BookTip XIV: Electronica for Dummies (Dutch Edition)

Electronics for Dummies, Dutch Language version

Okay, a bit of a weird BookTip this time... at first sight.

The For Dummies series is an extensive series of instructional/reference books which are intended to present non-intimidating guides for readers new to the various topics covered.

As of December 2012, over 1800 For Dummies titles have been published with editions in numerous languages.

This Electronica (electronics) edition (published in 2005 in multiple languages) is extremely useful for the beginning electronics DIY-ers (like me), and it has already been very helpful making thing more understandable.

The book (416 pages) covers a whole range of subjects, from the basics, preparation, tools and safety-measures to easy-to-build small projects on a breadboard or with self-made printed circuit boards (pcb's).

On your way through the book you'll learn everything about diodes, resistors, capacitors and reading schematics. It even has a robotics section...

I learned a lot from this book so far, although i haven't even read it all... i mainly use it for reference.

In the English language you have the choice of a few different books about this same subject in the For Dummies series,

Closest is probably the Electronics All-In-One Desk Reference For Dummies, and for the advanced DIY-ers I guess they could even try the Circuitbuilding Do-It-Yourself For Dummies, but please check before you buy because i'm not sure.

More info at http://www.dummies.com/

Written by: Gordon McComb & Earl Boysen

ISBN: 978-90-430-1162-4

Find my other BookTips HERE

DIY Projects I : The Beginning

I bought my first prototyping board (or breadboard) and some jumper-wires last week, it's time for me to start learning about electronics and electonic circuits.

The board i got was of the Velleman brand, and to be sure i had enough room on it i bought one of the bigger boards, still for under 20 Euro's.
I also bought a small Velleman Voice Changer Kit (MK171 - 9,95 Euro) , the only audio-related DIY-project i could find to experiment with. Like i said earlier this stuff is quite new to me, and my first attempt will be the mounting of all the parts of the kit onto the breadboard. This seems like a good practice for me to learn more about the components and their functions.

I did learn a lot on YouTube last weeks about the basics of breadboarding and electonic components, and there are a few good (and free) tutorials on the MIT OpenCourseware site ( both video's from lecture 12 are highly interesting and deal with basic sound creation with electonics ) The 559 pages thick lecture notes PDF  that completes this course is also free available at the site, and features the whole course on paper.

The kit is a voice changing kit that can basicly changes your voice into a high, low or robotvoice. I haven't heard yet how it will sound, but the idea and basic modification possibilities are looking great.

I see this as a sort of a side-project, that will hopefully merge into my A-100 system at one point and i'm looking forward on how it will sound. I'll keep you updated.