Reddit Reddit reviews Practical Electronics for Inventors

We found 49 Reddit comments about Practical Electronics for Inventors. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.

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Practical Electronics for Inventors
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49 Reddit comments about Practical Electronics for Inventors:

u/soundcult · 26 pointsr/synthesizers

Hey! I can relate exactly to where your'e coming from. I, some years ago, decided I wanted to get into building synths. I ended up getting a job at a pedal company and have spent more time learning to build and repair pedals than synths. I don't work there anymore, but it gave me a lot of perspective into the field as we also made euro-rack modules.

First up: I don't want to scare you off from this, but just want to give you a realistic perspective so that you go into this knowing what you are getting into. Making synths is hard and it's expensive. As far as electronic projects go, making a synthesizer is up there on the list. I've repaired powerplant turbine controller circuitboards that were simpler than some of the synths I've owned. This isn't to say, "don't do it!" but, expect to learn a lot of fundamental and intermediate stuff before you ever have something like a fully-featured synth that you built in your hands.

It's also expensive. A cheap synth prototype is going to cost a couple hundred bucks, easy, while a more fully-featured prototype could cost into the thousands to produce, and that's just to build one working prototype. If you want to make a run of products you're going to need money up front, and not a small amount. So, just be prepared for that inevitability.

One final note is that my perspective is broad (digital and analog) but is rooted in analog electronics because that's where I started. This isn't the only path you can take to get to where you want to go but honestly in my opinion, even if you're going to go mostly digital later, you need to understand analog.

If you have never messed with electronics much before I highly recommend the Make: Electronics book. I'm a hands-on person and this was the most effective book I found that let me study electronics fundamentals the way I wanted to; by making stuff! No matter which direction you go on (digital, analog, hybrid, DSP, SID, etc) you're going to want to know how to pick the right resistor, or how to pop an LED into a circuit, and this book will teach you that.

Solid follow-up books from there are Make: More Electronics, Practical Electronics for Inventors, How To Diagnose and Fix Everything Electronic, and The Art of Electronics. All of these books are good books that touch on different concepts you will find useful, so I encourage you to look through them and decide for yourself which of these interests you.

Around this same time, I'd encourage you to start getting into kits. Honestly, before you build anything synth, I'm going to recommend you build some pedals. Effects pedals are fun and rewarding to build without being too hard. Start with a distortion circuit and work your way up from there. Once you can build a delay pedal without freaking out, move on to euro-rack kits, or other synth kits. While you're building these kits, don't just build them, play with the circuits! Try swapping components where you think you can, or adding features. One of my first kits was a distortion pedal with a single knob, but by the time I was done tweaking on it it had five knobs and two toggle switches!

Once you're feeling somewhat comfortable with electronics, then you can dive into the holy grail of analog synth design: Make: Analog Synthesizers this amazing book was written by the brilliant Ray Wilson who recently passed away. His life's goal was to bring the art of building analog synths into the hands of anyone who wanted to learn, and there is no better place to receive his great wisdom than this book. You should also check out his website Music From Outer Space along the way, but the book covers so much more than his website.

If you make through most or all of those resources you are going to be well-equipped to take on a career in synth-building! I'm personally still on that last step (trying to find the time to tackle Make: Analog Synthesizers) but hope within the next year or two to get that under my belt and start diving in deep myself. It's been a fun journey of learning and discovery and I wouldn't trade the skills I've gained in electronics for much.

Hope this helps, good luck!

u/MrMonocle_McTophat · 19 pointsr/arduino

I have had good results with this book.

Practical Electronics for Inventors

If youre asking a question about a resistor and an LED, I bet you will have more complex questions about EE topics as you go forward. The book is good for engineering minds that havent studied EE in my experience. Plus the book is pretty cheap for the amount of knowledge inside.

u/lkesteloot · 9 pointsr/AskElectronics

No, neither this book nor The Art of Electronics is good for beginners. I recommend Practical Electronics for Inventors. (Ignore the "Inventors" part, the book has nothing to do with that.)

u/tasulife · 9 pointsr/arduino

Learning electronics is a lot like music. There is an insane amount of information, but if you get an economic working knowledge under your belt, you can really do some amazing things. In order for you not to get lost in the rabbit hole, I will provide you these methods of learning practical hobby electronics.

