sean@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (Sean P. Nolan) (09/27/89)
Hey there ..... I'm looking for advice from people here on how to get started actually DOING something with electronics. I've read a few books and have a pretty good understanding of what various components (discrete and within ICs) do and how they work. But I'm kind of at a loss as to what to do now. Picking up random schematics, I can get the general jist of what's going on, but wouldn't be able to sit down and design a circuit for the life of me. All real-world projects have resistors and capacitors flying all over the place in seemingly random places. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. So, if anyone has any good advice, I'd appreciate getting it. Things I'm looking for include how to pick and build power supplies for circuits, how to figure out resistor placement, etc etc... just about everything and anything. Thanks... --- Sean +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Sean P. Nolan | | "Let's face it: | | Dartmouth College | Net: Sean_Nolan@Mac.Dartmouth.EDU | IBM is no fun." | | Hinman Box 2658 | MCI Mail: snolan | :::::::::: | | Hanover, NH 03755 | | John C. Dvorak | +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
vaso@mips.COM (Vaso Bovan) (09/27/89)
In article <15836@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU> sean@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (Sean P. Nolan) writes: > >I'm looking for advice from people here on how to get started actually DOING >something with electronics. I've read a few books and have a pretty good >understanding of what various components (discrete and within ICs) do and how >they work. But I'm kind of at a loss as to what to do now. Picking up random >schematics, I can get the general jist of what's going on, but wouldn't be >able to sit down and design a circuit for the life of me. All real-world >projects have resistors and capacitors flying all over the place in seemingly >random places. > The best non-mathematical treatment of practical electronic "design and analysis" is THE ART OF ELECTRONICS, 2nd Ed., Horowitz & Hill, Cambridge University Press, 1989, in my opinion. This is appropriate for freshmen university students with a couple of years of high school science. There is also the old standby, THE ARRL HANDBOOK (FOR THE RADIO AMATEUR), yearly editions, at a slightly lower level of "difficulty." I'd say someone who has gone through these two books, especially the first, has a better grasp of practical electronic design than the average newly- graduated electronics engineer, minus the math of course. There is also my old favorite: HOW TO BUILD AND USE ELECTRONIC DEVICES WITHOUT FRUSTRATION, PANIC, MOUNTAINS OF MONEY, OR AN ENGINEERING DEGREE, 2nd Ed., Hoenig, S.A., Little, Brown, & Co., 1980. This book may be out of print. -Vaso (electronics engineer)
henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) (09/28/89)
In article <28333@buckaroo.mips.COM> vaso@mips.COM (Vaso Bovan) writes: >The best non-mathematical treatment of practical electronic "design and >analysis" is THE ART OF ELECTRONICS, 2nd Ed., Horowitz & Hill... >There is also my old favorite: HOW TO BUILD AND USE ELECTRONIC DEVICES >WITHOUT FRUSTRATION, PANIC, MOUNTAINS OF MONEY, OR AN ENGINEERING DEGREE, 2nd >Ed., Hoenig, S.A., Little, Brown, & Co., 1980... I would second those two recommendations, and add a third. If digital stuff is what you want to get into, you could do a whole lot worse than to get Don Lancaster's CMOS COOKBOOK. It is getting a little old, but I don't know of anything even close to it for getting into digital circuits. (His TTL COOKBOOK is badly dated by now but also worth reading.) -- "Where is D.D. Harriman now, | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology when we really *need* him?" | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu
gbell@pnet12.cts.com (Greg Bell) (09/28/89)
sean@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (Sean P. Nolan) writes: > >I'm looking for advice from people here on how to get started actually DOING >something with electronics. I've read a few books and have a pretty good >understanding of what various components (discrete and within ICs) do and how >they work. But I'm kind of at a loss as to what to do now. Picking up random I "got started" when I received a Radio Shack 100 in 1 (or 101, or 120) Electronics Project Kit. Its not called exactly that, but the RS guys will know what you're talking about. Its a prototyping box with various components, and a book of projects. They vary from a radio transmitter to a LED display driver, etc. Fun stuff. And, you can easily modify the projects or build your own. Greg Bell_________________________________________________________ Hardware hacker | Electronics hobbyist | UUCP: uunet!serene!pnet12!gbell EE major at UC San Diego |
strong@tc.fluke.COM (Norm Strong) (09/29/89)
