Book: Teach Yourself Electricity and Electronics (4th ed., 2006) by Stan Gibilisco

List Price: $35 US, but widely available online at a discount.

I flipped through a copy of the 3rd edition today. Very good for those who want to understand electronic theory, but without the heavy math. It begins with layman's chapters about the physics of electricity and electromagnetic concepts. Those provide the background for basic electronic theory, such as the laws describing the flow of current in a circuit. Later, the author brings up electronic parts and how they work, basic amplifiers (audio and rf) and some digital stuff. The 4th edition has more material on digital theory, wireless electronics.

There are no buildable circuits for the hobbyist here (just the bare outlines of circuits), but after reading through it, you'll have a solid foundation for understanding circuits. This book would make an excellent companion to hobbyist circuit books and more advanced electronics texts.

[Edited by cmoy on 10-28-2007 at 09:09 PM.]

The Art of Electronics by Horowitz and Hill. The absolute best general-purpose textbook for electronics, bar none. However it's a little beyond beginner level, but once you get into things a bit, the book becomes a treasure trove of useful information, example circuits and techniques. Even advanced DIYers will find themselves delving back into this book time and again for a needed refresher.

[Edited by amb on 03-23-2008 at 06:24 AM.]

IC Op-Amp Cookbook by Walter G. Jung, 3rd Edition.
An excellent book for applying opamps with lots of example circuits and techniques.

Op Amp Applications Handbook by Walt Jung
Published by Analog Devices, this is yet another great book from Walt Jung.

This book is out of print but also very good. The first edition was published in 1975, 2nd edition in 1978 and 3rd edition in 1986. Used and new copies can be found at amazon.com.

Here is a link to a list of books written by Walt Jung:
http://waltjung.org/Walts_Books.html

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[Quoting amb]

Op Amp Applications Handbook by Walt Jung
Published by Analog Devices, this is yet another great book from Walt Jung.

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This is available for download from Analog Devices

http://www.analo...s_handbook.html

List price: $25 US - rarely discounted.

One of the best starter texts on vacuum tube audio amplifiers. Recommended for those who already have some electronics knowledge and completed one or two solid state projects.

List price: $55 US, discounts available online.

Book: Building Valve Amplifiers by Morgan Jones (2004)

List price: $36 US, discounts available online.

These two must-have reference books for the tube audio builder should be purchased together, because together they are widely considered to be the most complete reference for the design and construction of tube amplifiers available today. The first offers circuits (preamps, headphone amps, power amps, power supplies), theory, tube and other parts selection. The second covers the practical aspects of layout and construction of tube amps (wiring, chassis preparation, testing). They are more advanced and comprehensive than the Bruce Rozenblit book.

[Edited by cmoy on 08-29-2007 at 12:06 PM.]

Whereas AoE is mostly theoretical with schematics, the AoE SM is very practical. It's spiral bound (at least, the edition I saw was spiral bound), contains discussions on electronics, tutorials and lab exercises. You can do many of the exercises with basic test gear like a multimeter.

The AoE SM is much more than a "lab manual," which is why it's not cheap. The price for the manual has gone up too, but there are used copies for sale.

Why have Horowitz and Hill not updated AoE? If they don't have the time, it seems to me they could contract a 3rd party to add new material and revise the older stuff (which is still quite useful).

Practical Electronics for Inventors by Paul Scherz (2nd ed. 2006)
Price: $40 US.

This book is somewhere between "Teach Yourself Electricity and Electronics" and "The Art of Electronics." The reader needs a stronger math background to get the most out of the material (algebra, some calculus, some complex numbers), although the basic concepts can be understood without it. There's more information about electronic theory, more circuits to study and more topics in analog and digital design than to be found in the TYEE book. I've seen the first edition and now there's a new edition published in 2006. Reviewers have noted lots of typos in both editions, so readers may want to double check things that seem confusing with another text like AoE.

Not really a beginner's book, the L&H Handbook is one of the very few books explaining headphone theory in mathematical detail. There are sections on headphone acoustics, psychoacoustics and applications. That's over 100 pages of headphone-related material in this 700-page volume.

If the price is a bit steep, many engineering libraries have a copy to loan or you can read it for free online in the Google Library.

[Edited by cmoy on 10-28-2007 at 09:06 PM.]

If you don't have access to an electronics lab and can't afford to set up a top-notch hobbyist station at home, circuit simulation software can install a complete lab inside your PC. At this time, my favorite simulation application is TINA-TI, a freeware version of the TINA simulator from DesignSoft. The "TI" part stands for Texas Instruments, which is offering TINA-TI as a means for customers to evaluate TI integrated circuits.

TINA-TI can do a whole lot more than test TI parts. It can import SPICE models for parts that are not included in the freeware database, including vacuum tubes. Unlike some other GUI-based circuit simulators, TINA-TI doesn't have a circuit size limit. You can build them as big as your fancy can conjure them. TINA has a nice selection of virtual tools like an oscilloscope, multimeter and function generator. You can run AC and DC analyses. All in all, a great package for learning electronics and for testing amp and filter designs on a drawing board before wiring them up on the breadboard.

Some tips:

1. TINA-TI requires that all circuits must have at least one TI integrated circuit. I put out a BUF634 on the board and connect the 4 pins to ground. The BUF634 remains outside the circuit and TINA-TI will allow the simulation to proceed.

2. When you import a SPICE model, the netlist must start with a line that has the characters "* TEXAS" all by itself. This way, the simulator thinks the part is a TI part.

3. TINA-TI has a large library of part symbols. When you import a SPICE model, TINA-TI will display a list of symbols by matching the pin names of the symbol to the pin names of the model. If no match is found, TINA-TI will generate a generic box for the symbol. If you want the imported model and the part symbol to match (like a transistor model goes with a transistor symbol), then you'll have to figure out what pin names go with the desired symbol and conform the model.

I've ready posted some examples of TINA-TI simulations in the DIY Workshop forum. Search the forum for "TINA" to get a listing.

http://www.ecircuitcenter.com/index.htm

Op Amps for Everyone by Ron Mancini (TI - Staff Scientist)

Later,

-Todd

(Admin note: you can download this book for free in PDF format here.)

[Edited by cmoy on 04-23-2008 at 06:47 PM.]

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[Quoting amb]

The Art of Electronics by Horowitz and Hill. The absolute best general-purpose textbook for electronics, bar none. ...

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I think the link there is missing an 'o' - should it be: http://www.artofelectronics.com ?

There's also a limited preview on Google Books - The Art of Electronics. I'm not sure if this is the latest edition though?

F

MacSPICE is a text-based SPICE simulator, but does graphing.

If you try any of these or find other Mac simulators, pls post comments/info.

[Edited by cmoy on 03-23-2008 at 08:06 AM.]

F

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[Quoting fortney]

Thanks, CMoy. I downloaded QUICS and will see what I can do. My knowledge of electronics ebbs and flows and is presently in an ebb tide so I will no doubt spend some time confused...

F

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Quics is a Linux program that I know nothing about installing. I did download the 1/07 version of MacSpice for my OSX10.2.8 and will see what I find.

F