Make: More Electronics: Journey Deep Into the World of Logic Chips, Amplifiers, Sensors, and Randomicity

Book Preface

This book picks up where my previous introductory guide, Make: Electronics, left off. Here you will find topics that I did not explore in detail before, and other topics that were not covered at all because I lacked sufficient space. You will also find that I go a little bit further into technicalities, to enable a deeper understanding of the concepts. At the same time, I have tried to make “Learning by Discovery” as much fun as possible.

A few of the ideas here have been discussed previously in Make magazine, in very different forms. I always enjoy writing my regular column for Make, but the magazine format imposes strict limits on the wordage and the number of illustrations. I can provide much more comprehensive coverage in this book.

I have chosen not to deal with microcontrollers in much depth, because explaining their setup and programming language(s) in sufficient detail would require too much space. Other books already explain the various microcontroller chip families. I will suggest ways in which you can rebuild or simplify the projects here by using a microcontroller, but I will leave you to pursue this further on your own.

What You Need

Prior knowledge
You need a basic understanding of the topics that I covered in the previous book. These include voltage, current, resistance, and Ohm’s law; capacitors, switches, transistors, and timers; soldering and breadboarding; and a beginner’s knowledge of logic gates. Of course, you can also learn these topics from other introductory guides. Generally I assume that you have read Make: Electronics or a similar book, and you have a general memory of it, although you may have forgotten some specifics. Therefore I will include a few quick reminders without repeating the general principles to any significant extent.
Tools
I’m assuming you already own the following equipment, all of which was described in Make:
Electronics:
Multimeter
24-gauge multicolored hookup wire (25 feet of each color, in at least four colors)
Wire strippers
Pliers
Soldering iron and solder
Breadboard (the preferred type is described in the next section of the book.)
9V battery, or an AC adapter (with a DC output) that can deliver between 9VDC and 12VDC at
1A
Components
I have listed the components that you will need to build the projects. See Appendix B. That section also recommends sources for mail-order.
Datasheets
I discussed datasheets in Make: Electronics, but I can’t overemphasize how important they are. Please try to make a habit of checking them before you use a component that you haven’t encountered before.
If you use any general search engine to find a part number, most likely you’ll see half a dozen sites offering to show you the datasheet. These sites are organized for their profit, not for your convenience. You will probably end up clicking repeatedly to see each individual page of the datasheet, because the site owner wants to show you as many ads as possible.