Starting electronics by Keith brindley help

Hi folks I've just started trying to learn electronics. I'm nearly 50 so left it a little late in life. Anyway, one of the books I bought was the one mentioned above ands its doing my head in. I'm finding that with quit a few of the examples I don't get anywhere near the readings he gets. His comment in the book is that he must be right and if you have anything different then your wrong. In the end I bought Circuit Wizard software to see if its me or the book and again the results are nowhere near.
Has anyone else noticed/come across this as its doing my head in.
I understand resistors, capacitors, diodes and the 555 timer chip so that gives you an idea where I'm at. To be honest though I got better understanding from YouTube.
Can anyone recommend a good learning book. I can't believe that you can't get any evening courses anymore on the subject
I look forward to any help and comments you can give

Regards
Mark

 

Mark,
I have studied the Ebook on this site and done the exercises and work sheets and have had great results so far. I have found that if you select one or maybe two texts to follow at a time it will help keep the confusion factor to a minimum and keep conflicts like electron and common polarity theory from being too much of a clash at any one time. Be patient and follow the Ebook and you will get past all of the difficulty and start getting predictable results soon. Just don't give up and get discouraged before your miracle happens. Sometimes it takes a while before that little lite comes on and it all makes sense, so be patient and keep studying...

Wheelchair Bob

 

Another great book, (with projects), is {MAKE: Electronics}. By Charles Platt.

Like Beckett says, this forum, AAC Ebook, textbook; is the best out there. Especially with their videos.

 

I was cashing a paycheck for doing electronics for 3 years before "the light bulb" came on. Worry less. Keep asking questions at allaboutcircuits.com. That's what this site is about.

 

I find using the following website help me a lot when I first started:

http://www.falstad.com/circuit/e-index.html

and asking in this website is a great help too.

 

That's a good one!

 

When that happens, it becomes the perfect opportunity to post in the homework section of these forums. Give as much info as possible and your attempt to solve the problem. Someone will point you in the right direction if your in error.

 

Mark

I'm trying to learnt too, and I have the Keith Brindley book. I find it quite hard to understand sometimes. It seems like answers are glossed over or assumptions made without explanation, or he tries to cram too much information into one single paragraph.

I cannot recommend enough Harry Kybett's book. Secondhand, it's so cheap (1p + p&p)you might as well give it a go....

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Electronics-Wiley-Self-Teaching-Guides-Kybett/dp/0471009164/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1378211718&sr=1-2

If you follow it through step by step, it really makes sense, and it sticks. It changed things for me from feeling like I was drowning in all these complex diagrams and explanations, to feeling like I was being taught slowly and clearly by a patient teacher. It is in the form of a workbook, so it asks you questions as you go along, and every chapter has a test at the end, so you can identify anything you need to go back to.

Also - bear in mind that (depending on how different your readings are), you should expect differences. The components have a tolerance. So if he says take a 1uF capacitor and a transistor with HFE gain of 100, the chances are you have a 1.05 capacitor and a transistor with HFE gain of 150. So take the book's experimental values as a rough guide, rather than a target. If you have a multimeter, you can measure your component actual values and substitute those for the books values and calculate what they really should be.