Reddit mentions: The best integrated circuits books

Hey! I can relate exactly to where your'e coming from. I, some years ago, decided I wanted to get into building synths. I ended up getting a job at a pedal company and have spent more time learning to build and repair pedals than synths. I don't work there anymore, but it gave me a lot of perspective into the field as we also made euro-rack modules.

First up: I don't want to scare you off from this, but just want to give you a realistic perspective so that you go into this knowing what you are getting into. Making synths is hard and it's expensive. As far as electronic projects go, making a synthesizer is up there on the list. I've repaired powerplant turbine controller circuitboards that were simpler than some of the synths I've owned. This isn't to say, "don't do it!" but, expect to learn a lot of fundamental and intermediate stuff before you ever have something like a fully-featured synth that you built in your hands.

It's also expensive. A cheap synth prototype is going to cost a couple hundred bucks, easy, while a more fully-featured prototype could cost into the thousands to produce, and that's just to build one working prototype. If you want to make a run of products you're going to need money up front, and not a small amount. So, just be prepared for that inevitability.

One final note is that my perspective is broad (digital and analog) but is rooted in analog electronics because that's where I started. This isn't the only path you can take to get to where you want to go but honestly in my opinion, even if you're going to go mostly digital later, you need to understand analog.

If you have never messed with electronics much before I highly recommend the Make: Electronics book. I'm a hands-on person and this was the most effective book I found that let me study electronics fundamentals the way I wanted to; by making stuff! No matter which direction you go on (digital, analog, hybrid, DSP, SID, etc) you're going to want to know how to pick the right resistor, or how to pop an LED into a circuit, and this book will teach you that.

Solid follow-up books from there are Make: More Electronics, Practical Electronics for Inventors, How To Diagnose and Fix Everything Electronic, and The Art of Electronics. All of these books are good books that touch on different concepts you will find useful, so I encourage you to look through them and decide for yourself which of these interests you.

Around this same time, I'd encourage you to start getting into kits. Honestly, before you build anything synth, I'm going to recommend you build some pedals. Effects pedals are fun and rewarding to build without being too hard. Start with a distortion circuit and work your way up from there. Once you can build a delay pedal without freaking out, move on to euro-rack kits, or other synth kits. While you're building these kits, don't just build them, play with the circuits! Try swapping components where you think you can, or adding features. One of my first kits was a distortion pedal with a single knob, but by the time I was done tweaking on it it had five knobs and two toggle switches!

Once you're feeling somewhat comfortable with electronics, then you can dive into the holy grail of analog synth design: Make: Analog Synthesizers this amazing book was written by the brilliant Ray Wilson who recently passed away. His life's goal was to bring the art of building analog synths into the hands of anyone who wanted to learn, and there is no better place to receive his great wisdom than this book. You should also check out his website Music From Outer Space along the way, but the book covers so much more than his website.

If you make through most or all of those resources you are going to be well-equipped to take on a career in synth-building! I'm personally still on that last step (trying to find the time to tackle Make: Analog Synthesizers) but hope within the next year or two to get that under my belt and start diving in deep myself. It's been a fun journey of learning and discovery and I wouldn't trade the skills I've gained in electronics for much.

Hope this helps, good luck!

> code things into real life seems like a blast

It is! :-) And it's so easy compared to starting with a bare microcontroller.

> 0 experience whe nit comes to working with hardware

Kits usually explain a bit about resistors and such, but I'd strongly recommend to also pick up a beginner electronics book. These are simple and fun to read! :-)

• Getting started in electronics
  
  
• Notebook doodle style, super simple. Not only for kids despite the electron smileys showing you how electricity works. Electronics in an intuitive fashion, from winding a coil around a nail to build an electro magnet to simple circuits (and beyond).
  
  
• Practical electronics for inventors
  
  
• Still an easy read, but more background info :-)
  
   
  
  > sensors and motors and stuff
  
  > laserpointer
  
  Laser modules cost $0.15 or so at Aliexpress, Servos $1... Everything is so inexpensive it's great to build all sorts of crazy machines ;-)
  
  
   
  
  > What arduino
  
  Most guides and books will probably talk about the UNO. You can get a compatible board for around $3, but a Nano also works in the same fashion and sits nicely on a breadboard.
  
  For the UNO, you have all sorts of modules/shields, but there's nothing you can't hook up to one of the smaller boards.
  
  Also order an ESP8266 based board, like the $3 Nodemcu or D1 Mini. The ESP8266 has wifi built in and can run stand-alone, as it's a microcontroller with more memory as the UNO/Nano :-) But it's 3.3v, has only one analog input, and it's a bit more work when starting out.
  
   
  
  > What
  
  You could get a kit if you would like all sorts of sensors and modules.
  
  The Chinese starter kits are super cheap ($22 with UNO compatible, $26 with MEGA). As Aliexpress links often trigger the spam filter, search for 1207150873 or 32543887265.
  
  The differences are subtle, some kits lack the ultrasonic sensor (<=$1), etc.
  
  What's also a LOT of fun is a 2wd robot car kit, you can get them for $15 or so. Two geared motors, dual H-Bridge, put an Arduino + Ultrasonic sensor on it, and with ten lines of code, it will be an obstacle avoiding car or line follower ;-)
  
   
  
  These kits usually don't have great instructions. If that's what you want, get the official Arduino starter kit, or something from Sparkfun, Adafruit etc.
  
  The Arduino site, instructables, and all kind of blogs have examples for almost every module/sensor/device you can find :-) Find a good guide, such as t
  h
  [e](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYutciIGBqC34bfijBdYch49oyU-B_ttH
  )
  s
  e, and see if that would work for you.
  
   
  
  The only down-side when going with the compatible Arduino boards: You will have to install a different driver manually (oh noes).
  
   
  
  If you don't have one already: A soldering iron.
  
  I know, when starting, soldering sucks. You want to do everything on a breadboard, reservable. But I found out way too late how great and time saving soldering is once you use a decent soldering iron ;-) Most will recommend something like FX888D or better, but a $15-$20 adjustable soldering station can work as well for the occasional soldering job. And there's a soldering comic :-)
  
   
  
  A multimeter is a must-have as well. $3 ones work for simple resistance and voltage readings. For high voltage / high current tasks, they might burst into flames and double as fire-starter, ideal in the cold winter time.
  
  Part testers for $15 can be neat, they identify parts (is this a NPN or PNP transistor... or something else?).
  
  Cheap regulated $20 power supplies can be nice as well.
  
   
  
  Edit: Bunch of capacitors, resistors, transistors (Bags of 100-500 for $1-$2 via ebay), and whatever sensors you need ;-)
  
   
  
  
  Sorry for the long post :-) It's always difficult to tell how much experience and equipment someone already has.

A couple of recommendations:

First, there are the classic Forrest Mims books they are the quintessential beginner level books. Radio Shack used to sell them. They are very introductory and tend to be rather brief for easy consumption. I'm not a huge fan of the style personally but others LOVE them a lot. Many many many hobbyists and engineers got their start with these books.

