# Good beginners text/manual on circuit-building?



## Spooky Dave (May 12, 2011)

Hi all,

I find myself leaning more and more toward wanting to do cool stuff with electronics. I can do a fair amount with regard to wiring up LED's or even basic circuits (like triggering a PICAXE chip), but I really want to learn much more.

I'm just not experienced enough with circuitry.

For example, I bought all the parts to the Scary Terry audio circuit board, then looked at the schematic and couldn't figure it out. I can follow a very basic circuit, but that one is Greek to me.

What's a good textbook or manual out there to give me a good start to finish education on how to build circuits, how to read schematics, all that jazz? 

I realize I can just buy the audio board, and yes, that certainly saves time. But I want to be able to build my own, to understand it, so I can then take that understanding to other projects. The geeky side of haunting really sounds enticing to me.

Only trouble is, I have such limited background with anything like this. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks, guys and gals!

Dave


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## pshort (May 6, 2008)

Here is an on-line MIT lecture course on this topic. Not sure how helpful this will be for you...

http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electric...s-and-electronics-spring-2007/video-lectures/


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## Otaku (Dec 3, 2004)

Here's a good place to learn about LM555 timing circuits:
http://home.cogeco.ca/~rpaisley4/LM555.html

This site will give you some insight on many types of circuits. Very helpful when starting to use transistors:
http://www.kpsec.freeuk.com/

This place gets a bit more technical, but there's a lot of good info in the forums. No charge to join (and no spam):
http://www.allaboutcircuits.com/

If you Google "electronics forums", you'll find a ton of places that discuss circuits and how to build them.


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## JeffHaas (Sep 7, 2010)

A good book that will give you a pretty rounded background is_ Make: Electronics_.

A good description and a PDF sample is available on Make's website: http://www.makershed.com/product_p/9780596153748.htm


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## Spooky Dave (May 12, 2011)

Hey, thanks everybody. I'll definitely check out those sources. Appreciate it!


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## hpropman (Jul 27, 2008)

This is the best beginners book that I have ever read - It will give you a solid foundation for the more advanced stuff. All of his notebooks are great as well.

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3433933

AS for building the sound board or any other complicated circuit, I realize it is cool to want to build it yourself and you should do it at least once. The amount of time it will take you to build it and the cost of the parts may not be that much of a difference. you might be better off starting with an already etched PC board for your project. Although there is not one available (to my knowledge) for the scary terry board there are plenty of people who sell pre-made boards for projects and controllers and they are just as much fun to build. Please do not get me wrong I do not want to dissuade you from making your own scary terry board but as you said it is a complicated circuit and I would hate to see spend hours building it only to have it not work because you may have missed something and get frustrated and give it up. This is a fun Hobby but do not get too ambitious too quickly is what I am trying to say.


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## JeffHaas (Sep 7, 2010)

D'oh! I had a brain freeze, of course you should get Forrest Mims' book. Easily available at any Radio Shack.


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## dionicia (Aug 4, 2007)

This is good information thats going to help a lot of haunters. Thanks for posting this.


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## HomeyDaClown (Oct 3, 2009)

Mims books are the best but you should also have a good supply of Magic Blue Smoke to replace any you should lose in your ventures.

http://www.sparkfun.com/products/10622

Smoke testing is an art when it comes to electronics design and building.
We should all do our part to preserve the precious Blue Smoke that's left.


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## hedg12 (Jul 6, 2008)

HomeyDaClown said:


> Mims books are the best but you should also have a good supply of Magic Blue Smoke to replace any you should lose in your ventures.
> 
> http://www.sparkfun.com/products/10622
> 
> ...


...too bad for me that they didn't sell it in bulk - I'm thinking maybe a 55 gallon drum full would have been a good start...


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## halstaff (Nov 18, 2009)

HomeyDaClown said:


> Mims books are the best but you should also have a good supply of Magic Blue Smoke to replace any you should lose in your ventures.
> 
> http://www.sparkfun.com/products/10622
> 
> ...


Sad to say that the Magic Blue Smoke has all been sold and the product retired. Too bad as mine is all gone.


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## hpropman (Jul 27, 2008)

HomeyDaClown said:


> Mims books are the best but you should also have a good supply of Magic Blue Smoke to replace any you should lose in your ventures.
> 
> http://www.sparkfun.com/products/10622
> 
> ...


LOL too funny - "Ben! Ben! 150amps through that small wire can anyone say toaster" -


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## Spooky Dave (May 12, 2011)

Now I'm tempted to intentionally fry some electronics just so I can be part of the blue smoke club. I once blasted an LED in half by omitting the resistor, and the top half of the LED flew a few feet. But I didn't see any blue smoke. Either way, Homey, I agree it's good to have some on hand for future efforts!


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## hpropman (Jul 27, 2008)

Just remember not to touch the chip after it lets out the blue smoke - there is a Picaxe 08M out there somewhere with my fingerprint permanently etched to its surface. allow it to cool down before you do anything with it.


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## JeffHaas (Sep 7, 2010)

So far the most expensive part I've fried is worth $2.50 (now I read the spec sheets more closely!) So I'm not doing too bad.


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## Otaku (Dec 3, 2004)

My best effort came from reversing the polarity on a 556 timer IC. It instantly blew a nice crater in the top of the chip.


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## HomeyDaClown (Oct 3, 2009)

Blue Smoke is very hard to see, especially when you're working on Halloween props. Like a poltergeist, it appears, does it's damage and dissappears very quickly leaving behind a faint unmistakable odor.

It works beyond the speed of light and can sneak out without any notice.

And to think Adafruit is giving away badges for people that let it loose:


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## Restless Spirit (Oct 27, 2007)

HomeyDaClown said:


> Mims books are the best but you should also have a good supply of Magic Blue Smoke to replace any you should lose in your ventures.
> 
> http://www.sparkfun.com/products/10622
> 
> ...


Reminds me of an engineer I used to work with. He said his favorite programming command was the *EBRS* command. I said I've never heard of that command. He told me it meant "Emit Burned Resistor Smell"


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## JeffHaas (Sep 7, 2010)

Oh, and then there was the time when I was first learning all this stuff. I had eight LEDs hooked up to an EFX Prop-2...and in my excitement, forgot the resistors. I had demo code that would turn on the LEDs one after the other (you guys can see what's coming) and when I powered it on, I watched in surprise as the LEDs burned out and made a nice "Pop", one after the other, right down the row. I managed to stop it before they all went!


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## HomeyDaClown (Oct 3, 2009)

JeffHaas said:


> Oh, and then there was the time when I was first learning all this stuff. I had eight LEDs hooked up to an EFX Prop-2...and in my excitement, forgot the resistors. I had demo code that would turn on the LEDs one after the other (you guys can see what's coming) and when I powered it on, I watched in surprise as the LEDs burned out and made a nice "Pop", one after the other, right down the row. I managed to stop it before they all went!


That's called running in monostable mode or "One Shot"

I learned to be careful when I first started building electroncs
at age 9. My grandfather passed away and left me all his Radio Tv repair
business tools and parts includinge his soldering iron. Very much like this one:









It made a lot more than Blue Smoke appear....
I had burnt fingers.....good thing Surface Mount stuff wasn't around yet


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## hpropman (Jul 27, 2008)

Man I have not seen one of those in many years - Boy I am getting old


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## Spooky Dave (May 12, 2011)

Just for the record, while all the book/website suggestions are great (and thanks!), my favorite has been reading all the blue smoke war stories, hehe. Thanks again, all!


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