Comments about oreilly Make: Electronics:

I've read the prior comments that were negative. I don't understand why things did not work for them.

I have worked each project and spent time grasping the concepts the author was presenting. I think the book is well written.

Comments about oreilly Make: Electronics:

When you get to experiment 10 everything will stop working. None of the schematics will be easy to build, or work with the exact parts the book tells you to use. The resistor values will all be wrong and you'll spend days trying to make it work with no reply from the publisher.

Comments about oreilly Make: Electronics:

Terrible recommended electronics pack! Setting up the first 8 experiments is next to impossible using alligator clips unless you want to spend hours on end. No explanation of an easy way to use this basic equipment, so it fails on a very fundamental level as a how to book. After you get away from the early experiments (if you can handle the presumptuousness of the author for expecting you to somehow set the early experiments up), it's good.

Comments about oreilly Make: Electronics:

Make: Electronics, by Charles Platt, is an incredible book for anyone who is curious about electronics. This book guides you through a variety of experiments, beginning with simple experiments like "tasting" electricity and making a battery with lemons, lighting an LED with a battery, and then quickly (but not too quickly!) moving into more advanced topics such as using relays, creating timers, soldering, integrated circuits, electromagnetism, stepper motors, and even some PICAXE programming. It has high-quality color pictures and diagrams, and great explanations.

Make: Electronics blows most other electronics introductions out of the water. I was given a copy of Electronics Projects for Dummies, but that book was so dry I couldn't bring myself to try any of the projects. Charles Platt writes an incredibly informative and entertaining book - if you are looking to buy a beginners guide to electronics, your search is over. If you are buying this book for someone with just a spark of curiosity about electronics (even yourself), after they finish this book, they just may be addicted. This book is excellent - 5/5!

Comments about oreilly Make: Electronics:

Its very simple if you want a good intoduction to Electronics and a text that is simple to read and easy to grasp you can't go wrong with this book, I thought the content would be beneath me even though my Electrical knowledge was very limited, I was very wrong this book teaches in a clear concise way with easy to follow examples even if you don't build the Circuits you will find that you will understand them. This is the way learning should be.

Comments about oreilly Make: Electronics:

One reviewer regretted the cost associated with components needed to do the projects. I sympathize, but, it wouldn't be much of a learning experience if all the experiments could be done with some paper clips, a battery, and some hot glue. So you will need some "lab" materials. Here's a tip I wish had been in the book: Spend a few hours going through the book to see which experiments you think are "too obvious" and which ones will actually help you understand. Then order only those components. I looked at several vendors but finally decided to take a chance on Newark[@]. My lucky day. There site is easy for hobbyists to use and they'll sell you what you want. Typically they'll have three four offerings. Pick the cheapest one because you're just learning. Some of their components are not in stock and getting them requires waiting. Just click on one of the other part numbers. It'll cost a little more but most of this stuff just isn't that expensive. I already had enough tools to get by so all I needed was components. My order was only a little over thirty dollars with shipping! I'll probably order more, but this is enough to keep me busy for quite a while. I'd say-- no more than twenty dollars more will have me through the book including the robot cart. Maker's Shed has kits you can buy. One of them is about a $100 for the first few experiments, the other one is about $150. If money's no object, and you want to be sure you have every thing, you can go that route. Omit the experiments you don't need but read every word. This is a great book, a great "system", if you want to learn electronics and you're starting from ground zero (like me).

Comments about oreilly Make: Electronics:

I have a physics major and while reading this book, I wish my professors taught this way. Grasping the concepts and doing the math would have been much easier.

When I took an EE class, we calculated circuit after circuit, but when I asked about basic concepts the professor did not know the answers because all she did was the math for one type of circuit and then another. She had completely forgotten why she was doing it that way. It was so boring.

Classes need to be taught in the manner of this book. Then maybe school wouldn't be such a waste of time.

Comments about oreilly Make: Electronics:

When I encountered Make:Electronics in January, I figured it was yet another in the long series of confusing, math-heavy electronics books that had so thoroughly quenched my fiery interest in the subject.

I could not have been more wrong.

Make:Electronics is the book every single propellerhead wishes that they had had when they were 12 years old. Or any age. I'm not kidding. This book is the most approachable primer to electronic components and circuits that I have ever read, and I have read a LOT of them. It is friendly, well paced, full of good illustrations, and full of well-grounded metaphors that bring each component to life. I can honestly say that I never quite understood how capacitors worked until I read that section in this book, and now I will never forget.

This information is all packaged in the wonderful Make philosophy that breaking things (ok, small, easily replaced things) is a good way to learn about them, and indeed the book contains vivid instructions for burning up one battery and licking another, for "broiling" an LED, and for performing several other "dangerous" or destructive tasks in a controlled way that enables you to actually see what is happening. These are all things that I had to discover for myself, but with no one watching over my shoulder to explain what was going on I ended up discovering them repeatedly and wastefully. The book's subtitle is "Learning by Discovery", although what I found most satisfying was that the discovery was accompanied by friendly instruction.

Perhaps the most important feature of this book is the obvious love and almost childlike fascination that Charles Platt brings to the text. Platt is a science fiction author as well as a contributing editor to Wired and an important interviewer of other authors. Platt's writing skill is obvious, but more obvious to me at least is his desire to teach, and his joy in doing so. That joy leaks out of every page and it is utterly infectious.

In short, Make:Electronics is a wonderful book that should be required reading for anyone with even the slightest interest in the subject. In fact, it should be the first and possibly the only reading you do, at least until Charles Platt writes another one. I have never written a book review this positive, but I honestly can't say enough good things about it.

Note: The Maker Shed also provides a related tool kit and (soon) components packs, although there is a distinct happiness in going down to your local electronics shop and sourcing the parts yourself. If you buy the tool kit, note that the book is included.

Comments about oreilly Make: Electronics:

Unlike other starter electronics books, you can read this book WITHOUT actually doing the ciruits and still understand what he's talking about because he explains it very well. Of course, actually doing the experiments helps solidify your understanding of the circuits.

Comments about oreilly Make: Electronics:

I've read literally dozens of electronics guides, books, watched video tutorials, etc. Nothing compares to this book. Period.

This book is incredibly well-written, and the method for teaching (learning by discovery) is the absolute best approach for this topic in my opinion. And he executes it VERY well.

There are some very small typographical & schematic errors, nothing that would cause you to have any issues though... and are plainly listed on the errata page.

I've been to makershed and amazon as well to give this book 5 stars... best electronics book I've ever read! Highly, highly recommended.

My ONLY complaint is finding the components I needed for the various experiments meant shopping at several different websites, sometimes just to get a couple components that I couldn't find elsewhere. I've spoken with the folks at Makershed and they informed me that by the end of February, the Companion Kits for the book will be available... therefore eliminating the hassle of looking up and ordering components yourself!