Another option I like a lot is Practical Electronics for Inventors, 3rd Ed. by Paul Scherz and Simon Monk. This book is a great beginners book that will take you nicely into circuit theory and things like that. Not as advanced as an academic tome but advanced enough for you to learn a good amount and establish a solid foundation.

Lastly, there is the very advanced Art of Electronics 3rd Ed. by Horowitz and Hill. This is the classic introductory text for engineers and hobbyists alike. It is very math heavy but you will have a very very good understanding of what's going on.

One non-book recommendation is the AllAboutCircuits online textbook tutorial. It is pretty well enumerated and detailed, though it is a bit lacking in sample problems. A great free resource that you can start learning now.

Beyond this, once you get a solid foundation. You can start focusing in specific areas like digital, power, precision measurements, etc.

I remember doing 2 years of almost solid maths, thermodynamics and fluid dynamics, solids, materials etc. It was so uninspiring that I started teaching myself programming (C++) and playing around with 3d graphics (ah, good old days when Quake was the shit!)
I got good grades, but I was not a model student. So, although my 3rd and 4th year focused on 'mechatronic' subjects, I graduated not really knowing what a transistor was or how to solder anything. I was a decent programmer though.

Luckily, I got a job with a really patient, knowledgeable guy who helped me fill in the gaps. I coded stuff, but he explained how the hardware worked, I sometimes understood (or pretended, and when I couldn't figure it out later we went over it again).

I highly recommend this book:
http://www.amazon.com/Practical-Electronics-Inventors-Third-Edition/dp/0071771336

So here's what worked for me: (eventually :) )

• Get a practical grasp of basic electronics. Thevenin and Kirchoff and all that are important, but ...
  
• No matter how good the book/teacher, the best way to learn something is to actually DO IT.
  
• Learn C or C++
  
  So, as far as practical stuff goes:
  
  Start basic.
  
  
• Get a LED. Turn it on or off with a switch. Make it brighter. Make it dimmer.
  
• Use a transistor/FET in the switching circuit.
  
• Use a GPIO / micro controller to turn it off and on.
  
• Make it turn on for 1 second, off for 1 second. Repeatedly.
  Bonus
  
• Make the duty cycle dependent on a trimpot / variable resistor
  
  Get More Practical:
  
  
• Get an old printer.
  
• Take the stepper motor out of it. (Don't throw anything else away yet)
  
• Make a circuit to drive the motor from GPIO/ microcontroller
  
• Figure out how to make the motor turn. Both ways.
  
  
  
• Make an assembly where the motor drives a "crane arm". You can make it a rotating crane or a linear crane arm (eg, like how the printer heads move). You may need a gearbox.
  
  
• Hang a small weight (load) on the crane.
  
  
• Figure out how to make the crane move from/to a certain position. With minimal load movement.
  Bonus:
  
• Figure out how to move the crane from/to ANY position with minimal load movement.
  
  Old computer power supplies are great if you are on a budget.
  

• I work in the semiconductor industry doing applications engineering for precision op-amps and voltage references. At its most basic level, the goal of apps engineering is to work with customers to design parts into their systems and solve technical issues that come up. The reality is that we're used for anything our superiors deem worthy of our time, but that's a story for another reddit thread.
  
• Not much specialized software -- maybe OrCad for a SPICE simulation from time to time. Standard office apps for editing datasheets and app notes. Lots of email. MS Outlook is quite possibly the worst email client ever created. Skype for talking with colleagues overseas. Firefox for cruising reddit.
  
• I work for Analog Devices in San Jose.
  
• Answers to your questions:
  
  Let's start with the basics. When you first start working with op-amps, they give you a couple of golden rules: 1.) Gain-bandwidth product is infinite, and 2.) when there's a feedback loop, the voltage at the inverting and non-inverting terminal are equal. What they don't often tell you is that there is no such thing in real life.
  
  Non-ideal traits for an op-amp include things like offset voltage, bias current, offset temperature drift, and limited gain-bandwidth product. You can think of offset voltage as an extra little DC voltage source sitting on the non-inverting input, and bias current as a little current source sitting between the two input terminals. Maybe these are the non-idealities you had in mind. These shouldn't throw you off too badly, though -- if you can solve an op-amp circuit normally, the easiest thing to do is use superposition to solve for each input separately, then combine them to get the response for the whole thing. I'm sure you can google for how to do this.
  
  Nearly all op-amps are designed to have a huge open-loop gain over a small frequency band, but they are way unstable and hardly usable as such. That's why we use feedback loops. What a feedback loop essentially does is sacrifice the high open-loop gain for a lower, more stable closed-loop gain over a larger frequency band. That's where the gain-bandwidth product comes into play -- if you have an op-amp with 80 dB of open-loop gain over 100 kHz and a cutoff slope of -20 dB/decade, you can sacrifice 40 dB of gain and use it to amplify signals over 10 MHz instead.
  
  My best advice is to ditch the book and use google to your advantage. I found this note that will probably help you with what you're trying to do.
  
  Also, try searching for app notes on op-amps on semiconductor manufacturers' websites. National Semiconductor, TI, Linear Technology (and yes, even Analog Devices), have tons of app notes that can explain nonlinearities. Another good resource is this book.
  
  Enjoy.

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.

I can recommend you a few things, speaking as a CS/EE double major :)

• Hands on skills are quite important. Learn how to solder, use a DMM, strip wires, etc. There's a lot of tutorials on Youtube and such that show you how to solder well,etc. Watch them and practice.
  
  
• If you're still in school, you may want to consider taking a intro EE course as an elective or similar. If you're not in school but have the time and money, you may want to consider taking a few classes at a nearby college (ie. community college). Alternatively, get a few books/online tutorials and such and self study. I believe MIT OCW has a quite a few EE courses available.
  
  
• Books wise, i recommend the following: Beginning Arduino, Practical Electronics for Inventors, Arduino Cookbook (excellent refference book). Website wise, I recommend t ro n i x s t u f f.
  
  
• Start with the basics. This includes both theory (understanding and applying Ohm's Law) and practice (building actual circuits). Play with the Arduino and LEDs, motors, servo, ultrasonic sensors, etc. Follow tutorials for these BUT know WHY certain things are done in a given way and the reason those things are done. For example, understand why you need a resistor(s) when using LEDs.
  
  
• Once you have the basics down (ie. how to hook up and drive a motor), start a small project. I personally recommend something like an obstacle avoiding or line following robot as it's quite cheap, lots of online help available, easy to understand, etc. Read my post here for more details.
  
  
• Equipment wise, you'll need a few things. Take a look here: http://redd.it/1hoc03 You don't need everything on that list, but get the basics like resistors, capacitors, wires, general purpose PNP/NPN MOSFETs, etc. Then get a few sensors (ie. ultrasonic sensors, photo detectors, temperature sensor, etc) and a few other useful things like shift registers, LCD, piezo buzzer, etc. Also, check out this from /r/electronics.

