Introduction
Electronics changed the world during the 20th century, from radios, telephones and cinema to modern computing and the so-called Information Age. This revolution may turn out to be as important as the Industrial Revolution. The Internet was recently voted the greatest invention of all time – and yet it’s not even 25 years old. Each new electronic gadget is adopted quicker than the last (you may be reading this book on an e-reader or tablet computer) and mobile phones now outnumber people on the planet.
Yet despite using electronics every day, many people have virtually no understanding of what’s going on under their thumbs and behind those screens; the process may just as well be magic to them. Fortunately, you don’t have to understand completely the inner workings of every component, even if you want to design an amazing new electronic gizmo.
This book is for people who’ve always been fascinated by electronics but didn’t make a career out of it. In these pages, you find clear and concise explanations of the most important concepts that form the basis of all electronic devices, such as the nature of electricity (if you think you know what it is, you’re kidding yourself); the difference between voltage, amperage and wattage; how basic components such as resistors, capacitors, diodes and transistors work; and how you can use some super-complex components such as integrated circuits to realise your own dream project.
You not only gain an appreciation of the electronic devices that are part of everyday life, but also discover how to build simple circuits that impress your friends, are great fun and may even be the prototype for the invention that makes your fortune!
About This Book
Electronics All-in-One For Dummies is a practical reference containing the most important topics you need to know when you dabble in building your own electronic circuits. It’s a big book made up of eight smaller ones, which we call minibooks. Each of these minibooks covers the basics of one key topic for working with electronics, such as circuit-building techniques, how electronic components work or using integrated circuits.
Throughout these minibooks, we include dozens of simple, practical projects which you can build to demonstrate the operation of typical circuits. For example, in the chapter on transistors (Book II, Chapter 6), you find several simple projects that demonstrate common uses for transistors, such as driving an LED, inverting an input and creating an oscillator.
Reading about electronics circuits is one thing, but to understand how a circuit works, you need to build it and see it in operation. Most of the projects are simple enough that you can build them in 20–30 minutes, assuming you have the parts on hand.
This book doesn’t pretend to be a comprehensive reference for every detail on every possible topic related to electronics. Instead, it shows you how to get up and running quickly so that you have more time to do the things you really want to do. Designed using the easy-to-follow For Dummies format, this book helps you get the information you need without labouring to find it.
To make its use as easy as possible, we design this book with multiple access points to help you find what you want. At the beginning of the book is a detailed table of contents that covers the entire book. Plus, each minibook begins with a minitable of contents that shows you at a mini-glance what chapters are included in that minibook. Useful running heads appear at the top of each page to point out the topic we discuss on that page, and handy thumb-tabs run down the side of the pages to help you find each minibook quickly. At the back, a comprehensive index lets you find information anywhere in the entire book.
This book isn’t the kind you pick up and read from start to finish, as if it were a novel. If we see you reading it like this at the beach, we’ll kick sand in your face. Beaches are for reading romance novels or murder mysteries, not electronics books. Although you can read this book straight through from start to finish, it’s designed for you to pick up, open to just about any page and start reading.
You don’t have to memorise anything in this book. It’s a ‘need-to-know’ book: you pick it up when you need to know something. Want a reminder on how to calculate the correct load resistor for an LED circuit? Pick up the book. Can’t remember the pinouts for a 555 timer IC? Pick up the book. After you find what you need, put the book down and get on with your life.
Foolish Assumptions
This book assumes that you’re curious about electronics, but you really don’t know much, if anything, about its inner workings. You chose this book, rather than a book consisting exclusively of recipes for electronic circuits, and therefore we assume that you want to discover more about how parts such as resistors, capacitors and transistors actually work.
You don’t need to be well-versed in physics or mathematics to benefit from reading this book, although a little bit of school algebra is helpful (but we do our best to refresh that possibly painful memory).
We assume you may want to jump around this book a bit, diving deep into a topic or two that holds special interest for you, and possibly skimming through other topics. For this reason, we provide loads of chapter cross-references to point you to information that can fill in any gaps or refresh your memory on a topic.
Staying Safe
Most of the electronic circuits we describe in this book are perfectly safe: they run from common AAA or 9 V batteries and therefore don’t work with voltages large enough to hurt you.
Occasionally, however, you come across circuits that work with higher voltages, which can be dangerous. You need to consider any project involving mains voltage (that you plug into an electrical outlet) as potentially dangerous and handle it with the utmost care. In addition, even battery-powered circuits that use large capacitors can build up charges that can deliver a potentially painful shock.
When you work with electronics, you also encounter dangers other than those posed by electricity. Soldering irons are hot and can burn you. Wire cutters are sharp and can cut you. Plus, plenty of the small parts you use can fall on the floor and find themselves in the mouths of children or pets.
Safety is such an important topic that we devote a whole chapter to it. We strongly urge you to read Book I, Chapter 4 before you build anything.
Icons Used in This Book
Like all For Dummies books, this one is chock-full of helpful icons that draw your attention to items of particular importance. You find the following icons throughout this book.
Pay special attention to this icon; it lets you know that a particularly useful fact is at hand.
We can’t recall what we use this icon for, sorry. Oh, yes, important things to note and bear in mind!
Hold it – overly technical material is just around the corner. We use this icon for those paragraphs that go into greater depth, down into explaining how something works under the bonnet. Although enlightening, if these paragraphs go deeper than you want to know, just move on. You can also see this icon as a reminder not to get bogged down in details and instead focus on the larger point.
Danger, danger! This icon highlights information that may help you avert damage to your circuits or even personal disaster. Definitely pay attention to these warning icons, because they let you know about potential safety hazards.
Beyond the Book
As you walk your journey of discovery into the world of electronics, you can augment what you read here by checking out some of the access-anywhere extra goodies that we’ve hosted for you online.
You can find the book's e-cheat sheet online, at www.dummies.com/cheatsheet/electronicsaiouk. The at-a-glance, essential info that we serve up in this cheat sheet can be very handy sources of reference when printed out and pinned up near your workspace.
Additionally, you can also find a variety of great bonus content online, at www.dummies.com/extras/electronicsaiouk.
Where to Go from Here
This book works like a reference source. To discover the basics of electronics, peruse Book I. If you have a topic in mind that you want to find out about, look for it in the table of contents (which is detailed enough to find most topics) or turn to the index, where you can find even more detail.
The book is loaded with information and you can stay swimming in the shallow end or dive as deep as you desire. If you want to take a brief dip into a topic, you’re more than welcome. If you want to know the big picture on digital electronics, for instance, read Book VI, Chapter 1. If you want to learn about logic gates, read Chapter 2 in Book VI. Or if you want to focus in on XOR gates, use the index to find the specific section in Book VI, Chapter 2.
Whatever your needs, with this book in hand you’re ready to immerse yourself in the exciting hobby of electronics. Browse through the table of contents and decide where you want to start. Be bold! Be courageous! Be adventurous! Be careful! But above all, have fun!