Make: Electronics, a great new book to learn hands-on electronics

Maker Media has just published a new book called Make: Electronics, by Charles Platt, and it's the best electronics primer I've ever come across (admittedly, I'm the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Charles' friend, but I really do think it's the best).

Here's what Gareth Branwyn (the book's editor) said about it:

I'm thrilled to announce our latest offering from O'Reilly/Make: Books, Make: Electronics, by Charles Platt. This is a book that we've wanted to do for awhile. Many of us at Maker Media have had an interaction that goes something like this: You're at a talk, Maker Faire, or elsewhere, and someone spirits you aside, like they're going to confess to a petty crime or some marital indiscretion. What they want to whisper sheepishly into your ear is that they love MAKE, all of the excitement they see over open source electronics, and the cool kits we sell in the Maker Shed, but they have NO IDEA how electronics work, and the "beginner" books and resources they look at online zoom quickly over their heads and frustrate their efforts to learn. Ultimately, they find themselves too embarrassed to admit their lack of high-tech smarts or to ask questions (which is why they've taken you behind a dumpster to confess their ignorance).

So we decided to make it our mission to create a book that would patiently guide readers into the world of electronics in a way that was fun, clear-spoken, graphical, and experiential. Charles dubbed it "learning by discovery." He has you experimenting with parts right out of the gate, licking batteries (really), breaking and frying stuff, and then you learn what happened and why, the theories behind the parts and processes, and how to do the experiment correctly. For all of those would-be makers and wireheads who've been looking for a book that will finally let them in on all the fun, we made this one for you!

In 340+ pages, Make: Electronics takes you from the most basic aspects of electronic components and theory to essential techniques, such as soldering and using a multimeter, gathering basic tools and setting up a workshop, all the way up to working with integrated circuits, microcontrollers, and building sophisticated devices such as robots. The book is full-color, with hundreds of photos, illustrations, schematics, even fun cartoons. Charles Platt, being the true Renaissance man that he is, did all of this himself. So the book has something of a charming, handmade feel to it.

To give you an idea of what the book feels like, we've put together this 40-page PDF. It contains the cover, table of contents, two complete projects from the book, and the index.

The deluxe kit, shown above, has many of the tools you'll need to make the projects in the book.

Make: Electronics

• [Halloween Jack]

  Hmmm, I’m kind of torn. I was less than impressed by Platt’s turn as a guest blogger here, for reasons that veteran readers will no doubt remember. On the other hand, this book looks really, really good.

  Well, I’ll decide after I’m done buying Christmas presents for others.

• [Roy Trumbull]

  Having worked in electronics all my life I came across something new that is quite valuable. It is essentially an AC ohmmeter for testing capacitors in-circuit. The probe puts out about 5Khz and measures the residual impedance. The tiny surface-mount caps in consumer gear usually fail by opening up or going to a high impedance value. This way of testing is far quicker than unsoldering a cap and then testing it. Several companies make these and there are probably some plans for making one yourself. Search “In circuit testing” and “capacitor testing”.

• [Kyle Armbruster]

  Here’s the thing about electronics: They are remarkably easy. I got an electronics set when I was in junior high, built some things, and then kinda stopped. I’m sure my parents felt like it was a waste after that, but then in college I was friends with some EE students and I picked it back up again, no problem. I knew the basics of what everything did, and we built some fun little toys.

  Now I don’t do any of it anymore, but it really impresses people when I whip out my gear and fix something for them–people don’t expect English professors to be able to do that.

  But that’s just the thing: It’s just plain not that hard! Practice your soldering a bit and you’ll get a feel for it, memorize what the basic components do, and you’re off. It’s fun and easy! Just knowing how to solder will make your life much easier. Highly recommended!

• [Gareth Branwyn]

  @Anonymous
  Yes, the Maker Shed does ship to the UK.

  @Halloween Jack
  I can assure you that the subject of global warming does NOT come up in this book on beginner electronics.

  Charles did a phenomenal job on this title. Besides the writing, which is clean, concise, insightful, and informative, he did hundreds of photos, illustrations, schematics, and cartoons. And they’re all impressive. Okay, the cartoons are a little funky, but in a charming way. Like Forrest Mims’ Getting Started in Electronics was charming because it was all done by one hand, this is sort of a 21st century version of that.

• [ROSSINDETROIT]

  This is so badly needed. DIY electronics thrived after WW II because many trained workers and returning vets had technical skills. Ham radio, Hi Fi and Television all got a boost from hands on builders. Somehow we lost the way and electronic devices became mysterious sealed boxes from the store with “Do Not Open. No User Serviceable Parts Inside” stickers on them. How do you own what you can’t understand?

