Hands-On Electronics: A Practical Introduction to Analog and Digital Circuits 1st Edition

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 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.