First, is simply just a suggestion. There are two "domains" of electronic thinking and analysis: digital and analogue. Fuck analog right in its dumb face. The math used in analog is fucking super duper hard, and analog circuits are prone to interference problems. Digital is where you want to be. It's vastly simpler to use programmable digital parts, and analyze digital circuits. Don't get lost in AC equations of capacitor, or the god damned transistor equation (seriously, fuck that. )

Okay here is how I learned hobby digital electronics:
First buy this, and go through all the examples in the workbooks. When you learn electronics you 100% HAVE TO DO HANDS ON LEARNING! DONT LEARN IT FROM A BOOK! MAKE CIRCUITS!
https://www.amazon.com/Radio-Shack-Electronics-Learning-20-055/dp/B00GYYEL8I

At the same time, read this (which is a good topical explanation, and free):
http://jacquesricher.com/NEETS/

And buy and read this (which is an EXCELLENT formal introduction into the physics):
https://www.amazon.com/Practical-Electronics-Inventors-Third-Scherz/dp/0071771336

Also you are going to learn how to program, which is an entirely different topic. Programming and hobby electronics make you a master of the universe, so it's worth it. I learned programming in the electronics domain and it was awesome. I made a microcontroller FM synthesizer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TvuzTK3Dzk

So basically, the way I learned programming in general was self-teaching with books. Again, you have to do it hands-on. Actually complete the examples in the books, and you'll be fine.
First, learn procedural c programming using C primer plus. Buy an older version so it'll be super cheap:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0672326965/ref=sr_1_3_twi_pap_1_olp?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1465827790&sr=1-3&keywords=c+primer+plus

Next, learn Object oriented programming using head first java. They do a great job of tackling OOP, which can be a difficult thing to learn.
https://www.amazon.com/Head-First-Java-Kathy-Sierra/dp/0596009208/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1465827860&sr=1-1&keywords=head+first+java


You're overwhelmed because they're deep topics. But, seriously, its the most fun shit ever. You'll love learning how to do it.


u/TexasNortheast · 7 pointsr/ElectricalEngineering

Get a practical electronics book right off the bat if you are into electronics. Something like this (or perhaps this):
https://www.amazon.com/Practical-Electronics-Inventors-Third-Scherz/dp/0071771336?ie=UTF8&keywords=electrical%20engineering&qid=1460691202&ref_=sr_1_1&s=books&sr=1-1

Also note the price-tag. This book is a gem.

University textbooks often don't have the right mindset to them and now that I've finished my degree and out in the workforce I'm realizing this. You want a book that will actually teach you how to build something. The field of EE also loves to apply a whole bunch of meanings to a few terms, for example "electricity" and "grounding", which can very easily confuse and mislead beginners. Practical books tend to address these things a bit better in my opinion. This applies to any field - I'm an Industrial Engineer (power, motors, control, safety) and also own a book of this type on my field - here in Canada we have Techs and Engineers. The Techs tend to learn how to actually do things, and these are the types of books they read.

Regarding textbooks: something I've only discovered recently is buying Eastern Edition textbooks as they're much cheaper and essentially the same thing.

u/PedroDaGr8 · 6 pointsr/electronic_circuits

A couple of recommendations:

First, there are the classic Forrest Mims books they are the quintessential beginner level books. Radio Shack used to sell them. They are very introductory and tend to be rather brief for easy consumption. I'm not a huge fan of the style personally but others LOVE them a lot. Many many many hobbyists and engineers got their start with these books.

Another option I like a lot is Practical Electronics for Inventors, 3rd Ed. by Paul Scherz and Simon Monk. This book is a great beginners book that will take you nicely into circuit theory and things like that. Not as advanced as an academic tome but advanced enough for you to learn a good amount and establish a solid foundation.

