Old style electronics books

[Llamarama]

Hi everyone,

My local library has recently been renovated to make it more accesable for disabled people (This is not a bad thing and i'm surprised it wasn't done sooner) however as a result the once extensive section of electronics books has been shrunk to less than half a dozen books including "iPhones for dummies" and a copy of the British home wiring regulations for 1989. No more wonderful books like 110 Cmos projects or 101 transistor circuits for the home constructor.

Can anyone suggest some good books with simple transistor or basic logic circuits in that are relatively easy to obtain? I learned the art of electronics through these sort of books and would like to have a bit of mindless fun, plugging transistors into breadboard, like the good old days!

Many thanks

 

[Roff]

Hi everyone,

My local library has recently been renovated to make it more accesable for disabled people (This is not a bad thing and i'm surprised it wasn't done sooner) however as a result the once extensive section of electronics books has been shrunk to less than half a dozen books including "iPhones for dummies" and a copy of the British home wiring regulations for 1989. No more wonderful books like 110 Cmos projects or 101 transistor circuits for the home constructor.

Can anyone suggest some good books with simple transistor or basic logic circuits in that are relatively easy to obtain? I learned the art of electronics through these sort of books and would like to have a bit of mindless fun, plugging transistors into breadboard, like the good old days!

Many thanks

I don't know about the libraries on Earth, where you are located, but here in Boise they have several branch libraries, with an online card catalog. You can search the card catalog and request to have likely titles sent to your branch and held for you. They even have cooperative agreements with the libraries of other nearby communities.
The downside is, you can't peruse them first, unless you can find them someplace like Google Books.**broken link removed** to a quick search I just did (and this is the first time I used it).
If you already know all this - A Thousand Pardons.

 

[cr0sh]

Find a catalog of TAB books - tons of examples there...

 

[dr peppers]

Some like them and some dont however theres a whole range of electronics projects books by bernard babani.
Beware though some of the designs use obsolete parts.

 

[Llamarama]

I don't know about the libraries on Earth, where you are located

Oops! Thought I corrected this a few months back. I'll have to have a look through their online catalogue thing. I just hope they weren't thrown out during the clear out. Thanks

Thanks for the names too Cr0sh and dr peppers, gives me something to looks for!

 

[Llamarama]

After a very brief check on the online catalogue, it would appear that one book (110 IC timer projects for the home constructor) is the only real project book left and it has been stolen, last checked out sometime in 2003, probably by me and I did take it back although there was a 20p fine.

Looks like i'll be trailing online looking for copies of the old Babani books and TAB's back catalogue

 

[american lockpicker]

What about Make: Electronics (ISBN: 978-0-596-15374-8)? I have it and theres some interesting stuff in it but I need to buy more tools(multimeter, bigger soldering iron, etc...) before I can make more progress...

 

[dr peppers]

You can get loads of epe electronics magazine articles online, inlcuding firmware for the microcontroller stuff, defo worth a look, theres a catalogue page, my favorites folder is now so full of junk I cant find it.

 

[colin55]

I have dozens of books I can send you in .pdf

Most books are absolute rubbish.

talking@tpg.com.au

 

[Jaguarjoe]

Amazon has a great book section. I buy used books from them all the time, many are 1 cent and in great condition. Last one I got was a Mitchell's repair manual worth ~$100. Newnes Electronic Circuit and also Linear IC Pocket Books are loaded with things to build and were cheap from Amazon. Beware that most of these books are dated, but the theory is pretty much the same and 95% of the parts are still around.

 

[lebevti]

goto Radio Shack

I was there last week and was surprised they had some REAL good books on electronics, very thorough and advanced stuff included

 

[Dean Huster]

TAB books tend to be pretty low quality, high error and typo content and not all that great. Howard W. Sams was a publisher that put out a LOT of great books from authors like Don Lancaster, Howard Berlin and Walt Jung, those guys covering all sorts of digital and analog theory and construction projects. There, you'll find titles like CMOS Cookbook, TTL Cookbook, Op Amps Cookbook, IC Timer Cookbook, Operational Amplifiers with Experiments, etc.

 

[dr peppers]

I have all the above books except maybe the op amps one, and they are quite good, if a little dated.

 

[Dean Huster]

I agree, they're dated, most coming from around 1975 - 1980. Still, the theory is sound if the devices are older. TTL still extends far past the original 74xx series with expanded functions, faster speeds, lower power consumption, etc. and simply boning up on the newer device characteristics pretty much gets it updated. The op amp books contain the basic circuitry, same for any standard op amp. The newer devices will be faster, higher gain, lower power, lower offset voltages and currents, rail-to-rail .... but the circuits are still the same, just higher performance with the newer devices. Walt Jung's op amp book is considered to be an industry classic and is loaded with great circuits and ideas. Howard Berlin's op amp book is a fine tool for teaching an op amp course ... in fact, the original Heathkit Operational course is based on Berlin's book and is very good. Their later op amp course sucks beyond imagination. I got most of my digital and analog theory from databooks, not courses or traditional books.

 

[atferrari]

Lot is in the Web

Some books are in the Web like one from W. Jung which is quite good.

There is another about DSP which is one of the two most didactic ever. (The ohter was from R. Zack explaining how to program the Z80 sold by R. Shack IIRC).

And I do not mean ilegally uploaded.

 

[Dean Huster]

I've read a lot of dated books in my life: Huckleberry Finn, The Caine Mutiny, Uncle Tom's Cabin, Alaska, Lord of the Flies, The Time Machine, War of the Worlds, When Worlds Collide, A For Andromeda .... all read, sometimes a century after they were written. I still got a lot out of them.

 

[american lockpicker]

I have dozens of books I can send you in .pdf

Thanks for the pdf.

 

[duffy]

No more wonderful books like 110 Cmos projects or 101 transistor circuits

Bastards! Those are classics!

A series of project books I've enjoyed recently have been the poorly-named "Evil Genius" series. A few of them are:

Electronic Gadgets for the Evil Genius
More Electronic Gadgets for the Evil Genius
Electronic Circuits for the Evil Genius
Robotics Experiments for the Evil Genius
Dangerously Mad Projects for the Evil Genius
Microcontroller Experiments for the Evil Genius
Arduino Projects for the Evil Genius
Outer Space Projects for the Evil Genius
Spy Gadgets for the Evil Genius
Fuel Cell Projects for the Evil Genius
Radio and Receiver Projects for the Evil Genius
Solar Energy Projects for the Evil Genius
Telephone Projects for the Evil Genius
Recycling Projects for the Evil Genius
Green Projects for the Evil Genius

Hard to imagine an "evil" genius doing recycling, green and solar projects, isn't it? I think "Mad Scientist" would have been a better title. There are quite a few more books in the series than this. I've only read the first two, but I can recommend them highly.

 

[Lund_Pa]

I hear you on the old books. They were well written and provide a lot of detail in early experimentations.
I have a 1933 EE college book from my father’s days in school. I used that in conjunction with my own EE studies. Good luck perhaps try contacting old universities that taught EE.

 

[RayMillTN1]

I keep an eye on my local Goodwill store, lots of good electronics books pop up every now and then.