This is a really good question and I'm not sure why exactly you were downvoted. I suspect the elephant in the room is that it's a question but it needs some in depth thinking rather than shitposted to the bottom in two minutes.

As for reading material, I'd go for paper every time myself.

Practical Electronics for Inventors 3e has a lot of nice analog material that's easy to get into and well explained: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0071771336/

It doesn't hit digital at all until about 70% of the way into the book and is in very small chunks of information you can read and think about for a bit. It's huge and cheap for what it is.

You will come out of it with "yay I managed to design a common emitter RF amplifier and filter" rather than "yay I connected to an LED to an arduino and it's flashing!"

Well worth the investment IMHO as one comprehensive and well written text.

After a dive into analog, the best thing is experimenting. Nothing quite works exactly how the textbooks say it does.

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 .

It's a fun hobby. Biggest learning curve is learning how to code. I didnt know a thing when I first started but the arduino community (link below) is really helpful with the process. They will even go over code you've written if your having issues.

Arduino community forum:
https://forum.arduino.cc

Book for learning arduino program language:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1430247762/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_jqgLBbP544HBT

A good starter kit. Comes with alot of goodies like the program used to write the code and compile it, the arduino itself, super sonic sensor, DC motors to name a few as well as data sheets for each piece:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01EWNUUUA/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_krgLBbN85GPHF

Book recommended to me that helps with the more complex builds: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1259587541/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_UrgLBb7STEDSA

My first project I made/wrote was to make a couple LEDs blink in specific intervals. May not seem like much but like I said, biggest learning curve is learning to program the arduino itself.

Good luck

Arduino is a great learning tool and to go from idea to finished project is quite fast. I definitely recommend starting with arduino and see if you like it. If you continue, you'll find that you have to purchase an arduino for each project you start, which can get quite expensive, or you'll be ripping apart old projects to get the arduino.


I purchased arduino and a few shields, but I felt like I really didn't know how everything was working electronically. I really enjoy programming, learning about electronics and making devices, so I decided to stop using arduino and just use the atmega microcontroller, which is the MCU that arduino is based on.


If you wanted to go this route then I would suggest buying an AVR ISP mkii programmer and downloading atmel studio. It's much easier to program the chips than any other method I've tried. Less fiddling. If you have experience in C programming then it will be really easy.


This is the best beginners tutorial I've found for atmel AVR:
https://www.newbiehack.com/


This book is an excellent follow up to that tutorial:
http://www.amazon.ca/Make-Programming-Learning-Software-Hardware/dp/1449355781/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1398472387&sr=8-1&keywords=make+avr+programming


A good book on electronics - 1000 pages:
http://www.amazon.ca/Practical-Electronics-Inventors-Third-Edition/dp/0071771336

digikey.ca or .com has lots of parts and next day shipping for $8.


how to make an arduino on a bread board:
http://arduino.cc/en/Main/Standalone


Breadboard, Schematic and PCB layout software
http://fritzing.org

Soon you'll be etching PCBs at home

Learning electronics is a lot like music. There is an insane amount of information, but if you get an economic working knowledge under your belt, you can really do some amazing things. In order for you not to get lost in the rabbit hole, I will provide you these methods of learning practical hobby electronics.

First, is simply just a suggestion. There are two "domains" of electronic thinking and analysis: digital and analogue. Fuck analog right in its dumb face. The math used in analog is fucking super duper hard, and analog circuits are prone to interference problems. Digital is where you want to be. It's vastly simpler to use programmable digital parts, and analyze digital circuits. Don't get lost in AC equations of capacitor, or the god damned transistor equation (seriously, fuck that. )

Okay here is how I learned hobby digital electronics:
First buy this, and go through all the examples in the workbooks. When you learn electronics you 100% HAVE TO DO HANDS ON LEARNING! DONT LEARN IT FROM A BOOK! MAKE CIRCUITS!
https://www.amazon.com/Radio-Shack-Electronics-Learning-20-055/dp/B00GYYEL8I

At the same time, read this (which is a good topical explanation, and free):
http://jacquesricher.com/NEETS/

And buy and read this (which is an EXCELLENT formal introduction into the physics):
https://www.amazon.com/Practical-Electronics-Inventors-Third-Scherz/dp/0071771336

Also you are going to learn how to program, which is an entirely different topic. Programming and hobby electronics make you a master of the universe, so it's worth it. I learned programming in the electronics domain and it was awesome. I made a microcontroller FM synthesizer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TvuzTK3Dzk

So basically, the way I learned programming in general was self-teaching with books. Again, you have to do it hands-on. Actually complete the examples in the books, and you'll be fine.
First, learn procedural c programming using C primer plus. Buy an older version so it'll be super cheap:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0672326965/ref=sr_1_3_twi_pap_1_olp?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1465827790&sr=1-3&keywords=c+primer+plus

Next, learn Object oriented programming using head first java. They do a great job of tackling OOP, which can be a difficult thing to learn.
https://www.amazon.com/Head-First-Java-Kathy-Sierra/dp/0596009208/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1465827860&sr=1-1&keywords=head+first+java


You're overwhelmed because they're deep topics. But, seriously, its the most fun shit ever. You'll love learning how to do it.

Wow, thanks fro the great answers /u/crb3 ! Really interesting stuff.

Number 3 I'm going to read through really slowly again to try to makes sure I get it all. Reverse protection diode makes sense. I think I can leave it out since I am using only 9v DC from the wall wart so it'd be hard to get it backwards like a battery. It seems like increasing the value of C3 would allow a larger reservoir of power and less sag?

One question, why does it matter it it is a 0.1 uF MLC cap vs some other type of capacitor, i.e., What desirable properties are exclusive to MLC?

This is exactly what I has hoping for. I'm slowly working through this book now to get a better understanding of this stuff, but practical explanations like the ones you provided are really interesting and provide an awesome supplement to what I have learned so far from the text book!

Next step is the breadboard to try some of this stuff out!

As a student, I can recommend "Practical Electronics For Inventors, Fourth Edition" by Paul Scherz, accompanied by the occasional youtube video and reddit question :)
You can buy it from Amazon here

I havent read any others, so I cant compare the quality, but you can go through it like a book and be able to understand everything. You may run into some problems in the real world that requires some fairly advanced calculus, which the book doesn't cover. (It does cover where to apply it, just not how). It is really extensive (1256 pages on my desktop e-reader), so if you have an idea for something specific you want to build, there might be something more efficient out there :)

I would think that not a lot of electronics books, if any, explain the math in full, so I would suggest that you find an online source for whatever specific piece of math you've run into. I can recommend Kahn academy.