Lastly, there is the very advanced Art of Electronics 3rd Ed. by Horowitz and Hill. This is the classic introductory text for engineers and hobbyists alike. It is very math heavy but you will have a very very good understanding of what's going on.

One non-book recommendation is the AllAboutCircuits online textbook tutorial. It is pretty well enumerated and detailed, though it is a bit lacking in sample problems. A great free resource that you can start learning now.

Beyond this, once you get a solid foundation. You can start focusing in specific areas like digital, power, precision measurements, etc.

u/Ms_KnowItSome · 5 pointsr/askanelectrician

You've demonstrated you don't know how an electrical load works, which is similar in DC and AC, based on your comments. Get through something like this before you tackle anything AC.

https://www.amazon.com/Practical-Electronics-Inventors-Third-Scherz/dp/0071771336


You can cause damage with DC stuff, but usually you'll pop ICs or other discrete components before anything too terrible happens. Mess around with AC and get it wrong and you've started a house fire or electrocuted yourself.

u/deaddodo · 4 pointsr/IWantToLearn

The Make books for electronics will get you a decent groundwork for the practical application side of things. Practical Electronics for Inventors will you get you covered on the theory side of things.

u/efij · 4 pointsr/electronics

Arduino is a great learning tool and to go from idea to finished project is quite fast. I definitely recommend starting with arduino and see if you like it. If you continue, you'll find that you have to purchase an arduino for each project you start, which can get quite expensive, or you'll be ripping apart old projects to get the arduino.


I purchased arduino and a few shields, but I felt like I really didn't know how everything was working electronically. I really enjoy programming, learning about electronics and making devices, so I decided to stop using arduino and just use the atmega microcontroller, which is the MCU that arduino is based on.


If you wanted to go this route then I would suggest buying an AVR ISP mkii programmer and downloading atmel studio. It's much easier to program the chips than any other method I've tried. Less fiddling. If you have experience in C programming then it will be really easy.


This is the best beginners tutorial I've found for atmel AVR:
https://www.newbiehack.com/


This book is an excellent follow up to that tutorial:
http://www.amazon.ca/Make-Programming-Learning-Software-Hardware/dp/1449355781/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1398472387&sr=8-1&keywords=make+avr+programming


A good book on electronics - 1000 pages:
http://www.amazon.ca/Practical-Electronics-Inventors-Third-Edition/dp/0071771336

digikey.ca or .com has lots of parts and next day shipping for $8.


how to make an arduino on a bread board:
http://arduino.cc/en/Main/Standalone


Breadboard, Schematic and PCB layout software
http://fritzing.org

Soon you'll be etching PCBs at home

u/float_into_bliss · 3 pointsr/electronics

The guys over at www.circuitlab.com are building a really awesome, free, in-browser schematic drawing tool and simulator.

Practical Electronics for Inventors is also a good mix of theory and telling you what you need to know to make things blink.

u/fatangaboo · 3 pointsr/AskElectronics

Maybe www.diystompboxes.com and

www.generalguitargadgets.com and

www.modkitsdiy.com and

www.muzique.com and

This excellent book: Practical Electronics for Inventors

u/Bzzat · 3 pointsr/AskElectronics

I threw myself in at the deep end. The first thing I built was a basic 4 bit CPU out of TTL logic. Took 4 years to get it working in 1983. No regrets doing it. Looks like you've picked an interesting project though.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0071771336/

This is a good book that covers just about everything you need to know including theory, construction, part selection etc. I'd give that a good read or at least scan the relevant sections before jumping in. Expect to spend a month or so on it (no joke - this is a big subject!) It's pretty cheap for the size of it (8x10" and about 2.5" thick) and the information is really nice. There are some math heavy bits but you can work through these easily enough. Some people will recommend The Art of Electronics but controversially I'm not much of a fan.

Breadboards are dicks as a rule. Some of the time they're ok, some of the time they're not. They have various side effects on some classes of circuits and some higher frequencies. If you're going to buy one I'd buy a good one. 3M make the best ones but they're damn expensive. Wisher make the next best ones. The rest are pretty crap to be honest and are probably a liability. If you're doing high frequency stuff i.e. RF or anything, sometimes it's just better to solder the stuff "dead bug" style mid-air over a PCB blank when prototyping.

