Hello,
I'm interested in learning about electronics and figure that Arduino would be a good tool as it can be used in a wide variety of projects of different difficulties. Can someone recommend a kit and/or a document to help me get started? Thanks!
http://www.earthshineelectronics.com/files/ASKManualRev5.pdf
too many kits out there, browse the book, find parts for your project at dipmicro.com or taydaelectronics.com
buy extras, be adventurous
If you don't mind reading olde fashioned books, I recommend this one:
It worked for me.
That is a GREAT BOOK!. I just went and looked in one of my libraries and I have a copy, I wonder how I missed it?
Anyone remember Donald Lancasters Cookbooks TTL Cmos and Linear??? There is where my education began. 40 years ago
Doc
Then ther was Skelbie's software guide and gourmet cook book, all about the 6800 processor.
I orderd it when I was a fresh prof, and my boss got a memo from the dean of faculty demanding to know why the Physics department was ordering cookery books.
Docedison:
That is a GREAT BOOK!. I just went and looked in one of my libraries and I have a copy, I wonder how I missed it?
Anyone remember Donald Lancasters Cookbooks TTL Cmos and Linear??? There is where my education began. 40 years agoDoc
I've read the TTL cookbook, it helped me figure out logic chips. He had a linear book too? I have to search that out.
Docedison:
That is a GREAT BOOK!. I just went and looked in one of my libraries and I have a copy, I wonder how I missed it?
Anyone remember Donald Lancasters Cookbooks TTL Cmos and Linear??? There is where my education began. 40 years agoDoc
I started studying digital ICs around 1971 with his earlier RTL cookbook and it really gave me a good foundation to grow on.
Lefty
retrolefty:
I started studying digital ICs around 1971 with his earlier RTL cookbook and it really gave me a good foundation to grow on.
Lefty
I just found a cheap old copy of this book on Amazon which I have bought. I am going to read or at least thoroughly scan it to see how things were done before TTL. I can only imagine. No wonder only the government and large companies could utilize computers prior to the microcomputer revolution (well, minicomputers for smaller businesses.)
JoeN:
retrolefty:
I started studying digital ICs around 1971 with his earlier RTL cookbook and it really gave me a good foundation to grow on.
LeftyI just found a cheap old copy of this book on Amazon which I have bought. I am going to read or at least thoroughly scan it to see how things were done before TTL. I can only imagine. No wonder only the government and large companies could utilize computers prior to the microcomputer revolution (well, minicomputers for smaller businesses.)
Yes, minicomputers were what I was working on as a field service engineer in the 70s. Even then they were using the 7400 series of ICs. However what was best about the RTL cookbook was that because there were only the very basic digital function available in that series, such as simple gates and flip-flops, Don showed how these basic functions would be wired together to make higher order functions like shift registers, counters, adders, multiplexers, etc. If one first started out with a TTL primer which already had MSI IC functions like registers and counters reduced to single devices, one might not quite understand how the very basic functions could be used to build the more complex higher order functions. I did run across some real equipment later working in a oil refinery that did use RTL and DTL devices which were utilized before the almost universal jump to TTL that the industry took.
Lefty
retrolefty:
Yes, minicomputers were what I was working on as a field service engineer in the 70s. Even then they were using the 7400 series of ICs. However what was best about the RTL cookbook was that because there were only the very basic digital function available in that series, such as simple gates and flip-flops, Don showed how these basic functions would be wired together to make higher order functions like shift registers, counters, adders, multiplexers, etc. If one first started out with a TTL primer which already had MSI IC functions like registers and counters reduced to single devices, one might not quite understand how the very basic functions could be used to build the more complex higher order functions. I did run across some real equipment later working in a oil refinery that did use RTL and DTL devices which were utilized before the almost universal jump to TTL that the industry took.Lefty
Amazon has it on the extremely cheap if anyone wants it. Now you have me even more interested in reading the book. If not for the actual technology implementation of RTL, then at least for the digital design aspect. Here is what it cost me:
Items Ordered
1 of: Resistor-Transistor Logic Cook Book [Paperback]
By: Don Lancaster
Condition: Used - Good
Sold by: betterworldbooks_
$0.22
Item(s) Subtotal: $0.22
Shipping & Handling: $3.99
I AM REMISS, I HAAVE FAILLLLED...
To mention the Engineers Notebooks sold and free originally from Radio Shack By Forrest H. Mims...
Those were REALLY Great too... As were ALL of the Tom and Jerry articles in Popular Electronics.
Ah! Muse, called Inspiration by any other name... Thy Font Springs Everlasting...
Doc
Edit, Typo's
Doc
Thanks for all the links and resources everyone! These are very helpful for me as well.
As were ALL of the Tom and Jerry articles in Popular Electronics.
Are those the two guys that in one story hid a loudspeaker inside a public mail box with wires so thin you couldn't see them strung back to their mic and amp, and talk to passing people? If so that was a good series, simple lessons but could be pretty inspiring to young beginners to electronics. 
Lefty