[HN Gopher] Ask HN: Can you recommend a book to learn basic elec...
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Ask HN: Can you recommend a book to learn basic electrical
concepts/engineering?
I think title says it all. Something like CODE but for electricity?
Thanks
Author : TurkishPoptart
Score : 95 points
Date : 2022-12-05 18:08 UTC (4 hours ago)
| anaphor wrote:
| Watch EEVblog's playlist on DC theory, and then play around with
| a breadboard and simulations using something like circuitjs. Get
| some basic tools such as a soldering iron (and
| solder/wick/sponge/etc), breadboard, wires, and a collection of
| components like resistors, capacitors, and LEDs, and so on.
| r/AskElectronics has a guide for all of the practical stuff you
| need. Pick a project you actually find interesting and work on it
| (after learning how to safely use your tools and components).
|
| Lots of people get started with things like using a
| microcontroller to light up some LEDs and so on. That will
| introduce you to basic concepts like how transistors work as well
| if you dig into it.
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSRe_4TQbuo&list=PLvOlSehNtu...
|
| https://www.falstad.com/circuit/circuitjs.html
|
| https://www.reddit.com/r/AskElectronics/wiki/beginners/
| kube-system wrote:
| Getting Started In Electronics by Forrest Mims
| JacesArchivist wrote:
| https://www.allaboutcircuits.com/textbook/
|
| This site is a gem
| dandigangi wrote:
| Used this. It's fantastic.
| mandeepj wrote:
| and, the best part - it's free
| jeremygaither wrote:
| [Make: Electronics](https://www.makershed.com/products/make-
| electronics-3rd-edit...) is an option I haven't seen posted yet.
| There are companies that sell electronic supplies and components
| to go along with the exercises in the books. EG: [Make:
| Electronics 3rd Edition Kit 1 & 2 Ultimate Deluxe Bundle Includes
| Book - Beginner Intermediate & Advanced Component Pack Follows
| The Experiments in Make: Electronics Third by Charles
| Platt](https://a.co/d/5iRUfMZ).
| DoingIsLearning wrote:
| Not a book but Agarwal's course:
|
| 6.002- Circuits and Electronics.
|
| It's open access online via MIT OCW, both the lecture materials
| and the actual lectures themselves.
|
| I was the only resource that actually made me feel I understood
| Circuit Analysis.
| kidgorgeous wrote:
| Basic Machines
| noncoml wrote:
| Sorry that is not a book, but this online course is amazing
| introduction https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=AfQxyVuLeCs
| WaitWaitWha wrote:
| All of Forrest M. Mims III books are a treasure trove of electric
| & electronics learning, in a very simple way.
|
| For starters, get the "Getting Started in Electronics" , and any
| of his "Engineer's Mini-Notebook" series.
| heinekan wrote:
| I've had others recommend Forest Mims books before.
|
| I tried to read the "Getting Started in Electronics" but the
| notebook style to it makes it difficult for me to read for much
| time. Content is still very great for beginners.
| dgeiser13 wrote:
| There Are No Electrons: Electronics for Earthlings by Kenn Amdahl
| jjtheblunt wrote:
| https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0521809266/ Horowitz and Hill
| is awesome, and Forrest Mims III i remember as awesome too
| ben30 wrote:
| "Electricity and Electronics" by Dale R. Patrick and Stephen W.
| Fardo
| pserwylo wrote:
| Although asking about books, I'll share my current experience as
| a software developer with 15 years experience trying to self-
| learn electronics.
|
| 1. "YouTube University" as per the top comment on this HN post
| [0]. I watch a few videos on the train to work or when winding
| down in my spare time. Over the past few months I've come to
| appreciate certain channels, your learning style may prefer
| others, but my list includes: The Engineering Mindset, Ben Eater,
| EEVBlog, learnelectronics, and ElectroBOOM, as well as whatever
| else I stumble upon when searching specific topics.
|
| 2. Reading theoretical concepts from text books. I've read
| https://www.allaboutcircuits.com/textbook/ recommended elsewhere
| in these comments and found it very well written for someone like
| myself just starting out. It covers the full gamut covering basic
| movement of electrons through to practical stuff - indeed much
| like the Ben Eater YouTube channel does).
