Best Electronics Magazines

[hugoender]

I have read about a couple of electronics magazines that include circuit ideas and schematics for DIY such as Silicon Chip and Elektor Electronics.

What magazines do you guys know of that are like these? I want to subscribe to a couple of them. I live in the US and most of these magazines are located elsewhere so it will probably be a bit more epxensive

Links to their sites would be appreciated as well as reason why you like the particular magazine you are referring. Thank you.

 

[3v0]

I have not seen a good one published in the US for a long time.

**broken link removed** was very good. The link has a history of the mag and even a few projects.

EPE has an electronics edition where you download the issues which is $19.

 

[ericgibbs]

I have read about a couple of electronics magazines that include circuit ideas and schematics for DIY such as Silicon Chip and Elektor Electronics.

What magazines do you guys know of that are like these? I want to subscribe to a couple of them. I live in the US and most of these magazines are located elsewhere so it will probably be a bit more epxensive

Links to their sites would be appreciated as well as reason why you like the particular magazine you are referring. Thank you.

hi hugo
Theres this e-mag and paper.

EPE Magazine no 1 hobby electronics magazine

bit dated, historic.
Museum. Old vintage Practical Electronics magazines. Vintage magazines, Old video magazines. Old Hi Fi Magazines. Old computer magazines.

 

[quixotron]

Sure.

Try Here

Look at the list of societies that interest you. for example I used to be part of IEEE's circuits and systems society. They have tons of schematics and articles about the latest and popular projects out in the industry.

also try the ARRL website catalog.

Yeah i know, you don't want to buy junk. well, its library has great books on various types of electronics and communications devices. take a look

 

[HiTech]

Try visiting your public library's periodicals section. They might have back issues of Pop Elec., Radio Electronics, Electronix Illustrated, etc.

 

[Leftyretro]

Not many left in the USA. However Nuts and Volts has been doing a pretty good job for DIYers. You can subcribe either for a cheaper on-line only monthly copy or still get the hard copy mailed to you.

NUTS AND VOLTS MAGAZINE - Welcome

Lefty

 

[3v0]

I forgot all about CIRCUITCELLAR

Steve Ciarcia used to write for byte back in its hey days.
He is a excellent author as is the magazine.

CIRCUITCELLAR
By Engineers, For Engineers

This month feature articles.

◊ 'Net-Enabled Alarm Clock
◊ Internet Information Retrieval: Target And Display Web Site Content
◊ Launch Control: Build A Coil Gun Controller And Launcher
◊ Card Connection: Magnetic Card Data Decoding And Transmission
◊ Create A Modbus Slave
◊ PSoC Design Techniques (Part 1): Build An Eight-Channel Mixer
◊ Sound Effects Processing​

This article caught my eye.
From July 2008 issue and online for free

’Net-Enabled Alarm Clock
Second Place Microchip 2007 Design Contest — !
by DJ Delorie
Unlike old-school mechanical alarm clocks that you have to set manually, DJ’s Internet-connected alarm clock provides three primary features: automatic time setting on power-up, streaming MP3 music, and remote management. The PIC24FJ64-based clock is connected to an ENC28J60 Ethernet chip, an MP3 decoder chip, an organic LED graphical display, and a 24LC512 EEPROM for storage. p. 12

Keywords: Alarm, clock, MP3, PIC24FJ64, ENC28J60, OLED, streaming, Ethernet, SPI, STA013, ADC, time, SNTP

 

[shokjok]

Here in Canada, we had Elementary Electronics, Electronics Today ( ETI), Radio-Electronics, BYTE, Hobby Computer Handbook and 50 Top Projects. One I remember from a visit to Sweden is called Alltrom.
Nowadays, you're lucky to find them in bookstores or libraries.

 

[quixotron]

Here in Canada, we had Elementary Electronics, Electronics Today ( ETI), Radio-Electronics, BYTE, Hobby Computer Handbook and 50 Top Projects. One I remember from a visit to Sweden is called Alltrom.
Nowadays, you're lucky to find them in bookstores or libraries.

Yeah. The only thing I see remotely close to an electronics magazine in book stores such as barnes and noble and borders is scientific american and popular mechanics. sometimes they might have a smidge on an electronics project, thats about it.

you have to go out of your way to get something else.

 

[3v0]

Subscribing to electronic magazines has been one of the things I have been putting off. This thread and the inexpensive electronic subscriptions was enough encouragement to get me started.

I have subscribed to Circuit Cellar which for me looks to be the most bang for the buck. It may be too technical for some. If you are at a university with a good EE department the staff can request a free print subscription.

Nuts & Volts look interesting too.

 

[hugoender]

Yeah I have been putting off subscribing to a magazine as well. The reason I do not want to subscribe to a magazine is because I want a hardcopy, not just an online version but hardcopies are almost double the price! (the online copies are already expensive enough)

I don't know... I think I am too 'young' in this hobby to worry about magazine right now. I will work with learning new stuff through tutorials and online projects and once I have a better grasp on the subject, I will then consider subscribing to a magazine.

