

Ask HN:  Can anyone recommend a good way to learn basic electronic circuits? - grandalf

I have read some interesting links via HN about circuits, etc., and I would very much like to dig into this and learn how to make simple ones that do interesting things.&#60;p&#62;I ordered an Arduino yesterday, but I'd also like to be able to design analog circuits and to understand how basic components interact.&#60;p&#62;Can anyone recommend a software simulator for this?  Or a book?
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nolite
You prob won't learn much from the simulator itself.. but try pspice if you
just want one to play around with. Most simulators are based off of spice, so
you can find a variant. LTspice
<http://www.linear.com/designtools/software/ltspice.jsp> is also pretty good

As for learning the theory, this site has helped me alot. It has everything
you need to know to go from 0, to a highly functional level

<http://www.allaboutcircuits.com/>

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seltzered
I started off on an ee route. We used this textbook in our first circuit
class: [http://www.amazon.com/Electric-Circuits-8th-James-
Nilsson/dp...](http://www.amazon.com/Electric-Circuits-8th-James-
Nilsson/dp/0131989251?tag=dudugo-20) .

In later classes we used this book, which I see in the bookshelves of my
coworkers: [http://www.amazon.com/Microelectronic-Circuits-Electrical-
Co...](http://www.amazon.com/Microelectronic-Circuits-Electrical-Computer-
Engineering/dp/0195323033?tag=dudugo-20)

If you want to learn more basic concepts, I'd recommend looking perhaps for a
class in your area to audit, or possibly mit ocw might have something.

I will say the following though:

1) many folks in industry get to a point to where they rarely, if not never
sit down on paper and do node-voltage analysis. They eventually get a
conceptual "feel" for everything and work in simulation environments (matlab,
spice, etc.). The best way to get here is to do the conceptual exercises on
paper first, then play with a simulator afterwards.

2) designing basic analog circuits can be learned from textbooks, but doing
more "active" things like building a switching power supply requires more
specific books.

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bobds
<http://www.elenco.com/snapcircuits.html>

This is what you need. There's various 100-in-one or 500-in-one kits, you get
a big bag of parts some instructions and you can start making all kinds of
cool things. Also great if you have kids.

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kgo
That's a really vague question. Do you need to know about fundamentals? Like
what a capacator/resistor/transistor is? Do you need to know how to solder and
assemble components? Are you interested in messing around with micro
controller boards, maybe adding a temperature sensor or servo here and there?
Or designing a board completely from scratch?

If want to know fundamental electronics, start with one of those corny radio
shack kits where springs hold the wires in place.

For microcontrollers, I like NerdKits more than the other stuff out there. The
LCD display gives you a lot more feedback than assembling some other kit, and
finding out you can only make two LEDs blink.

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grandalf
Do those kits actually teach principles? I know what each of the components
do, but I lack a broader conceptual framework...

for example, I don't know how to build a circuit that would plug into a
headphone jack and switch a light on and off based on the volume level...

I also don't know how to build a simple audio amplifier, timer, etc.

Do you recommend any specific kit based on the above? I mean, I could read
instructions and hook components together but I want to be able to build novel
circuits that I dream up.

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RobGR
You may find these of interest:

<http://www.ibiblio.org/kuphaldt/electricCircuits/>

Horowitz & Hill's "The Art of Electronics" is also excellent, but more
expensive.

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revorad
The Horowitz book is always quoted as the electronics bible. But I always
found it really dry and couldn't really grok the concepts at least when I read
it years ago. I think I learned a lot more by just reading articles online and
trying out random circuits people posted on geocities.

~~~
RobGR
There is no replacement for trying out circuits.

I have been told there are some good introduction to electronics manuals
published by the Navy through the US Government Printing Office, but I have
looked at them myself. If you happen to run across one of those you might
check it out.

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revorad
I'm also getting into Arduino, just ordered mine. There seem to be a lot of
blogs and the forums also look good.

<plug>I'm starting an online store for hardware hackers in the UK -
<http://laughingcomputer.com>. There's a lot of good stuff out there which is
not easily available in the UK. I'd love to fix that and get more people into
hardware hacking.</plug>

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geekytenny
An old fancy breadboard, components and a good guide from the internet should
suffice. Do amplifiers, RF generators, explore the OPAMP.. timer
circuits...you'll be ready for more stuff when u are done.

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bumbledraven
"Concise electronics for geeks" <http://lcamtuf.coredump.cx/electronics/>

