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[on:]

This might be a little off-topic.  Sorry about that.

I have not played with digital electronics for years, but yesterday I went to the local shop to pick up some parts for Arduino hacking.  I really like how so much of what we used to do with discrete parts can now be done in software.  However, classic techniques like serial-to-parallel shift registers and such are still handy.  I want my blinky lights!

Trouble is, like I said: out of practice.

I re-learn easily from books, so my usual technique is to grab a cookbook of some sort.

I remember Lancaster's "CMOS Cookbook" from the old days.  Is this still mostly relevant after all these years?  Still a recommendation? Any other recommendations for a "cookbook" style book from a CMOS circuit design POV?  Something aimed at the hobbyist is ok; honestly, I've forgotten the little I once knew.  I'm best now with an example circuit and some gentle reminders.  Must be my aging brain.

Thanks.

[Reply #1 on:]

I remember Lancaster's "CMOS Cookbook" from the old days.  Is this still mostly relevant after all these years?

I would say, probably not so much.  While it was a really good book for a long time, I think it's fallen behind the level of integration that is currently available and cheap.  A lot of the cookbooks were about building relatively complex circuits out of the small scale gates that were the jelly-beans of the time.  The 4000 series gates that are the focus of the book are long obsolete,  and of course there was very little about interfacing to microcontrollers.  While there may be some info in there about shift registers, you won't find the 74hx595 that is so popular for output expansion.  A lot of the more complex projects (I built a keyboard encoder based on circuits in that book!) should now have "use a microcontroller" as the answer.

I don't know of a replacement.

[Reply #2 on:]

Yeah, I figured a lot of the 4000-series refs would be obsolete.

Really, I need something a little less terse than the data sheets or application notes.  Though, I could get away with those if I had a reference that reminded me on the various shorthands they use in data sheets.

For example, a pin labelled "foobar" with a line over it.  I recall that we mean to say that this is triggered for the purposes of the function chart by taking it low.  Once I have that clear I can verify based on the chart and have some sort of idea what I'm doing.

(Note that I'm not really asking a specific question here, but suggesting the sorts of things I run into.)

I guess I can try and sort this out via Google.

[Reply #3 on:]

Some of that would be explained by the CMOS cookbook, but a lot of it is about "how to do clever things with the pervasive logic chips available at the time", that would be less applicable...  Let me take another look at my copy and see what the balance is like, instead of relying on memory.

Have you LOOKED at relevant datasheets?  There is a lot of variation in "quality" of datasheets, even for the same part numbers from different manufacturers.  For instance, it is my experience that Texas Instruments databooks for their microprocessors are REALLY AWFUL.  Atmel and Microchip are much better.  Some manufacturers give you the bare minimum specifications, and others walk you through how the chip really works, and how to use it in common applications.