Sir, you have a knack for inspiring commentary: the exact opposite of damning with faint praise! Also 0% slop it made me pre-order the book immediately.
This is a much better introduction to circuits than most. You actually get a bit of depth rather than a cookbook of "do this to get that" sort of prose.
That’s also what I really like about “Practical Electronics for Inventors”, the authors explains the underlying physics for each component. Though the theory chapter can be heavy if you want to follow everything. “Secrets Life of Circuits” seems to be a bit more approachable
I'm hoping you're right. I enthusiastically bought PEFI but found it to be way over my head. I'm eager to get SLOC because I'm hoping it can be sort of a bridge between my "MAKE: Electronics" book and PEFI.
PEFI as a technical reference when you need details about a specific topic, SLOC as an overall introduction to give a good intuition, and M:E for more practical project tutorials, if that’s what we (hobbyists without any formal training) end up with that would be awesome :)
AlphaPhoenix YouTube channel is also a great source of information to clarify theoretical topics. I find it very helpful to just see how he think about electricity in his various projects: https://youtu.be/X_crwFuPht4. And his enthusiasm is contagious!
One personal note: as someone coming from software I find learning electronics pretty hard as it requires a completely different mental model and way to approach systems. Took me years of various attempts to finally understand I have to stop relying on metaphors and shortcuts, and instead understand the actual physics at play to develop an intuition that makes sense. That looks daunting and I thought I would hate that part but in fact after pushing through it becomes really satisfying! Accept things take time and that you will be uncomfortable for a while, and move at your own pace. And here LLMs are actually really helpful to clarify topics you’re not sure you understand fully, once you start to learn the terminology (I use instructions that makes it clear they shouldn’t solve things for me and instead evaluate my understanding)
> as someone coming from software I find learning electronics pretty hard as it requires a completely different mental model and way to approach systems
I went from electronics to software and one thing that has puzzled me is how much people dislike reading docs as in reference manuals. People can get by with sloppy code full of hidden bugs and when those bugs arise they’re like deers frozen by headlights.
Imagine building a circuit without any ideas how it operates. I’ve encountered web devs that don’t understand how http works.
Also as a person who came to Embedded/Electronics from Software, i found the following incredibly useful to bridge the software-hardware gap using MCUs;
1) Introduction to Embedded Systems: Using Microcontrollers and the MSP430 by Manuel Jiménez, Rogelio Palomera, Isidoro Couvertier.
This has more of a hardware interfacing slant than most books on embedded systems which is what a software person needs. Every topic is first introduced in a general way with lots of illustrations and then its application in MSP430 is shown. Hence we can easily transfer our understanding to any other MCU family. A really good textbook for serious students of embedded electronics.
I like Elicia White’s Making Embedded Systems because it covers a lot of practical stuff like how to read a datasheet. It’s a good book for existing programmers.
A lot of electronic books struggle to find balance between super easy projects, very specific cookbook recipes or a laundry list of components.
I'm not sure who exactly this book is for, but it's certainly not for absolute beginners. There is a huge delta between the target audience and the level of understanding and experience someone not knowing a first thing about electronics would typically have.
I can clearly remember sitting there reading about component parasitics, without even having a clear idea how an ideal component behaves, and so on. I was just lacking buckets of context, and it was a painful read with lots of assumptions about the reader's background.
On the other hand, I still think it is a great book, like pretty much everything else from NoStarch. I just disagree on it being suitable as a first book in electronics.
That said, I'm looking forward to the day when I will be on an adequate enough level to read it again -- this time, in its entirety.
Super looking forward to it. Got it on preorder in Europe! Will still be a bit of a waiting time.
Always enjoy reading the blog posts, and this seems like a great way to support work that gives me joy.
Who knows, might start picking up actual electronics as side projects. Hardware work seems like such a great way to get code into the physical world.
I just read a Quanta article from 2015 and literally had to check the date after the third "X not Y" I encountered. But the models have learned that from somewhere, too.
Why do you think AI "talks" like that? It is pervasive in a lot oof the training material.
Most people writing scientific literature are not English majors nor even great communicators, their primary competencies are elsewhere. Expecting everyone to write literature is just odd & reductive.
Yes, it helps to be a good writer, but the primary objective for science papers is to convey information; that it is well written or enjoyable is a nice bonus but not essential.
I'd counter that AI usually writes way better than typical person, definitely way better than any commenters here (myself included).
What's jarring about AI content is seeing the mastery of English applied in mundane contexts, where people are used to see more basic, pedestrian language.
(That, and overuse of patterns, which is more of an artifact that 90%+ of the AI output you see is the first response to the prompt in a fresh session. For AI, each time is the first time it's using this pattern, for user it's the 10th time they saw it within the span of an hour.)
If you're ordering from Europe, be sure to check if it's available in your local Amazon page first, I almost got slapped with like a 50% shipping/import charges because I went straight to the main link (the US amazon). The ones that have it are listed in the blog post.