Any questions, just ask :)

u/battery_pack_man · 3 pointsr/electronic_circuits

White noise posting here.

Obviously not everything in there...but both do a really good job at pointing out not only typical circuits + intuition, but also on what common configurations of passives do and what they are used for. Sometimes you can look at some circuit and there are three or four resistors/caps/inductors that don't seem to do anything but touch the ground rail...figuring out what those do is very handy as well, and those links to a good job at helping you sort that out.

u/mrynot · 3 pointsr/ElectricalEngineering

Read read read and experiment!

https://www.amazon.com/Practical-Electronics-Inventors-Third-Scherz/dp/0071771336 is one of my favorite books that explains in great detail the workings of components, without getting overly mathematical. (Math is critical in understanding the behavior, however.)

Then get a basic scope/dmm (or get access to a lab) and build circuits to exercise your knowledge. It won’t work on the first couple tries, but google is your friend, and thats when the learning really materializes — when you understand why something didn’t work, and when you understand how to fix it.

Youtube is a great reference too. Here are some channels I’m subscribed to. Good luck!
https://www.youtube.com/user/w2aew
https://www.youtube.com/user/engineerguyvideo
https://www.youtube.com/user/LearnEngineeringTeam
https://www.youtube.com/user/sutty6
https://www.youtube.com/user/msadaghd
https://www.youtube.com/user/EEVblog

u/Analog_Seekrets · 3 pointsr/ECE

Scherz - Practical Electronics for Inventors

I have the second edition and keep it at my desk for stuff. It's awesome.

u/schorhr · 3 pointsr/arduino

> code things into real life seems like a blast

It is! :-) And it's so easy compared to starting with a bare microcontroller.

> 0 experience whe nit comes to working with hardware

Kits usually explain a bit about resistors and such, but I'd strongly recommend to also pick up a beginner electronics book. These are simple and fun to read! :-)

  • Getting started in electronics

  • Notebook doodle style, super simple. Not only for kids despite the electron smileys showing you how electricity works. Electronics in an intuitive fashion, from winding a coil around a nail to build an electro magnet to simple circuits (and beyond).

  • Practical electronics for inventors

  • Still an easy read, but more background info :-)

     

    > sensors and motors and stuff

    > laserpointer

    Laser modules cost $0.15 or so at Aliexpress, Servos $1... Everything is so inexpensive it's great to build all sorts of crazy machines ;-)


     

    > What arduino

    Most guides and books will probably talk about the UNO. You can get a compatible board for around $3, but a Nano also works in the same fashion and sits nicely on a breadboard.

    For the UNO, you have all sorts of modules/shields, but there's nothing you can't hook up to one of the smaller boards.

    Also order an ESP8266 based board, like the $3 Nodemcu or D1 Mini. The ESP8266 has wifi built in and can run stand-alone, as it's a microcontroller with more memory as the UNO/Nano :-) But it's 3.3v, has only one analog input, and it's a bit more work when starting out.

     

    > What

    You could get a kit if you would like all sorts of sensors and modules.

    The Chinese starter kits are super cheap ($22 with UNO compatible, $26 with MEGA). As Aliexpress links often trigger the spam filter, search for 1207150873 or 32543887265.

    The differences are subtle, some kits lack the ultrasonic sensor (<=$1), etc.

    What's also a LOT of fun is a 2wd robot car kit, you can get them for $15 or so. Two geared motors, dual H-Bridge, put an Arduino + Ultrasonic sensor on it, and with ten lines of code, it will be an obstacle avoiding car or line follower ;-)

     

    These kits usually don't have great instructions. If that's what you want, get the official Arduino starter kit, or something from Sparkfun, Adafruit etc.

    The Arduino site, instructables, and all kind of blogs have examples for almost every module/sensor/device you can find :-) Find a good guide, such as t
    h
    [e](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYutciIGBqC34bfijBdYch49oyU-B_ttH
    )
    s
    e, and see if that would work for you.

