Ask HN: What's a good book to learn electronics?

Also, I was big into Parallax, Inc's BASIC Stamps, and a magazine called "Nuts and Volts".. not sure if it's still around. There was also a great, great electronics store near me called Electronics Parts Outlet (Houston) that had ridiculous electronics stuff. I suggest searching to see if there are any niche electronics stores in your area. I ended up learning from the wise old EEs that worked there and they let me thinker with peltiers, oscilliscopes and the like. I ended up doing a _ton_ of soldering kits. I think companies were by the name of Ramsey electronics and Velleman to name a few.

While I do agree that electronics is learned by experimentation, IMHO the Arduino board is a bad starting point.

I think that the best way to learn electronics is to start with the very basics (resistors, capacitors, coils, voltage dividers, simple RC and RL circuits, etc), then learn something about op-amps, then move on to nonlinear devices such as diodes and transistors. No math is needed, and simple circuits are easy to build. Building an analog amplifier is not hard, and it's quite rewarding to design and build something that actually works. If one is really devoted to the art of electronics, building a tube amplifier is even more rewarding ;-)

After the basics of analog electronics, one can move to digital circuits, learn about interfacing, what the difference between RTL and TTL is, etc, etc. Playing with logic gates on a breadboard is fun and instructive. The basics of DAC's and ADC's are fundamental too.

Finally, one is ready to move to microprocessors and stuff like the Arduino. Knowing the basics, one can actually build cool stuff with microprocessors, simple actuators and sensors. One knows how to build and connect sensors to microcontrollers, one knows what's happening in the ADC, one understands what makes it all work.

I believe that starting with the Arduino board right away is like choosing Visual Basic as a first programming language: it hides the interesting details, and it prevents one from seeing the big picture. Just a personal opinion, of course.

The Arduino may help getting you up and running with a microcontroller, but that is programming, so trial and error works well.

When dealing with analog circuits or digital signal timing issues, the trial and error method breaks down pretty quickly.

And you're dealing with physical components that can easily be destroyed when hooked up improperly. I've destroyed my fair share of components, and worse, equipment. It's also very easy to do things the "wrong way", while still appearing to work correctly. A simple example: overpowering an LED might not burn it out instantly, but it will shorten the life.

These types of situations can lead to crazy "bugs" which can be far more difficult to debug than their software counterparts, especially if you don't understand the underlying principles, and without the right equipment.

You definitely need a solid understanding of the basics if you want to get very far. Then you can experiment.

would you happen to know if the arduino starter kit make sells now comes with the new arduino duemilanove? in fact, I can't find that on the make:arduino store at all, only the older diecimila...

I'll 2nd on Art of electronics.. But knowing the basics before touching it would be better

Anyone wanting to know about electronics shouldn't start with FPGAs. I do FPGA design for a living. I wouldn't really consider it "electronics." It is closer to embedded programming than circuit design. To an outsider, they are almost exactly the same. Many companies lump FPGA design with firmware.

With FPGA design, you start with a board with an FPGA on it and then write some code in Verilog (Verilog is much easier to learn than VHDL). Once the design is complete, you hit the synthesize and place and route buttons and download the reulting file into the FPGA.

With embedded programming, you start with a board with a microcontroller on it and then write some code in assembly (you could also use C or something else). Once the design is complete, you hit the compile button and download the resulting file into the microcontroller.