First electronics book for a complete beginner

[chirieac]

Hi,

I'm a self-taught 28 years old programmer. I've decided to start learning electronics to expand my knowledge, but I don't know anything about it and my math skills are not good.
With what kind of book can I start in this field?

I was thinking to buy Make: Electronics (Learning by Discovery)
But I've also saw Practical Electronics for Inventors, which is newer and on the description page there is this quote: "If there is a successor to Make: Electronics, then I believe it would have to be Practical Electronics for Inventors...."

Which one would be better to start with?

 

[Audioguru]

The book called The Art Of Electronics is good.

 

[shegzzyy]

Go for electronics technology by bl theraja and ak theraja.it consist of both electrical,electronics,power and machines.

 

[bigdogguru]

Search for texts written by David A. Bell or Denton J. Dailey on Amazon.

I believe they are no longer in print, however you can purchase previous editions of their texts for a fraction of the cost of current editions.

Frankly, after examining many current texts utilized in university classes, both Bell and Dailey's texts present the material in a much better fashion.

Bell's texts typically provide several real world examples of component selection and design.

He also was known for his texts on Operational Amplifiers, which in my opinion have only been equaled or surpassed by a few more recent texts.

As far as the math requirements, typically the basics of electronic design can be adequately covered by a knowledge of multiplication, division, addition, subtraction and the ability to rearrange equations to find unknowns.

BigDog

 

[chirieac]

Thank you for your replies!

Now, I'm also considering Electronics All-In-One Desk Reference for Dummies. Any thoughts on this one?

 

[Eshal]

I am suggesting you a book after reading that you will learn basics of electronics and you will say good words to me. I am a girl and whole world know that electronics is not the field for the girls, primarily. Now imagine how did I get electronics? I bought a book having title, "Introductory Electronic Devices and circuits" by "Robert T. Paynter"

One more thing, if you are thinking of that you will be able to design the circuit just after learning electronics then answer is NO. You will not be able to. Obviously you want to know the reason. The reason is you don't know if any circuit has 220ohm of resistor then why an electronic circuit designer put a 220ohm resistor and why not other value of resistor but you will know why an electronic circuit designer used 220ohm resistor after the studying the basics of electronics.

In short,
1) you will can't be an electronic circuit designer just by reading any book
2) You need to learn basics first then you will implement your knowledge and you will get the idea why 220ohm resistor was used.

I hope you enjoy learning from that book. One more thing, that book also teaches the troubleshooting of the circuits.

Regards,
Princess

 

[chirieac]

Thank you for the replies. I've decided to buy the Make: Electronics book because of the components pack 1 & 2. It will be nice to have all the components from the start instead of trying to find everything by myself. This way, once I buy the tools, I can start right away with the book.

I'm wondering, would I be ready to start learning to use Arduino after that book?

 

[bigdogguru]

If you already have experience programming in C/C++, you most likely can start experimenting with the Arduino now.

There are a multitude of beginning Arduino books available, some of which include electronic basics which apply to microcontrollers.


BigDog

 

[KhaledOsmani]

http://www.talkingelectronics.com/projects/Testing Electronic Components/TestingComponents.html


Direct, free, ready to read.

 

[Ricardo_Electropepper]

There is only one answer to this, The Art of Electronics 2nd edition, this is the Bible, but has bigdogguru mentioned i would also start with arduino or maybe better raspberry pi since you already know programming, you should also take a look in websites like www.sparkfun.com or www.adafruit.com, this hobbytist websiter have the ideal start kits to start with electronics. Have fun