     

    The only down-side when going with the compatible Arduino boards: You will have to install a different driver manually (oh noes).

     

    If you don't have one already: A soldering iron.

    I know, when starting, soldering sucks. You want to do everything on a breadboard, reservable. But I found out way too late how great and time saving soldering is once you use a decent soldering iron ;-) Most will recommend something like FX888D or better, but a $15-$20 adjustable soldering station can work as well for the occasional soldering job. And there's a soldering comic :-)

     

    A multimeter is a must-have as well. $3 ones work for simple resistance and voltage readings. For high voltage / high current tasks, they might burst into flames and double as fire-starter, ideal in the cold winter time.

    Part testers for $15 can be neat, they identify parts (is this a NPN or PNP transistor... or something else?).

    Cheap regulated $20 power supplies can be nice as well.

     

    Edit: Bunch of capacitors, resistors, transistors (Bags of 100-500 for $1-$2 via ebay), and whatever sensors you need ;-)

     


    Sorry for the long post :-) It's always difficult to tell how much experience and equipment someone already has.
u/ldh1109 · 3 pointsr/arduino

I bought the official kit a few months ago and I finished all the projects.

  • The kit contains a lot more components than you need to complete the projects. Lots of resistors, capacitors, temperature sensors and LEDs.

  • The book doesn't explain much of the science. If you want to know more about the science I recommend this book.

    Its an good kit. It got me started but I really wanted more in depth explanations.

    Another great resource is Sparkfun. They sell kits which are very well documented and provide lots of other information
u/m0ei · 2 pointsr/arduino

It's easier than you think. Grab this book http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0071771336/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 you'll learn a lot.

Anyway, even if you learned some theory you will need to practice and practice, the more you practice the better you become.

There's a lot of tutorials online, you can learn a lot and fast.

I my self am a CS student, I design my own custom board using Cadsoft Eagle, etch it, solder it and so on...

Nothing is hard, you just need to practice. Just search a bit online and start with the easy and small tutorials.

Edit: Grab your self an Arduino Kit or buy a bunch of each component (Jameco, Digikey, Mouser, DX.com, Aliexpress.com, Sparkfun....) and the required tools (soldering iron, plier, breadboards.....)
Also, you can buy some unsoldered boards with their components and read the manual to learn more about circuits and soldering.

u/jongalong · 2 pointsr/arduino

This might be a good start, Practical Electronics for Inventors:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0071771336/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

u/dagamer34 · 2 pointsr/electronics

For electronics I started with this book: http://www.amazon.com/Make-Electronics-Discovery-Charles-Platt/dp/0596153740/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1369542421&sr=8-1&keywords=Make%3A+electronics
It has lots of cool experiments to get you started with concepts.

Then there's this: http://www.amazon.com/Practical-Electronics-Inventors-Third-Edition/dp/0071771336/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1369542421&sr=8-10&keywords=Make%3A+electronics
This will go much deeper into theory and give you a strong foundation.

Though if you want to delve right into the programming part: http://www.makershed.com/Getting_Started_with_Arduino_Kit_V3_0_p/msgsa.htm
and
http://www.makershed.com/Raspberry_Pi_Starter_Kit_Includes_Raspberry_Pi_p/msrpik.htm

MicroCenter will have the kits, and RadioShack should have the tinier parts, as well as the Raspberry Pi.

u/Shadow703793 · 2 pointsr/arduino

I can recommend you a few things, speaking as a CS/EE double major :)

  • Hands on skills are quite important. Learn how to solder, use a DMM, strip wires, etc. There's a lot of tutorials on Youtube and such that show you how to solder well,etc. Watch them and practice.

  • If you're still in school, you may want to consider taking a intro EE course as an elective or similar. If you're not in school but have the time and money, you may want to consider taking a few classes at a nearby college (ie. community college). Alternatively, get a few books/online tutorials and such and self study. I believe MIT OCW has a quite a few EE courses available.

