(Part 2) Top products from r/ElectricalEngineering

Hmmmm I don't consider myself an authority on VHDL/Verilog but I can try and answer your questions.

1. Is it relevant to learn VHDL? It really depends on your interest and goals. EE is such a wide topic that it can easily be irrelevant to your future occupation. Personally, I wouldn't treat learning VHDL as a career goal but more of a learning experience. I find VHDL to be amazing when it comes to digital design and understanding how a system works. I'm not entirely sure with which one is better but I would go with VHDL because there seems to be more resources dedicated to it (but I could be wrong).
   
   
2. If you're interested in learning VHDL I recommend Circuit Design and Simulation with VHDL
   Here's a link to a pdf, but I do advice buying the book. https://is.muni.cz/el/1433/podzim2008/PV200/um/_eBook__MIT_Press_-_Circuit_Design_with_VHDL__2005_.pdf
   https://www.amazon.com/Circuit-Design-Simulation-VHDL-Press/dp/0262014335/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1469912010&sr=8-1&keywords=circuit+design+and+simulation
   
   
3. Not sure about the CPLDs vs FPGAs so I can't really help you on that. I would go with getting a FPGA though. Unfortunately, FPGAs are pretty expensive so you would probably have to shop around if you want a good deal.
   
   Hope this help! Feel free to msg me if you have any VHDL questions.

Experimental Methods in RF Design - Wes Hayward

http://www.arrl.org/shop/Experimental-Methods-in-RF-Design-Classic-Reprint-Edition/

RF Circuit Design- Bowick

https://www.amazon.com/Circuit-Design-Second-Christopher-Bowick/dp/0750685182/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1526760096&sr=1-1&keywords=rf+design+bowick

Phase-locked loop Engineering Handbook for Integrated Circuits - Stanley Goldman

https://www.amazon.com/Phase-Locked-Engineering-Handbook-Integrated-Circuits/dp/159693154X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1526759158&sr=8-1&keywords=phase+locked+loop+handbook

High-Speed Digital Design: A Handbook of Black Magic

https://www.amazon.com/High-Speed-Digital-Design-Handbook/dp/8131714128/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1526759237&sr=1-2&keywords=high-speed+digital+design

Handbook of Digital Techniques for High-Speed Design: Design Examples, Signaling and Memory Technologies, Fiber Optics, Modeling, and Simulation to Ensure Signal Integrity - Tom Granberg

https://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Digital-Techniques-High-Speed-Design/dp/013142291X/ref=sr_1_10?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1526759527&sr=1-10&keywords=high+speed+digital

As far as RF/Analog IC text is concerned, Razavi and Lee write some great conceptual discussions. Anything from the ARRL is great as well, if you want to look into the perspective of experimental engineers. The textbooks that I noted above come from the perspectives of former design engineers. They can be treated like design cookbooks that are equipped with appropriate discussions that substantiate common design techniques. I hope that these help. For a more general text that approaches a breadth of topics, the Art of Electronics by Paul Horowitz is an absolute classic, and it is a must read for developing the fundamentals strongly.

Here is a link to a pretty thorough course in beginning analog circuits. I don't know how much you would get out of it seeing as you would probably know most of it from being a physicist, but it's there for reference. The next step up would be this book by Sedra and Smith. It will start off with Thevenin and Norton equivalents and work up from there. The book is very large and contains damn near everything you need to know about analog circuits (even has a chapter on semi-conductor physics :)). If you have any interest in digital circuit logic you can go here. Also, I think I see an Arduino in the article picture. There is plenty of documentation on their website. If you want to know more about microprocessors in general, Amazon has a long list of books that could probably suit your needs. Hope that helps! :)

All the classes I've taken, we just had chapters in different books that took care of three-phase things related to whatever subject we were having. We used a book called Electric Machinery(link further down), when dealing with three-phase in transformers, syncronous and asyncronous machines. Then we are using a book called Power Electronics for three-phase in, well.. power electronics :) It works pretty well :)

http://www.amazon.com/Electric-Machinery-A-E-Fitzgerald/dp/0073660094

Build your own transistor radios gently sweeps from ultra simplistic to quite deep and technical, in a comfortable breezy style.

