Open Circuits – No Starch Press [pdf] | Hacker News Reader

Open Circuits – No Starch Press [pdf]

nostarch.com

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This is just chapter one [a preview] of the forthcoming book. Retitle?

https://nostarch.com/open-circuits

Tim Hunkin created some amazing films in this vein

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJlrbMHLBd4&list=PLtaR0lZhSy...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JAgXz6xO0s&list=PLtaR0lZhSy...

Excellent resource, Thank you very much!

Bought this book the second I found it. It's incredibly well-put together, and I can't wait for the print edition. I have already read through the PDF, and there are so many beautiful illustrations that help show what is actually happening inside a component.

Thank you for making me realize it's something I can pay money for. Bought the book right away.

They give an DRM-free PDF eBook right away and will ship a paper version later.

I'm getting into electronics again. I really wish that younger me had access to this book. I remember taking apart a VCR and seeing the knobs inside (potentiometers) and wondering why there were knobs INSIDE where the user couldn't do anything? Was there some secret function that I could unlock by changing the position? Alas, the secret function was "eat the VCR cassette tape".

I wish Ken Shirriff [1], too, published a book like this. Such a treasure.

[1] http://www.righto.com/

turns out that Ken Shirriff is the technical reviewer for this book! (I saw this in the early access PDF)

Maybe someday :-) If I ever focus on one subject long enough for a book...

Just print your blog to .PDF or .PS and send it to these guys for printing. I'm in for a copy!

A 50 page look inside real circuit components that have been cunningly sliced through to reveal the home of the magic smoke.

A 50 page chapter, the book is 304 pages this link is just chapter 1:

https://nostarch.com/open-circuits - also contains a link to this same PDF.

Some previous discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31942329

I love No Starch Press.

Apart from their more popular ones like Eloquent Javascript and Automate The Boring Stuff, i have discovered several nice gems in their catalogue which they keep small and of really high quality.

I haven't been disappointed by any of the books i have purchased from them... 14 to be exact.

I’ve really enjoyed The Secret Life of Programs by Jonathan E. Steinhart. From analog signals, to gates, to cpus and memory, and so on all the way up. Very cool concept, well executed.

That's a beautiful book

Here's a podcast they did on the Embedded FM podcast: https://embedded.fm/episodes/419

Big fan of Windell Oskay and his stuff. I wandered into Evil Mad Scientists Laboratories many years ago (in Sunnyvale, as I recall) and I believe I met him but it was a decade ago....

Over the years I picked up a clock that used LED shadows cast onto a gnomon to create the clock's "hands".

Picked up a Peggy — giant LED display board.

And then some weird plywood thing with marbles and chutes that was a kind of mechanical adder..... I think that was when I went in and chatted.

co-author here, feel free to ask questions.

I just ordered the book - do you talk about how you made the cutaways in the book? Very cool! I wish younger me had access to this.

yes, there is a "behind the scenes" chapter that goes into some of the methods we used, including photographic techniques.

If there's ever a new edition to this book (it's so thorough, not sure if that's possible), I would sit and watch any video footage of the process for hours :)

How close is the current Early Access PDF to what you think the final book will be?

very close, we made some minor fixes before going to press.

What is something that you wanted to fit into the book but weren't able to?

we had a good number of subjects that didn't make it into the book. some we were not able to section in a way that looked as good as the rest, and others were redundant or didn't quite fit with the theme.

Is the book suitable for beginners?

most definitely!

What tools did you use to cut these components with such precision and lack of burring?

Sandpaper of increasing fineness.

And patience. Lots of patience.

How did you hold the items securely while sanding them down? Standard hand vices or some kind of custom jigs?

Not my project, but embedding the part in a plug of epoxy would make it easier to handle.

we used a variety of tools: diamond saws, polishing wheels, hacksaws, and a lot of sandpaper.

many of the samples had to be mounted using clamps or dop wax.

This is really neat. It brought back some childhood memories of attempting to cut open components, only to find that I'd turned their insides to dust in the process. Sending thanks to the authors for fulfilling a want that I didn't know I still had.

Do not tempt, I first picked up calculus due to electronics way before my high school classes introduced it due to an electronics book like this.

How does an electronics book lead you to Calculus?

Circuits involving capacitors and inductors lead you to differential and integral equations, if you want to know the time dependence of the voltages and currents in the circuits.

This is so cool! What a nice way to show the intersection of theory, practice, engineering and exposition.

Wow impressive. All killer, no filler.

I love no starch. Their books are always great, both in print quality and content.

When does the print version come out?

We should have them in the warehouse in about a month for early shipment to people buying direct from us.

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