I have been looking for a book that would explain the basic principles
involved in designing electronic circuits (i.e. what a person should
know, how the person should think and so on).

There are many books that seem to explain how analog or digital
components function and as far as the digital ones are concerned, how
to even group them together to create purely digital circuits. But I
have been looking for something that explains the process of placing
analog components together to create an analog circuit.

Does anyone know if "Electronics - Circuits and Systems" by Owen
Bishop is good in this regard, or is there something better?

Thanks in advance

Selected items from my bookshelf and web surfing list

Numero Uno Startup book:

Horrowitz and Hill, Art of Electronics


Boylestad , Introductory Circuit Analysis 9th ed or more recent
OP-AMPS -Application,and Troubleshooting, David. L Terrill
Electronic Devices, Floyd

If your looking for "cookBooks":

The 555 timer applications handbook.

If you need a basic book for kids:

Electronic Circuits for the Evil Genius, Cucher
 ONLY IF: you do the experiments which need about 18$ of parts.
(The only one of the Evil genius books that is not a joke IMHO)

For systems design:

P. C. D. Hobbs, Building Electro-Optical Systems: Making It All Work

The content is optics dependent, but it gets you in the mindset of a
good systems designer. (and a successful one at that )

For HF/ Low VHF  frequency RF, its ham radio specific, but it makes
you think:

Experimental Methods in Radio Frequency Design, Hayward et al.

If you want to ponder why folks do what they do by ruining your eyes
looking at schematics at 10 pm :

Jim Thompson, PE,   "SEDs resident curmudgeon"
http://www.analog-innovations.com/   click on SED schematics

This guy comes up with old 1970s ways to do things with 69 cent parts.
http://www.4qdtec.com/


If you can get them surplus some place: , the US Navy  NavShips Basic
Electronics I and Basic Electronics II books
They have been replaced by a lame online course call NEET, as the navy
has gone over to depot level card swapping.
Way outdated, but the books  make you think about basics applied to
radar  and communicatiosn etc.

Steve Roberts

"S Claus" <s...@temporaryinbox.com> wrote in message 
news:9...@t39g2000prh.googlegroups.com...
>I have been looking for a book that would explain the basic principles
> involved in designing electronic circuits (i.e. what a person should
> know, how the person should think and so on).
>
> There are many books that seem to explain how analog or digital
> components function and as far as the digital ones are concerned, how
> to even group them together to create purely digital circuits. But I
> have been looking for something that explains the process of placing
> analog components together to create an analog circuit.
>
> Does anyone know if "Electronics - Circuits and Systems" by Owen
> Bishop is good in this regard, or is there something better?
>
> Thanks in advance

ARRL and RSGB handbooks and other publications.

"The Art of Electronics" by Horowitz and Hill.

"Analog Circuit Design - Art, Science, and Personalities"
 Edited by Jim Willians
Published by Butterworth Heinemann
A collection of essays and stories by 22 famous engineers including Jim 
Williams, Bob Pease, Barrie Gilbert, Gary Gillette e.t.c.

On a sunny day (Wed, 31 Dec 2008 20:07:38 -0800 (PST)) it happened S Claus
<s...@temporaryinbox.com> wrote in
<9...@t39g2000prh.googlegroups.com>:

>I have been looking for a book that would explain the basic principles
>involved in designing electronic circuits (i.e. what a person should
>know, how the person should think and so on).


There is no book that can replace hands on experience in trying to
design and build electronic circuits.
You could get close with a spice simulator, but only so much.

So:
0) learn basics about electrons.
1) try to build some circuits, start from other people's designs that work.
2) learn basic math to get some idea of magnitudes etc.

In fact, referring to point '0', we know very little about what an electron
really is, not even its size.



>There are many books that seem to explain how analog or digital
>components function and as far as the digital ones are concerned, how
>to even group them together to create purely digital circuits. But I
>have been looking for something that explains the process of placing
>analog components together to create an analog circuit.