In article <15836@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU> sean@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (Sean P. Nolan) writes: }Hey there ..... } }I'm looking for advice from people here on how to get started actually DOING }something with electronics. I've read a few books and have a pretty good }understanding of what various components (discrete and within ICs) do and how }they work. But I'm kind of at a loss as to what to do now. Picking up random }schematics, I can get the general jist of what's going on, but wouldn't be }able to sit down and design a circuit for the life of me. All real-world }projects have resistors and capacitors flying all over the place in seemingly }random places. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. National Semiconductor publishes a very good little book entitled "Intuitive IC Op Amps" by T. Frederiksen. It will tell you all you ever have to know about closed loop circuits. It also has oodles of application info. Try it, you'll like it. -- Norm (strong@tc.fluke.com)
palmer@tybalt.caltech.edu (David Palmer) (09/29/89)
sean@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (Sean P. Nolan) writes: > >I'm looking for advice from people here on how to get started actually DOING >something with electronics. I've read a few books and have a pretty good >understanding of what various components (discrete and within ICs) do and how >they work. But I'm kind of at a loss as to what to do now. Picking up random I got started, 15 years ago or so, by picking up some 74XX ICs and a breadboard from Radio Sh**, reading "The TTL Cookbook" (By Don Lancaster, I believe) and some 555 (timer) technotes, and just plunging in by doing simple things. Now I'm an experimental physicist making $12,000 a year and living in Pasadena. Since TTL is showing its age, you may want to use CMOS instead, but the 555 is still a great chip for making an LED blink. You don't have to know how to bias a transistor (I didn't learn until 6 years ago), but Op-amps are easier anyway. As long as you laugh when someone mentions "Ohm's Three Laws", and have a rough notion of what a capacitor does, you are ready to begin learning to use ICs. David Palmer palmer@tybalt.caltech.edu ...rutgers!cit-vax!tybalt.caltech.edu!palmer "Direct quotes don't have to be exact, or even accurate. Truth is as irrelevant to a newspaper as it is to a court of law" - Judge Alarcon, 9th circuit court of appeals (paraphrased)
price@mpx0.lanl.gov (The Q) (09/30/89)
In article <12095@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu>, palmer@tybalt.caltech.edu (David Palmer) writes: > > I got started, 15 years ago or so, by picking up some 74XX ICs and a breadboard > from Radio Sh**, reading "The TTL Cookbook" (By Don Lancaster, I believe) > and some 555 (timer) technotes, and just plunging in by doing simple > things. > > Now I'm an experimental physicist making $12,000 a year and living in Pasadena. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Wow! They don't pay too well at CalTech, do they?? :) I hope that's a typo - at UCLA, our grad students in physics (like me!) get paid more than that... -- /------------------------\ /-----------------------------------------\ | John Price | Internet:price@dac.lanl.gov | | BITNET: price@lampf | SneakerNet:UCLA Dept. of Physics | | DECnet:dac::price | 5-105 Knudsen Hall | | YellNet:(213)825-2259 | Los Angeles, CA 90024-1547 | \------------------------/ \-----------------------------------------/ /--------------------------------------------------------------------\ | Where there is no solution, there is no problem. | \--------------------------------------------------------------------/
palmer@tybalt.caltech.edu (David Palmer) (10/02/89)
In article <523@mpx0.lanl.gov> price@mpx0.lanl.gov (The Q) writes: >In article <12095@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu>, palmer@tybalt.caltech.edu (David Palmer) writes: >> >> >> Now I'm an experimental physicist making $12,000 a year and living in Pasadena. > ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ > > Wow! They don't pay too well at CalTech, do they?? :) No :( > > I hope that's a typo - at UCLA, our grad students in physics (like >me!) get paid more than that... I wish it were a typo. As a 5th year physics grad student that's what I make as a research assistant. In my last summer job, five years ago, I was making about 2.5 times that salary (in 1984 dollars), but the company I worked for paid summer hires at 3/4 entry-level scale. At least I will get a sheepskin out of it. At UC Berkeley, they use the first-year physics class as disposable people. They pay them starvation wages for two years to work as teaching assistants, and then they flunk out half of them. (One of the reasons I decided not to go to Berkeley.) This doesn't really have anything to do with sci.electronics (except that it explains why almost nobody goes for the PhD in E.E.) so follow-ups should go to sci.physics, with copies nailed to the dean's door. David Palmer palmer@tybalt.caltech.edu ...rutgers!cit-vax!tybalt.caltech.edu!palmer "Direct quotes don't have to be exact, or even accurate. Truth is as irrelevant to a newspaper as it is to a court of law" - Judge Alarcon, 9th circuit court of appeals (paraphrased)