Learning the Art of Electronics book - parts list published anywhere?

[MrSlack]

Does anyone know if this is published anywhere (think it's page 1105) so I can get a look at it without having to get a copy myself?

[indole]

My copy has shipped and I should be getting it tomorrow, if there is a parts list I'll take a picture and post if that works.  I was looking for such a thing while it was on back-order as I wanted to make sure I had everything on hand.

[MrSlack]

Thank you - I would appreciate that!

[joao]

Hello!

I just bought the two books, "The Art of Electronics" and "Learn the Art of Electronics". Which should I read first? Or should I read both at the same time? Thanks.

[Mechanical Menace]

joao, I'd say if you're going to read through either from front to back then "Learning the Art of Electronics" but jump into the relevant section of The Art of Electronics for more details as needed.

[joao]

Thanks. That makes sense.

[indole]

I just took a look at the parts list in the back of the book, and it's nothing more than just a general list of recommended equipment/tools such as Oscilloscope, DVM/VOM etc.  I can take a picture of if needed but it's not the list of components used throughout the book.  A quick glance through the chapters and I didn't see a quick reference to the components used during the chapter, but I may have missed.

[deadlylover]

There is a parts list for all components used, forgot the page number but it's there somewhere. I don't think it says for what chapter, it's just everything.

[MrSlack]

I just took a look at the parts list in the back of the book, and it's nothing more than just a general list of recommended equipment/tools such as Oscilloscope, DVM/VOM etc.  I can take a picture of if needed but it's not the list of components used throughout the book.  A quick glance through the chapters and I didn't see a quick reference to the components used during the chapter, but I may have missed.

Perfect thanks for this - appreciated. I'll throw together a generic parts kit for him.

[TinkerFan]

I'm a bit confused now. "Learning the Art of Electronics" is not the X-Chapter book, is it? When does that come out, I cannot find any information about it, except the fact that the book is coming, eventually.

[MrSlack]

No - learning the art is the lab guide for it which is an end to end course that refers back to the book.

I'd like the X-chapter book as well when/if it turns up.

[BobsURuncle]

Here I put all the parts in spreadsheets that can be uploaded into the distributors shopping carts.

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/beginners/learning-the-art-of-electronics-parts-bom/

[nowlan]

Why is the BOM list over $500?
Is it to build this 400$ synthesizer?
http://seti.harvard.edu/synth/

Also is the list for the lab guide or main book?

[MrSlack]

Thanks all. The BOM is expensive but most parts can be subbed easily. You don't really need expensive tantalum caps and brand parts for most of it. If anyone is interested I may write up a list of 'cheap' substitutes. I can't find a line item that you can't cheap on

Plus for the original book I built my own cheap sweep gen, pulse generator and function generator. The latter, xr2206 based just died a few weeks back so I'm doing a new discrete design for a sweeping gen good to 1MHz that you can build for about $25. It is roughly based on a couple of voltage controlled current sources to charge/discharge a cap, current switch, comparator, sine shaper and amp and not much else other than cheap shit from China. Most of it was shamelessly stolen from Tek TM500 series and Thandar schematics.

[TinkerFan]

I'd be really interested in a cheap version of the list. But it would be great, if it is still with digikey/mouser part numbers.

[TheAmmoniacal]

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/beginners/learning-the-art-of-electronics-parts-bom/

[BobsURuncle]

Why is the BOM list over $500?
Is it to build this 400$ synthesizer?
http://seti.harvard.edu/synth/

Also is the list for the lab guide or main book?

There are good reasons these are expensive.

1.The course has 25 different basic laboratory sections with multiple builds and or modifications of builds.  These labs cover much of the wide scope of the digital and analog electronics field. This by definition requires a wide selection of parts if your are going to explore all the book has to offer.