  • Books wise, i recommend the following: Beginning Arduino, Practical Electronics for Inventors, Arduino Cookbook (excellent refference book). Website wise, I recommend t ro n i x s t u f f.

  • Start with the basics. This includes both theory (understanding and applying Ohm's Law) and practice (building actual circuits). Play with the Arduino and LEDs, motors, servo, ultrasonic sensors, etc. Follow tutorials for these BUT know WHY certain things are done in a given way and the reason those things are done. For example, understand why you need a resistor(s) when using LEDs.

  • Once you have the basics down (ie. how to hook up and drive a motor), start a small project. I personally recommend something like an obstacle avoiding or line following robot as it's quite cheap, lots of online help available, easy to understand, etc. Read my post here for more details.

  • Equipment wise, you'll need a few things. Take a look here: http://redd.it/1hoc03 You don't need everything on that list, but get the basics like resistors, capacitors, wires, general purpose PNP/NPN MOSFETs, etc. Then get a few sensors (ie. ultrasonic sensors, photo detectors, temperature sensor, etc) and a few other useful things like shift registers, LCD, piezo buzzer, etc. Also, check out this from /r/electronics.
u/aesthe · 2 pointsr/AskElectronics

I very much recommend this book as a basic intro to electronics. There's no need to complicate this with analogy.

I bought this 'recommended additional reading' as a student and have since loaned it to several non-EE friends who have gotten a lot out of it as well.

u/a_novel_account · 2 pointsr/AskElectronics
u/Arnifrid · 2 pointsr/IWantToLearn
u/Beegram2 · 2 pointsr/AskElectronics

It's difficult to tell without seeing it, but "Learning the Art of Electronics" looks like a book to accompany "The Art of Electronics". If you're a beginner, The Art of Electronics might be a bit overwhelming. My recommendation as an absolute starting point is Getting Started in Electronics by Forest M. Mimms. It's old and used to be sold at Tandy, but it gives a really quick and simply overview of the basics, and you can get the 3rd edition here for free:
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B5jcnBPSPWQyaTU1OW5NbVJQNW8/edit

If you're still interested after reading Getting Started, it's probably appropriate to move on to either The Art of Electronics http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Art-Electronics-Paul-Horowitz/dp/0521809266/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=0H11CKC3J5KJMF8BHHA8

or the much cheaper Practical Electronics for Inventors (as mentioned elsewhere - 4th edition is out in April)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Practical-Electronics-Inventors-Third-Scherz/dp/0071771336/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1452851192&sr=1-1&keywords=practical+electronics+for+inventors

u/anbolkonsky · 2 pointsr/AskElectronics

+1 for recommending Practical Electronics for Inventors. I highly, highly, highly recommend this book. I am currently an electrical engineering grad student and I still reference this book from time to time when working through simple circuits, either for debugging or optimization.

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

u/schematicboy · 2 pointsr/Luthier

If you want to learn about electronics, I'd suggest reading "Practical Electronics for Inventors" by Paul Scherz. Truly an excellent book. You can get nearly as much out of this as you would a four-year electrical engineering schooling, but it's written so that it's totally accessible if you don't want to go that far in depth.

u/rulztime · 2 pointsr/engineering

I remember doing 2 years of almost solid maths, thermodynamics and fluid dynamics, solids, materials etc. It was so uninspiring that I started teaching myself programming (C++) and playing around with 3d graphics (ah, good old days when Quake was the shit!)
I got good grades, but I was not a model student. So, although my 3rd and 4th year focused on 'mechatronic' subjects, I graduated not really knowing what a transistor was or how to solder anything. I was a decent programmer though.

Luckily, I got a job with a really patient, knowledgeable guy who helped me fill in the gaps. I coded stuff, but he explained how the hardware worked, I sometimes understood (or pretended, and when I couldn't figure it out later we went over it again).

I highly recommend this book:
http://www.amazon.com/Practical-Electronics-Inventors-Third-Edition/dp/0071771336

So here's what worked for me: (eventually :) )

  • Get a practical grasp of basic electronics. Thevenin and Kirchoff and all that are important, but ...
  • No matter how good the book/teacher, the best way to learn something is to actually DO IT.
  • Learn C or C++

    So, as far as practical stuff goes:

    Start basic.

