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This is advice for hobbyists. Guys who want to tinker, wire their home, and fix their car, and maybe fix that broken radio. I have found most people are rusty

This is advice for hobbyists. Guys who want to tinker, wire their home, and fix their car, and maybe fix that broken radio. I have found most people are rusty when it comes to Electronics, and electricity. The Art of Electronics, and it's lab, is very long. I was shocked when I heard Harvard Students completed it in 1 semester. It's recommended here a lot though. There's nothing wrong with it other than being written years ago. I don't like the part on computers, and solid state electronics. (I'm too lazy to pull out my copy, but would love to know how it's possible by a ex student. Maybe it's a two semester course? It's in the foreword to anyone interested.) If you just want a decent understanding of electricity, I like the "Make" publications. Throw in the Dummies whatever on Electronics. The US navy also has a decent books too. They are free. If wiring a house/building pick up a copy of Ugly's, and Dewalt Electrical code reference. Make sure you know how a 3 way switch works before putting the books down. For some reason a three way switch is Greek to a lot of people. If you are really suppose to know this stuff, but feel like a fraud, pick up Electricial Engineering 101 Everything you should have learned in school but didn't. I don't have a recommendation for working on automobiles though. Even though the basics of electronics will get you through most problems you will encounter when working on your vechicle, I am still looking for an in-depth manual. Something that goes deep into the computers of our vechicles. The books recommended to mechanics just skim over a lot of the complicated stuff. There's a need for an in-depth book on electric vehicles. I'm always looking for anything Tesla, but it's all priority? Or, very high priced information. Elon if you ever read this; we love, and respect you. Us shade tree mechanics are salivating over your engineer's repair info. There are a lot of hot rod types that want to get your salvaged vechices back on the road. And no you don't inside info to get a crashed Tesla up and running, but it would be nice. We might remember the favor when there's more competition? It's all about manipulating OHM's law. Again--it's all about OHM's law for the theory. Don't make it more complicated than needed. Learning about resistors, caps, potentiometers, etc. is pretty basic. Oh yea, a nice DVOM, like Fluke 88, and a power source, will make your life easier. You don't need a Fluke 88 with all the attachments. I got one in Reno for $75.00, and just love the quality of the instrument. I truly feel if a guy likes their tooling it just makes solving a problem less of a hassle.

buescher 4y ago
The Art of Electronics was originally written for science (physics) students who intend to become experimentalists. Experimentalists traditionally build their own instruments - i.e. if you can just buy something to do a measurement, why should you get funding? You should be advancing the state of the art. AoE is at the level of "you might have to do just about anything with an op amp that's possible with an op amp, but you won't be designing op amps". Yeah, that's a little hardcore for hobbyists, but just about everything you might need is in there somewhere, or at least you'll learn what the thing you need is called.
auxym 4y ago
The problem with 3-way switches is that there's (at least) 8 ways they can be wired: https://www.easy-do-it-yourself-home-improvements.com/3-way-switch-wiring-diagram.html https://www.easy-do-it-yourself-home-improvements.com/3-way-... And more generally, the difficult part about building electricity is code. Codebooks are absolutely huge, difficult to read, and can vary by locality (not just by country or state but actually at the municipal level). I just don't have it in me to try and memorize a huge code book just so I can do a bit of wiring around the house (already need to memorize a bunch of standards in my day job as a mechanical engineer).
- donthellbanme 4y ago
  They are a pain. The NEC is a huge mess. To those doing residential wiring, pull those wires at least 6" from the receptacles. Fasten within 6". Record abusive Building Inspectors.
- deepspace 4y ago
  The way 3-way switch wiring is presented in codebooks and electricians' manuals is 'weird' in a way that makes it very hard (for me) to understand. I am a qualified electronics engineer and I would much rather analyze some obscure analog circuit than try to understand someone's 3-way switch diagram.

buescher 4y ago

The Art of Electronics was originally written for science (physics) students who intend to become experimentalists. Experimentalists traditionally build their own instruments - i.e. if you can just buy something to do a measurement, why should you get funding? You should be advancing the state of the art. AoE is at the level of "you might have to do just about anything with an op amp that's possible with an op amp, but you won't be designing op amps". Yeah, that's a little hardcore for hobbyists, but just about everything you might need is in there somewhere, or at least you'll learn what the thing you need is called.

auxym 4y ago

The problem with 3-way switches is that there's (at least) 8 ways they can be wired: https://www.easy-do-it-yourself-home-improvements.com/3-way-switch-wiring-diagram.html https://www.easy-do-it-yourself-home-improvements.com/3-way-... And more generally, the difficult part about building electricity is code. Codebooks are absolutely huge, difficult to read, and can vary by locality (not just by country or state but actually at the municipal level). I just don't have it in me to try and memorize a huge code book just so I can do a bit of wiring around the house (already need to memorize a bunch of standards in my day job as a mechanical engineer).

donthellbanme 4y ago
They are a pain. The NEC is a huge mess. To those doing residential wiring, pull those wires at least 6" from the receptacles. Fasten within 6". Record abusive Building Inspectors.
deepspace 4y ago
The way 3-way switch wiring is presented in codebooks and electricians' manuals is 'weird' in a way that makes it very hard (for me) to understand. I am a qualified electronics engineer and I would much rather analyze some obscure analog circuit than try to understand someone's 3-way switch diagram.