Make: Electronics

by Charles Platt

"This is teaching at its best!"

--Hans Camenzind, inventor of the 555 timer (the world's most successful integrated circuit), and author of Much Ado About Almost Man's Encounter with the Electron (Booklocker.com) "A fabulous well written, well paced, fun, and informative. I also love the sense of humor. It's very good at disarming the fear. And it's gorgeous . I'll be recommending this book highly."

--Tom Igoe, author of Physical Computing and Making Things Talk

Want to learn the fundamentals of electronics in a fun, hands-on way? With Electronics , you'll start working on real projects as soon as you crack open the book. Explore all of the key components and essential principles through a series of fascinating experiments. You'll build the circuits first, then learn the theory behind them! Build working devices, from simple to complex You'll start with the basics and then move on to more complicated projects. Go from switching circuits to integrated circuits, and from simple alarms to programmable microcontrollers. Step-by-step instructions and more than 500 full-color photographs and illustrations will help you use -- and understand -- electronics concepts and techniques.

Genres: Nonfiction, Engineering, Science, Reference, Technology, Technical, Stem

349 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

From wikipedia:

Charles Platt (born in London, England, 1945) is the author of 41 fiction and nonfiction books, including science-fiction novels such as The Silicon Man and Protektor (published in paperback by Avon Books). He has also written non-fiction, particularly on the subjects of computer technology and cryonics, as well as teaching and working in these fields. Platt relocated from England to the United States in 1970 and is a naturalized U. S. citizen.

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

See:

Charles Platt, born 1869

Reviews

[Felipe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Years trying to get into electronics but the tutorials online or other books just didnt do it for me.

THis book explains very well some concepts that other wise you would not understand.

The funny thing here is that i got this book for free on www.archive.org as pdf. when i was reading it i could not believe i got it for free.

[Brian Salehi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Let me make a quick review for you all, Charles Platt books are a must to read.
Read all of the three encyclopedia and two electronic books even before you start the blinking LED project, because not only he will do that for you, he also will put you in a position where you find yourself making professional projects using what he taught you before you finish all of his books.
Thank you Charles!

[Warren Gossett · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book gives a relaxed view of doing electronics without tearing your hair out. Of course you may have to switch components or discover that the little device or part you bought does not work exactly the way you read that it was supposed to. Of course it takes a bit more time to build and to test. Charles Platt's examples show that you can cope. Just be prepared and give your self time to ask questions and test the answers. Which may not be permanent answers. That is really good training for many experimental endeavours.

[Scuppers · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's the best intro to building with electronics that I can imagine.

My only frustration has been adapting one of the circuits to a breadboard version (i.e. the LED blinking circuit - "A Pulsing Glow"); it's more a function of my limitations though than the limitations of the book.

The fact that it's so much better than other electronics books out there, (possibly combined), merits its 5-star rating.

[Vladimir Prus · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very nicely illustrated and detailed introduction book about electronics. So, if you have no background, it's very recommended.

If you do have background, I am not sure. It might be too basic, and it also focus on building from discrete components. If you want to know how to hook things to your Arduino, it might not be very useful.

[Milan Lazić · Rating 5 out of 5]

Whether you have some electronics theory knowledge or not, if you have no practical experience, and you want it, get this book. An exellent beginers book, the only problem is that it makes you wanna work more and more electronics :)

[Adrian McCarthy · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best educational books I've ever read. Very clear, very well organized, a logical progression of ideas. The "Learning by Discovery" approach has to be the best way to really learn this stuff. I'm so happy I've read this, and I'll keep it handy to return to in the future as well.

[Thaths · Rating 4 out of 5]

I studied Electronics throughout Highschool and University. However, my textbooks and teachers did not make all the concepts clear to me. This book filled some of the gaps in my knowledge ("Why was a transistor invented? I know what a 555 timer does. but why does it exist? Who invented it and why?", etc.)

[JJ Lehmann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Judging the writing isn't really appropriate, but I did learn a lot and he explains the concepts and experiments clearly and concisely. Definitely recommend to those who wish to learn about electronics.

[Al · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful book. I've wanted to tinker around with electronics for years and this book was a fun and simple introduction.

[Alex Jahnke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Even (or especially) if you don't know a thing about electronics, this book is for you. No boring theory, but simple experiments guide you through the fascinating world of electronics.

