Your favorite Electonic introduction and reference material ?

[terriea]

Hi every one,

I'm trying to bet back in electronics. I studied it a little, in my younger days back in school. But at that time I didn't really understand what I was doing so I ended up in the software world . To catch up with my lack of knowlege I'm looking for some good references (books, web sites, wiki or watever) to learn the basics of the different aspects of electronics. When I say basics aspects I don't mean easy things just to make an LED light up, but to get a really profound explaination of the differents types of components (capacitors, inductors, diodes, transistors,...) and how they behave with current, tention, power etc... Ideally something that can be used as a reference when we need to calculate the capacitor values for a filter, the transistor values for an amplifier or a inductence for a boost-converter.
Well maybe it is asking too much to have a good explaination and a good reference in the same content, that's why I prefer make the distinction for the two questions. I don't ask for "the best", as these are always a matter of personal taste and personal needs, but i'd really like to have your opignon and your personnal experiance on the subject.

What's your favorite electronics introduction material ? (baybe a particular book that reminds you hours of hard studying)
What's your favorite electronics reference material ? (the one you couldn't survive without)

Thanks for sharing

[charliex]

Horowitz and Hill, Art of Electronics + Student manual.

[terriea]

Horowitz and Hill, Art of Electronics

I saw several references to this one. Seems to be the must-have bible, but not suited for learning. There are some on the net as used books but not sure it is the second edition. Is the first edition really out of date or can it still be handy ? The 3rd edition is expected for 2010. I guess I'll invest in this new one if I manage to progress in electronics.

Student manual.

Any particular references ? Some student manuals have crappy explainations or plagued with mistakes, they just get you lost and confused instead of helping. I dig in my olds schools electronics manuals and I new I couldn't rely on them when they try to explain me that binary 1010 is 9.
If you have some safe references i'm interested.

[Zero999]

The Art of Electronics has a student manual for those studying electronics.

It's a great book, here's the Google preview.

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=bkOMDgwFA28C&dq=The+Art+of+Electronics&printsec=frontcover&source=bn&hl=en&ei=hB8FS6KhMY-24QbokNDRCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=8&ved=0CCIQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=&f=false

It can also be downloaded from various sites, which illegal unless you already own a copy of the book.

I have a real physical copy and a downloaded PDF which is handy for referring to when I'm sat at my PC.

[terriea]

Ok nice, didn't know there were a student manual for The Art of Electronics. Just found an online preview : http://www.scribd.com/doc/6135061/The-Art-of-Electronics-Student-Manual
thanks a lot

[Zero999]

That looks like the full version which is probably illegal.

If you sign up you can download the full PDF.

I don't fancy signing up because it'll put me at risk of being investigated for piracy, even though I have a copy of the book I still don't want to risk it.

[Valhallasmith]

These days there is a go to book for almost any subject.  Art of Electronics is a great book, but not necessarily current with all the detail for everything you might want to do.  Such as right now I'm working on a precision power supply and voltage reference, so I've been using Current Sources & Voltage References by Harrison quite a bit.  The Circuit Designer's Companion by Tim Williams is also quite useful if you are going beyond hobby electronics.

Much of the information you find in these books can be found elsewhere on the net.  In app notes and other documents on manufacturers sites.  So don't over look those if you are ever looking for something specific.

[charliex]

It is showing its age in a lot of areas, since its from 1989, hopefully the 3rd edition will make it out in 2010.

[Stephen Durr]

Horowitz and Hill, Art of Electronics

I saw several references to this one. Seems to be the must-have bible, but not suited for learning. There are some on the net as used books but not sure it is the second edition. Is the first edition really out of date or can it still be handy ? The 3rd edition is expected for 2010. I guess I'll invest in this new one if I manage to progress in electronics.

Student manual.

Any particular references ? Some student manuals have crappy explainations or plagued with mistakes, they just get you lost and confused instead of helping. I dig in my olds schools electronics manuals and I new I couldn't rely on them when they try to explain me that binary 1010 is 9.
If you have some safe references i'm interested.

It is showing its age in a lot of areas, since its from 1989, hopefully the 3rd edition will make it out in 2010.

release date seems to have slipped.... just a little 

[polishdude20]

One of my favorite ones is Practical Electronics for Inventors.

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

It starts up with theory and moves on to basic circuits with tonnes of examples. It's a big book but that's because it covers so many topics.

I like to read it for fun sometimes and I always find something new.

[Bored@Work]

One of my favorite ones is Practical Electronics for Inventors.

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

It starts up with theory and moves on to basic circuits with tonnes of examples. It's a big book but that's because it covers so many topics.

I like to read it for fun sometimes and I always find something new.

