General > General Technical Chat
Essential electronics reading for a Mechanic?
Supernaut:
As the title suggests really, Im a light goods vehicle mechanic with roughly ten years experience. Ive recently been repairing/restoring guitar amps and effects pedals/racks from the 70's/80's, Ive had great success so far although most of it has been "Educated Shotguns" of parts to get where I need to go. This is all done on my own equipment and Im just making my way through jobs just to get some experience.
I can do basic electrical diagnostic work but im more familiar with mechatronics/systems diagnostics usually using a 12v feed with a 5v reference circuit for most sensors. I have experience using scopes to look for faults on vehicles but never with stand-alone electronics equipment. I feel like i can grasp most of the things im up against but silicon packages really throw me off sometimes.
Are there any books people would recommend reading that might help me out? Since the gear im working on is fairly old i don't need anything too intense, even something like old technical leaflets or books from Mullard, Partridge, Heathkit, Hammond, RCA etc. Also interested in early days solid state literature just so im well grounded (pun not intended).
So far ive repaired quite a few solid state amps, one valve amp, about 12-14 effects pedal repairs and re-capped some early 80's digital rackmount delays among other things. I just have a UNI-T UT89X and an old Regavolt variac that does 270v but only pushes 2 amps ( im hoping to buy another one soon)
Paper books ideally, i cant stand reading e-books....
Thanks in advance :)
themadhippy:
For the basics maybe an older gcse course book,they dont delve too deep but still cover the basics of how things work and were written before electronics-=ardunio.
Ian.M:
+1 for GCSE Electronics course books.
Call me a dinosaur, but I learned transistor circuits mostly from the Mullard manual of transistor circuits (my dogeared paper copy is the 2nd (1961) edition). Its rather dated and oriented towards PNP germanium devices, but if you flip the supply rails, polarised capacitors, and any diodes, and allow for the higher Silicon Vbe, adjusting resistors accordingly, its lessons are applicable to more recent NPN Silicon devices.
dobsonr741:
I suggest picking a practical objective you want to achieve by learning. Then you'll find the books that will guide you in that direction.
For example, I had no clue how to calculate the biasing resistors for a one-transistor amplifier. A few years later, in high school, the laws of Ohm and Kirchoff, and transistor datasheets were revealed to me. I believe I would not be where I am today if I had not kept being curious.
Supernaut:
Thanks for the replies so far!
Il check out some old college books that people might be selling online, Ive just bought an Osram publication from 1952 and a book on valves too, Ive spotted some other interesting ones from Motorola and RCA that I might purchase also.
Ideally il probably stay with 70's and 80's equipment, that's what Ive been buying and repairing so far and its worked out well. I bought two modern surface mount items which I was able to repair due to them having trivial faults but it was an indicator that Im not geared towards that type of tech and I generally find it less interesting to work on.
I need to get a better grasp of transformers for valve amps especially, I can play the remove and replace game but as soon as you change the wire colours or ask me to hook things up differently then I would struggle. I also have a tough time with silicon due to how endless it seems to be with regards to part numbers and operating characteristics.
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