Ask HN: Can you recommend a book to learn basic electrical concepts/engineering? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Can you recommend a book to learn basic electrical concepts/engineering?

153 pointsTurkishPoptart46 comments

I think title says it all. Something like CODE but for electricity? Thanks

https://www.allaboutcircuits.com/textbook/

This site is a gem

Used this. It's fantastic.

and, the best part - it's free

Watch EEVblog's playlist on DC theory, and then play around with a breadboard and simulations using something like circuitjs. Get some basic tools such as a soldering iron (and solder/wick/sponge/etc), breadboard, wires, and a collection of components like resistors, capacitors, and LEDs, and so on. r/AskElectronics has a guide for all of the practical stuff you need. Pick a project you actually find interesting and work on it (after learning how to safely use your tools and components).

Lots of people get started with things like using a microcontroller to light up some LEDs and so on. That will introduce you to basic concepts like how transistors work as well if you dig into it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSRe_4TQbuo&list=PLvOlSehNtu...

https://www.falstad.com/circuit/circuitjs.html

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskElectronics/wiki/beginners/

Horowitz & Hill's Art of Electronics has been the gold standard for quite a while.

https://artofelectronics.net/

Art of Electronics is a 300-level course (3rd year college).

Its a great book for everyone at that level. But good luck even reading the first few pages if you don't know the basics yet.

Art of Electronics is closer to the "last book you read" on electronics, rather than the first book. Its completely the opposite from what the original poster is asking here.

> But good luck even reading the first few pages if you don't know the basics yet.

Which concern the definition of Voltage, Current, Resistance and Ohm's Law as well as thorough descriptions of fundamental electronic components.

I've heard a lot about the dubious quality of STEM education in the US highschool system, but this is all pretty fundamental physics knowledge taught as early as in primary school in many countries around the world and I'd suppose the same is true there as well.

OK so re-reading OP's title it wasn't clear to me if they requested something explaining basic electricity concepts or basic electronics engineering.

For the former AoE may indeed be a bit unsuitable, however under no circumstances is it as beginner - hostile to EE students/enthusiasts as you made it out to be.

I never learned about electronics basics in K-12 in the West Coast US. We learned classical mechanics physics, chemistry, and even basic CS, but no electronics at all. Closest was galvanic cells in Chemistry. Not even ohms law. Coincidentally, one of my major interests is in electronics.

When was that, out of curiosity? I was on the East Coast for middle school, we definitely covered some electronics basics including making simple circuits (and I figured out how to use switches and three-way switches to make logic circuits) and the basic math behind it, the class was called "physical science" (to contrast with life science which was a biology + ecology course the previous year). In Nevada for high school physics it was mostly about classical mechanics (motion) but we did a segment on electronics. All of this was in the 90s.

High school was early 2010s. For high school I remember there is actually AP Physics 2 E&M now, but I know for a fact it's offered at very few schools compared to the other AP tests. Middle schools are much less standardized class-wise from what I can tell (even within regions) and even though mine was extremely math and science heavy we didn't cover any E&M unfortunately.

> But good luck even reading the first few pages if you don't know the basics yet.

I disagree. Page 1 section 1.2: Voltage, current, and resistance. Section 1.2.2: Relationship between voltage and current: resistors. Section 1.2.2 B: Resistors in series and parallel. Section 1.2.3: Voltage dividers. Section 1.2.4: Voltage sources and current sources.

If those aren't the absolute basics, I don't know what is. Yes, it's not "Soldering for Dummies", but that's not what OP was asking for.

There is an associated lab manual, which also includes a more basic introduction to the fundamentals:

https://learningtheartofelectronics.com/

Note that the last third is about building a small computer from scratch, but the presentation is a bit obsolete.

This is not a book for beginners.

An excellent reference manuscript, I wouldn't recommend it to beginners though

All of Forrest M. Mims III books are a treasure trove of electric & electronics learning, in a very simple way.

For starters, get the "Getting Started in Electronics" , and any of his "Engineer's Mini-Notebook" series.

I’ve had others recommend Forest Mims books before.

I tried to read the “Getting Started in Electronics” but the notebook style to it makes it difficult for me to read for much time. Content is still very great for beginners.

Practical Electronics for Inventors by Paul Scherz and Simon Monk.

This. It's got loads of amazing diagrams and explanations. It's got the basics and more advanced stuff too. This is a great book.

In the last 4-5 years of occasionally looking for books to learn electrical concepts (at the armchair specialist level), this is the best one I've found.

I've got two editions of this book. It's absolutely fantastic!

I came here for copper and I found gold. Thank you

Just logged in, to add another recommendation for this book.

There are errors, but they’re not that hard to spot, if one’s paying attention, when reading.

Definitely read this, before the Art Of Electronics, if you’re just starting out!

[Make: Electronics](https://www.makershed.com/products/make-electronics-3rd-edit...) is an option I haven't seen posted yet. There are companies that sell electronic supplies and components to go along with the exercises in the books. EG: [Make: Electronics 3rd Edition Kit 1 & 2 Ultimate Deluxe Bundle Includes Book - Beginner Intermediate & Advanced Component Pack Follows The Experiments in Make: Electronics Third by Charles Platt](https://a.co/d/5iRUfMZ).

I found it extremely helpful to first study the basic physics of electromagnetism in some depth rather than jump straight to electric circuits and components. Any undergrad physics textbook that eventually teaches Maxwell's equations will do. For video format, Walter Lewin's 802.x MIT lectures are freely available online. (I think there's some debate over whether he got a particular example involving Kirchoff's Law quite right. Not sure what other lecturers are good, but they are around if you find Lewin not to your liking.)

