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MAKER MEDIA INC

Make: Electronics: Learning by Discovery: A hands-on primer for the new electronics enthusiast

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At a glance

Condition
New
Dimensions
8 x 0.68 x 9.75 in
Weight
2.31 lb
Publisher
Make Community, LLC
Publication date
October 26, 2021
Edition
3rd
Language
English

Description

The first edition of Make: Electronics established a new benchmark for introductory texts. The second edition enhanced that experience, and now this third edition includes all-new diagrams throughout, new photographs, and completely rewritten text. Learning by Discovery is a system developed by Charles Platt to enable an experience that is fascinating, fun, and memorable. You learn by building your own circuits--and by making your own mistakes. In fact, mistakes are an important part of the experience. The book encourages you to "burn things out and mess things up" to find out for yourself the limits of electronic components. You'll blow a fuse and watch an overloaded LED, and you can cut open a relay to see how it works inside. Affordable Component Kits are available from independent suppliers (on Amazon), or the book explains how to shop online yourself. Illustrations are in full color throughout, so you'll see exactly what you need and how to use it. While Make: Electronics minimizes the amount of theory that you need, it does show you how to figure out Ohm's Law and do the simple math to calculate the time constant of a capacitor. A buying guide shows basic tools ranging from pliers to a low cost multimeter. A simple "finger test" demonstrates how transistors switch or amplify current. You can solder wires, if you wish, to build a permanent circuit, although soldering is not necessary to build all the circuits in the book. You'll see how to use integrated circuit chips to create a simple circuit that tests the speed of your reflexes. Other circuits include a combination lock for a computer, or a game in which players compete to be the first to press a button. All the basic concepts are demonstrated quickly and simply with affordable components. You'll discover resistance, capacitance, voltage, amperage, inductance, and the relationship between electricity and magnetism. Ideal for Beginners This book assumes that you have no prior knowledge. It explains each concept in meticulous detail, and is friendly, patient, and fun. Positive reader feedback has been received from people ranging in age from 8 to 84. If you only buy one book about electronics, this should be the one. Read more

Specs 10

Publisher Make Community, LLC
Publication date October 26, 2021
Edition 3rd
Language English
Print length 325 pages
ISBN-10 1680456873
ISBN-13 75
Item Weight 2.31 pounds