[Jahn Juarez]

it's the best way to knew about electronics...

[Rachel Palmer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the best books I've ever read.

[John F · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great way to learn electronics! I got more out of this book than I’ve gotten out of traditional approaches.

[James · Rating 2 out of 5]

I will remember this as an example on how not to write a book. The exposition is completely incoherent and facile. The author trying desperately to water down the concepts of basic electronics have managed to make even the most trivial concepts incomprehensible. Even the concepts I knew already (e.g. logic gates) were written in a way that made me almost unlearn what I already knew. Random facts, history bits, dry humor and silly caricature mixed with incomplete explanation makes this a torture to understand. You can only understand this book if you accompany it with other resources and books. I wish the author had taken a more serious tone and explained the concepts as plainly as possible without removing facts and leave the understanding to the reader. I spent a consider amount of time sourcing all the components myself (as the kit was not available) and completed almost all experiment. Yet I learned so little. I will move to a proper electronics book such as “Practical Electronics for Inventors” or “Art of Electronics”

[Benjamin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Frames theory in the context of specific applications, encourages self-learning by proposing next steps. 2009 edition is out-of-date, mentions Arduino as "one of the more recent developments in the world of MCUs". While this might be true relative to the complete history of microcontrollers, the near ubiquitous use of Arduino/ESP devices for home automation, hobby projects, etc makes that comment humorous in retrospect. That said, it's kind of an interesting perspective to read about the PICAXE and BASIC Stamp and not have to scan through the explanation of setup() and loop() for the hundredth time. Also, this is really minor considering most of the book is about hardware electronics projects, which it did help me start to wrap my head around and would have been even more helpful if I had been doing along with reading.

[pluton · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent and practical introduction to electronics book. It would be nice to have more explanations about the used analog components and their values, and why they are necessary in the designs.
You do need the components, supplies, and tools to do the experiments, which is a good starting kit for after the book has ended. There are nice chapters on soldering, assembling an oscillator on a perforated board, and creating a box for your project. However, nothing about laying out a PCB design and etching a PCB. Two more old-school projects, a battery out of lemons and a "crystal" AM radio, were interesting and worked surprisingly well.
Overall, highly recommended for those who'd like to learn some electronics on the practical side, and continue with the theory later.

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[Filip Hlasek · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good overview of basic electronics concepts, loving the illustrations, the book is structured in very logical parts and experiments.
On the other hand, I expected a bit more from all the hype and positive ratings. The concepts are not explained very clearly and therefore quite hard to understand. Missing some explanations of fundamentals and things are put to believe on faith / try and see that it works - but not clear why.

[Evan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing book. I'd always wanted to get into electronics, and just never had the time. I got the book, and did quite a few of the projects, but read the whole thing. I had a decent amount of knowledge on the subject already, but this book helped fill in a lot of the gaps in that knowledge.

I'd recommend this book for anyone that wants to learn about electronics from scratch: kids, adults, whomever. It's easy to understand and baby steps you through everything.

[Nando · Rating 4 out of 5]

All explanations are very clear. Author has a good narrative style. Pictures are excellent. More web resources would have make it even better, as such as a few parts with deeper explanations (for example, why I shouldn't do experiments with rechargeable batteries).

[Youssouf · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a child, I was very much into electronics but parts were hard to come by; Also I had no resource to understand them. But this book started to help me see more clearly and understand a whole world around us.

[Jasurbek Khanjarov · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a new learner of electronics, I would say this book is very easy to navigate. The author skillfully explains both fundamental and advanced topics in electronics. The experiments are fun, and you can readily apply the knowledge you gain to real projects.

[Syed · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perfect and must have book for practical electronics geeks.

[Loïc · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book; clear and detailed explanation of electronics using interesting accessible project.

[Brad · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very well informed.

[Paul M Erdmann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good review had fun

Good review had fun.

I knew a lot from science class and personal experiments as a child.. This was part a good review.

[Randall Rocha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book for learning basic electronics, plenty of guides to follow.

[Adam · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is an amazing intro to electronics! I have learned so much from it.

[Cynthia · Rating 5 out of 5]

So far I have learned that my $1.5k alarm system cost about 89 cents to build. Next we find out how a chip works. I just LOVE knowing how stuff works. Get the kit too. Fun during lockdown.