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oceanengineer
- Joined Jan 30, 2024
- 5
Great, but " Anyone who really understands electronics doesn't need it. " is a silly comment. Electronics is a very broad subject, and I've never met anyone who understands all of it.
Is Practical Electronics For Inventors worth it?
- Thread starter SeanV123
- Start date
I just commented on how useless the water analogy is. Where did I say or imply that I knew everything about electronics?
If you can't understand hole/electron current, then go ahead and use crutches. It's not going to be helpful in the long run.
I understood all of it at one point… then I learned some more and became an ignoramus once again. And, no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t unlearn the new stuff.
Take your bickering out of this thread, for everyone's sake.
Done.
Thank you!
You can never have too many textbooks. I still have a copy of 'Foundations of Wireless' by M. G. Scroggie, bought second-hand in 1968 from a charity shop. I learnt the basics of electronics from that at the age of 10 and yes, its all about valves. But its surprising how many of the circuits in there still work well with FETs including many forgotten yet still useful configurations.
We have had discussions here on the pros and cons of using the water analog for explaining pressure and flow.
The consensus has been that it causes more harm than good and it is totally unnecessary. It is better and easier to discuss the real phenomenon than to create a substitute.
The consensus has been that it causes more harm than good and it is totally unnecessary. It is better and easier to discuss the real phenomenon than to create a substitute.
What magazine subscriptions do you recommend ?
What magazine subscriptions do you recommend ?
Cut my teeth
To gain experience with something
The phrase "cut my teeth" means to gain experience with something, especially at a young age1. The expression probably comes from the painful realities of human dental development2. It is a metaphoric reference to when a baby's teeth first appear. They grow (cut) through the gums - often painfully, which also gives us the figurative usage teething troubles3.
People who know the many limitations of the analogy use it when it's appropriate to use a simple analogy (with disclaimers about the many limitations) but beginners seem to take it as gospel and run with it until they hit one of the many analogy brickwalls. What's why I don't recommend or use it very often, even with children.
That video is his usual mixture of good food and spoiled milk. Even if you take the time to dig out the good, it's still IMO tainted by the total mixture.
Elektor has always been a favourite though I haven't subscribed for years. Practical Electronics was another I subscribed to in the past, but they all became more 'kit assemblers' to a certain extent. I think my experience over the last 50 years exceeded the level of expertise in the magazines...
I'm with Irving. Most magazines are offering product reviews and teardowns rather than actual construction projects and tips. I could write my own construction articles.
I did do so for a while before the effort far exceeded the value they placed on them... 
MaxHeadRoom
- Joined Jul 18, 2013
- 30,673
What I would suggest is accumulate a collection of the older publications by Howard W. Sams for one, With authors such as Walter Jung, M. Horowitz and others.
All types of circuits using Op-amps, Transistors et-al all covered
One on-line cheap source for any out of print books, or used, is AbeBooks .
On a slightly philosophical note, this type of post reminds me of the difference in learning history, and living it.
In my case it was the latter.
The very first electronic device I was exposed to was actually a solid state version, The Crystal radio using a chunk of Galena!
After that came valves followed by semi-conductor (transistors), then FETS and finally now the small footprint Micro processor.
All covering both domestic electronics and Industrial devices over a life-time!
All types of circuits using Op-amps, Transistors et-al all covered
One on-line cheap source for any out of print books, or used, is AbeBooks .
On a slightly philosophical note, this type of post reminds me of the difference in learning history, and living it.
In my case it was the latter.
The very first electronic device I was exposed to was actually a solid state version, The Crystal radio using a chunk of Galena!
After that came valves followed by semi-conductor (transistors), then FETS and finally now the small footprint Micro processor.
All covering both domestic electronics and Industrial devices over a life-time!
hello,
the internet archive has some arduino and rpi books:
https://archive.org/details/folkscanomy_electronics?query=arduino&sort=-publicdate
perhaps you can get some ideas for books over there.
bertus
the internet archive has some arduino and rpi books:
https://archive.org/details/folkscanomy_electronics?query=arduino&sort=-publicdate
perhaps you can get some ideas for books over there.
bertus
Probably not. I have always been disappointed with authors trying to export knowledge that was ancillary to a purported goal. The target audience is "inventors" who are unknowledgeable about electronics. Most of the successful inventors I knew had more than a basic knowledge of the things they were working with as well as substantial background in other areas. They were experts at almost everything and dabblers at nothing. I question the existence of the actual target audiences for the volume. I certainly do not think it includes many "inventors".
This is a great book actually. I studied full time electronics and telecommunications for two years when I was younger, in around 1980, in the UK.
The material overlapped a BSc in electrical engineering, it wasn't a degree but it was extensive and had plenty of mathematics.
I've never worked professionally in the industry though, I ended up in software and still dabble in electronics, not as much as I'd like to but I do.
So a year or so ago I looked for some decent books, the few I still have were dated and although I have TAOE I wanted more books, one is not enough.
So I chose theses two:
I was a bit skeptical of the first book, the term "inventors" in the title implied to me it might be a little superficial, but I was wrong both are excellent books and the reviews in Amazon support this.
The "Inventors" book covers a lot and is very pragmatic too, here's a photograph from page 224 that I just took:
There's certainly nothing superficial here, as a hobbyist anyway, this is a great book to re-learn stuff, the other book too is excellent, it is more theoretical, more analytical and less pragmatic, they actually go well together.
So despite the title use of "inventors" it is actually a very good book, anyone who was an "inventor" and relied on this book would be getting first rate knowledge.
The material overlapped a BSc in electrical engineering, it wasn't a degree but it was extensive and had plenty of mathematics.
I've never worked professionally in the industry though, I ended up in software and still dabble in electronics, not as much as I'd like to but I do.
So a year or so ago I looked for some decent books, the few I still have were dated and although I have TAOE I wanted more books, one is not enough.
So I chose theses two:
I was a bit skeptical of the first book, the term "inventors" in the title implied to me it might be a little superficial, but I was wrong both are excellent books and the reviews in Amazon support this.
The "Inventors" book covers a lot and is very pragmatic too, here's a photograph from page 224 that I just took:
There's certainly nothing superficial here, as a hobbyist anyway, this is a great book to re-learn stuff, the other book too is excellent, it is more theoretical, more analytical and less pragmatic, they actually go well together.
So despite the title use of "inventors" it is actually a very good book, anyone who was an "inventor" and relied on this book would be getting first rate knowledge.
