, from which I learned a lot but it's completely obsolete at every level. There are better solutions to many problems that didn't come into existence until after it was published. For example Bob Widlar's work on current sources and the distinct improvements in devices that destroyed the specialist transistor market across the board etc.

If you want better books that are practical I can recommend:

1. https://www.amazon.com/dp/0748740759/ - This is simply the best book on the subject ever written. I have learned so much from this over the years. Published in 2003 so nice and up to date (not much has changed since then apart from RF MOSFETs and obsolescence).
   
2. The good old Art of Electronics. Don't bother with the 3rd edition. 2nd is fine. Not much has changed since 1989 as well :)
   
   Also, please note that nearly ALL functions required can be trivially replaced with opamps, dedicated ICs, discrete logic or microcontrollers these days and almost 100% definitely should be if you're working in a commercial environment. The stability, lack of spread across devices, FET input stages and integration should never be ignored.
   
   For personal interest I love building things with just discrete BJTs though and will continue to do so until I'm dead. Last week I built a discrete log converter that worked. This week I'm trying to build a temperature compensated zener reference. I am always amazed at how much fun you can have with a bag of 2n3904's and a couple of CA3096 transistor arrays.
   
   PDFs are available for the above books from Library Genesis if you can't afford or can't obtain the texts. Please do buy it though for the authors' sake.

Open loop = the gain of the opamp component all by itself, with all other components removed. In particular, with the feedback components removed.

Closed loop = the gain of the (amplifier circuit as a whole), from circuit-input to circuit-output, with all components intact. In particular, with the feedback components in place.

In general, you cannot calculate the open loop gain from the closed loop gain.

In general, you cannot calculate the closed loop gain from the open loop gain without also knowing the details of the rest of the circuit. You also need to know the topology of the feedback circuit and its component values: they set the closed loop gain .... and that's the entire point! Open loop gain is highly variable and undependable; for example, it varies with supply voltage and also with temperature. But closed loop gain is stable and predictable, because it is set by resistor ratios. And resistor ratios do not vary with supply voltage or temperature.

These two books, although not new, are very helpful: ONE , TWO .

Glad to hear it, thank you! And yeah I can think of a few books that really helped me.

For analog, the best book I've read is "A Practical Introduction to Electronic Circuits" (https://www.amazon.com/Practical-Introduction-Electronic-Circuits-ebook/dp/B01MSEO5HX). It's actually a terrible introduction, so the title is dumb, but if you already have a basic knowledge this book will take you to the next level. Also one of the best resources for analog is Dave Jones' YouTube channel EEVBlog (https://www.youtube.com/user/EEVblog). He's an excellent presenter and a real analog pro.

For digital, after you have a good grasp of C, I'd recommend Musimathics Vol. 2 (https://www.amazon.com/Musimathics-Mathematical-Foundations-Music-Press/dp/026251656X/ref=asc_df_026251656X/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=312152840806&hvpos=1o1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=13200640003814220797&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9021581&hvtargid=pla-645450504952&psc=1&tag=&ref=&adgrpid=61316181319&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvadid=312152840806&hvpos=1o1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=13200640003814220797&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9021581&hvtargid=pla-645450504952). The first volume can be skipped cause it's mostly acoustics and music theory related, but it's a good book too. The second volume is by far the best explaination of DSP and digital audio synthesis I've come across. If you want something a bit lighter, this is a great book as well (https://www.amazon.com/Audio-Programming-Book-MIT-Press/dp/0262014467/ref=asc_df_0262014467/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=312140868236&hvpos=1o1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=9994434488221753680&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9021581&hvtargid=pla-330509287619&psc=1).

My first Arduino came in yesterday. I bought this kit to go with it and it has worked out pretty well for me. For $22.50 it looked like a pretty good deal. I went through the first 4 or 5 tutorials listed on the arduino.cc site and it really doesn't take long to get a handle on things if you've had any experience with C type languages. Also, when you start designing your own projects and want an easy way to document it and save your breadboard layout try fritzing.

