Introduction 1 About This Book 2 Foolish Assumptions 4 Icons Used in This Book 5 Beyond the Book 5 Where to Go from Here 5 Book 1: Getting Started In Electronics 7 Chapter 1: Welcome to Electronics 9 What Is Electricity? 10 But Really, What Is Electricity? 12 What Is Electronics? 14 What Can You Do with Electronics? 16 Making noise 16 Making light 17 Transmitting to the world 17 Computing 17 Looking inside Electronic Devices 18 Chapter 2: Understanding Electricity 21 Pondering the Wonder of Electricity 22 Looking for Electricity 23 Peering Inside Atoms 24 Examining the Elements 25 Minding Your Charges 26 Conductors and Insulators 27 Understanding Current 28 Understanding Voltage 29 Comparing Direct and Alternating Current 32 Understanding Power 34 Chapter 3: Creating Your Mad-Scientist Lab 37 Setting Up Your Mad-Scientist Lab 38 Equipping Your Mad-Scientist Lab 40 Basic hand tools 41 Magnifying glasses 43 Third hands and hobby vises 44 Soldering iron 46 Multimeter 47 Solderless breadboard 48 Wire 49 Batteries 51 Other things to stock up on 52 Stocking up on Basic Electronic Components 53 Resistors 54 Capacitors 55 Diodes 55 Light-emitting diodes 56 Transistors 56 Integrated circuits 58 One Last Thing 59 Chapter 4: Staying Safe 61 Facing the Realities of Electrical Dangers 62 Household electrical current can kill you! 62 Even relatively small voltages can hurt you 64 Sometimes voltage hides in unexpected places 64 Other Ways to Stay Safe 66 Keeping Safety Equipment on Hand 68 Protecting Your Stuff from Static Discharges 69 Chapter 5: Reading Schematic Diagrams 71 Introducing a Simple Schematic Diagram 72 Laying Out a Circuit 73 To Connect or Not to Connect 74 Looking at Commonly Used Symbols 75 Simplifying Ground and Power Connections 77 Labeling Components in a Schematic Diagram 80 Representing Integrated Circuits in a Schematic Diagram 82 Chapter 6: Building Projects 85 Looking at the Process of Building an Electronic Project 86 Envisioning Your Project 87 Designing Your Circuit 89 Prototyping Your Circuit on a Solderless Breadboard 94 Understanding how solderless breadboards work 95 Laying out your circuit 96 Assembling the coin-toss circuit on a solderless breadboard 98 What if it doesn''t work? 104 Constructing Your Circuit on a Printed Circuit Board (PCB) 105 Understanding how printed circuit boards work 105 Using a preprinted PCB 106 Building the coin-toss circuit on a PCB 108 Finding an Enclosure for Your Circuit 113 Working with a project box 115 Mounting the coin-toss circuit in a box 116 Chapter 7: The Secrets of Successful Soldering 123 Understanding How Solder Works 123 Procuring What You Need to Solder 124 Buying a soldering iron 125 Stocking up on solder 126 Other goodies you need 127 Preparing to Solder 128 Soldering a Solid Solder Joint 129 Checking Your Work 132 Desoldering 133 Chapter 8: Measuring Circuits with a Multimeter 135 Looking at Multimeters 135 What a Multimeter Measures 138 Ammeter 138 Voltmeter 139 Ohmmeter 141 Other measurements 141 Schematic symbols for meter functions 141 Using Your Multimeter 142 Measuring current 144 Measuring voltage 146 Measuring resistance 147 Chapter 9: Catching Waves with an Oscilloscope 149 Understanding Oscilloscopes 150 Examining Waveforms 152 Calibrating an Oscilloscope 155 Displaying Signals 157 Book 2: Working With Basic Electronic Components 161 Chapter 1: Working with Basic Circuits 163 What Is a Circuit? 