• [ROSSINDETROIT]

  There’s a downside to knowing about electronics. Like being a car mechanic. Everyone’s car has a funny noise or odd behavior that you’re supposed to be able to diagnose during party conversation.
  Everyone has a dead Home Theater receiver or subwoofer, too. “maybe you could just take a look at it.” Yeah, I’m looking at it and it looks like something I wouldn’t touch with a 10 foot pole.
  I spent my spare time over the last 2 days building a tiny 25 watt stereo amplifier smaller than a business card. I LOVE doing this!

• [ROSSINDETROIT]

  That looks like a good set of tools. Other things that get frequent use on my bench: sturdy 4-in-1 screwdriver, sharp knife, set of Allen wrenches, lighted magnifier, IPA and cotton swabs, small wire brush, 3″ adjustable wrench, band aids.

• [Stefan Jones]

  I wish the set had come out in time for the last Maker Faire.

  That’s when I picked up the Learn to Solder set, which was OK but with slightly clunky instructions, and wished I had a good introductory book on electronics so I understood how the kits I was building worked.

• [jfrancis]

  The Ghost of Radio Shacks Past showed me this in a dream.

• [randyman]

  Gosh, the site is great…

  but spelling! spelling! (clue – check the headline.)

  Love ya –

  • [Antinous / Moderator]

    Fixed.

• [Manooshi]

  Santa, are you listening?

• [Anonymous]

  Would this kit be available in the UK as I would love to buy one!

• [Anonymous]

  Would love the book, but shipping to eastern canada doubles the price (buying through the maker shed), and Amazon.ca has not released the book yet.

  suggestions?…

• [Anonymous]

  Looking forward to read this, but with a little trepidation: the treatment of LEDs in the free free PDF is, at best, questionable. (Actually it seems to be flat out wrong, but will have to check the rest of the text to be sure.)

• [Alethea]

  I’ve just found you can buy this title at Amazon in the UK and have ordered one for me and another for my god-daughter.

  Now I have about £150 left could anyone provide me with a shopping list of required components and equipment for use with this book?

  (I would love to ship stuff from the maker site in the states but it doubles the cost of the item… and then there are charges at the other end *cries*)

• [nixiebunny]

  This looks like a great book! I was just reading my ebayed copy of “A Boy’s Third Book of Radio and Electronics”, wondering where to find an updated version for my 11 year old son. Now I have an answer.

  The best part is that the reader gets to destroy things with encouragement from the author. Yippee!

• [chip]

  From the PDF: “The first thing I want you to do is find out how a potentiometer works. This means you’ll have to open it, which is why your shopping list required you to buy two of them, in case you can’t put the first one back together again.”

  THIS is why this book is better than any electronics manual I was trained on. This sort of take-it-apart-to-figure-it-out learning is vital to proper education (as opposed to just memorization). When I disassembled my solderless breadboard to see how it worked at electronics camp, I got yelled at.

  • [Anonymous]

    F’ them for yelling at you. Seeing inside a solderless breadboard is one of those HUGE ‘AH HA!’ moments. Any instructor worth his salt passes around a ripped open one (so you don’t have to destroy yours).

• [Eric Ragle]

  Yup, I’m ordering this as soon as I get my excess student loan in from school. I’ve got Bug Bots and it’s okay, but it does seem to move a bit more rapidly than I would like.

• [Anonymous]

  Gee – out of stock already?

• [wgmleslie]

  When is Make: Atomics coming out?

• [Eric Ragle]

  Oooooooo also considering the mp3 player kit. That would be absolutely awesome to have a truly open-source player. I’ve got to calm down. This is why I rarely visit the MAKE site.

• [PaulR]

  The price for the kit looks OK, it works out to $90 for the set of tools. The Panavise alone must account for nearly half the price. It’s missing a sponge for the soldering stand, though.

  The only quibbles I have with the kit is/are:
  I hope the solder is multicore. When you’all have used it up, take the time to find 63/37 solder, AKA eutectic solder. Once you’ve used it, you don’t go back.

  The solder pump is the usual inexpensive pump with a lower pump-:piston-mass ratio. When you activate the pump and the plunger/piston jerks backwards, the pump jerks forward, making precise placement of the intake tube difficult.
  Better pumps have a higher pump-:piston-mass ratio: when you activate the pump, it stays where you’ve positioned it.

  Mind you, MAKE readers should able to figure out what to do, besides buying a better and more expensive pump, to increase the mass ratio…

• [Gareth Branwyn]

  @Alethea

  The book has “Shopping Lists” at the beginning of each chapter and recommendations for where to get components.

  The Maker Shed is also going to be selling Make: Electronics Component Kits with all of the parts required for each chapter.

• [Anonymous]

  Makershed.com charges $45 for international shipping, can I buy this anywhere else? (I’m in Europe)

  • [Alethea]

    You can buy the book on Amazon but sadly the maker kit itself is only available from their site. When the book arrives I will have to go on a shopping spree at Maplin.

    (Unless someone can tell me somewhere better)