It is a rather wide field, and after so many years I only am familiar with a subset.
It is a never ending learning process.
But again, without you actually trying to build something, and using a scope
and other equipment, getting a feel for what is real, and what are wild ideas,
you will be a demonstration of the difference between 'information' and 'knowledge'.
Even if a book gives you the needed information, that does not mean you have
the knowledge to put it to work.
Like swimming, you may know how to move, have learned it from a book, but
will sink when put in real water.
Have you ever used a soldering iron?

And, these days, analog and digital are so close together that you need to
have experience with both, plus programming languages, if you want to make anything.

 

On Wed, 31 Dec 2008 20:07:38 -0800 (PST), S Claus
<s...@temporaryinbox.com> wrote:

>I have been looking for a book that would explain the basic principles
>involved in designing electronic circuits (i.e. what a person should
>know, how the person should think and so on).
>
>There are many books that seem to explain how analog or digital
>components function and as far as the digital ones are concerned, how
>to even group them together to create purely digital circuits. But I
>have been looking for something that explains the process of placing
>analog components together to create an analog circuit.
>
>Does anyone know if "Electronics - Circuits and Systems" by Owen
>Bishop is good in this regard, or is there something better?
>
>Thanks in advance

The underlying process is the same for analog and
digital:  You use a "building block" approach to
get a basic design, then you decide what needs to
go into each block.  Eventually you may want to
optimize everything to save costs, improve
performance, or use parts on hand.  But the first
step is the block diagram.  

To aid in this, you'll want a "bag of tricks" that
you can use for the various blocks.  Initially
this bag will be simple op-amp gain stages,
summers, buffers, etc.  Then you'll probably add
filters and oscillators and other more-complex
blocks.  When you see a circuit in a magazine or
trade journal, note the essential blocks that you
might re-use in your own circuits.  

For example, the circuit might be using a diode
junction to measure temperature, and converting to
a pulse train whose rate is proportional to the
temperature.  From this you might get separate
"blocks" for converting temperature to voltage via
a diode, and for voltage-to-frequency conversion.

I like to keep file folders for the basic blocks,
and file the article under the appropriate block
type.  (You might have to decide between the
"temperature" and "voltage-to-frequency" folder in
the above example.)  Then when you need a
particular block function, you can review a number
of alternatives.  Sometimes the "classical" way is
overkill, and a "cheap-and-dirty" block is all you
need, so it's good to save everything.

Best regards,


Bob Masta
 
              DAQARTA  v4.51
   Data AcQuisition And Real-Time Analysis
             www.daqarta.com
Scope, Spectrum, Spectrogram, Sound Level Meter
           FREE Signal Generator
        Science with your sound card!

  S Claus <s...@temporaryinbox.com> wrote:

  > I have  been  looking  for a book  that  would  explain  the basic
  > principles involved in designing electronic circuits (i.e.  what a
  > person should know, how the person should think and so on).

  > There are  many books that seem to explain how  analog  or digital
  > components function and as far as the digital ones  are concerned,
  > how to even group them together to create purely digital circuits.

  > But I have been looking for something that explains the process of
  > placing analog components together to create an analog circuit.

  > Does anyone know if "Electronics - Circuits and Systems" by Owen
  > Bishop is good in this regard, or is there something better?

  > Thanks in advance

  Besides the many good suggestions from others, the very best  way to
  learn electronic  design is with SPICE. The days  of  designing with
  pencil and vellum are over. And the best spice is free.  Get LTspice
  and join the Yahoo forum at

  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LTspice/

  Get all  the help files you can find and learn  the  terminology. Go
  through the FILES folder in the forum and try all the examples. Some
  may not make much sense in the beginning, but eventually things will
  start to  gel and come together. When you have learned  enough about
  spice to enter schematics yourself, do the examples in

  http://www.ecircuitcenter.com/index.htm

  This will get you up to speed faster than anything else I know.

  With spice, you don't have to worry about destroying  components due
  to a miswire or other mistake. You can make changes and analyze them
  much faster than with hardware.

