The Art of Electronics

[tggzzz]

Well in my case it's a case of I'm pretty good at this shit so my employer wants me to be qualified. They are not able to teach me anything as I'm the one with the highest level of knowledge due to practical experience and my employer being mechanical orientated but this is the only option open as I am in work already and can study this from home. I tend to learn a lot from trying to solve a problem and getting over the new hurdles, often with the help of this forum.

Sounds good: make the best of the opportunities available to you!

I have had to deal with a subcontractor in the past who supposedly had employees with post graduate degrees but could not "reason" very well and there produced poor results. Studying and passing in exams or by assignments does not make you competent / clever you have to have a passion for it and interest, if you do it just to earn money you won't be very good generally.

And I've seen many people that don't know the fundamental theory, and so make outrageous impossible claims. Competence and incompetence can be found everywhere.

There are strong and useful parallels between engineer:technician and doctor:nurse. Every new engineer/doctor with any sense knows that they rely heavily on the technicians/nurses on the team. And that partnership should continue as they gain experience.

Nowadays, quite reasonably, nurses are taking over more or the routine work previously done by doctors - and are probably doing a better job. But a nurse that beileves they know more than a doctor is a liability. And the same is true for a doctor that believes they are better than a nurse.

Each has their own skills and limitations - and the same is true for engineers and technicians. Vive la difference!

[Simon]

Well as I'm often found saying "it is better to know what you don't know " that way you know where you need to find out more. It's when you don't realize your missing something or don't care to test and question yourself that you make huge mistakes.

[JacquesBBB]

Well in my case it's a case of I'm pretty good at this shit so my employer wants me to be qualified.

So it means you have a good employer.  Taking this opportunity is wise, as you will not have
always the same employer and having the degree that fits your qualifications
puts you always in a better position.

The degree will also be a way to consolidate your  knowledge,  by making you look to things that otherwise your would have avoided. So good luck in your studies, and be ambitious ! 

[Simon]

It's not a degree and well lets say that my employer probably figured that I'm cheaper than a subcontractor and infinitely more available plus I've got them out of the goey stuff a couple of times so I think my direct boss wanted to do right by me.

[JacquesBBB]

It's not a degree

Ok, Certificate then, I  was using degree in the generic sense. What I meant is that once you get this
certificate, nothing prevents you to continue, and to run for an EE degree.

[Fred27]

It still kills me thinking about the fact that I sold my copy of the 1st edition for pennies at a garage sale 20 years ago.

Looking forward to my 3rd edition which is marked as "dispatched" by the Book Depository in the UK.

Same here. I did the first year of an electronics degree about 25 years ago (before switching to another course) and used to have the first edition as a textbook. Electronics is a rediscovered hobby now and my shiny new copy of the 3rd edition just arrived.

[rdl]

As I said:

The biggest problem I saw was that a lot of the content was out-dated by time I bought it, and large parts of what remained are not that useful for beginners. It's not that the book was bad, or totally useless, I just didn't see it as a good value.

There is indeed a lot of good information in there, but for someone just getting started in electronics, there are other books available with a higher ratio of useful information per dollar spent.

I've never seen a copy of the first edition of The Art of Electronics, maybe it was better in that respect.

I'm pretty sure the 2nd Edition I bought was "used, like new". The biggest problem I saw was that a lot of the content was out-dated by time I bought it, and large parts of what remained are not that useful for beginners.

Strange. I still refer to my first edition. The fundamentals are unchanged, and TAoE excelled at outlining a high-level view of a topic, plus giving sufficient detail to enable the reader to start profitably exploring and elaborating.

To use opamps as an example, the "good circuits" and "bad circuits" are still good and bad, even if the opamps have changed (and many haven't!).  If I want to choose an opamp or detailed information about how to use a specific opamp, there's plenty of that available on the web.

[Alex Eisenhut]

I like the Malvino book. That one I still use a lot.

[tggzzz]

As I said:

The biggest problem I saw was that a lot of the content was out-dated by time I bought it, and large parts of what remained are not that useful for beginners. It's not that the book was bad, or totally useless, I just didn't see it as a good value.

There is indeed a lot of good information in there, but for someone just getting started in electronics, there are other books available with a higher ratio of useful information per dollar spent.

That, of course, is a very personal judgement. Unfortunately the best way of reaching such a conclusion it is to sit down in a bookshop and speed-read the competing books. Amazon does have its downsides

I've never seen a copy of the first edition of The Art of Electronics, maybe it was better in that respect.

It was so like the first edition that I didn't bother to buy it.

There were no changes in the fundamentals, only a small updating of some of the devices. But as I noted elsewhere I don't think that is important, and there are better sources of that information.

[rdl]

I like the Malvino book. That one I still use a lot.

I guess this is it?

http://www.amazon.com/Electronic-Principles-Albert-Malvino/dp/0028028333/

A used copy of the 6th edition is less than $15 shipped, so I will probably give it a look.

[Simon]

I've started reading mine, not overly impressed, why oh why are they talking dynamic resistance and the example of zeners before diodes are even being explained I know sometimes you have to skip ahead a bit but jesus, if I was a total beginner I'd be lost.

[smjcuk]

I've started reading mine, not overly impressed, why oh why are they talking dynamic resistance and the example of zeners before diodes are even being explained I know sometimes you have to skip ahead a bit but jesus, if I was a total beginner I'd be lost.

That's the sort of problem I had with it. The student guide that accompanies it is better for a tutorial style approach although that appears to assume that you have a pile of specific kit at your disposal (yes everyone has a 6.3v 60Hz transformer floating around rather than a signal generator). Plus it sort of tails off half way through as if they got bored of it (mind you a couple of university modules I did actually had the same problem so perhaps this is a problem with academia).

Someone needs to kick off a new book which a) is creative commons allowing contribution, b) allows feedback and patches before specific editions are committed, c) serves as both a tutorial and reference. There are attempts at those books but they're all chock full of errors.

There is a programming equivalent already: http://learncodethehardway.org/

My favourite electronics book (which is actually hilarious in places): http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0750694998/

And a better book to learn from, although a few small errors apparently: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1118217322/