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Top Amazon Reviews

Excellent Introduction to Analog Circuits by Fantastic Author
Format: Paperback
Review Image by BLVK SNVKES
Having learned a bit about Arduino, microcontrollers, etc. I was curious about the bare essentials. Despite having built all sorts of fun circuits before, I had no idea what a capacitor actually did, nor what the purpose of a relay was. I bought this book after careful review and could not be happier! I had a lot of the components needed for the book laying around, so getting started was no issue. Charles writes in an informative and fun way that does not dissuade the reader from moving forward, experimenting, and learning. While I have not really read other books on this subject, I would have to say that it is not dry in style. If you read the prologue, you will notice that Charles gives out his email and encourages readers to write in if they run into problems. I have done so a few times and he has always gotten back to me with useful insight. My favorite project in the book so far is the reaction timer. It makes for a fun drinking game if you don't tell anyone the countdown value. If you are curious at all about how analog circuits work, then I highly recommend this book! ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on February 19, 2026 by BLVK SNVKES
Outstanding Clarity, Illustrations & Teaching By Charles Platt - This is the Starting Book you want!
Format: Paperback
For many years I have been interested in learning electronics, and I have purchased what feels like over a dozen different books, kits or online courses. The material in nearly all of them were written by engineers and it felt like for engineers. Just could not get into them. Additionally, many of the other kits and courses force your to learn Arduios, which I am not against at a future date, but for right now, I want to understand the basics of schematics and working with breadboards. I want to learn the components, what they do and how to plan to use them. I want instruction using a basic multi-meter. Happy to learn about Arduino's later. Just not what I am still wrapping my mind around the basics. Determined, I decided to just start buying all of the beginner books out there until I found an instructor whose style resonated with me. THIS IS THE BOOK! Just WOW! Such clarity and simplicity to understand. Charles Platt clearly understands how to take a complex subject matter and make it palpable for a beginner like me. That is also not to say his understanding is surface level, he has a very DEEP understanding of electronics and has many additional books on the subject. Suffice it to say, I study his book EVERY MORNING now and am LOVING it. There are some things I need to re-read, but I definitely am having much more success with Make:Electronics 3rd Edition. (Always get the latest editions!) Also, there is an electronics component kit that comes with this book. I highly, HIGHLY recommend getting this kit as well, so you can physically create the breadboards and learn hands on as you go. You will be at a huge learning disadvantage if you do not do these experiments. Thank you Charles Platt! As a teacher myself, I appreciate the effort you have taken to make this difficult subject matter so accessible- I appreciate you! ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on February 11, 2024 by Master Reviewer
Clearly written and easy to understand.
Format: Paperback
Clearly written and easy to understand, I would recommend this book if you are just starting or looking to farther your understanding of electronics, well worth the price.
Reviewed in the United States on July 5, 2026 by Michael Evans
Must Buy for New Electronics Hobbyists
Format: Paperback
Excellent book that will take you from 0 knowledge to completing awesome projects.
Reviewed in the United States on July 8, 2026 by Dan Paavola
Good resource book on electronics
Format: Paperback
Excellent book easy to read and learn great photos and examples well documented and written look forward to his next book
Reviewed in the United States on August 30, 2025 by Collector
Great book - but exp 17 feels half-baked
Format: Paperback
Excellent book. I took electronics in high school but wanted a refresher - and overall wish I'd listened better. :-) Platt's approach and writing style are excellent. There are a couple mistakes in the book so it is worthwhile to check out the Errata on the O'Reilly web page for the book. My only criticism is that Experiment 17 (Intrusion Alarm), while good practice and theory, is actually quite a lot of effort for a very underwhelming result. It's left to the reader to integrate a tone circuit - on a separate breadboard. You can use something like the single 555 tone in experiment 16 or a transistor version such as experiment 11. The information is all in the book to do this, but there's a bit of a handwave on this in experiment 17. ("Add audio output here") And even having done that, you are totally on your own for sensors or stand-ins for the sensors. The kits for the book don't include any reed sensors. And if you purchased the parts kits, you only have one 555 beyond the three needed for exp 17 and just a single breadboard. Additionally, to see this project all the way through, you need at least a stripboard style perf board - again, not included in the kits. (I realize the author doesn't create the kits, but he mentions that these optional parts won't be included so it wasn't an unknown.) I mean, you don't HAVE to solder it. And you can use push buttons to stand in for sensors, and you can figure out the audio alarm part, possibly using the lower part of the perf board...but this project stands out as sort of the least complete and ready to go end-to-end project in the book. To be honest, even if he'd said "I'm leaving out a few details that you should be able to figure out at this point" (which is true) would make it "fit" more in the spirit of the book. To be fair to this project, I do appreciate the sort of conversational "working it out" process that we see, as if we are just in the room with Platt as he works through it. That's great stuff. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on July 31, 2025 by Jon
The book I wish I had...
Format: Paperback
Back when I started taking classes for electronics way back when, this is the book I wish I had. The classes I took went the traditional way of teaching the theory, and offering the occasional lab to reinforce the lesson. This book takes the opposite approach in that it teaches electronics from a very practical "hands-on" approach and then explains the theory behind what is going on in about as non-intimidating a manner as is possible. Personally I'm a kinesthetic learner, that is I learn best by doing, so this is the sort of book made for someone like me. The author in fact expects the reader to make mistakes and "smoke" components as he feels that is one way to learn, and it works. The math is minimal, and as long as the reader can do basic functions (add, subtract, multiply, divide), they will be fine. Likewise, this doesn't cover much in the way of theory, no Kirchoff's Law, Thevenin's Theorem, etc. It's just a very basic primer with the idea of exposing the reader/user to electronics on a functional/practical level, see if they like it, and the idea is to move on from there. For those who have been in the field a long time, obviously understanding the theory is indeed very important, and there are good texts available for doing that. Again, I emphasize that this isn't the goal of this book however... it's made for a rank beginner with no knowledge and just a curiosity to learn. Taken from that perspective, this book is a success! Highly recommended! ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on May 26, 2025 by Gary Tooker
Great for Beginners Who Know Nothing About Electronics
Format: Paperback
I'm new to hobby electronics and this book is great for beginners. Very easy to understand. Each chapter explains how each electronic component works and then has an experiment to actually see how it works. It shows you how to build each circuit using an easy to understand wiring illustration along with a schematic so you learn how to read and understand schematics. The book also has a list of what you need for each experiment along with a list of suppliers to purchase your components from. This book reminds me of a text book you may see in a basic electronics lab course in school. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on October 20, 2025 by Matt71
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