Basic electronics for beginners

[sean k]

A friend of mine has caught the bug and needs to find some straight forward explanations with drawings to illustrate the basic stuff that we all take for granted... even if we forget exactly how ohms law works sometimes.

Power supplies is where hes at at the moment and I've tried finding some stuff but its either too simplistic or designed with a degree in mind.

Anybody got a nirvana electronics site that does it right for the distorted audio hobbyist?

[bipedal]

Looks like a lot of useful stuff here.

Another suggestion: I found a fantastic 'Basic Electronics' textbook at a used bookstore -- I forget the title/authors.  Maybe 10-15 years old, so it was cheap, but GREAT info and explanations of electronic concepts and laws, circuit design, transistors, etc.  Plenty of stuff in that book that I probably won't use, but also plenty that has helped me understand what's going between those components on my perfboards...

- Jay 

[panterica]

Definitely look up some Craig Anderton books. I actually found one on a torrent site (sshhh!) that turned me on to this hobby. He's very clear and will help you understand the basics while showing you some really cool projects to do yourself.

[JKowalski]

The Art of Electronics.

Best book I have read so far on the subject.

[MikeH]

[sarcasm]The Boscorelli Stompbox Cookbook[/sarcasm]


*argument ensues*

[sean k]

Thanks for all the replies and hopefully he has registered and will pipe up himself.

The guy lives in what in other countries might be termed a seaside resort but here in New Zealand its a surf beach with a small town stuck on it and its pretty low on the kind of reserves we all find useful... including a electronics outlet about 30 an hour away.

At the moment he's working through power supplies and I remember when I was trying to figure those buggers out, it was the first thing I did, and they were incredibly frustrating. Yes a good book is worth a thousand wrong google searches but when that straightforward site is found...

[petemoore]

  Power Supplies is a great place to start, I recommend starting with safe High Voltage, say 24volts Alternating Current.
  Follow:
  http://geofex.com/Article_Folders/Power-supplies/powersup.htm
  Understand whats going on with the filling up of the capacitor glass, what it is like to either fit or flee from debugging nighmares...before working on amps.
  Converting that to a usable DC voltage which is then applied to circuits which require debugging..
  I don't know where to look to learn electronic circuitry understandings in a flash, I had to probe and push for many longtimes on the wall of debugging to learn my approaches, armed with comprehension from all the linked sites, GEO [get some backups for some of these reads, Data Sheets, definitions, many pages on the desk helped me hack my way through some, some of the useful parts].
  Build and design 9v circuits until a fitting or fleeing from debugging frustration ensues and subsides after many 'fires' are put out. By fire I mean I get lit on a circuit and I ain't right 'till it works, I have learned to curtail almost completely, the fits.
  I'm not saying it can't be easy, with guidance I think the learning process can be steered into keeping the right direction and saving a lot of time traveling toward wrong points.
  You have it so good friend, you have online resources which didn't exist, for me that seems not so long ago, ''had I known when''...

[CynicalMan]

For transistor circuits I find Semiconductor Circuit Approximations: An Introduction to Transistors and Integrated Circuits by Albert Paul Malvino to be a good book.

[felix66]

Thanks a lot for the tips everyone, lots of reading to do now.

[frank_p]

There is a lot of stuff there:
http://www.openbookproject.net//electricCircuits/index.htm

And the Army-Navy training course:
http://www.tech-systems-labs.com/navy.htm

With those documentats, he will have a pretty good base.

[Cliff Schecht]

I'll second "The Art of Electronics", that's one of my favorite resources.

I'd recommend getting a decent understanding of transistors. Everything we do is somehow based off of transistors or semiconductors of some kind. Even in power supplies, understanding fundamentally what a transistor does can help demystify what a series regulator or SMPS is doing. Knowing how each component works fundamentally will help one to use the right parts for the job and design better circuits.

[Radamus]

I'm reading the art of electronics (international edition) and I've been struggling with it. I know that it's an excellent resource for people who understand, but I've still found myself reading passages over and over trying to keep all of the terms straight. I also know of a few places where I had to thank my other beginner books because I couldn't understand what the art of electronics was saying to me. I'm sure it will help out, but it might be a good idea to also have a simpler book to go from as well. Or maybe I need to stop reading late at night.

Hope that helps.

[sean k]

This lot has always been my favourite even though it's all about tubes it's a good set of primers
http://www.audioxpress.com/resource/audioclass/