Good luck :)

Hey there! Welcome to the hobby!
For reading, I recommend Practical Electronics for the Inventor. If you're brand new and want something a bit less dense, the Make series is a good place to start.
The box you've got looks a lot like a component kit a friend of mine gave me. He tried the electronics program at ITT before they went under and this is what they gave him. It's got some nice stuff in it and it's great for a beginner.
Now, you want to know what's in there? Google is your best friend. Everything has an identifying code on the side. Punch that into the search bar and 90 percent of the time you'll find everything you need to know about it. It's tedious, but it's the way of things.
Good luck and have fun!

Modern Recording Techniques for actual audio. Professor was a wealth of information, so we used a lot of handouts, but he did give us a recommended reading list:

Assistant Engineer's Handbook

Mastering Audio

Master Handbook of Acoustics

personally, i found having a copy of Practical Electronics for Inventors laying around super useful, as it explains circuits and what different diagram symbols mean and how to build basic circuits - awesome if for some reason you need to troubleshoot a piece of gear or you're just curious about what's going on under the hood

Read read read and experiment!

https://www.amazon.com/Practical-Electronics-Inventors-Third-Scherz/dp/0071771336 is one of my favorite books that explains in great detail the workings of components, without getting overly mathematical. (Math is critical in understanding the behavior, however.)

Then get a basic scope/dmm (or get access to a lab) and build circuits to exercise your knowledge. It won’t work on the first couple tries, but google is your friend, and thats when the learning really materializes — when you understand why something didn’t work, and when you understand how to fix it.

Youtube is a great reference too. Here are some channels I’m subscribed to. Good luck!
https://www.youtube.com/user/w2aew
https://www.youtube.com/user/engineerguyvideo
https://www.youtube.com/user/LearnEngineeringTeam
https://www.youtube.com/user/sutty6
https://www.youtube.com/user/msadaghd
https://www.youtube.com/user/EEVblog

There's definitely something to be said about being self-employed. If you can pull it off, being your own boss is probably pretty liberating. I was actually having a conversation with my roommate last night about work and money, etc. He graduated college a few months back with a 4-year degree and now he's making $30k/year at a job he already hates after working there for a month. It does suck to feel like a pawn of the system - you work for pennies while other people profit immensely off of your productivity. So going freelance might ameliorate that problem for you.

In regards to printing PCBs, yeah, that's electrical engineering. There's a book my EE friend made me buy that you might find useful for that endeavor: Practical Electronics for Inventors. Though that link to American Amazon might not be the best based on your usage of the word "flat." I've been working my way through a different one - Essentials of Computing Systems, which I've found pretty cool. Starting with NAND gates (in a hardware simulator) it has you build up a fully functional computer, which you then write software for. Pretty cool stuff. For context I'm a 23 year old chemical engineering graduate who's 2 years into a 7 year MD/PhD program. So lots of tests left to take and reports to write for me at least.

maybe check out this book and see if you can do a little better with it. it still has math, but you can't really get around all of it: http://www.amazon.com/Practical-Electronics-Inventors-Paul-Scherz/dp/0071771336


you at least have to be able to do some ohms law and some basic calculations. A lot of other things have seemingly impenetrable calculus behind them but I've found a lot of the time you can just read a data sheet and they'll give you some simple formulas that you can just plug into that work well enough. You don't need to know how they came up with the formulas, just plug in your parameters and go.


You should go on youtube and watch some videos of people repairing amps. there's lots of good ones and you can pick up a lot of stuff through osmosis. also check out EEVblog.


lastly, instead of messing with your nice guitar amp, build a cheap one yourself and mess with it. there's tons of schematics online you can use and it's pretty fun to build one. I put this one together and I really like it: http://www.runoffgroove.com/ruby.html You can buy all the parts from digikey.com

Electronics is both easy and hard. The easy parts are following a schematic and plugging existing circuits together. This is usually much easier with digital electronics since all the electronics are doing are turning the current on and off or bringing the voltage high or low. The hardest part is making sure you connect all the wires correctly, and most devices are protected, and voltages are low, so crossing wires won't fry the device (though LEDs are easy to burn out). You can get very far with this "lego" mindset to circuit design. If you want to understand how current flows through an electrical network, and why resistors need specific values, how analog circuits work, and why digital signals need certain components like capacitors, then you'll need to invest more time in understanding electrical theory. This book is really good for that: http://www.amazon.com/Practical-Electronics-Inventors-Third-Edition/dp/0071771336

I would highly recommend Art of Electronics. I've read dozens of books on this category and it is by far my favorite; useful both for initial instruction as well as later reference. Yes, it is expensive, but IMHO is well worth it.

The other book I'd recommend is "Practical Electronics for Inventors" by Scherz and Monk. Best breakdown of capacitor types and applications that I've seen. Link here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0071771336

https://learn.sparkfun.com

https://learn.adafruit.com

This is not Arduino specific though there is a chapter on it but it's a very good how to reference book: Practical Electronics for Inventors, Fourth Edition https://www.amazon.com/dp/1259587541/

It's sort of like getting a $20 textbook except with less theory and more about how to do various things, what parts to use, etc.

There's also a free textbook here that is pretty good:

• http://www.allaboutcircuits.com/textbook/direct-current/
  
• http://www.allaboutcircuits.com/textbook/digital/

Now that the 3rd edition has been published, used copies of the 2nd edition of The Art of Electronics is super cheap. I think this is the best intro circuits book for self study. Alternatively, I've really enjoyed Practical Electronics for Inventors too, and it covers more modern stuff (like it has a chapter on arduino). Both of these start with the basics, though Practical Electronics written for a more general audience so it is easier on the math.

For electromagnetics, I've heard Electricity and Magnetism is pretty good. It does cover some circuits stuff, but so much of circuits is about electronic components that you really need a dedicated circuits book to understand them.

Luckily it's never been easier to start learning electronics. I know you want hands-on experience but you gotta learn some theory first - I'd recommend a book like Practical Electronics for Inventors to learn the basics (some people swear by The Art of Electronics but it is not a beginners book, rather more of a intermediate-advanced reference). Then something like the Arduino Starter Pack that will start you on the path to building circuits!

Along the way, watching electronics tutorials and teardowns on youtube, and taking apart stuff to see how it works would also really help.

I had the same approach as you when I first started learning electronics; I'd recommend Practical Electronics for Inventors. While it does explain just about every topic in great detail, it does so at a pace that's neither too slow nor too fast; you can easily skip the more technical chapters, and stick to the easy bits too.
However, if you want to do more than create simple signal clipping distortion pedals, I would suggest that you read the technical stuff as well, to learn what actually goes on in a circuit, and to understand how you might modulate your guitar's sound.

Both books include a fair amount of information transistor/structural level. LaMeres' is didactically one of the best books available on the topic and well suited for non-EE students. If you really want to beat the software engineers with a big electronics book, then I would rather recommend Practical Electronics for Inventors by Scherz and Monk instead which has good didactic quality and even covers digital electronics, programmable circuits and Verilog in sufficient detail.

