Electronics reference book?

[John Doe 2Participant @johndoe2]

I've searched the forum and am not sure whether to put this here or in the books forum. Mods, please move this if you want.

Wondering if any can advise a good electronics reference book?

I have the classic Horowitz and Hill manual, but it doesn't cover everything.

I have an electronics background so I don't need the basics, but would like a medium to advanced reference manual I can use for circuit design work, and as a memory jogger.

Yes, I can google stuff but it's nice to have an actual book.

Thanks.

[John Doe 2Participant @johndoe2]

[Robert Atkinson 2Participant @robertatkinson2]

Hmm,

Not much that H&H don't cover in the Art. Unless looking at specfic areas I can't think of anything better.

Robert G8RPI.

[Anonymous]

There are a myriad of circuit books at the amateur level, but no good ones. Professional level books tend to be highly mathematical and not very practical. i would agree with RA that H&H is about the only book at a professional reference level. It is biased towards analogue electronics and is weak on digital and power. There is a supplement – The X Chapters – which goes into significantly more detail on a range of (mostly analogue) topics.

There are also a range of books published by Butterworth and Heinemann, some in association with EDN, on analogue design, troubleshooting and design philosophy. I have no idea if they are still in print. I'm not going to type out all the information unless someone is specifically interested. Datasheets and apps notes can be useful and in the past design companions were published by some semiconductor manufacturers. But they have long been superceded by the internet.

To an extent I think John is looking for the Holy Grail; there isn't one book that can cover all topics. In my experience electronics design is partly a mix of ideas gleaned from multiple sources but mostly the designer being clear in his own mind as to what he wants and creating his own design, not copying another. Each designer has his own signature style and method of designing.

Andrew

[Clive FosterParticipant @clivefoster55965]

Agree with Andrew that there doesn't seem to be anything reasonably modern and reasonably comprehensive out there. I'm not convinced by H & H as a pure reference book, excellent companion for a self paced home study tho' where home study is defined as "picking up things I forgot last century".

The Electronics Handbook by J.Whiticater was updated in 2005 so might not be showing its age quite so much. How useful it is I know not. Picked up the earlier edition for beer money ages ago but have never used it. Modern Electronics Circuits by Marcus came with it which is most definately out of date.

These folk sell The Electronics Handbook at a heart attack level price

**LINK**

https://www.routledge.com/The-Electronics-Handbook/Whitaker/p/book/9780849318894

seem to have links to other potential candidates. Albeit of more limited scope.

Gotta admit that I tend to use Scribd and the other read online, or dodgy download sites as a filter when looking for this sort of heavy reading. Naughty or not, if I'm gonna be spending the thick end of £100 or more on a book I need to be darn sure it covers what I want in a way that suits me. When I find what I want I buy but my days of paying way too much for about 5 useful pages on the strength of a back cover blurb are long gone.

The interlibrary loan system seems to have pretty much died round my way.

Clive

[Martin KyteParticipant @martinkyte99762]

Our electronics workshop used to keep a fairly broad reference library but over the years we have binned most of it. Everything is available online these days. I don't remember the last time I had occasion to use a physical book. The books we retained were specialist subjects like High Voltage techniques etc. Interestingly the really old transistor designers handbooks survive, just occasionally you want to lift an odd cct. The chip manufacturers produce an awfull lot of helpfull information, don't just focus on Data Sheets Application notes are real mines of ideas.

regards Martin

[Joseph Noci 1Participant @josephnoci1]

"electronics' is far too broad to cover in any single book or shelf of books. It may help if you could categorise your interest somewhat – Radio/RF, Audio, Digital, analogue and analogue signal processing/conditioning, power electronics ( motor control) ,etc..

Any book trying addressing even some of those categories has to be rather general at best.

What are you main interests?

[Anonymous]

Posted by Clive Foster on 22/09/2022 15:42:00:

…The Electronics Handbook at a heart attack level price

Good grief, I had to sit down after looking! Interesting that it is a collection of articles by different authors. Seems quite common with professional level books. The book certainly covers a wide range of topics. I expect that many topics will be a summary of the subject matter; useful, but probably not what the OP is looking for. I won't be buying the book!

Andrew

[JellyParticipant @jelly]

Posted by Andrew Johnston on 23/09/2022 11:26:26:

Posted by Clive Foster on 22/09/2022 15:42:00:

…The Electronics Handbook at a heart attack level price

Good grief, I had to sit down after looking! Interesting that it is a collection of articles by different authors. Seems quite common with professional level books. The book certainly covers a wide range of topics. I expect that many topics will be a summary of the subject matter; useful, but probably not what the OP is looking for. I won't be buying the book!