|
| 3. Practicing mechanical skills like soldering (which also
| results in earning things I didn't know I needed to learn, such
| as "how do you keep this thing still while trying to work on
| it").
|
| 4. Prototyping with breadboards - both projects including micro
| controllers and those focusing on discrete electronics. This
| feels most like a literal application of my software dev skills,
| but with all of the theoretical electronics stuff sprinkled in.
| Although starting with just a basic collection of a few
| resistors, capacitors, LEDs, transistors was fine, now I enjoy
| having a steady stream of orders from AliExpress coming in. Each
| one is only the price of my morning coffee but takes a month to
| arrive, so whenever I am working on something and think I am
| lacking the components, I'll place an order then forget about it
| until it arrives.
|
| 5. Pulling apart things to see how they work - this is extremely
| satisfying because it helps not just with learning about how
| people lay out electronics projects, but also how the physical
| connections are made - how are PCBs mounted, where are springs
| and screws and other bits placed. It also helps practice
| desoldering skills.
|
| 6. Designing PCBs and getting them printed. It only costs about
| $5 to get a few copies of a PCB printed and mailed to you,
| designed using the free software KiCad. When I've got a toy
| project that worked on a breadboard, then also worked on a
| prototype board, I then go and design a PCB to print. So far in 2
| months I've designed and printed 3 boards. This is also extremely
| satisfying, and also helps learn more skills on the software and
| design side of things.
|
| Finally, I share liberally with my friends via SMS when I make
| progress. I have a few close friends who are good at electronics
| but don't do it professionally. By sharing my progress with them,
| I have people ask me how it is going, which keeps me honest and
| makes me want to keep making progress.
|
| After 2 months of spending an hour or so each night after the
| family goes to bed, I feel like this time I may actually pick up
| the skills I wanted. Previous attempts over the past 10 years
| have all failed due to lack of motivation.
|
| [0] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16775744
| waynesonfire wrote:
| i've been enjoying, Foundations of Analog and Digital Electronic
| Circuits by Anant Agarwal
| silisili wrote:
| 20 years ago, I called ATT expressing interest in being a
| lineman. They sent me a training manual of sorts to study. It was
| way thicker than expected, and covered all the electical formulas
| and concepts and such.
|
| Not sure if that is still around, but it may be worth giving them
| a call(or scouring the internet if someone OCRd it).
| cogman10 wrote:
| OP: My suggestion is a better definition of what you'd hope to
| get out of such a book.
|
| There are good suggestions here but I feel like you might be able
| to find better resources if there's more of an idea what you want
| to learn.
|
| OHMs law is fundamental, but it won't exactly show you how to
| make anything practical. (and you'll find that 90% of electricity
| intro books focus on those concepts vs getting you into something
| fun).
| binaryanomaly wrote:
| ChatGPT:
|
| There are many books available that can help you learn basic
| electrical concepts and engineering. Here are a few suggestions:
| "Electricity Demystified" by Stan Gibilisco "Electrical
| Engineering 101" by Darren Ashby "The Basics of
| Electricity" by Van Valkenburgh, Nooger & Neville, Inc.
| "Electrical Engineering: Principles and Applications" by Allan R.
| Hambley "Getting Started in Electronics" by Forrest M.
| Mims III
|
| These books are designed to provide a general introduction to
| electrical concepts and engineering, and can help you to
| understand the basics of electricity and how it is used in
| various applications. They may also include examples, diagrams,
| and practical exercises to help you learn and apply the concepts
| in a hands-on way. I encourage you to read reviews and compare
| the content and approach of different books to determine which
| one is the best fit for your learning style and goals.
|
| ---------------
|
| Is this useful at all?
| Jtsummers wrote:
| > Is this useful at all?
|
| About as useful as a google search.
| binaryanomaly wrote:
| So either the google search is very good or the AI is not
| adding any value compared to a ,,dumb search"?
|
| Which one is it?