Good idea. I did an "electronics for scientists" class from the physics department when I was an undergrad. Can't remember what book we used, I think it was by a guy at Duke University maybe. It was a good starting point, covering LRC circuits, transistors, and opamps.

Edit: It's this book: https://www.amazon.com/Principles-Electronics-Lloyd-R-Fortney/dp/0195178637/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1469462772&sr=8-1&keywords=Fortney+electronics

Horowitz and Hill is a really good reference. I have another book on my reference shelf, I think it's this one: https://www.amazon.com/Practical-Electronics-Inventors-Fourth-Scherz/dp/1259587541/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1469455654&sr=8-1&keywords=electronics+for+inventors

Here is a great website with some circuits that are common building blocks of instrumentation:

http://www.ecircuitcenter.com/

(see "Circuit Collection" link).

Finally, Linear Technologies has a free version of Spice called LTSpice that you can use for circuit simulation on Windows (hope I'm not violating any rules on commercial stuff; I just happen to use it and like it). If you use Linux, there is a package called gEDA that has a schematic entry tool and a version of Spice. I haven't used the Spice tool yet from that package, but it's probably good.

Best two:

• Practical Electronics for Inventors - a new version is supposed to be coming out in 2015 to correct the bugs in this book, there quite a few errors in the book, but its still a great read
  
  
• The Art of Electronics - an old college text book, out of print and hard to find, but a classic. I always considered this book to be a sort of the electronics version of "Joy of Cooking". You can find used copies sometimes at a decent price on Ebay. The new 3rd edition is coming out in April 2015, but its going to be a >$100 hardback textbook and its kinda pricey.
  

The Horowitz/Hill bible is great, he's a physicist/EE. For some people, though, his interest in the physics isn't necessarily what they geek out on, and so for those people I'd suggest also Practical Electronics for Inventors.

https://www.amazon.com/Practical-Electronics-Inventors-Third-Scherz/dp/0071771336

I found this book to be very easy for beginners to pick up and enjoy, and get started on building far more quickly.

I bought the official kit a few months ago and I finished all the projects.

• The kit contains a lot more components than you need to complete the projects. Lots of resistors, capacitors, temperature sensors and LEDs.
  
  
• The book doesn't explain much of the science. If you want to know more about the science I recommend this book.
  
  Its an good kit. It got me started but I really wanted more in depth explanations.
  
  Another great resource is Sparkfun. They sell kits which are very well documented and provide lots of other information

Assuming you’re a beginner, and are starting with little to no knowledge:

I bought the 3rd edition of the book called “Practical Electronics for Inventors” by Scherz and Monk it starts from the basics and you slowly build more and more complex and practical circuits.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1259587541/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_eTs2BbXN9S1DN

Another fun on by Monk is “The Maker's Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse: Defend Your Base with Simple Circuits, Arduino, and Raspberry Pi”
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1593276672/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_XVs2BbYMVJT5N

If you are looking for something more theory based (I wouldn’t recommend initially unless you’re just curious) there’s a whole slew of texts books depending on what exactly you’re interested in you can pick up for cheap at a used book store or on amazon.

Remember build slowly in the beginning until you get a good grasp on the content and have fun. Diving in too deep to quickly can overwhelm and kill morale.

Happy learning!

I'm in the same boat. Most of the Arduino tutorials I see are aimed at hardware people. They tediously explain what an if () statement is but assume you know how to hook up a MOSFET.

I bought this book. I've not read it yet, but from what I've skimmed of it so far it seems pretty great -- just what I need. After that I think it's all about practical experience. Be ready to waste some money either damaging parts or buying the wrong parts. Luckily it's all pretty cheap.

What kind of robot do you want to make?

I favor books over websites and youtube videos for most technical learning projects like this.

Practical Electronics for Inventors has been in one of my amazon wishlists for a while now, saved for when I decide to start tinkering more myself. It looks pretty decent and isn't uber expensive.

It's difficult to tell without seeing it, but "Learning the Art of Electronics" looks like a book to accompany "The Art of Electronics". If you're a beginner, The Art of Electronics might be a bit overwhelming. My recommendation as an absolute starting point is Getting Started in Electronics by Forest M. Mimms. It's old and used to be sold at Tandy, but it gives a really quick and simply overview of the basics, and you can get the 3rd edition here for free:
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B5jcnBPSPWQyaTU1OW5NbVJQNW8/edit

If you're still interested after reading Getting Started, it's probably appropriate to move on to either The Art of Electronics http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Art-Electronics-Paul-Horowitz/dp/0521809266/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=0H11CKC3J5KJMF8BHHA8

or the much cheaper Practical Electronics for Inventors (as mentioned elsewhere - 4th edition is out in April)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Practical-Electronics-Inventors-Third-Scherz/dp/0071771336/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1452851192&sr=1-1&keywords=practical+electronics+for+inventors

The guys over at www.circuitlab.com are building a really awesome, free, in-browser schematic drawing tool and simulator.

Practical Electronics for Inventors is also a good mix of theory and telling you what you need to know to make things blink.

White noise posting here.

Obviously not everything in there...but both do a really good job at pointing out not only typical circuits + intuition, but also on what common configurations of passives do and what they are used for. Sometimes you can look at some circuit and there are three or four resistors/caps/inductors that don't seem to do anything but touch the ground rail...figuring out what those do is very handy as well, and those links to a good job at helping you sort that out.

What you're looking for is hobbyist electronics more than engineering. I'd suggest checking out a hackerspace like Pumping Station One. They're sort of community workshops that allow you to use their equipment and attend more informal classes/events.

If you'd like some books that are a good starting point I recommend Make Electronics and Practical Electronics for Inventors

As a ECE this book is awesome and only $20. Great practical as well as theoretical info. https://www.amazon.com/Practical-Electronics-Inventors-Fourth-Scherz/dp/1259587541

Not a question, but a thank you.

I got started in electronics when this book came out around 79. I was 13 and biked to my Radio Shack, took examples from the notebook, started jamming 555's and 74xx's and those newfangled LED's into project board, and made real things. At some point, you can piece several ideas together and make a more complicated thing, solder it together and have something useful.

It turned into a way of thinking, and a career. Just saying, it was influential, and thank you.

Hey buddy!

I'm a college senior studying computer engineering (the hardware side of computer science). I'm about to hook you up.

For the circuits and electronic components. This book is so good we used it for two of my classes. Oh and it is relatively cheap. It also explains the physics in a really approachable way.

You are going to need to learn to program in C, This game is free and is a great place to start!!

You are also going to need a good, cheap source of electronic components. Mouser is what I use.

In short here is your checklist!

1. Learn to program in C.
   
2. Read practical electronics
   
3. STUDY MATH (you can't get around it. You need Calculus, Trig, and Differential equations. Wave related subjects are especailly important. For computers throw in algorithms.) If all that seems overwhelming just know you don't need it at first but if you hit a roadblock or don't understand why an equation works you probably just need a more advanced math.