Kit contained:

Parts list: Breadboard X1, Breadboard jumper wire X 70, Red Led X 10, Green Led X 10, RGB led X 1, Ceramic Capacitor (10nF X 10,100nF X 10), Electrolytic Capacitor (100uF X 5), Resistor (330X10,1kX10,10kX10), Tilt switch X 1, Thermistor X 1, Photo resistor X 1, Diode X 1, Buzzer X 1, Push button X 5, switch X 5, Mini Servo X 1, Potienmeter with knob X 1

Edited to add:
I also ordered this electronics text book since I'm just getting started with electronics. Getting a handle on the basics just seemed like a good idea. Got it used for $9.99. Can't say if its good or not as it hasn't come in yet.

I'll definitely agree that the Coax guides are quite dry and could benefit from substantial editing/reorganization of the material to make it clear what information goes directly towards the test objectives vs what's extra/background information.

ExHAMiner is fine for practice testing (once you've already learned the material), but suffers from the same fundamental flaw as this RAC guide: it's encouraging rote learning over understanding. That certainly helps you pass the test and get on the air quickly, but you'll likely lack of lot of the depth. ExHAMiner is also out of date for the current ISED question bank.

Another great book resource is Teach Yourself Electricity and Electronics. Extremely well written and theory heavy, it's not specific to amateur radio, but it still has a good deal of information on the subject.

Where/how you figure this out?

By 1) getting into semiconductor processing and process design, 2) getting into device modeling, and 3) becoming an analog IC designer - and, of course, working in the semiconductor industry. In school you focus on upper division and graduate classes in these areas.

Generally you need all three to understand this area well. That's kind of how I fell into it. Leading edge analog design quickly becomes limited by the specifics of your simulation models and your specific process implementation. Usually parameters of process and device become factor in your analog circuit design and you may even adjust physical CAD layout to tweak them.

This is where SPICE models come in. Basically you keep getting new ones added to CAD systems over the last 40 years because of some corner that isn't well modeled. The simplest models (like MOS 1->3 and Gummel-Poon) worked OK for very large devices 40 years ago when SPICE was invented but process shrinks have created lots of nonidealities since (which is the nonideality? the device or the model? :-) ). Nature of the beast.

The simple fact however is that you can never get a device model to actually cover all corners of operation equally well. Such a model doesn't exist and probably never will.

Instead the reality is that you generally need fairly peaked experts extracting parameters and often even creating new models with the caveat that you always have to compromised on the model extraction accuracy to fit the particular application corner you are designing to.

So, for example, if are doing high power, you'll optimize one of the standard models for that corner and sacrifice low power accuracy or vice versa. If you are doing RF/uW devices, you make a different set of compromises than you would if you were doing digital or LF linear. In 40 years it's never become turn-key and automated - the degrees of freedom in the models generally don't properly match those of reality. Too many or too few cause problems with the extraction.

There are other areas related to SPICE model extraction that are very similar with just a small change of emphasis.

These include parametric process measurement which monitors each fabrication step using end-of-line analog testing of specialized test structures. This is more focused with manufacturing process control and device operational integrity "out the door". A side area to this is reliability testing - when with the devices fail in the field (and they will fail). Bread and butter to me. Been doing stuff in this general area for most of my career.

Some books on my shelf are the following (they are so common they are usually referred to by the author's name):

Physics of Semiconductor Devices (Sze)

MOS (Metal Oxide Semiconductor) Physics and Technology (Nicollian/Brews)


Semiconductor Device Modeling with Spice (Kielkowski)

SPICE: Practical Device Modeling (Antognetti)

Semiconductor Material and Device Characterization (Schroder)

Failure Mechanisms in Semiconductor Devices (Amerasekera/Najm)

Failure Modes And Mechanisms In Electronic Packages (Singh/Viswanadham)

You can also hang out at /r/chipdesign which is probably the closest subreddit to this area. I'm a moderator there.

I'm a semiconductor process engineer. I am so glad I asked the questions you're asking now - it changed my life.

It's a whole different world. The first time I stepped into an industrial cleanroom it felt like entering a spaceship. Robots everywhere, plasma etchers and vapor deposition tools and SEMs and AFMs and every toy the space age could offer. We literally push atoms around. It's never managed to become mundane.

Anyway, I've heard about Silicon Run (http://siliconrun.com/) but I don't know if you can get that for free. There are obviously lots of books and resources (this comes to mind), but TV series are harder to think of.

If you have any particular questions I'd be more than happy to answer them.