I find it crazy that Amazon haven't implemented a feature that will take you to the same product in your local store easily. I had the same issue and had to go find it manually.
one cool feature amazon implements is that if you change the .com for .es (and nothing else) for a product link it will do exactly that. I know it is not automatic but it works.
This looks like it’ll be a good book for me to learn more about electrical theory and circuit design, I know a bit about AC and DC electricity from working in electrical construction which should help me dive right in, thanks for sharing this book release!
My objective has often been to build & test as many experimental circuits as I could in the shortest amount of time.
One of the real good shortcuts is to just start soldering parts together according to a plan in your head, without taking the time to make a schematic drawing beforehand or do any advanced calculations.
There might be more emphasis on the properties and ratings of each component this way, this is not something to skip over, you should be very familiar with each component you use. Well in advance, and loads of hours of component study needs to be behind you, otherwise you may not do too good at just whipping something up on the bench that's electrically sound to begin with.
As pointed out, with math it can be the same way.
If you just want to quickly start picking up parts and soldering them together right away without doing any advanced calculations, the best shortcut is to have already become quite familiar with the equations including calculus when necessary, so you can bring to bear endless hours of mathematical study and use it to intuitively guide your soldering iron for every hour at the bench.
Edit: upvoted because your message should not be less than neutral, not greyed out at all. Obviously, I'm on the fence, sometimes I use math, other times not at all ;)
I see some discussion of which books are good for people with various levels of electronics knowledge. I'd like to add one that I've never seen mentioned here: Agarwal and Lang's "Foundations of Analog and Digital Electronics".
This was the book used by MIT in 2007 for the first course in the EE and CS programs. It is that year's course that is on their Open Courseware platform [1], and the readings list there links to a full PDF of the book.
This is not a link to a pirated copy BTW. Agarwal is a pioneer in the open-education movement and the authors intentionally arranged for an open access PDF.
The lecture videos on Open Courseware are very good too.
A couple clicks through to older lcamtuf posts and I came across this in the "what is electricity" post:
> Once again, we don’t have a satisfying explanation why. We know that these quantum numbers correspond to standing-wave solutions of a three-dimensional wave function that we pulled out of thin air. We also know that the model works better than any alternatives. But we don’t know what any of it really means — or if it means anything.
It is so refreshing to see this explicated thus; physics textbooks are generally coy about "know this for now, and there will be deeper insights available later" but they typically never level with readers and say "we don't know".
Oddly enough, one of my upper level math textbooks (maybe real analysis, don't remember) said the same thing about the definition of a set, except that "later" meant graduate school.
This book looks like it’s targeted squarely at people like me!
I’ve been a software engineer for the last couple of decades and I’ve tinkered with microcontrollers as a hobby but always been limited by my lack of electronics knowledge - very much trial and error to get a project far enough to be able to focus on the firmware (which is more my domain). I want to bridge the knowledge gap there.
My only formal electronics education was first year introduction to analog and digital circuits module at university two decades ago, led by a lecturer who assumed students had a huge corpus of pre-existing knowledge (and who I now suspect would have preferred to be supervising his PhD students and conducting research but had to make up the teaching hours - which I do understand).
I will definitely pick up a copy. However, Amazon UK (to avoid the NoStarch UPS shipping cost of $24) won’t get it to me until November. I’m excited to receive it.
51 comments
[ 0.42 ms ] story [ 26.4 ms ] threadThe wide margins remind me of university coursebooks.
What I want is a paperback where the margins are chosen such that you can read the text when you fold back the facing part of the book.
(Or is it praising with generous damnation?)
How about a triple-play, damning with damn damnation?
AlphaPhoenix YouTube channel is also a great source of information to clarify theoretical topics. I find it very helpful to just see how he think about electricity in his various projects: https://youtu.be/X_crwFuPht4. And his enthusiasm is contagious!
One personal note: as someone coming from software I find learning electronics pretty hard as it requires a completely different mental model and way to approach systems. Took me years of various attempts to finally understand I have to stop relying on metaphors and shortcuts, and instead understand the actual physics at play to develop an intuition that makes sense. That looks daunting and I thought I would hate that part but in fact after pushing through it becomes really satisfying! Accept things take time and that you will be uncomfortable for a while, and move at your own pace. And here LLMs are actually really helpful to clarify topics you’re not sure you understand fully, once you start to learn the terminology (I use instructions that makes it clear they shouldn’t solve things for me and instead evaluate my understanding)
I went from electronics to software and one thing that has puzzled me is how much people dislike reading docs as in reference manuals. People can get by with sloppy code full of hidden bugs and when those bugs arise they’re like deers frozen by headlights.
Imagine building a circuit without any ideas how it operates. I’ve encountered web devs that don’t understand how http works.
1) Introduction to Embedded Systems: Using Microcontrollers and the MSP430 by Manuel Jiménez, Rogelio Palomera, Isidoro Couvertier.