  • Get a LED. Turn it on or off with a switch. Make it brighter. Make it dimmer.
  • Use a transistor/FET in the switching circuit.
  • Use a GPIO / micro controller to turn it off and on.
  • Make it turn on for 1 second, off for 1 second. Repeatedly.
    Bonus
  • Make the duty cycle dependent on a trimpot / variable resistor

    Get More Practical:

  • Get an old printer.
  • Take the stepper motor out of it. (Don't throw anything else away yet)
  • Make a circuit to drive the motor from GPIO/ microcontroller
  • Figure out how to make the motor turn. Both ways.


  • Make an assembly where the motor drives a "crane arm". You can make it a rotating crane or a linear crane arm (eg, like how the printer heads move). You may need a gearbox.

  • Hang a small weight (load) on the crane.

  • Figure out how to make the crane move from/to a certain position. With minimal load movement.
    Bonus:
  • Figure out how to move the crane from/to ANY position with minimal load movement.

    Old computer power supplies are great if you are on a budget.
u/jazzguitarboy · 2 pointsr/AustinClassifieds

I would do it, but with family obligations, I just don't have the time.

There are plenty of good tutorials on how to solder on YouTube. The gist of it is to heat up the components with the iron, then add solder. It just takes practice. And don't buy the cheap solder -- you'll get poor results even with the proper technique.

As far as electronics theory, I like this book as a basic reference.

When you get to building a tube amp, I would recommend modifying or refurbishing one before you go for a scratch build. Do you mean a tube hi-fi amp or a tube guitar/bass amp?

u/teeceli · 2 pointsr/arduino

Thank you! I think I might buy Make: Electronics or Practical Electronics for Inventors just to have on hand as a quick reference manual.

u/pandorazboxx · 2 pointsr/ECE

I love this book. It covers a wide range of electronics design for practical use.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0071771336/ref=cm_sw_r_udp_awd_kOc4tb1KNM6BD

u/bkdrummer · 2 pointsr/electronics

This is pretty great, especially for the price. It is sectioned off into multiple topics, but refers to the other sections as far as design is concerned. It does have some basics, but gets pretty complicated in some of the opamp sections.

u/grumpfish1969 · 1 pointr/electronics

I would highly recommend Art of Electronics. I've read dozens of books on this category and it is by far my favorite; useful both for initial instruction as well as later reference. Yes, it is expensive, but IMHO is well worth it.

The other book I'd recommend is "Practical Electronics for Inventors" by Scherz and Monk. Best breakdown of capacitor types and applications that I've seen. Link here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0071771336

u/softwaredev · 1 pointr/arduino

If you want to do it all on your own and have 0 experience you are going to have to learn a lot about programming and electronics.

You can start here for programming:
http://www.amazon.com/C-Programming-Modern-Approach-2nd/dp/0393979504/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1426519326&sr=8-1&keywords=c+programming+a+modern+approach

For electronics start here:

http://www.amazon.com/Getting-Started-Electronics-Forrest-Mims/dp/0945053282/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1426519459&sr=8-1&keywords=getting+started+in+electronics

Then here
http://www.amazon.com/Practical-Electronics-Inventors-Paul-Scherz/dp/0071771336/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1426519443&sr=8-1&keywords=circuit+design

Once you've done that then I suggest you start buying Arduino kits etc. I'm not saying you need a lot of experience to start with Arduino, but if you are looking to make a commercialized project and have a budget I think it's better to know what to buy before you start throwing money away in things (e.g. kits) you won't even use.

u/energy_engineer · 1 pointr/engineering

Practical Electronics for Inventors

The name is somewhat silly but I've found it to be particularly useful. Plus, its fairly cheap...

u/Equa1 · 1 pointr/arduino

Others may disagree, but I've found this book
http://www.amazon.com/Practical-Electronics-Inventors-Third-Edition/dp/0071771336
To be extremely informative both for the layman such as myself, and I imagine it's useful for the more experienced of us as It goes into rather extensive detail - including all the mathematics and electrical theory.

