Basic book on electronics?

[Josef Moellers]

Hi,

My nephew in Down Under wants to get into hardware. I'd like to give him
a book on basic hardware theory and practice. He has an Arduino board,
but has little knowledge about all the various components like
resistors, capacitors, transistors etc.

Does anyone know of a good basic book which isn't too theoretical, maybe
even geared towards microcontrollers?

Thanks in advance,

Josef
--
These are my personal views and not those of Fujitsu Technology Solutions!
Josef Möllers (Pinguinpfleger bei FTS)
If failure had no penalty success would not be a prize (T. Pratchett)
Company Details: http://de.ts.fujitsu.com/imprint.html

 

[Rich Webb]

On Tue, 29 Mar 2011 11:19:26 +0200, Josef Moellers
<josef.moellers@ts.fujitsu.com> wrote:

Hi,

My nephew in Down Under wants to get into hardware. I'd like to give him
a book on basic hardware theory and practice. He has an Arduino board,
but has little knowledge about all the various components like
resistors, capacitors, transistors etc.

Does anyone know of a good basic book which isn't too theoretical, maybe
even geared towards microcontrollers?

Not a book but perhaps the "Inventor's Kit for Arduino" from Sparkfun?
He'll already be familiar with the Arduino, so addition to building the
example circuits he will have the second Arduino that the first can
"talk to."

I don't have any hands-on with this kit but it looks like a good
starting place with basic circuit elements.

http://www.sparkfun.com/products/10339

--
Rich Webb Norfolk, VA

 

[asdf]

On Tue, 29 Mar 2011 11:19:26 +0200, Josef Moellers wrote:

Does anyone know of a good basic book which isn't too theoretical, maybe
even geared towards microcontrollers?

"Make:Electronics"

http://www.makershed.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=9780596153748

This one looks exactly what you're looking for: lots of practice and some
very well explained theory.

 

[Ecnerwal]

In article <ims86u$ian$1@nntp.fujitsu-siemens.com>,
Josef Moellers <josef.moellers@ts.fujitsu.com> wrote:

Hi,

My nephew in Down Under wants to get into hardware. I'd like to give him
a book on basic hardware theory and practice. He has an Arduino board,
but has little knowledge about all the various components like
resistors, capacitors, transistors etc.

Does anyone know of a good basic book which isn't too theoretical, maybe
even geared towards microcontrollers?

I consider The Art of Electronics to be one of the most readable/useful
books on the subject, if perhaps a bit heavier than you have in mind.
After having taken several EE courses which made the subject as opaque
as possible (barf-back formulas with no reasons why for various op-amp
configurations, for instance), I took an engineering physics electronics
course which used AoE and suddenly everything became _much_ clearer.

YMMV.

--
Cats, coffee, chocolate...vices to live by

 

[Jon Kirwan]

On Tue, 29 Mar 2011 14:08:12 -0400, Ecnerwal
<MyNameForward@ReplaceWithMyVices.Com.invalid> wrote:

In article <ims86u$ian$1@nntp.fujitsu-siemens.com>,
Josef Moellers <josef.moellers@ts.fujitsu.com> wrote:

Hi,

My nephew in Down Under wants to get into hardware. I'd like to give him
a book on basic hardware theory and practice. He has an Arduino board,
but has little knowledge about all the various components like
resistors, capacitors, transistors etc.

Does anyone know of a good basic book which isn't too theoretical, maybe
even geared towards microcontrollers?

I consider The Art of Electronics to be one of the most readable/useful
books on the subject, if perhaps a bit heavier than you have in mind.
After having taken several EE courses which made the subject as opaque
as possible (barf-back formulas with no reasons why for various op-amp
configurations, for instance), I took an engineering physics electronics
course which used AoE and suddenly everything became _much_ clearer.

YMMV.

And don't forget to get the student manual. It works through
problems in a way that supplements the textbook well.

Jon

 

[Jon Kirwan]

On Tue, 29 Mar 2011 11:19:26 +0200, Josef Moellers
<josef.moellers@ts.fujitsu.com> wrote:

Hi,

My nephew in Down Under wants to get into hardware. I'd like to give him
a book on basic hardware theory and practice. He has an Arduino board,
but has little knowledge about all the various components like
resistors, capacitors, transistors etc.

Does anyone know of a good basic book which isn't too theoretical, maybe
even geared towards microcontrollers?

Thanks in advance,

Josef

Another approach is to approach this through books targeted
at folks interested in simple robots. Since you mentioned
the Arduino, I'm assuming he has some knowledge of micros.
There's one I've skimmed through recently (only just bought
it for a friend) called Intermediate Robot Building by David
Cook. Looks very nicely laid out at first glance and I think
it caters well to beginners in electronics. Although I
assume there is a Beginning Robot Building book by the same
author, I haven't bought it. Maybe it would be better to
start with that one. But the Intermediate book looks to me
like a Beginning book, so the Beginning book must be really
basic.

Point is, there are a number of "getting into robots" books
around, and often clubs in the area. That might be a good
way to go. Especially considering your nephew already has
gotten into micros of some kind.

Jon

 

[krw@att.bizzzzzzzzzzzz]

On Tue, 29 Mar 2011 14:08:12 -0400, Ecnerwal
<MyNameForward@ReplaceWithMyVices.Com.invalid> wrote:

In article <ims86u$ian$1@nntp.fujitsu-siemens.com>,
Josef Moellers <josef.moellers@ts.fujitsu.com> wrote:

Hi,

My nephew in Down Under wants to get into hardware. I'd like to give him
a book on basic hardware theory and practice. He has an Arduino board,
but has little knowledge about all the various components like
resistors, capacitors, transistors etc.

Does anyone know of a good basic book which isn't too theoretical, maybe
even geared towards microcontrollers?

I consider The Art of Electronics to be one of the most readable/useful
books on the subject, if perhaps a bit heavier than you have in mind.
After having taken several EE courses which made the subject as opaque
as possible (barf-back formulas with no reasons why for various op-amp
configurations, for instance), I took an engineering physics electronics
course which used AoE and suddenly everything became _much_ clearer.

Where did you go to college? Sounds horrible. Barf-back formulas? Sounds
like *chemistry*. <eeek!>

 

[Josef Moellers]

Am 27.4.2011 schrub asdf:

On Tue, 29 Mar 2011 11:19:26 +0200, Josef Moellers wrote:

Does anyone know of a good basic book which isn't too theoretical, maybe
even geared towards microcontrollers?

"Make:Electronics"

http://www.makershed.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=9780596153748

This one looks exactly what you're looking for: lots of practice and some
very well explained theory.

I just wanted to say that this was what I ordered.
(I'm still waiting for feedback on how it's used and with which results)

Thanks.
--
These are my personal views and not those of Fujitsu Technology Solutions!
Josef MĂśllers (Pinguinpfleger bei FTS)
If failure had no penalty success would not be a prize (T. Pratchett)
Company Details: http://de.ts.fujitsu.com/imprint.html