Hi,
I've taken many courses on analog and digital electronics during my physics education and I understand all of the information that's covered in the video tutorials offered on this site.

Still, every time I look at a usage circuit in a datasheet or look up a real work circuit, I'm overwhelmed by all of the additional capacitors and resistors used to filter supplies and input signals. Is there a good reference that give practical advice on how these filtering caps and resistor values are chosen?

I read through the tips and tricks section and found the info there really good. I particularly liked the one by Georacer in the thread: http://forum.allaboutcircuits.com/showthread.php?t=12878&page=4 which talks about how to choose the values of resistors in a voltage divider.

Are there good books that discuss these types of design aspects?

Thanks,

Dave

 

How familiar are you with op amps? I cut my teeth on them in college.

Bill's Blog

 

There is a website where you can present a single circuit and find out what each part is about, up to a point. Nobody is going to take a 100 watt audio amp or a GPS receiver apart for you, and explain every piece, but you can get some help on simple circuits. I think it's called, Allaboutcircuits.com

 

Analog Devices has a great deal of material.

 

I've found a lot of times that those 'cookbook' circuits are advertising some part. The 'cookbook' app notes don't do a good job of explaining things, but I've found that if you look up the part datasheet it will sometimes give you a lot of information about how each part is used and how the circuit works.

I've been working with the LT1302 a lot lately, and I've been very impressed with the detail regarding how the IC itself works, what each external part is doing, how to make your external part selection, and even how to layout your device. It does however, assume that you know how an inductor, capacitor, and inductive boost regulator works.

It also helps to use a spice simulator to understand what's going on. Sometimes you have to put pencil to paper and start doing the math to understand the circuit. And everyone will learn the material better doing it differently.

You'll learn A LOT from studying those old 'cookbook' designs.

 

Application notes come in two catagories; part specific and general. The general app note usually deals with an application like filters, controls, theory, etc., while the specific app note shows how a specific family of ICs can be used. The data sheet pertains to one IC so it is very specific. Depending on who wrote the data sheet and the company, the apps information ranges form non-existant to extremely good. So what have I just told you---look around and you can find pearls.
The linear app book by National (still avaliable on ebay), Analog Devices app notes, and TI app notes can help a lot. Don't expect an app note to solve your problem; you will have to extend it or add to it, etc to get an optimal solution.

 

alot of people have read "The Art Of Electronics" and swear that it's a good practical reference. I can't say one way or the other because I've never read it. However, a couple older books I could recommend are "Shielding and Grounding In Electronics" (don't remember the author's name) and "The Circuit Designer's Companion" by Tim Williams. Also, "High Speed Digital Design" by Howard Johnson, although that last book is geared towards digital design, still lots of good information about how to keep circuits quiet.