| Jtsummers wrote:
| I'd say it's not adding any value compared to a "dumb
| search". Most of those books turned up directly in the
| google results for things like "basic electronics book" or
| "beginner electronics books" and so on, or in the listicles
| that populate the first page of those kinds of results.
| antegamisou wrote:
| Horowitz & Hill's Art of Electronics has been the gold standard
| for quite a while.
|
| https://artofelectronics.net/
| dragontamer wrote:
| Art of Electronics is a 300-level course (3rd year college).
|
| Its a great book for everyone at that level. But good luck even
| reading the first few pages if you don't know the basics yet.
|
| Art of Electronics is closer to the "last book you read" on
| electronics, rather than the first book. Its completely the
| opposite from what the original poster is asking here.
| adwn wrote:
| > _But good luck even reading the first few pages if you don
| 't know the basics yet._
|
| I disagree. Page 1 section 1.2: _Voltage, current, and
| resistance_. Section 1.2.2: _Relationship between voltage and
| current: resistors_. Section 1.2.2 B: _Resistors in series
| and parallel_. Section 1.2.3: _Voltage dividers_. Section
| 1.2.4: _Voltage sources and current sources_.
|
| If those aren't the absolute basics, I don't know what is.
| Yes, it's not "Soldering for Dummies", but that's not what OP
| was asking for.
| antegamisou wrote:
| > But good luck even reading the first few pages if you don't
| know the basics yet.
|
| Which concern the definition of Voltage, Current, Resistance
| and Ohm's Law as well as thorough descriptions of fundamental
| electronic components.
|
| I've heard a lot about the dubious quality of STEM education
| in the US highschool system, but this is all pretty
| fundamental physics knowledge taught as early as in primary
| school in many countries around the world and I'd suppose the
| same is true there as well.
|
| OK so re-reading OP's title it wasn't clear to me if they
| requested something explaining _basic electricity_ concepts
| or basic _electronics engineering_.
|
| For the former AoE may indeed be a bit unsuitable, however
| under no circumstances is it as beginner - hostile to EE
| students/enthusiasts as you made it out to be.
| skelpmargyar wrote:
| I never learned about electronics basics in K-12 in the
| West Coast US. We learned classical mechanics physics,
| chemistry, and even basic CS, but no electronics at all.
| Closest was galvanic cells in Chemistry. Not even ohms law.
| Coincidentally, one of my major interests is in
| electronics.
| Jtsummers wrote:
| When was that, out of curiosity? I was on the East Coast
| for middle school, we definitely covered some electronics
| basics including making simple circuits (and I figured
| out how to use switches and three-way switches to make
| logic circuits) and the basic math behind it, the class
| was called "physical science" (to contrast with life
| science which was a biology + ecology course the previous
| year). In Nevada for high school physics it was mostly
| about classical mechanics (motion) but we did a segment
| on electronics. All of this was in the 90s.
| [deleted]
| jope12 wrote:
| This is not a book for beginners.
| SJMosley wrote:
| Not a book, but why not learn like a child.
|
| https://upperstory.com/spintronics/
| cyberdelica wrote:
| When I was a child, I read a good book, called "(An Usborne
| Introduction) Electronics". Might be worth having a read.
| ledcube wrote:
| Practical Electronics for Inventors by Paul Scherz and Simon
| Monk.
| polishdude20 wrote:
| This. It's got loads of amazing diagrams and explanations. It's
| got the basics and more advanced stuff too. This is a great
| book.
| cyberdelica wrote:
| Just logged in, to add another recommendation for this book.
|
| There are errors, but they're not that hard to spot, if one's
| paying attention, when reading.
|
| Definitely read this, before the Art Of Electronics, if you're
| just starting out!
| blahblah1234567 wrote:
| In the last 4-5 years of occasionally looking for books to
| learn electrical concepts (at the armchair specialist level),
| this is the best one I've found.
| zeroxfe wrote:
| I've got two editions of this book. It's absolutely fantastic!
| gptadmirer wrote:
| I came here for copper and I found gold. Thank you
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