u/codekaizen · 1 pointr/windows10iot

Electronics is both easy and hard. The easy parts are following a schematic and plugging existing circuits together. This is usually much easier with digital electronics since all the electronics are doing are turning the current on and off or bringing the voltage high or low. The hardest part is making sure you connect all the wires correctly, and most devices are protected, and voltages are low, so crossing wires won't fry the device (though LEDs are easy to burn out). You can get very far with this "lego" mindset to circuit design. If you want to understand how current flows through an electrical network, and why resistors need specific values, how analog circuits work, and why digital signals need certain components like capacitors, then you'll need to invest more time in understanding electrical theory. This book is really good for that: http://www.amazon.com/Practical-Electronics-Inventors-Third-Edition/dp/0071771336

u/ISJ-117 · 1 pointr/OSHA

I explained to you my position and you still deny 48V at .33A would produce a shock that might cause a lawsuit. I was being friendly and informing and your rambling that it dosent matter because "it doesn't give the voltage and frequency". We were assuming PoE which is more than likely 48v and frequency dosent even make sense in the context as its DC.

I would recommend this book if you're interested in learning about Ohm law and current flow so you can make informed observations. However looking through your 1st page comment history briefly I can see you just want to argue and the subject is irreverent. Take care, I've wasted enough of my time.

u/csik · 1 pointr/modular

The Horowitz/Hill bible is great, he's a physicist/EE. For some people, though, his interest in the physics isn't necessarily what they geek out on, and so for those people I'd suggest also Practical Electronics for Inventors.

https://www.amazon.com/Practical-Electronics-Inventors-Third-Scherz/dp/0071771336

I found this book to be very easy for beginners to pick up and enjoy, and get started on building far more quickly.

u/nixfu · 1 pointr/AskElectronics

Best two:

  • Practical Electronics for Inventors - a new version is supposed to be coming out in 2015 to correct the bugs in this book, there quite a few errors in the book, but its still a great read

  • The Art of Electronics - an old college text book, out of print and hard to find, but a classic. I always considered this book to be a sort of the electronics version of "Joy of Cooking". You can find used copies sometimes at a decent price on Ebay. The new 3rd edition is coming out in April 2015, but its going to be a >$100 hardback textbook and its kinda pricey.
u/login2downvote · 1 pointr/WTF

Interesting. I have more reading to do. But that's good. Hmmm I could have sworn there was a section in this book that talked about ohms law could t be used to both ways or something or other. Oh well.

u/gjjones125 · 1 pointr/ECE

Not a video but, I'm just finishing my first semester of Circuits and I bought this book:

http://www.amazon.com/Practical-Electronics-Inventors-Paul-Scherz/dp/0071771336/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1418850335&sr=8-1&keywords=practical+electronics+for+inventors

and reading it helped much more than the class textbook. It will probably follow about the same arc as the glass and its a very readable technical book. Plus it has later chapters on actual practical circuits and stuff on digital circuits information so I highly recommend it.

u/42ndtime · 1 pointr/arduino

This is a pretty good guide to the electronics part. Find kits on AliExpress for the components.

u/MeNoAreNoNiceGuy · 1 pointr/diypedals

Wow, thanks fro the great answers /u/crb3 ! Really interesting stuff.

Number 3 I'm going to read through really slowly again to try to makes sure I get it all. Reverse protection diode makes sense. I think I can leave it out since I am using only 9v DC from the wall wart so it'd be hard to get it backwards like a battery. It seems like increasing the value of C3 would allow a larger reservoir of power and less sag?

One question, why does it matter it it is a 0.1 uF MLC cap vs some other type of capacitor, i.e., What desirable properties are exclusive to MLC?

This is exactly what I has hoping for. I'm slowly working through this book now to get a better understanding of this stuff, but practical explanations like the ones you provided are really interesting and provide an awesome supplement to what I have learned so far from the text book!

Next step is the breadboard to try some of this stuff out!