Just that it is full of errors. Someone here has made it a hobby writing an errata on his own and has filled something like 180 pages with notes what is wrong in that book. Impressive for a 1000 page book.

The book authors also have the habit of stopping when it starts to get difficult. They have choose to make it look easy by writing something incomplete and wrong, instead of explaining something right and completely. They can't even be bothered to draw correct sinusoidal curves. And the parts list is a joke. Already the pompous title "for Inventors" should be a warning.

The good news, it is dirt cheap.

So if you look for a paper weight or a coffee table book to show off what a cool hacker you are, this is the book to get. Cheaper than getting some poser shades, although not as portable.

[robrenz]

Its still my favorite 

[rdl]

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


Just that it is full of errors. Someone here has made it a hobby writing an errata on his own and has filled something like 180 pages with notes what is wrong in that book. Impressive for a 1000 page book.

The book authors also have the habit of stopping when it starts to get difficult. They have choose to make it look easy by writing something incomplete and wrong, instead of explaining something right and completely. They can't even be bothered to draw correct sinusoidal curves. And the parts list is a joke. Already the pompous title "for Inventors" should be a warning.

The good news, it is dirt cheap.

So if you look for a paper weight or a coffee table book to show off what a cool hacker you are, this is the book to get. Cheaper than getting some poser shades, although not as portable.

That's the most accurate description of that book I've read so far. I have the second edition and in my opinion the publisher should have recalled it. It's that bad. Apparently the editor  knew absolutely nothing about electronics. I've heard the third edition is better but I'm not taking a chance on getting another 2 pounds of uselessness.

[polishdude20]

One of my favorite ones is Practical Electronics for Inventors.

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

It starts up with theory and moves on to basic circuits with tonnes of examples. It's a big book but that's because it covers so many topics.

I like to read it for fun sometimes and I always find something new.

Yeah I've noticed some things where off when I was reading through it. It's a shame because it's well formatted and nice to read. If there was a non-error version of it, this would be a very good book.
Just that it is full of errors. Someone here has made it a hobby writing an errata on his own and has filled something like 180 pages with notes what is wrong in that book. Impressive for a 1000 page book.

The book authors also have the habit of stopping when it starts to get difficult. They have choose to make it look easy by writing something incomplete and wrong, instead of explaining something right and completely. They can't even be bothered to draw correct sinusoidal curves. And the parts list is a joke. Already the pompous title "for Inventors" should be a warning.

The good news, it is dirt cheap.

So if you look for a paper weight or a coffee table book to show off what a cool hacker you are, this is the book to get. Cheaper than getting some poser shades, although not as portable.

[rdl]

This is my very first book on electronics. I bought it at Radio Shack back in 1985, I think it cost about $3

[Electronics-Repairman]

Horowitz and Hill, Art of Electronics + Student manual I got mine of E-bay, there are also other sites you can buy from some of the best site are charity non profiting sites, the names escapes me at the moment, I bought a book called Build your own test equipment ,by Homer L Davidson from an American church book society it was around a third of the cost, plus I use world of books site to buy from, again if I remember. They posted it to me in the UK and it was very reasonable. so look around, is my advise.

[CM800]

http://www.fairchildsemi.com/apnotes/

Appnotes all the way.

[nowlan]

I bought a book called Build your own test equipment ,by Homer L Davidson from an American church book society it was around a third of the cost, plus I use world of books site to buy from, again if I remember. They posted it to me in the UK and it was very reasonable. so look around, is my advise.

whats mentioned in this book? Octopuses?

[Electronics-Repairman]

I bought a book called Build your own test equipment ,by Homer L Davidson from an American church book society it was around a third of the cost, plus I use world of books site to buy from, again if I remember. They posted it to me in the UK and it was very reasonable. so look around, is my advise.

whats mentioned in this book? Octopuses?

Some of the following White noise generator,sine/square/wave generator,+another function generator,VTVM rf probe,scope demodulator probe, Scope,low capacity Probe, tone tracker, TV Trouble shooter, dual channel 50-100 watt dummy load. then there's making cabinets,this is just a few of the things to do, fault finding,the TV trouble shooter is a fascinating piece of equipment it consists  of several different power supplies, variable and fixed, basic construction methods ,soldering , pin-outs ,do's & dont's very good book if your a builder,or someone who wants to learn. the writer owned and operated a successful,TV repair business for 38 Years before becoming a full time technical writer .

[denelec]

This is my very first book on electronics. I bought it at Radio Shack back in 1985, I think it cost about $3

Great book. Got mine in 1984. 
It is still available.
http://www.amazon.com/Getting-Started-Electronics-Forrest-Mims/dp/0945053282

[retrolefty]

The ARRL ham radio manual is a very nice introduction to basic electronics.