Make
electronics
by Charles Platt · first published 2009
94% recommend6% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Hands-on intro to electronics that starts from zero and teaches concepts through project-based experiments, including deliberately breaking things. Suits beginners wanting fundamentals before Arduino.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
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A good book: http://www.amazon.com/Make-Electronics-Discovery-Charles-Pla...
on “Ask HN: What are some nice electronics courses that blend theory and practice?” ↗…Art of Electronics isn't something you might want to get around to eventually. But it's good to get your hands dirty and start building stuff, blinking LED's, etc., early on IMO. https://www.amazon.com/Make-Electronics-Discovery-Charles-Pl... https://www.amazon.com/Make-Electronics-Journey-Amplifiers-R... https://www.amazon.com/dp/1680453742/ When you're ready for more of a "textbook" instead of the hands-on…
on “Ask HN: How / where to learn practical electrical / electronics?” ↗It's not hard to get started. Pick up Make: Electronics to learn the basics by example. Each chapter walks you through a project that teaches some important concepts. http://www.amazon.com/Make-Electronics-Discovery-Charles-Pla... And to get…
on “Why Learn Basic Electronics? [video]” ↗Make: Electronics by Charles Platt is a very good beginners book with lots of projects. Not Arduino specific though. http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596153755
on “TI releases Launchpad, a $4.30 (shipping included) microproccessor dev kit” ↗For anybody interested in learning electronics and hardware design, I suggest this book: http://www.amazon.com/Make-Electronics-Discovery-Charles-Pla... It really helped me to get into hardware in a structured and clear way. A must read.
on “Y Combinator + Upverter Hardware Hackathon” ↗This isn't exactly what you've requested, but it's still a very good basic electronics guide - Make: Electronics http://www.amazon.com/Make-Electronics-Discovery-Charles-Pla... Part of the book is breaking things to see how they work which is much cooler than thinking of things as a black box.
on “Gertboard expands the Raspberry Pi’s GPIO pins” ↗No, don't start with this book. Start with something focused on beginners like Make: Electronics by Charles Platt.
on “The Art of Electronics, 3rd Edition, to be released April 2015” ↗https://www.amazon.com/Make-Electronics-Discovery-Charles-Pl... https://www.amazon.com/Make-Electronics-Journey-Amplifiers-R... https://www.amazon.com/Art-Electronics-Paul-Horowitz/dp/0521... https://www.amazon.com/Learning-Art-Electronics-Hands-Course...…
on “Ask HN: Recommended reads for an electronics beginner?” ↗I've been devoting a lot of time to learning hardware lately and the resources that have worked best for me are: Make: Electronics [1] This is a very accessible, hands on driven book that starts from absolute 0 and builds you up step by step. It focuses on very basic circuits and components (I think only the last experiment…
on “Ask HN: What are hardware development learning web tutorials?” ↗It is unavoidable, you must learn some basic theory. A gentle introduction is found in this book: "Make: Electronics: Learning Through Discovery, 2nd Edition" by Charles Platt
on “Ask HN: Where did you learn modular electronics?” ↗Make: Electronics by Charles Platt[1] is a good start followed by the author's own recommendation for further study, Practical Electronics for Inventors by Paul Scherz and Simon Monk[2]. [1]http://www.plattelectronics.com/books.html…
on ““Hello, world” from scratch on a 6502” ↗Make: Electronics by Charles Platt is excellent. It’ll walk you from basics through essentials via experiments. It intentionally has you do some things wrong to teach you why something happens. It doesn’t…
on “Ask HN: How / where to learn practical electrical / electronics?” ↗Make: Electronics by Charles Platt will take you through all the whys and wheres, starting at the very basics. I highly recommend it. Also, I'll recommend the "Follow the example" approach of just looking…
on “KiCad Version 7.0.0 Released” ↗I recommend looking at “Make: Electronics” by Charles Platt. I read Electronics for Inventors, and have even pushed myself through respectable chunks of AoE, but Platt’s book really helped to drive home some concepts and spans a…
on “Ultimate Electronics” ↗AoE, Machinery's Handbook etc are wonderful references, not for learning. “Make: Electronics” by Charles Platt and "Practical Electronics for Inventors" are both good practical recommendations. What to prefer really depends on your background. I'd add "Electronic Devices" by Thomas…
on “Ultimate Electronics” ↗