Designing audio power amplifiers starts from the viewpoint that circuit design is serious engineering (not random "circuit bending" or trial-and-error hobby experimentation or "Maker Faire" futzing around) and you actually must use algebra and other mathematical tools to succeed. It introduces the modern hybrid-pi model of bipolar transistor operation, which is what actual practicing analog design engineers use in industry. Other books on the same topic, by other authors, omit this crucial element because, as the pull-string-to-speak Barbie Doll says, "Math is HARD!".

The Art of Electronics - The EE bible
ARRL Handbook - Great for analog and RF circuit knowledge, but tons of general stuff too.
How to Diagnose and Fix Everything Electronic - For hands on, real world circuit diagnosis. I've been doing this a long time and I still learned a lot from this book. This book will save you a lot of magic smoke.

I read 'The Soul of a New Machine' https://www.amazon.com/Soul-New-Machine-Tracy-Kidder/dp/0316491977 and decided I wanted to design computers. I ended up being good at mechanical things as well, but I liked all of the EE topics more.

I am a huge fan of Electronics: A Systems Approach by Neil Storey. It has chapters on a wide range of subjects, with very practical and useful information, applicable to both analog and digital systems but also general principles of engineering. It was a 'must have' book to have during my EE studies according to my teachers and I must say they weren't wrong, I must have opened it atleast once for every course I followed.

It's not too expensive: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Electronics-Approach-Dr-Neil-Storey/dp/0273719181

I'm going to be frank, this is probably the worst engineering article I've ever read. I may be biased because I majored in control systems, but this article doesn't even remotely cover what would be a control systems 101 introductory lecture, it is littered with grammatical and technical inaccuracies, and is completely devoid of technical depth that someone who would bother reading the article would be interested in. It is also obvious that the submitter is also affiliated with the site, not that I have a problem with shameless self promotion but this is simply bad content.

For those who would like a good introduction to control systems, this is IMOH the best text on the subject: Modern Control Systems, R.H. Bishop. (Amazon,Torrent)

I thought this book moved at a good pace and covered the history well (discoveries and political/practical consqeuence).

​

https://www.amazon.com/Electric-Universe-Shocking-Story-Electricity/dp/0316729728

The off-the-shelf stuff can be pretty darn cheap...

https://www.amazon.ca/Countdown-Timing-Switch-Module-Display/dp/B07WRDN2P9/ref=sr_1_14?keywords=relay+with+timer+9v&qid=1571185836&sr=8-14

If you want a head start I read this book before my first EE course it was a quick read and I really felt like I had a fundamental understanding of a lot of things before diving deep into theory and equations.

Electrical Engineering 101, Third Edition: Everything You Should Have Learned in School...but Probably Didn't https://www.amazon.com/dp/0123860016/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_3DUXAbWGQCWEK

Digital Logic is a very wide topic. You should clarify your question.

-----

Purchase: (there are many editions of the following)

• "Digital Fundamentals" by Floyd - (Read/DL an Older Edition)
  
  
• "Digital Design: With an Introduction to Verilog" by Mano & Ciletti - (Read/DL an Older Edition)
  
  
• "Digital Design: Principles and Practices" by Wakerly - (Read/DL an Older Edition)
  
  -----
  
  Free downloads:
  
  
• 1971 "Designing with TTL Integrated Circuits'' by Morris & Miller
  
  
• 1974 ''TTL Cookbook'' by Lancaster
  
  

• 2007 "Lessons in Electric Circuits - Vol IV - Digital" by Kuphaldt
  
  

This is the book for our introductory course. It gets pretty nitty gritty to the basics of a computer, but doesn't really talk about a physical implementation of an oscillator, but it does talk about a clock, which is just a filtered oscillator (analog components that make the waveform/output of an oscillator more digital-circuit friendly).

Introduction to Computing Systems: From Bits and Gates to C and Beyond

Solid State Electronic Devices by Streetman and Banerjee is everything you need to know semiconductor devices and the physics behind them.

Advanced Engineering Electromagnetics by Balanis covers E&M waves

Are you looking for low-level info (ie how do motors and drives work) or higher level ( how do you take off the shelf units to combine them into a system)?

If the first, Electric Motors and Drives by Austin Hughes and Bill Drury. If the second, any drive manufacturer’s manuals should be more than sufficient.

The book used in my courses on electric motors use this book (Amazon), and it provides all the theory and background.

nope but i'm interested.

This book was also recomended : https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0081010168/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1