Edit: Here's a couple videos. Can't vouch for quality.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GQmtITMdas (more of a complete overview of semi processing)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFpmtgCdMkg#t=00m22s (pretty good mashup, actually)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3Q67HI1_1w (no, that is NOT sped up)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sr7TA33jr4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJgVs-D1wi0

This looks like a good book

http://www.amazon.com/MAKE-Electronics-Learning-Through-Discovery/dp/0596153740/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1279769926&sr=8-3

This IS a good book but deals with advanced theories.


http://www.amazon.com/Art-Electronics-Paul-Horowitz/dp/0521370957/ref=sr_1_16?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1279769926&sr=8-16


And this looks pretty good.

http://www.amazon.com/Circuitbuilding-Yourself-Dummies-Ward-Silver/dp/0470173424/ref=sr_1_21?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1279769941&sr=8-21


Go to the book store, pick up some books. Go the the library and see what they have. Pick up old radios and junk off of the street take them home and pull them apart but be careful of the capacitors, if you dont know what a capacitor is then read one of the above books.

Look on craigslist for free electronics and start taking them apart. Be careful of anything that uses Alternating current, anything that plugs into a wall deals with large voltages so be sure to start small.

Consider Graf's Encyclopedia of Electronic Circuits (and subsequent volumes). The circuits are generic, with most components vaguely specified, so you can take them as inspiration and adapt the specifics to your application.

Many of the circuits are pretty dated, especially in the older volumes, but it's the paucity of details that really makes them powerful. You'll have to do a bit of work to understand each one.

Regardless of where you get the circuits, I think you'll learn a lot from picking pretty much any one, and doing the work to build it. Find a local hackerspace/makerspace with an electronics lab, and you might be able to save a lot on components and work with some more experienced folks anyway. Or a ham radio club...

My standard teaching recommendation is:

• build it as-written
  
• get familiar with its operation
  
• think of a change and predict its outcome
  
• make the change
  
• compare the outcome to your expectation.
  
  Repeating this routine over a dozen circuits will level you up very quickly.

In general making less poles per OPAMP can give you other advantages: less sensitivity in terms of components values, in case of bandpass filters Q with smaller component spread and so on. For filters theory, I can recommend two books: Modern Filter Design and Analog Filers Design by Van Valkengburg - 1982 classic. I read them while preparing my master thesis and learned a lot from them.

If you want to plot the transfer function of any filter (I assume you mean gain and phase in function of frequency), it's quite easy. You either need assumed transfer function (with jomega or s as variable) or analyse given circuit using phasors method. Then, just calculate the absolute value of transfer function and plot it using any plotting software (Matlab, Octave, Gnuplot, you can even use Excel).

Once you know the transfer function, there is also a method for drawing an approximated frequency response using Bode plots.

This textbook is pretty good. There's a newer edition, but this one used is more reasonably priced. Great reviews on Amazon as well. You can check out the table of contents on the newer edition, this one is similar. I think it covers a solid amount of applications.

I am doing Edexcel Electronics and honestly, our syllabus is nearly blank. We have a revision guide, which tbh isn't that helpful but it goes over a lot of stuff. I have a pdf of it. It covers OCR and AQA too, in case you don't have it.

It's this one. But note that the cover is different from the picture.

Our syllabus also has a huge overlap with Resistant Materials, which has a textbook, so that has helped me.

The questions are honestly very basic and straight forward, so I feel okay, but I will still revise a good bit for it.

The goals you have overlap each other. Really you just want a 4wd truggy to start from that already exists as a base using an existing one.

Something that does everything doesn't do one thing very well.

By comparison a computer is easy to assemble. you research what to purchase and usually somebody has gone down that same path with pitfalls about what to watch out for in hardware. with off the shelf R/C you want to assemble into different things you have almost infinite combinations and problems with parts not meant to go together where a .100" is enough to stop something from functioning.

if you toss in designing from scratch that would be the same as building a computer from scratch, sources the chips and components, SMDs and then laying out the mother board, burning the pattern into copper, etching it and then hand soldering everything to the board. program the bios, burn the EEPROM etc... and build the Operating system.