Andrew

It doesn't seem all that unreasonable for what it is, that price about what you'd pay for a similarly compendious volume in another sub-field of engineering like Perry's Chemical Engineer's Handbook (£236) or Machinery's Handbook (£146), and it's much cheaper than Lees' Loss Prevention (£407).

Serious reference books and textbooks have got very expensive in the last decade; I don't even think there's a serious expectation from publishers of individuals buying many of these books anymore, it's assumed that they will be bought by "institutional" purchasers with deep pockets (as many of my reference books were).

​

On the articles front, Perry's and Machinery's Handbook are both written that way too. If you read the front-matter each chapter has its own editor, editorial board and contributor list.

I guess many hands make light work when you're trying to cover a field which is both broad and deep at the same time.

[Clive FosterParticipant @clivefoster55965]

Posted by Jelly on 23/09/2022 12:14:24:

It doesn't seem all that unreasonable for what it is, that price about what you'd pay for a similarly compendious volume in another sub-field of engineering like Perry's Chemical Engineer's Handbook (£236) or Machinery's Handbook (£146), and it's much cheaper than Lees' Loss Prevention (£407).

Serious reference books and textbooks have got very expensive in the last decade; I don't even think there's a serious expectation from publishers of individuals buying many of these books anymore, it's assumed that they will be bought by "institutional" purchasers with deep pockets (as many of my reference books were).

Actually in real terms; Mars bars, how many weeks wages et al; I suspect these tomes may have gotten cheaper over the years. Nearest I got to buying new similar for me was "Handbook of Optics" at an exhibition where all 7 volumes were offered to me for £50 (I think) cash 'cos the salesman "didn't want to take them back with him" when the official price was perhaps £300 – £350. Around a weeks money back then. Always regretted not taking up the offer as having my own set rather than levering the relevant volume out of the departmental copy holder would have made life much easier back then. Not to mention being of considerable use when I moved on.

Machinery's Handbook is interesting as many firms operated a departmental or drawing office use policy with it safely secured from the great unwashed. At RARDE / DERA / DRA the thing was drawing office only, even the establishment library didn't have a copy. Policy forbade scientist/engineers like me from even seeing it. Nuclear level explosion when a drawing office wonk changed one of my designs 'cos it didn't meet spec quoting Machinery's Handbook as justification only to have me pull out my personal copy to prove him wrong! Heads of department level discussions resulted in me being told to take it home and never refer to it again. A directive I ignored.

In contrast a late friend was given a copy as a passing out gift after completing his toolmakers apprentice training at CVA.

Multiple authors is the only way to produce such things with a reasonable expectation of informational rigor.

I always found the main use for such books was either to have details of standard practice in a place where I could find them or or to provide basic information when going off-piste from my usual work. When going off-piste they rarely tell you what you want to know but generally are a great assistance in figuring out what you actually need to find out. Unknown unknowns sort of thing.

All though the stuff is theoretically on the internet its vastly fragmented. Anything more than the common basic to moderate level stuff needs serious google-fu to find and, once found, is frequently either behind a paywall or of dubious derivation. Not to mention areas where popular fantasy has led to the real facts being obscured. Something I found out when I wanted to update some work on planetary thermodynamics I did 30 years ago. Accurate modern data was impossible to find out in the wild and I wasn't prepared to spend a week or two flogging it all through from first principles to extract the gems from the dross. Maybe if I'd kept my relevant computer models!

Now its possible to track pretty much everything through t'net it seems to me that a better sales policy for these things, and all other copyrighted books for that matter, would be for everyones broadband subscription to include a (small) fee for X megabytes of copyright data per month. So if I download it direct my internet provider pays the copyright holder the fee. If I give it to someone else their internet provider knows where it came from and also pays. Printing. Fair use or buy a licence for a book format to take to a printshop / bookbinder. Less money per book equivalent download but none of the dead tree production / distribution hassles and the effective zero at point of download cost would skyrocket sales. How much would you download if its only £0.50 a pop which you've already paid.