 

[3v0]

I think the online subscription prices are reasonable.

If the cost was the same I would still go for the online subscription. By the time I was 30 I had far more magizines that I cared to drag around. I gave most of them away including a set of Byte's going back to about issue 4.

The point is you can only own so many physical things. When it comes time to move I would much rather move a set of maginzines on disk Also the electronic versions never age. You can print out a copy any time you want. The CircuitCellar electronic edition is very well done. Maybe the use it to print the paper version ?

 

[hugoender]

You have me sold 3v0

You are right about physical magazines stacking up and becoming too much to move around. I have two stacks each about 4 feet high of PC Gamer magazines from back when I used to be addicted to games. When I finally have to move I will probably just burn them. For now I just pull a random one out and read it while in the bathroom and laugh at the horrible graphics in the games and the terrible "cutting-edge" computers in the ads. But you see, it is this ability to just grab one, take it somewhere, and read it, that makes me want physical copies.

Besides, most magazines now offer hard copies AND access to the online version. I don't know what I want to do. I wish they would just send me a trial magazine so I can see if I like it or not before I dish out $100+ on the hardcopy subscription.

 

[quixotron]

I am really surprised people haven't been looking at IEEE journals and technical letters and magazines. They are FAR more complicated in theory and explanation, however, I believe they contain more insight into circuit theory and applications.

I used to subscribe to hard copy magazines, however I found out they usually wind up somewhere in a corner until i can get a chance to read them. which i do, its just that i get backlogged.

i haven't the time to go through all the articles, so I decided to go digital. that way, I'll have all the perioidcaLS AT MY DISPOSAL. AND WHENEVER, I NEED ONE THAT MATCHES MY NEEDs, I CAN PULL IT UP AND print a colored copy of it.

usually i skim the table of contents to find an article that tickles my funny bone.

 

[hugoender]

I looked through IEEE but...

1) Takes way too much time and patience to sift through all their articles and find something that interests you.
2) Way too complicated and half the time they do not get to the "how to do it" part of the article (which is what I care about).
3) While they do explain the theory behind it, they explain it way too in depth for me to care.
4) They don't have pretty pictures

 

[quixotron]

I looked through IEEE but...

1) Takes way too much time and patience to sift through all their articles and find something that interests you.
2) Way too complicated and half the time they do not get to the "how to do it" part of the article (which is what I care about).
3) While they do explain the theory behind it, they explain it way too in depth for me to care.
4) They don't have pretty pictures

1) You have to know what it is you're interested in. I'm working on 802.15.4 wireless devices and compact antenna design. I won't be looking in radar or space-borned applications.

2) surprisingly, imho, most of these articles turn out to be application notes. some tell you and derive equations which will aid you in the design process.

3) yeah, i think some authors like to see/hear themselves speak.

4) yeah just a bunch of graphs and black and white photos. of course, some of the others have it.

 

[hugoender]

5) Most of the articles are for super complex stuff (at least for me). Like if I wanted to build a simple FM transmitter, they would have articles talking about circuits with so many parts that I instantly lose interest. I am at the beginner, newb stage of electronics and so I do not need the BEST performance. I just need circuits that work.

 

[davidbball13]

5) Most of the articles are for super complex stuff (at least for me). Like if I wanted to build a simple FM transmitter, they would have articles talking about circuits with so many parts that I instantly lose interest. I am at the beginner, newb stage of electronics and so I do not need the BEST performance. I just need circuits that work.

same here.

 

[Hero999]

A mono crap sounding FM transmitter is easy to build.

A slightly better sounding mono FM transmitter is slightly harder to build but probably worth the extra effort.

The secret of FM transmitters is make them small or they won't work.

 

[Torben]

A mono crap sounding FM transmitter is easy to build.

A slightly better sounding mono FM transmitter is slightly harder to build but probably worth the extra effort.

The secret of FM transmitters is make them small or they won't work.

I agree but I also see the benefit in a beginner starting out with one of the simple mono crap ones. It's worth it just for the thrill that putting it together and getting *something* out of it brings, and the confidence to move on to better things.

For instance, you build it, and once you finally get any kind of operation out of it, the feeling is great. Then you realize that it really does sound and perform poorly, so you start looking into how to improve it. As you find out more you might learn why things like biasing, impedance matching, etc are important, and be motivated to learn about how they work and how to use them. Sure, you may have a working product sooner if you build a good one with everything needed to make it stable and listenable, but you might not stand a chance of understanding it. If you start small you get more of a feeling and understanding of what's actually going on inside and it's less of a gigantic bite to chew. Later, with more experience, it's easier to chew more at once.

At least, that's the way it works for me--if the ultimate goal is to learn a topic, I like to start from the fundamentals and work up. Tackling kits and more advanced things which just need to be assembled is also fun and useful, but I like to know why things are working, not just how to put them together.

Note: I'm talking about when the goal is to learn and not when somebody just needs a working project.

Just my $0.02.


Torben