Hands-On Electronics: A Practical Introduction to Analog and Digital Circuits

An awesome book for the serious amateur or student. The book guides you through setting up and studying a variety of circuits. For me, this makes is significantly easier to understand electronics and is fun to do. Note that this is not a stand alone introduction to electronics. You will still need an introductory text.Also, you will need equipment, including an oscilloscope. However, you are going to need that equipment anyway. So I do not see this as a drawback. There are some economical options, such as PC and USB scopes. Or you could simulate everything using software.

This is way down the list on an Amazon search but is a gem. The experiments are great and make you think and find things out for yourself. However if you are a beginner, I suggest working through Make Electronics: Learning through Discovery first as this is definitely a notch up. You will need a scope but the Rigol is available for £250 on Amazon and is very good, you will probably also need a power supply (Basetech BT-305 is good and around £60)or can cobble things together from remaindered phone and xbox chargers, and an function generator (available for £10 from Maplin, don't go for an expensive bench unit). There is no need for the expensive board they recommend which is only available in the US at a vast cost. The above components will see you through together with small, cheap purchases from Maplin. Some of the very last chapters require components that are only available in the US (specialised multiplexers and display drivers) but you can skip these. Farnell stock the flip flops and some of the specilised transisters but have a large minimum order size so you will need to consolidate your order, Otherwise I got everything from Maplin and none of it was expensive.A text book will also help and I could find no good alternative to the Bible: The Art of Electronics by HandH. Although it is outrageously expensive and out of date it is very good and I could find nothing to touch it.If you do all the maths derivations suggested in HandH and this book it will knock some cobwebs off your school maths, but you could skip these too. Oh one more thing, a scientific calculator is really helpful and the GCSE approved one for £7 is fine.Have fun.

A great book for first year electrical engineering students to learn how to carry out lab projects.

This book is well thought out, organized, and thorough. It provides excellent hands-on exercises that help you to really understand in a functional way how electronics work. The mathematical explanations and exercises may be challenging to folks who haven't used their college calculus/algebra/trig skills in a while (me included) - though they will serve those seeking to understand the underlying fundamental calculations.With all those positives, why a 3 star rating? Well, the book assumes that you have ready access to a ~$1,000 oscilloscope and a ~$500 proto-typing bread board. On top of that, you need all of the bits and pieces to actually do the experiments - those are relatively cheap, but not always readily available (at a local store). All of the required equipment and supplies can be obtained on-line, but it will take a concerted effort, a chunk of cash, and some lead time to get all of this stuff. There are alternatives to the expensive oscilloscope and proto-board, but this path requires some assumed additional knowledge and may prove challenging as it deviates from the proscribed curriculum.My final thought on this book is that it is quite excellent in a classroom / lab setting, but is not very "practical" for the hobbyist.

This is a great approach to learning the basics of electronics. Love the hands-on perspective. But the details get confusing and a bit chaotic. The book would benefit from an editor with good attention to detail.