Personally I love Practical Electronics for Inventors. It is massive and covers the basics as well as so many different subdisciplines that you can pursue. Also to my surprise it is only $20.

But more practical advice would be to research your university’s EE course path and read through the course syllabi. Find out what topics are covered in the core/required courses. See what electives you think you’d be interested in. Consider buying 1st edition (cheaper) versions of one or two or more of the textbooks that are used in those courses.

Try 'Practical Electronics for Inventors' by 'Paul Scherz'. This book is awesome. It is quite cheap too.
https://www.amazon.com/Practical-Electronics-Inventors-Fourth-Scherz/dp/1259587541

You can also try 'The Art of Electronics'. Its 3rd edition was released a year back I think. It has an informal style, so, I suppose you'll like it.
https://www.amazon.com/d/cka/Art-Electronics-Paul-Horowitz/0521809266

This site is also good.
https://www.allaboutcircuits.com/

1. Read those two books and understand them. Now you can calculate the closed-loop gain of any opamp circuit.
   
   
2. Find an Opamp Circuit Collection, either in manufacturer's Application Notes or in books. ONE , TWO , THREE , FOUR , FIVE , SIX . Do a table lookup: find your circuit in their collection. Then read their analysis, including their calculation of its gain. Then decide whether you trust them.
   
   
3. Find an EE who has taken and passed a couple of courses on circuit design with opamps. Pay her to analyze your circuit and explain it to you.

Mostly YouTube videos and online articles. One book in particular I do recommend however is "Practical Electronics for Inventors". Tons of great information, but may be a bit too much if you're a complete noob.

https://www.amazon.com/Practical-Electronics-Inventors-Fourth-Scherz/dp/1259587541

These websites also have lots of great info:

http://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/

https://www.allaboutcircuits.com/textbook/

Get a practical electronics book right off the bat if you are into electronics. Something like this (or perhaps this):
https://www.amazon.com/Practical-Electronics-Inventors-Third-Scherz/dp/0071771336?ie=UTF8&keywords=electrical%20engineering&qid=1460691202&ref_=sr_1_1&s=books&sr=1-1

Also note the price-tag. This book is a gem.

University textbooks often don't have the right mindset to them and now that I've finished my degree and out in the workforce I'm realizing this. You want a book that will actually teach you how to build something. The field of EE also loves to apply a whole bunch of meanings to a few terms, for example "electricity" and "grounding", which can very easily confuse and mislead beginners. Practical books tend to address these things a bit better in my opinion. This applies to any field - I'm an Industrial Engineer (power, motors, control, safety) and also own a book of this type on my field - here in Canada we have Techs and Engineers. The Techs tend to learn how to actually do things, and these are the types of books they read.

Regarding textbooks: something I've only discovered recently is buying Eastern Edition textbooks as they're much cheaper and essentially the same thing.

The transistor acts like a switch, when the GPIO pin goes up (current applied to base), the transistor opens and high current flows between collector and emitter. If you are interested in understanding and learning more, I can recommend you a book (it helped me A LOT): Practical Electronics for Inventors. It explains this and much more in words that most would understand and doesn't go into the math or formulas that explains how it works. You'll learn to use IC, transistor, diodes, to create your own schematics, etc.

I have had good results with this book.

Practical Electronics for Inventors

If youre asking a question about a resistor and an LED, I bet you will have more complex questions about EE topics as you go forward. The book is good for engineering minds that havent studied EE in my experience. Plus the book is pretty cheap for the amount of knowledge inside.

Google for "short channel effects" and "velocity saturation".

Here are some pretty good books that explain it all in exquisitely fine detail. Protip: buy used; buy earlier editions. The physics has been known for many years.

• Muller and Kamins
  
  
• Tsividis
  
  
• Foty
  
  
• Liu
  
  If you're going to buy a book on old style, traditional monocrystalline planar MOSFET physics, do it now while you still can. Planar MOSFETS are on the way out. The vertical channel HEXFET knocked them out of the power transistor market, and now the FINFET is poised to do the same in the VLSI arena.

I recommend this book to get started.

Practical Electronics for Inventors, Fourth Edition https://www.amazon.com/dp/1259587541/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_9lFwDbXMV8B57

It covers electronic basics and some more advanced components.

PCBs aren't too bad for hobbyist work; kicad is free, oshpark is cheap and fast. If you're planning anything at high frequency though, that's kind of a different level.

Be patient with yourself.

It's easier than you think. Grab this book http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0071771336/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 you'll learn a lot.

Anyway, even if you learned some theory you will need to practice and practice, the more you practice the better you become.

There's a lot of tutorials online, you can learn a lot and fast.

I my self am a CS student, I design my own custom board using Cadsoft Eagle, etch it, solder it and so on...

Nothing is hard, you just need to practice. Just search a bit online and start with the easy and small tutorials.

Edit: Grab your self an Arduino Kit or buy a bunch of each component (Jameco, Digikey, Mouser, DX.com, Aliexpress.com, Sparkfun....) and the required tools (soldering iron, plier, breadboards.....)
Also, you can buy some unsoldered boards with their components and read the manual to learn more about circuits and soldering.

Soup to nuts.

I wouldn't consider it a "practical" guide for PCB design; if you want to get up and running fast, this isn't for you.

But if you want a good book that will introduce you to a bit of everything involved in the design and manufacture of PCB's, you'll love it.

For electronics I started with this book: http://www.amazon.com/Make-Electronics-Discovery-Charles-Platt/dp/0596153740/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1369542421&sr=8-1&keywords=Make%3A+electronics
It has lots of cool experiments to get you started with concepts.

Then there's this: http://www.amazon.com/Practical-Electronics-Inventors-Third-Edition/dp/0071771336/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1369542421&sr=8-10&keywords=Make%3A+electronics
This will go much deeper into theory and give you a strong foundation.

Though if you want to delve right into the programming part: http://www.makershed.com/Getting_Started_with_Arduino_Kit_V3_0_p/msgsa.htm
and
http://www.makershed.com/Raspberry_Pi_Starter_Kit_Includes_Raspberry_Pi_p/msrpik.htm

MicroCenter will have the kits, and RadioShack should have the tinier parts, as well as the Raspberry Pi.

Electrosmash has some great analysis articles on some classic pedals. They get into different components and design choices in exacting detail. If you don't know anything at all about electronics, a lot of stuff will be a mysterious (what's an op amp??) until you read about a specific part (oh, it's a miniature integrated circuit with some transistors that lets you amplify a signal using a fixed gain set by some resistors). But seeing the parts in context will give you an idea what they're doing. A lot of electronics guides focus on on the abstract mathematical relationships between components, which are important but don't give you the "what's this do" information you might be looking for. Practical electronics for inventors is a good book that covers fundamentals with common examples.

Interesting. I have more reading to do. But that's good. Hmmm I could have sworn there was a section in this book that talked about ohms law could t be used to both ways or something or other. Oh well.

