Introduction
If you are reading this book, you might be a newcomer to electronics who wants to understand the basics so that you can create some interesting circuits. Or you may have already dabbled in the art of electronics and you want to learn some more. Either way, this book will be useful to anyone who is interested in learning about electronics, and it also aims to be a useful resource for electronic hobbyists of all ages and ability levels. Younger readers might find it useful to have an adult around to help them to get started; however, the circuit diagrams and detailed close-up photographs contained in each chapter make it really easy to follow and build the experiments.
The projects and experiments contained in each chapter use inexpensive, readily available electronic components that you can buy from local electronics stores and many electronic suppliers on the Internet. Also, you don’t need to be an expert at soldering to build these experiments, because no soldering is required! All the projects and experiments use breadboard, which creates a “plug-and-play” environment for you to build your electronic circuits.
What’s Inside the Book?
The book is split into five parts, and I recommend you read the first part, “Let’s Get Started,” before you build any of the experiments, because it explains some important concepts that you’ll need in order to work through the book. You might also find this part useful as a reference as you read through the book. It introduces the common equipment that you will need, along with the basics about electronic building blocks and the components that you will come across in each experimental part of the book.
The next four parts of the book are packed with experiments and real-world examples that help you understand how some of these devices work. In each part of the book, you will identify some of the electronic building blocks that go into each everyday device discussed.
What Does Each Chapter Contain?
Each experimental chapter starts by providing an introduction to the experiment and then includes the following sections:
• The Circuit Diagram The circuit diagram shows how each of the electronic components are connected together to produce the device in each experiment.
• How the Circuit Works This section describes the circuit diagram and explains how each part of the circuit works. This section is important to read, because it identifies the building blocks used to make the circuit and also helps you to learn how to read circuit diagrams, which are necessary for creating any type of circuitry.
• Things You’ll Need This section lists all of the electronic components and equipment that you’ll need to build the experiment.
• The Breadboard Layout Plenty of close-up photographs of the breadboard layout are included in each chapter, and some of these are also taken at different angles to give you a better perspective. You will use these photographs as a guide to building each electronic circuit.
• Time to Experiment! This is the fun part. It shows you how to get your experiment working.
• Summary The end of each experiment includes a summary of what you have learned in the chapter, and it also makes some suggestions about other uses for the circuit that you have built.
Experiment Difficulty
Some experiments are more difficult to build than others, so the complexity level of each experiment is indicated by the following symbols, shown next to the experiment heading in each chapter. Three different categories of experiments are included in the book:
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Beginner These experiments are really easy to build and should be easy to follow by any newcomer to electronics. These experiments also outline some important basic electronic principles. |
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Apprentice These experiments are slightly more complex to build than the beginner-level experiments. Younger readers may require some parental assistance when following these chapters. |
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Inventor These experiments are meant to be tackled by readers who are more experienced in electronics and have already built a number of the beginner- and apprentice-level experiments. |
A Note from the Author
I personally started experimenting with electronics when I was around six or seven years old and quickly became hooked. Even though I am over 40 years old now, I still love connecting a handful of components together and bringing them alive. You will soon see how this can be done easily and at very little cost. For me, electronics is an enjoyable and an inexpensive hobby, and I hope that you enjoy reading this book and use the knowledge within as a basis of inventing your own projects in the future. Understanding electronics can be the underpinning of many different careers in engineering, science, and business entrepreneurship. And, who knows, if you get the electronics bug, you could be the next Steve Jobs or Steve Wozniak of the future!
Each project and experiment has been extensively tested as part of writing this book; however, the author cannot guarantee the long-term performance, or accept legal responsibility for the results of building them. The reader builds the projects and experiments outlined in this book at his or her own risk.
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