HEE HEE i've done this in the 1980s building my own 8088 machine, and programming something like CPM.

if your interested in that rabbit hole then i would recommend:

https://www.amazon.com/8088-Project-Book-Robert-Grossblatt/dp/0830602712/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=the+8088+project+book&qid=1572671189&sr=8-1

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I found Microstrip Lines and Slotlines by Gupta, Garg and Bahl to be an excellent reference and for learning about microstrip, and I trust the author's subsequent works.

The same authors wrote Microstrip Antenna Design Handbook although I haven't read it.

It looks like Pozar wrote a book on Microstrip Antennas which is worth a look (I haven't read this one either). His Microwave Engineering is an excellent textbook.

http://www.amazon.com/Practical-Optical-System-Layout-Lenses/dp/0070592543/ref=sr_1_38?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1412189035&sr=1-38&keywords=optical+engineer

http://www.amazon.com/Mounting-Optics-Optical-Instruments-Monograph/dp/0819471291/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1412189080&sr=1-1&keywords=optical+mount

http://www.amazon.com/An-Introduction-Fiber-Optic-Systems/dp/0256204144/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1412191897&sr=8-1&keywords=introduction+to+fiber+optic+systems

The first book will only give you a half decent understanding of lens system, and the second book will tell you how to design mounts so you don't screw up the lenses/are able to adjust them. The third book talks about fiber optic systems in general.

You can probably get 100% of the parts you need off of Thorlabs.

I guess if you do some hand calculation and a bright laser, you can finagle your way through to get a system set up. But something that you have to remember is that in optics, your tolerances are within micrometers (which isn't easily achievable by machines). So distance becomes a huge problem, especially when we're talking about columnated beams (or freespace systems).

I know this is an easy job to do in Zemax and should only take half a day. Seems like a simple, fiber --> lens --> lens --> fiber setup. But putting it together will be difficult. It is my suggestion that you find someone to either build this system for you or at the very least, find an optical alignment technician to do the alignment for you.

Without knowing too much about what you're trying to achieve (especially in regards to sheer size, light source, and what you're trying to collect), this is the best advice I can give.

Buy a CD4046, connect it up to some dividers on your protoboard, and see what you're able to achieve. (link 1) , (link 2), (link 3) .

You might want to also read Floyd M. Gardner's BOOK to gain a good appreciation of the inevitable trade-offs in PLL design. Beware, it's pretty expensive.

Thanks for the help. I will definitely check it out. The one I ended up ordering was:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/007142783X?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00

It has some really good reviews so I hope it holds up.

This is the text book I studied through to learn all about electron theory and such. It is really overkill for just wanting to wire a van, but if you're interested that's the exact same book I worked through in a self paced course. I'm sure there are easier ways to learn it now, but I still keep a copy for reference.

I'm curious to hear any good answers to this.

Employers want to hear about your "project results" and such, not that you've read about the topic.

As far as learning goes, there are some good resources on the theory. This book was highly recommended on r/plc and I found it online: http://www.amazon.com/Programmable-Logic-Controllers-Frank-Petruzella/dp/0073510882/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1404455777&sr=8-1&keywords=Frank+Petruzella%27s+book+Programmable+Logic+Controllers

Ott's book is awesome, also check out Bogatin.

Depending on your experience level (which sounds light) this book may also be good to have, especially if your company uses EAGLE. It's old and not especially well focused in places, but there is simply nothing else out there for beginners, book-wise.

I'd recommend a used old-edition of Grob's basic electronics: Amazon link. Even if you don't use it as a primary source, you can't beat $5 for a handy reference.

Frank Petruzella writes a very good book on PLC

I have both the Fluke 117 and 87V. They are different animals. I use the 117 to detect voltage and check continuity. I use the 87V as a calibration standard. The 87V is going to give you a low pass filter for eliminating carrier freq noise on AC drives. It also has an expanded farad range for checking capacitors.

Oh, and although these don't just cover filters you may also want Communications Circuits: Analysis and Design (Clarke Hess) and Phaselock Techniques (Gardner).

Teach Yourself Electricity and Electronics by Stan Gibilisco

this?

Franco - Design with Op Amps and Analog Integrated Circuits

It's a textbook, but its focus is teaching how to get to that intuitive feel you're looking for.

I'm thinking about starting with this book, as it seems to be standard material in intro electronics courses:

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

Opinions?