Transistor books for beginners.

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Cressy Snr
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#1 Transistor books for beginners.

Post by Cressy Snr »

Anyone know any good, manuals on solid state audio electronics, that would take a beginner like me, from first principles, to building my own circuits in a similar way to Morgan Jones' valve books?
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#2 Re: Transistor books for beginners.

Post by ed »

they're thin on the ground compared to the valve stuff, or at least that's how I've found it.

With the danger of hearing 'shut up the records stuck' I will recommend the Nelson Pass back catalogue. If you check out the publications list on the first watt site there is a list from over the last 30 years....The zen series is enlightening

I've just sold my latest copy of Douglas Self to karatestu...I found it stodgy and too reliant on already having a SS grounding...and anyway he doesn't like fets so I'm not sending him any Christmas cards.

I can recommend Jim Lesurf for the basic stuff - check out the scots guide
Tom Duncan :- 'success in electronics'
I've got Boylestad and Nashelsky which is kind of like MJ but I think it's expensive.

edit: just found this, I thought it was more expensive....:




I found the transition to fets very straightforward in the early days but moving on to BJTs I've found far more challenging.

for a grounding in amp design there is stacks of stuff on the web, it's just a matter of asking the right question....try starting at H C lin and see what pops up.

more edit: I almost forgot ...Rod Elliot does give very good explanations for what and why

After the whys and wherefors of BJTs there is also stacks of stuff on the various constructs, such as:
current source
current mirror
differential pairs etc

google gives all

then there is spice to prove or disprove all your crazy ideas.....it's free, and some might say it's fun (LTSpice that is).
Also put the question up on diya....
Last edited by ed on Wed Mar 21, 2018 7:46 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Cressy Snr
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#3 Re: Transistor books for beginners.

Post by Cressy Snr »

Cheers Ed, plenty to go at there. :)
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Mike H
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#4 Re: Transistor books for beginners.

Post by Mike H »

What I've got seems to be out of print. :(

In the beginning, it was all library books, of course that was way back when libraries even had stuff like that. Scroggie's "Foundations Of Wireless" and that sort of thing.
 
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andrew Ivimey
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#5 Re: Transistor books for beginners.

Post by andrew Ivimey »

It might be worth doing a search for Robert Penfold. He wrote a number of booklets about basic transistor projects- two of which I remember: a two stage amplifier ( for my crystal set) and a multivibrstor which formed the basis of a very simple synthesizer.

It was simple and backed in theory stuff but I was about ten at the time. It also got bigger and more complicated - superhet shortwave radio receivers!

As I'm sure Mike could say - Malpln did a series of small books on all sorts of projects. Back in the day there were Elektor, Practical Electronics and Practical Wireless. Copies of which could be on eBay. Priceless for nostalgia alone.
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#6 Re: Transistor books for beginners.

Post by ed »

an H C Lin link:

http://www.semiconductormuseum.com/Tran ... _Page7.htm

the jury is out but if you believe some sources he(H C Lin) is to BJT audio what Lucy is to anthropology...
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Mike H
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#7 Re: Transistor books for beginners.

Post by Mike H »

andrew Ivimey wrote: Wed Mar 21, 2018 8:54 pm It might be worth doing a search for Robert Penfold. He wrote a number of booklets about basic transistor projects- two of which I remember: a two stage amplifier ( for my crystal set) and a multivibrstor which formed the basis of a very simple synthesizer.

It was simple and backed in theory stuff but I was about ten at the time. It also got bigger and more complicated - superhet shortwave radio receivers!

As I'm sure Mike could say - Malpln did a series of small books on all sorts of projects. Back in the day there were Elektor, Practical Electronics and Practical Wireless. Copies of which could be on eBay. Priceless for nostalgia alone.
Forgot about Penfold. Well did that, not easy! Seems nothing survives. Or hardly anything. Of course these were Babani books, found Babani site but very poor list for 'Electronics'. :(

http://www.babanibooks.com/bb7.htm
 
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#8 Re: Transistor books for beginners.

Post by Mike H »

Wait a minute wait a minute, found this:

https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/4 ... _A_Penfold


Select item, then can click through to Amazon whatever.


Mind you if memory serves, Penfold did like using chips, so not sure about the transistor stuff.
 
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