This has more of a hardware interfacing slant than most books on embedded systems which is what a software person needs. Every topic is first introduced in a general way with lots of illustrations and then its application in MSP430 is shown. Hence we can easily transfer our understanding to any other MCU family. A really good textbook for serious students of embedded electronics.
A lot of electronic books struggle to find balance between super easy projects, very specific cookbook recipes or a laundry list of components.
I'm not sure who exactly this book is for, but it's certainly not for absolute beginners. There is a huge delta between the target audience and the level of understanding and experience someone not knowing a first thing about electronics would typically have.
I can clearly remember sitting there reading about component parasitics, without even having a clear idea how an ideal component behaves, and so on. I was just lacking buckets of context, and it was a painful read with lots of assumptions about the reader's background.
On the other hand, I still think it is a great book, like pretty much everything else from NoStarch. I just disagree on it being suitable as a first book in electronics.
That said, I'm looking forward to the day when I will be on an adequate enough level to read it again -- this time, in its entirety.
Always enjoy reading the blog posts, and this seems like a great way to support work that gives me joy. Who knows, might start picking up actual electronics as side projects. Hardware work seems like such a great way to get code into the physical world.
Most people writing scientific literature are not English majors nor even great communicators, their primary competencies are elsewhere. Expecting everyone to write literature is just odd & reductive.
Yes, it helps to be a good writer, but the primary objective for science papers is to convey information; that it is well written or enjoyable is a nice bonus but not essential.
What's jarring about AI content is seeing the mastery of English applied in mundane contexts, where people are used to see more basic, pedestrian language.
(That, and overuse of patterns, which is more of an artifact that 90%+ of the AI output you see is the first response to the prompt in a fresh session. For AI, each time is the first time it's using this pattern, for user it's the 10th time they saw it within the span of an hour.)
Also see Sensors and Signal Conditioning by Ramon Pallas-Areny and John Webster for a combination treatment.
Oh yes, these kinds of shortcuts have always worked great.
That was a silly statement by the author; just say that this is "less theoretical" and not a textbook.
Looked at the contents/sample chapter and it seems just like many of the books published by make magazine.
One of the real good shortcuts is to just start soldering parts together according to a plan in your head, without taking the time to make a schematic drawing beforehand or do any advanced calculations.
There might be more emphasis on the properties and ratings of each component this way, this is not something to skip over, you should be very familiar with each component you use. Well in advance, and loads of hours of component study needs to be behind you, otherwise you may not do too good at just whipping something up on the bench that's electrically sound to begin with.
As pointed out, with math it can be the same way.
If you just want to quickly start picking up parts and soldering them together right away without doing any advanced calculations, the best shortcut is to have already become quite familiar with the equations including calculus when necessary, so you can bring to bear endless hours of mathematical study and use it to intuitively guide your soldering iron for every hour at the bench.
Edit: upvoted because your message should not be less than neutral, not greyed out at all. Obviously, I'm on the fence, sometimes I use math, other times not at all ;)
This was the book used by MIT in 2007 for the first course in the EE and CS programs. It is that year's course that is on their Open Courseware platform [1], and the readings list there links to a full PDF of the book.
This is not a link to a pirated copy BTW. Agarwal is a pioneer in the open-education movement and the authors intentionally arranged for an open access PDF.
The lecture videos on Open Courseware are very good too.
[1] https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/6-002-circuits-and-electronics-s...
> Once again, we don’t have a satisfying explanation why. We know that these quantum numbers correspond to standing-wave solutions of a three-dimensional wave function that we pulled out of thin air. We also know that the model works better than any alternatives. But we don’t know what any of it really means — or if it means anything.
It is so refreshing to see this explicated thus; physics textbooks are generally coy about "know this for now, and there will be deeper insights available later" but they typically never level with readers and say "we don't know".
1. https://youtu.be/pDELW2pIvWw?si=BNsURdXrGLlaAfF3 (Digital Electronic)
2. https://youtu.be/RG3eljmqyq4?si=Pnbvf6P6HbFcIa1v (Alternating Current, Motors, & control)
3. https://youtu.be/nYuVSG89vg0?si=Oe3ZdJojS7T_iGxK (Electric Basic Made is Easy), and
the episode of "Nand to Tetris"
I’ve been a software engineer for the last couple of decades and I’ve tinkered with microcontrollers as a hobby but always been limited by my lack of electronics knowledge - very much trial and error to get a project far enough to be able to focus on the firmware (which is more my domain). I want to bridge the knowledge gap there.
My only formal electronics education was first year introduction to analog and digital circuits module at university two decades ago, led by a lecturer who assumed students had a huge corpus of pre-existing knowledge (and who I now suspect would have preferred to be supervising his PhD students and conducting research but had to make up the teaching hours - which I do understand).
I will definitely pick up a copy. However, Amazon UK (to avoid the NoStarch UPS shipping cost of $24) won’t get it to me until November. I’m excited to receive it.