164 Using Batteries 166 Building a Lamp Circuit 168 Project 1: A Simple Lamp Circuit 169 Parts 169 Steps 170 Working with Switches 171 The many ways to throw the switch 171 Making connections with poles and throws 172 Building a Switched Lamp Circuit 175 Project 2: A Lamp Controlled by a Switch 176 Parts 177 Steps 177 Understand Series and Parallel Circuits 178 Building a Series Lamp Circuit 180 Project 3: A Series Lamp Circuit 180 Parts 181 Steps 182 Building a Parallel Lamp Circuit 182 Project 4: A Parallel Lamp Circuit 183 Parts 184 Steps 184 Using Switches in Series and Parallel 185 Building a Series Switch Circuit 186 Project 5: A Series Switch Circuit 187 Parts 188 Steps 188 Building a Parallel Switch Circuit 189 Project 6: A Parallel Switch Circuit 190 Parts 191 Steps 191 Switching between Two Lamps 192 Project 7: Controlling Two Lamps with One Switch 193 Parts 194 Steps 194 Building a Three-Way Lamp Switch 195 Project 8: A Three-Way Light Switch 197 Parts 197 Steps 198 Reversing Polarity 198 Project 9: A Polarity-Reversing Circuit 199 Parts 200 Steps 200 Chapter 2: Working with Resistors 203 What Is Resistance? 204 Measuring Resistance 204 Looking at Ohm''s Law 206 Introducing Resistors 208 Reading Resistor Color Codes 209 Reading a resistor''s value 210 Understanding resistor tolerance 213 Understanding Resistor Power Ratings 214 Limiting Current with a Resistor 215 Project 10: Using a Current-Limiting Resistor 215 Parts 216 Steps 216 Combining Resistors 217 Combining resistors in series 218 Combining resistors in parallel 218 Mixing series and parallel resistors 221 Combining resistors in series and parallel 221 Project 11: Resistors in Series and Parallel 222 Parts 222 Steps 223 Dividing Voltage 225 Dividing Voltage with Resistors 226 Project 12: A Voltage Divider Circuit 227 Parts 227 Steps 228 Varying Resistance with a Potentiometer 229 Chapter 3: Working with Capacitors 233 What Is a Capacitor? 233 Counting Capacitance 236 Reading Capacitor Values 238 The Many Sizes and Shapes of Capacitors 240 Calculating Time Constants for Resistor/Capacitor Networks 243 Combining Capacitors 245 Combining capacitors in parallel 245 Connecting capacitors in series 246 Putting Capacitors to Work 247 Charging and Discharging a Capacitor 248 Project 13: Charging and Discharging a Capacitor 249 Parts 250 Steps 250 Blocking DC while Passing AC 252 Project 14: Blocking Direct Current 254 Parts 255 Steps 255 Chapter 4: Working with Inductors 257 What Is Magnetism? 258 The north and south of magnetism 259 Pondering permanent magnets 260 Examining Electromagnets 260 Inducing Current 261 Inductance and the art of resisting change 262 Regarding henry 264 Calculating RL Time Constants 265 Calculating Inductive Reactance 266 Combining Inductors 267 Putting Inductors to Work 268 Chapter 5: Working with Diodes and LEDs 269 What Is a Semiconductor? 270 Doping: It''s not just for athletes 272 Understanding p-n junctions 274 Introducing Diodes 275 The Many Types of Diodes 277 Rectifier diodes 277 Signal diodes 278 Zener diodes 280 Using a Diode to Block Reverse Polarity 280 Project 15: Blocking Reverse Polarity 281 Parts 282 Steps 282 Putting Rectifiers to Work 283 Building Rectifier Circuits 285 Project 16: Rectifier Circuits 286 Parts 287 Steps 287 Introducing Light Emitting Diodes 288 Using LEDs to Detect Polarity 291 Project 17: An LED Polarity Detector 291 Parts 292 Steps 292 Chapter 6: Working with Transistors 295 What''s the Big Deal about Transistors? 296 Why were transistors invented? 296 Looking inside a transistor 298 Examining transistor specifications 300 Amplifying with a Transistor 302 Using a Transistor as a Switch 306 An LED Driver Circuit 308 Project 18: A Transistor LED Driver 309 Parts 310 Steps 311 Looking at a Simple NOT Gate Circuit 312 Building a NOT Gate 313 Project 19: A NOT Gate 313 Parts 315 Steps 315 Oscillating with a Transistor 317 Building an LED Flasher 319 Project 20: An LED Flasher 320 Parts 322 Steps 322 Wrapping Up Our Exploration of Discrete Components 324 Book 3: Working With Integrated Circuits 325 Chapter 1: Introducing Integrated Circuits 327 What Exactly Is an Integrated Circuit? 328 Looking at How Integrated Circuits Are Made 329 Integrated Circuit Packages 330 Using ICs in Schematic Diagrams 333 Powering ICs 334 Avoiding Static and Heat Damage 335 Reading IC Data Sheets 336 Popular Integrated Circuits 337 555 Timer 337 741 and LM324 Op-Amp 338 78xx Voltage Regulator 338 74xx Logic Family 338 Chapter 2: The Fabulous 555 Timer Chip 339