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Comment by jakewins | Hacker News Reader

I have (had? getting better!) this same issue, and it really killed excitement of electronics for me for a long time.

I asked @theacodes on here this same question, on a post they'd written that like.. actually got into "ok, I'm putting this capacitor here, because it's gonna do <x> for me, another way I could do the same thing is..", and their reply is here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33484848

I do think there'd be a lot of value in blog or youtube series of experienced circuit designers showing how they approach things, why and how they pick components etc, it's a great way to learn. The blog post that HN thread is about is really good as an example.

I've had several people recommend "The Art of Electronics" as a reference for circuits building as well, but haven't read it yet

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The Art of Electronics is useful as a reference, certainly.

Using it to learn circuit design (just at the schematic level, still) would take serious effort (hundreds of hours) and would be far more effective if done with a skilled instructor.

There used to be simpler, smaller books that showed a simplified design process for circuit building blocks.

Rod Elliott's website, sound-au.com, has an extensive section on "theory" at the hobbyist level[1]. If you use it, please donate to help Rod keep the site up.

1. https://sound-au.com/articles/index.htm

That is an amazing resource, thank you for sharing!

Looks like an excellent resource - thanks!

The Art of Electronics is a wonderful book and you can certainly learn from it. I don't think it's useful as a reference, but it is a little opaque to someone new.

But, now there is https://learningtheartofelectronics.com/ Learning the Art of Electronics, which is a practical course with labs to complete, etc. It is very, very good. I am using subsets of it (with scaffolding/additional practice) to teach smart middle schoolers to design transistor circuits implementing amplifiers, oscillators, and logic gates.

> I've had several people recommend "The Art of Electronics" as a reference for circuits building as well, but haven't read it yet

It's an excellent book and highly regarded for a reason. I have a pro-tip about it, though... don't feel as if you need the most recent edition. The older ones are still great and relevant, and buying it used will save you a few bucks.

I agree that "The Art of Electronics" is a great reference.

"Practical Electronics for Inventors" is another good one that I found much more approachable and also more inspiring.

Getting to a point of intuition means becoming a knowledge expert, which is why you have diploma and degree programs in various fields of electronics.

You can get there without a diploma and a degree using time, books (or youtube) and a modest quantity of tools (the setup in TFA would be overkill for establishing a basic knowledge about electronics).

The thing about a diploma or a degree course, is that you get GUIDED knowledge. A good institution will teach you the math and physics background first, and then proceed from basic circuit analysis to advanced circuit design in logical steps.

All while separating analogue electronics, digital electronics, RF, and signal processing as appropriate.

Self-taught people are almost always too eager to get their hands on a soldering iron, and end up with a jumble of information, instead of intuitive understanding.

> Self-taught people are almost always too eager to get their hands on a soldering iron, and end up with a jumble of information, instead or intuitive understanding.

But if those self-taught people spend enough time, that jumble of information becomes deep empirical knowledge. At the end of the day, developing an understanding of electronics just comes down to how much time you are willing to invest in studying datasheets, working out schematics, fabricating circuits and keenly observing. Understanding the math and physics is deeply valuable and a great gift, but empirical knowledge is just as valuable- if not more. After all, Faraday (and all the others who did the work that eventually led to our mathematical and physical understanding of elecric circuits) did not need theory to do his experiments.

As someone who never finished my EE but can basically look at anything electronic and diagnose the issue. I suggest you first learn circuit analysis and how to read schematics because they will be your best friend and give biggest advantage.

Are there any YT series that are worthy of mention?

I think I've a PDF copy of The Art of Electronics. One day...

Eevblog

EEVBlog is great, but... anybody just discovering the channel should be aware, Dave puts out content that fits into a number of different categories: educational, entertainment, edutainment, test equipment reviews / teardowns, mailbag, repairs, debunking, meta commentary about Youtube, career stuff, and "other". And purely educational stuff isn't a huge part of what he puts out these days. That said, he has put out some really good stuff, especially back when he was doing "Fundamentals Friday" as a routine thing. Just don't expect a steady stream of purely educational, "electronics fundamentals" stuff.

> And purely educational stuff isn't a huge part of what he puts out these days

That's my reading, too. He isn't quite the 3b1b of electronics. But that's not a statement of the quality of the content; just that he caters to a different audience, perhaps.

Louis Rossman’s series on learning electronics is what truly clicked for me.

Ben Eater for digital electronics and computers at a 1s and 0s level.

He works for Kahn academy as well and is an incredibly talented educator

I've found "Big Clive" to be very informative. Lots of small devices torn down and reverse engineered, complete with a circuit diagram and a fairly in depth explanation of what is going on and what any given part is doing. Helps to have some basic circuits knowledge, but otherwise very good.

Highly recommend W2AEW's channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/w2aew

Highly relieved to see this as I've just bought a copy of the art of electronics (2nd edition, 3rd is too expensive for me) and plan to build some things at the university lab this summer

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