This is pretty great, especially for the price. It is sectioned off into multiple topics, but refers to the other sections as far as design is concerned. It does have some basics, but gets pretty complicated in some of the opamp sections.

I would do it, but with family obligations, I just don't have the time.

There are plenty of good tutorials on how to solder on YouTube. The gist of it is to heat up the components with the iron, then add solder. It just takes practice. And don't buy the cheap solder -- you'll get poor results even with the proper technique.

As far as electronics theory, I like this book as a basic reference.

When you get to building a tube amp, I would recommend modifying or refurbishing one before you go for a scratch build. Do you mean a tube hi-fi amp or a tube guitar/bass amp?

This is a pretty good guide to the electronics part. Find kits on AliExpress for the components.

Thank you! I think I might buy Make: Electronics or Practical Electronics for Inventors just to have on hand as a quick reference manual.

I am in a similar boat like yourself and found the following useful.

• Designing Embedded Hardware by John Catsoulis, 2nd Ed. - A very logical approach to HW without drowning in Electronics.
  
  
• Introduction to Embedded Systems by Jimenez, Palomera et.al. - Just enough explanations of HW accompanied by how to use it in SW.
  
  
• Practical Electronics for Inventors by Scherz, Monk 4th Ed.
  

+1 for recommending Practical Electronics for Inventors. I highly, highly, highly recommend this book. I am currently an electrical engineering grad student and I still reference this book from time to time when working through simple circuits, either for debugging or optimization.

http://www.amazon.com/Practical-Electronics-Inventors-Third-Edition/dp/0071771336

I very much recommend this book as a basic intro to electronics. There's no need to complicate this with analogy.

I bought this 'recommended additional reading' as a student and have since loaned it to several non-EE friends who have gotten a lot out of it as well.

This book by Paul Scherz was recommended in one of these threads, and I've just started reading it.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1259587541

It seems to cover what you're looking for... a good overview of a large number of topics. It does get into some detail, but I like it so far.

I would recommend Practical Electronics for Inventors. This book is awesome for all electronic concepts. Plenty of examples and working problems. Here’s a link on amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Practical-Electronics-Inventors-Fourth-Scherz/dp/1259587541/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?keywords=electronics+book&qid=1567720843&s=gateway&sr=8-1

If you want to do it all on your own and have 0 experience you are going to have to learn a lot about programming and electronics.

You can start here for programming:
http://www.amazon.com/C-Programming-Modern-Approach-2nd/dp/0393979504/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1426519326&sr=8-1&keywords=c+programming+a+modern+approach

For electronics start here:

http://www.amazon.com/Getting-Started-Electronics-Forrest-Mims/dp/0945053282/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1426519459&sr=8-1&keywords=getting+started+in+electronics

Then here
http://www.amazon.com/Practical-Electronics-Inventors-Paul-Scherz/dp/0071771336/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1426519443&sr=8-1&keywords=circuit+design

Once you've done that then I suggest you start buying Arduino kits etc. I'm not saying you need a lot of experience to start with Arduino, but if you are looking to make a commercialized project and have a budget I think it's better to know what to buy before you start throwing money away in things (e.g. kits) you won't even use.

I was at your stage not long ago and had the same concern. Then I stumble on this book, available in electronic version that start you at the very begining and explain very well the basic of electronic, each excercise add a little bit more complexity till you reach arduino stuff.

http://www.makershed.com/products/make-electronics-2ed

And

http://www.makershed.com/products/make-more-electronics

And a good reference book:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1259587541/ref=dbs_a_w_dp_1259587541

I love this book. It covers a wide range of electronics design for practical use.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0071771336/ref=cm_sw_r_udp_awd_kOc4tb1KNM6BD

Practical Electronics for Inventors

The name is somewhat silly but I've found it to be particularly useful. Plus, its fairly cheap...

Scherz - Practical Electronics for Inventors

I have the second edition and keep it at my desk for stuff. It's awesome.

I've heard great things about this book: http://www.amazon.com/Practical-Electronics-Inventors-Third-Edition/dp/0071771336

Scherz's Practical electronics for inventors is a good intro level book that includes theory at an understandable level and lots of practical stuff. The early editions had a lot of mistakes but presumably by now it's better edited

https://smile.amazon.com/Practical-Electronics-Inventors-Fourth-Scherz/dp/1259587541/

Maybe something like this?

http://vetco.net/products/300-in-one-experimenter-kit

I'd also recommend the following books:

Practical Electronics for Inventors:
www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1259587541

Make: Electronics:
www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1680450263

Make: More Electronics:
www.amazon.com/dp/1449344046

I polled Reddit once, asking which books everyone would recommend. This one was by far the most suggested, followed by Practical Electronics for Inventors. I was gifted both last Christmas, but still haven't found the time to open them up. I'd like to go on a vacation somewhere cozy, and just power through this one.

The "... for Inventors" book is more something that you'd reference on an as-needed basis. Not as much teaching and instruction as this one.

I'm entirely self-taught in radio and electronics. It's totally doable. I started as a kid because my grandfather was a ham radio operator and electronics tinkerer and I loved the stuff he had in his basement.

Many of the resources published by the American Radio Relay League (the ARRL) are geared toward hobbyists and (unsurprisingly) amateurs. They contain just enough math and theory to get you to where you need to be to understand how stuff works without going deep into RF / electrical-engineering math. The ARRL Handbook is a classic that's been around for decades and is updated every year.

Another book someone recommended to me ages ago is Practical Electronics for Inventors. I've never seen better explanations of electronic theory and basic circuits than I've seen in this book. I can't recommend it enough. If you buy only one book, I would make it this one.

If you want to learn about electronics, I'd suggest reading "Practical Electronics for Inventors" by Paul Scherz. Truly an excellent book. You can get nearly as much out of this as you would a four-year electrical engineering schooling, but it's written so that it's totally accessible if you don't want to go that far in depth.

For books, try Practical Electronics for Inventors by Paul Scherz and Simon Monk

and Getting Started in Electronics by Forrest Mims

As far was websites go, SparkFun have some good tutorials.

https://www.amazon.com/Practical-Electronics-Inventors-Fourth-Scherz/dp/1259587541

If you want to get a good overview of AC and DC beyond wiring circuit breakers and light switches.

He sounds a lot like me. I hate clutter. I would recommend this.

If he already knows all that, then this.

If he already knows all that, then he's set for life and you can probably just stop getting him gifts now.

There's a book called the Practical Inventors Guide to Electronics: https://www.amazon.com/Practical-Electronics-Inventors-Fourth-Scherz/dp/1259587541/

I really liked Getting Started in Electronics by Forest Mims: https://www.amazon.com/Getting-Started-Electronics-Forrest-Mims/dp/0945053282/

Others may disagree, but I've found this book
http://www.amazon.com/Practical-Electronics-Inventors-Third-Edition/dp/0071771336
To be extremely informative both for the layman such as myself, and I imagine it's useful for the more experienced of us as It goes into rather extensive detail - including all the mathematics and electrical theory.