Clive

[RobinParticipant @robin]

Talking of electronics reference, anyone know where I can find a list of 74 series logic with the little pictures to show how the innards connect to the pins? There used to be listings in Maplins, Rapid, Arrow Jermyn etc. but no more

Robin

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Robin

My first wild guess wasn’t far off

**LINK**

https://www.ti.com/logic-voltage-translation/logic-gates/overview.html

Horse’s mouth and all that

MichaelG.

[Robert Atkinson 2Participant @robertatkinson2]

The other big buyers, especially in the USA, are students. There a a lot of classes that have "required reading" often the lecturer is the author. They also have a habit of doing new editions rather than re-prints and you have to have the latest edition. This make used books worthless and keeps the money coming in….

[JezParticipant @jez]

Posted by Robin on 23/09/2022 15:37:26:

Talking of electronics reference, anyone know where I can find a list of 74 series logic with the little pictures to show how the innards connect to the pins? There used to be listings in Maplins, Rapid, Arrow Jermyn etc. but no more

Robin

If you can find a second hand copy, "The TTL Data Book, Volume 1" by Texas Instruments is the bible I've had on my shelf for 30+ years…

[Anonymous]

Posted by Jez on 25/09/2022 11:08:53:

…"The TTL Data Book, Volume 1" by Texas Instruments is the bible…

+1, bought my copy in the 1970s from (I think) the TI factory just up the road from my parents house in Bedford. One problem now with pinouts is the myriad of packages, all with different pinouts. Back in the 70s it was plastic DIL or ceramic DIL.

Andrew

[John Doe 2Participant @johndoe2]

Posted by Clive Foster on 22/09/2022 15:42:00:

The Electronics Handbook by J.Whiticater was updated in 2005 so might not be showing its age quite so much. How useful it is I know not. Picked up the earlier edition for beer money ages ago but have never used it. Modern Electronics Circuits by Marcus came with it which is most definately out of date.

These folk sell The Electronics Handbook at a heart attack level price

**LINK**

https://www.routledge.com/The-Electronics-Handbook/Whitaker/p/book/9780849318894

Clive

 

That looks to be just what I am after, and it includes optical fibre circuits and other things of interest to me. £200 is not cheap, but I reckon I have another 25 years to go, so £8 a year. Seems reasonable. I will see if the local library can source it for me, and if it is what I need in terms of practical instruction as well as the theory; I will buy a copy.

Many thanks for all the replies.

Edited By John Doe 2 on 26/09/2022 14:31:35

[Maurice TaylorParticipant @mauricetaylor82093]

Posted by Robin on 23/09/2022 15:37:26:

Talking of electronics reference, anyone know where I can find a list of 74 series logic with the little pictures to show how the innards connect to the pins? There used to be listings in Maplins, Rapid, Arrow Jermyn etc. but no more

Robin

Hi, if you use an ipad or an android device there are plenty of free apps that will give you all the info you need.

Maurice

[Mike PooleParticipant @mikepoole82104]

EBay has a wide selection of TTL data books with all the info you could ever want about TTL. Google will find the same information online.

Mike

[John Doe 2Participant @johndoe2]

My local library cannot source a copy of the Electronics Handbook by J. Whitaker.

Do any members own or have seen a copy, in which case can they give me summary as to its content and quality?

Well over 2,000 pages……

Thanks.

[Clive FosterParticipant @clivefoster55965]

John Doe 2

PM sent!

Clive

[Grindstone CowboyParticipant @grindstonecowboy]

There's a listing on Ebay at the moment for The Electronics Handbook at a very reasonable Buy It Now price – almost tempted to buy it myself as an investment, looking at the others listed at very unreasonably high prices.

Rob

[Clive FosterParticipant @clivefoster55965]

Grindstone Cowboy

The reasonable priced ones on E-Bay are first edition, yellow/orange cover, so rather long in the tooth now.

Abe Books shows one second edition, black cover, at just under £17 plus £4 post and packing. Says Ex Library so likely to have some foxing and page loosening as its a very low price.

Clive

[Grindstone CowboyParticipant @grindstonecowboy]

Thanks Clive – there's always a catch

Rob

[Paul LousickParticipant @paullousick59116]

This web site is not a reference book as such but contains copies of hundreds of electronic magazine articles and projects. **LINK**

[Robert Atkinson 2Participant @robertatkinson2]

One thing I dislike about "The Electronics Handbook" (1st edition at least) is the paper quality. It is ultrathin. That added to a very thick book makes it a pain to use and easy to damage. This is probably done because of the amount of information they fitted in a single volume.

[Author]

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