I recently decided to learn more about electronics, and to do so in a more systematic manner. I’ve tinkered with electronics for decades, but my actual knowledge base is very catch-as-catch-can – bits learned for specific projects, online tutorials, half-remembered college physics, etc. So, thanks to recommendations on the eevblog forum, I picked up two books.
The first is “The Art of Electronics” (AoE) by Horowitz and Hill. It’s a textbook that purports to teach electronics “without all the math”. I find it does so to a degree. It’s certainly lower math than most EE classes on the topic would use, but there’s still tons of it. The math doesn’t really bother me, but it does assume at least some knowledge of integral and differential calculus. Regardless, the book is very good even if I’m not retaining 100% of all of the material on the first pass. I’m about 80% through the book at present.
I’ve also supplemented it with other sources, when I had trouble following something. Some of the videos from Khan Academy‘s Electrical Engineering program have been great. I watched a lot of their Amplifier and Semiconductor Devices videos. The other site I used a lot is the online textbook from All About Circuits. Frequently, by combining these sources, I’ve been able to figure out something I couldn’t from any one of them.
But all of the above is theory. I also wanted to build things. In comes “Learning the Art of Electronics: A Hands-On Lab Course” (LtAoE) by Hayes and Horowitz. This is the lab “manual” companion to AoE. It breaks the theory down even more, and presents real lab problems to do. I’m slowly working my way through the projects.
The biggest “flaw”, if one were to call it that, of LtAoE is that it’s meant for students taking the authors’ class, live, at Harvard where they teach. Which means it assumes access to parts and equipment that not everyone has. The book’s website helpfully provides a parts list, but it’s not quite complete. A few items are missing, but, more importantly, some of the items can’t be used as-bought. They need assembly or modification that are not necessarily obvious. In some cases these modifications are described in the book, but not always.
My plan is to write about my adventures with LtAoE in this blog. Specifically, I’m going to write about the things I had to do to make things work, as they might help the next student. No specific schedule is planned – this is a hobby, and my available time is very inconsistent. My current plan is to work through the Analog part of the book. Once that’s complete, I’ll decide if I want to do the Digital labs.