This is a good practical book made for the beginner:

https://www.amazon.com/Practical-Electronics-Inventors-Third-Scherz/dp/0071771336

This is the "bible":

https://www.amazon.com/Art-Electronics-Paul-Horowitz/dp/0521370957

This might be a good start, Practical Electronics for Inventors:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0071771336/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

The IC Op-Amp Cookbook by Walter Jung has hooked thousands of engineers and hobbyists. Strongly recommended.

This one is also good. I've gone through both of them.


https://www.amazon.com/Practical-Electronics-Inventors-Fourth-Scherz/dp/1259587541

Almost done with the program, if you want to just pass course 101 then you only need https://quizlet.com/BMET101 (EDITED: wrong link previously)

and

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtz1snimkmSqHtOzvTGIup-qqxy_TmTXV

​

if you want a more in-depth understanding then I would recommend something like

Getting started in electronics by Forrest Mims

https://www.khanacademy.org/science/electrical-engineering (up to Electrostatics section)

https://www.amazon.com/Practical-Electronics-Inventors-Fourth-Scherz/dp/1259587541/

​

There was some book I bought a while back that I thought was good as a basic reference, forget what it was called though. I think it was this one

Might be worthwhile picking up a copy since it's only 20 bucks.

Edit: Also, I learned most of what I did out of sheer necessity - as in I wanted to build something that required hardware and I incrementally learned what I needed to get it built. Doesn't provide the most solid foundation, but I always found hands-on to be the fastest way to learn things especially when supplemented with actual reading material

If you're looking for a book to get started, I'd highly recommend Practical Electronics for Inventors. It's not arduino specific, but there is a whole chapter on microcontrollers.

Honestly my go-to is probably odd but it's very complete (doesn't cover layout but that's very tool-specific and thus temporal/changing over time): Printed Circuits Handbook. Much of what you need to know isn't directly tactical to your project.

Might want to try this book.

Want to know how to test something (or build an IC)?

A.J. Van De Goor - Testing Semiconductor Memories
Roberts - Introduction to Mixed-Signal IC Test and Measurement
Sharma - Semiconductor Memories: Technology, Testing and Reliability

Stanley Wolf - Silicon Processing for the VLSI Era (all 4 volumes, yikes)

If you move the decimal over. This is about 1,000 in books...

(If I had to pick a few for 100 bucks: encyclopedia of country living, survival medicine, wilderness medicine, ball preservation, art of fermentation, a few mushroom and foraging books.)


Medical:

Where there is no doctor

Where there is no dentist

Emergency War Surgery

The survival medicine handbook

Auerbach’s Wilderness Medicine

Special Operations Medical Handbook

Food Production

Mini Farming

encyclopedia of country living

square foot gardening

Seed Saving

Storey’s Raising Rabbits

Meat Rabbits

Aquaponics Gardening: Step By Step

Storey’s Chicken Book

Storey Dairy Goat

Storey Meat Goat

Storey Ducks

Storey’s Bees

Beekeepers Bible

bio-integrated farm

soil and water engineering

Organic Mushroom Farming and Mycoremediation

Food Preservation and Cooking

Steve Rinella’s Large Game Processing

Steve Rinella’s Small Game

Ball Home Preservation

Charcuterie

Root Cellaring

Art of Natural Cheesemaking

Mastering Artesian Cheese Making

American Farmstead Cheesemaking

Joe Beef: Surviving Apocalypse

Wild Fermentation

Art of Fermentation

Nose to Tail

Artisan Sourdough

Designing Great Beers

The Joy of Home Distilling

Foraging

Southeast Foraging

Boletes

Mushrooms of Carolinas

Mushrooms of Southeastern United States

Mushrooms of the Gulf Coast


Tech

farm and workshop Welding

ultimate guide: plumbing

ultimate guide: wiring

ultimate guide: home repair

off grid solar

Woodworking

Timberframe Construction

Basic Lathework

How to Run A Lathe

Backyard Foundry

Sand Casting

Practical Casting

The Complete Metalsmith

Gears and Cutting Gears

Hardening Tempering and Heat Treatment

Machinery’s Handbook

How to Diagnose and Fix Everything Electronic

Electronics For Inventors

Basic Science


Chemistry

Organic Chem

Understanding Basic Chemistry Through Problem Solving

Ham Radio

AARL Antenna Book

General Class Manual

Tech Class Manual


MISC

Ray Mears Essential Bushcraft

Contact!

Nuclear War Survival Skills

The Knowledge: How to rebuild civilization in the aftermath of a cataclysm

The Make books for electronics will get you a decent groundwork for the practical application side of things. Practical Electronics for Inventors will you get you covered on the theory side of things.

Not a video but, I'm just finishing my first semester of Circuits and I bought this book:

http://www.amazon.com/Practical-Electronics-Inventors-Paul-Scherz/dp/0071771336/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1418850335&sr=8-1&keywords=practical+electronics+for+inventors

and reading it helped much more than the class textbook. It will probably follow about the same arc as the glass and its a very readable technical book. Plus it has later chapters on actual practical circuits and stuff on digital circuits information so I highly recommend it.

I suggest this book

http://www.amazon.com/Practical-Electronics-Inventors-Third-Edition/dp/0071771336

Here is the mobile version of your link

Opamp cookbook is an incredible resource for this.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0672224534/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1484851683&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX196_SY282_QL65&keywords=opamp+cookbook&dpPl=1&dpID=4108YGZRVUL&ref=plSrch

https://www.amazon.com/Art-Electronics-Paul-Horowitz/dp/0521809266/

https://www.amazon.com/Practical-Electronics-Inventors-Fourth-Scherz/dp/1259587541/

PEI is excellent... https://www.amazon.com/Practical-Electronics-Inventors-Fourth-Scherz/dp/1259587541/ref=dp_ob_title_bk

I seen this book recommended on Youtube by some EE guys I follow. I have not read it but was thinking about getting it.

​

Beginners Guide to Reading Schematics

I explained to you my position and you still deny 48V at .33A would produce a shock that might cause a lawsuit. I was being friendly and informing and your rambling that it dosent matter because "it doesn't give the voltage and frequency". We were assuming PoE which is more than likely 48v and frequency dosent even make sense in the context as its DC.

I would recommend this book if you're interested in learning about Ohm law and current flow so you can make informed observations. However looking through your 1st page comment history briefly I can see you just want to argue and the subject is irreverent. Take care, I've wasted enough of my time.

You've demonstrated you don't know how an electrical load works, which is similar in DC and AC, based on your comments. Get through something like this before you tackle anything AC.

https://www.amazon.com/Practical-Electronics-Inventors-Third-Scherz/dp/0071771336


You can cause damage with DC stuff, but usually you'll pop ICs or other discrete components before anything too terrible happens. Mess around with AC and get it wrong and you've started a house fire or electrocuted yourself.