2. You are buying just one or a few of each part so you are not getting any volume discount.

3. It is certainly possible in some cases, via substitution or shopping, to find less expensive alternatives to the parts used in the book but....
   - If you do this for all the parts up front, it would probably require more knowledge than someone taking the course is likely to possess and it would take a lot of time.
  - On the other hand if you do it as you go and only buy parts for a few lab sections at a time then you are going to be paying mailing and handling costs that are likely to be more than the savings you got for all your efforts.
  - If you substitute, in some cases, the parts will not be equivalent so you will not be able to follow the results and designs in the text without some modification ( not necessarily a bad thing).
 
4.  A few of the parts are obsolete and being held by just one or two distributors and they are getting top dollar for their efforts ( particularly in the digital section) It would be nice to see
substitutes from the authors with whatever modifications are needed in the circuits and code for those projects.

5.  There are a few select parts that are expensive, you could simply forego those projects with little or no loss of education - the current regulator diode comes to mind.

Perhaps someday the authors will organize a kit, (buying in volume) to help bring down the total costs.

Personally, I bit the bullet and bought the whole kit and kaboodle. Except for resistors and caps for which I already have a nice inventory. Probably I could have foregone purchase of a few transistors and op amps as well if I had cross checked carefully, but you can never have too many of those anyway.  The longer you wait the more likely that more parts will become obsolete or difficult to find.  The total cost was a fraction of what I have spent on my lab and I will be able to reuse some of these parts for other projects anyway - expanding the scope of my laboratory on-hand components.

On the whole, after seeing the size of this 1100 page lab book, the total cost of parts came in on the low side of what I was anticipating.











 

[FrankE]

Is that still going? We used that in first year. It appeared quite dated just several years later as a text on electronics would.
Must be a hell of a job rewriting things for subsequent editions to keep the title current

[nowlan]

So where does the synthesizer fit in with the above?

[RLSprouse]

I for one would love to get a kit for all the stuff needed for the labs. I have built a pretty good collection of goodies for simpler things, so I will probably end up just getting miscellaneous parts as I need them, working through the book.

I have a specific question on one needed item. On page 28 they talk about a "bare meter movement" but they don't specify just what they are using. And I don't see it in either Appendix E or the lists BobsURuncle put together. I have a simple 10mA bare ammeter, is that what they mean?

[MrSlack]

This what they mean. There is a reference to it somewhere. Basically a 100uA movement.  10mA is probably a bit much and is already shunted.

[RLSprouse]

This what they mean. There is a reference to it somewhere. Basically a 100uA movement.  10mA is probably a bit much and is already shunted.

Thanks, MrSlack. I also have a 1mA movement and a 50uA movement. I did play with the 10mA meter, and in series with a 1K resistor, it deflects full scale when I apply 10V, so I guess it all depends on what series resistance you need to add, to calibrate it to the desired voltage range.

I'll see if I can order a 100uA movement somewhere.

Follow-up question: How do I determine if the movement is already shunted? I assume by "shunted" you are referring to the addition of the two paralleled and opposite-oriented diodes?

[MrSlack]

If you change the series resistor then yes that will do the job. However if it's a 1mA movement you will need more current to deflect at and that will burden your circuit. 50uA is better than 100uA. Just use a bigger resistor!

If it's already shunted it usually has a resistor across it inside the movement. Adding diodes just prevents the meter coil being overloaded too badly. The deflection is a function of current and the resistance of the meter so adding diodes constrains this.

[RLSprouse]

So the only way to know if a meter is "shunted" is to open it up and look to see if there is a resistor across the terminals?

I did the experiment again, this time using my 50uA meter, and I calculated that it would require a 200K resistor in series. I used a 150K and a 51K in series, and it worked fine, showing full deflection at 10V.

Something interesting: when I measured my 10mA meter for resistance as the text suggests, it measured just 2.8 ohms. But when I measured the 50uA meter, it measured 2.95K ohms. Is this to be expected? It seems kind of high to me. Would this resistance materially affect the current being measured?

I'll run the same tests when my 100uA meter arrives.

[MrSlack]

Yes that's expected. The 10mA meter has a shunt resistor across it in the order of 2.5 ohms so you're seeing that. The 50uA has just the movement resistsnfe which is much higher.