Not a book, but why not learn like a child.

https://upperstory.com/spintronics/

When I was a child, I read a good book, called “(An Usborne Introduction) Electronics”. Might be worth having a read.

Sorry, not a book. But if you ready to give e-course a try - I would strongly recommend the 'Crash Course Electronics and PCB Design' by Andre LaMothe on Udemy. On sales typically for around 10$ you get 110 hours of learning - with a VERY high quality content. I really enjoyed the instructor.

OP: My suggestion is a better definition of what you'd hope to get out of such a book.

There are good suggestions here but I feel like you might be able to find better resources if there's more of an idea what you want to learn.

OHMs law is fundamental, but it won't exactly show you how to make anything practical. (and you'll find that 90% of electricity intro books focus on those concepts vs getting you into something fun).

20 years ago, I called ATT expressing interest in being a lineman. They sent me a training manual of sorts to study. It was way thicker than expected, and covered all the electical formulas and concepts and such.

Not sure if that is still around, but it may be worth giving them a call(or scouring the internet if someone OCRd it).

This book by Ed Lipiansky entitled "Electrical, Electronics, and Digital Hardware Essentials for Scientists and Engineers" takes you from the basis and basics of EE all the way to designing a functional CPU:

https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Electrical,+Electronics,+and+Dig...

Getting Started In Electronics by Forrest Mims

Although asking about books, I'll share my current experience as a software developer with 15 years experience trying to self-learn electronics.

1. "YouTube University" as per the top comment on this HN post [0]. I watch a few videos on the train to work or when winding down in my spare time. Over the past few months I've come to appreciate certain channels, your learning style may prefer others, but my list includes: The Engineering Mindset, Ben Eater, EEVBlog, learnelectronics, and ElectroBOOM, as well as whatever else I stumble upon when searching specific topics.

2. Reading theoretical concepts from text books. I've read https://www.allaboutcircuits.com/textbook/ recommended elsewhere in these comments and found it very well written for someone like myself just starting out. It covers the full gamut covering basic movement of electrons through to practical stuff - indeed much like the Ben Eater YouTube channel does).

3. Practicing mechanical skills like soldering (which also results in earning things I didn't know I needed to learn, such as "how do you keep this thing still while trying to work on it").

4. Prototyping with breadboards - both projects including micro controllers and those focusing on discrete electronics. This feels most like a literal application of my software dev skills, but with all of the theoretical electronics stuff sprinkled in. Although starting with just a basic collection of a few resistors, capacitors, LEDs, transistors was fine, now I enjoy having a steady stream of orders from AliExpress coming in. Each one is only the price of my morning coffee but takes a month to arrive, so whenever I am working on something and think I am lacking the components, I'll place an order then forget about it until it arrives.

5. Pulling apart things to see how they work - this is extremely satisfying because it helps not just with learning about how people lay out electronics projects, but also how the physical connections are made - how are PCBs mounted, where are springs and screws and other bits placed. It also helps practice desoldering skills.

6. Designing PCBs and getting them printed. It only costs about $5 to get a few copies of a PCB printed and mailed to you, designed using the free software KiCad. When I've got a toy project that worked on a breadboard, then also worked on a prototype board, I then go and design a PCB to print. So far in 2 months I've designed and printed 3 boards. This is also extremely satisfying, and also helps learn more skills on the software and design side of things.

Finally, I share liberally with my friends via SMS when I make progress. I have a few close friends who are good at electronics but don't do it professionally. By sharing my progress with them, I have people ask me how it is going, which keeps me honest and makes me want to keep making progress.

After 2 months of spending an hour or so each night after the family goes to bed, I feel like this time I may actually pick up the skills I wanted. Previous attempts over the past 10 years have all failed due to lack of motivation.

[0] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16775744

navy/army field manuals.. example:

https://archive.org/details/FundamentalsOfElectronics93400A1...

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0521809266/ Horowitz and Hill is awesome, and Forrest Mims III i remember as awesome too

Sorry that is not a book, but this online course is amazing introduction https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=AfQxyVuLeCs

If your end goal is to work with electronics, then pick a project and learn by practicing instead.

That’s how I managed to create the product in my profile in 2 years from no knowledge.

"Electricity and Electronics" by Dale R. Patrick and Stephen W. Fardo

There Are No Electrons: Electronics for Earthlings by Kenn Amdahl

i've been enjoying, Foundations of Analog and Digital Electronic Circuits by Anant Agarwal

The art of electronics

Basic Machines

ChatGPT:

There are many books available that can help you learn basic electrical concepts and engineering. Here are a few suggestions:

    "Electricity Demystified" by Stan Gibilisco
    "Electrical Engineering 101" by Darren Ashby
    "The Basics of Electricity" by Van Valkenburgh, Nooger & Neville, Inc.
    "Electrical Engineering: Principles and Applications" by Allan R. Hambley
    "Getting Started in Electronics" by Forrest M. Mims III

These books are designed to provide a general introduction to electrical concepts and engineering, and can help you to understand the basics of electricity and how it is used in various applications. They may also include examples, diagrams, and practical exercises to help you learn and apply the concepts in a hands-on way. I encourage you to read reviews and compare the content and approach of different books to determine which one is the best fit for your learning style and goals.

---------------

Is this useful at all?

> Is this useful at all?

About as useful as a google search.

So either the google search is very good or the AI is not adding any value compared to a „dumb search“?

Which one is it?

I'd say it's not adding any value compared to a "dumb search". Most of those books turned up directly in the google results for things like "basic electronics book" or "beginner electronics books" and so on, or in the listicles that populate the first page of those kinds of results.

thanks for clarifying. disappointing then.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com