  You don't  have   problems   with  grounding,  crosstalk, bypassing,
  ringing, scope   probe   loading,   probe   resonance   and ringing,
  intermittent connections, component variations, bad components, poor
  connections, power  supply ripple and noise, offsets due  to thermal
  drift, interference  from   SCR   dimmers   and  fluorescent lights,
  uncalibrated or  bad  test equipment, and a host  of  other problems
  when trying to implement a circuit in hardware. And the circuit will
  work exactly  the  same way every time, so you don't  have  to waste
  time trying  to  figure  out what changed since  the  last  time you
  turned it on.

  Learn how a circuit is supposed to work first, then you can diagnose
  and solve the other issues much easier.

  Spice is so crucial to electronics that I ask  prospective engineers
  and technicians to bring along their favorite LTspice files  for the
  interview. If  they  don't have any, I can't  afford  to  waste time
  having them learn it on the job.

  Without spice,  you will find many people who are highly  skilled at
  bs in  electronics.  With  spice, there is no  faking  it.  You very
  quickly find if they know their stuff or not.

  So put most of your effort into learning spice. It will pay handsome
  returns later.

  Best Wishes

  Mike Monett
  pstca.com

On a sunny day (Thu, 01 Jan 2009 19:05:47 +0000) it happened Mike Monett
<N...@here.adr> wrote in <Xns9B868F5D6A8E6idtokenpost@74.209.131.13>:

>  Besides the many good suggestions from others, the very best  way to
>  learn electronic  design is with SPICE. The days  of  designing with
>  pencil and vellum are over.

Whooaaa!
 
 ftp://panteltje.com/pub/designing_with_pencil_and_paper_1.jpg
Too many changes???

 ftp://panteltje.com/pub/designing_with_pencil_and_paper_2.jpg

I was actually thinking where to get an eraser for my pencil without buying a new pencil.
 ftp://panteltje.com/pub/the_pencil.jpg

LOL

 Quote:

    QUOTE

 quote:

     Spice is so crucial to electronics that I ask  prospective
engineers
  and technicians to bring along their favorite LTspice files  for the
  interview. If  they  don't have any, I can't  afford  to  waste time
  having them learn it on the job.



Since most of the things I do don't "model" well, I'm curious what
your product line is, ie what product do you make that you can get
away with that and make money?

Pencil and Paper still gets used here for first order approximations,
and will until I can no longer buy pens and paper.

I'll second the recommendation of Analog Circuit Design - Art,
Science, and Personalities,  especially the chapter by Richard S.
Burwin on rapid design of filters and control loops.

Steve

>Mike Monett wrote:
>> Besides the many good suggestions from others,
>>the very best  way to learn electronic  design is with SPICE.
>>The days  of  designing with pencil and vellum are over.
>>
Jan Panteltje wrote:
>Whooaaa!
> ftp://panteltje.com/pub/designing_with_pencil_and_paper_1.jpg
>Too many changes???
>
> ftp://panteltje.com/pub/designing_with_pencil_and_paper_2.jpg
>
>I was actually thinking where to get an eraser for my pencil
>without buying a new pencil.
> ftp://panteltje.com/pub/the_pencil.jpg
>
>LOL

...and anyone who falls by alt.binaries.schematics.electronic
at any given point in time
is likely to see something done by Larkin on quadrille paper.
(High-latency Port 80 access via
www.usenet-replayer.com/groups/alt.binaries.schematics.electronic.html
.)

For those recommending Horowitz and Hill's Art of Electronics (2nd
edition still, I suppose), then I think it is VERY important for
someone reading it to also have the student manual, as well, by Hayes
and Horowitz.  It includes many "worked examples" which not only
provide specific calculations but also the sequence (placing which
things go first and which go second, in designing.)  For example, they
include for chapter 2 worked examples on a common emitter amplifier
and a differential amplifier (BJT.)  Stuff you won't find in the
textbook.  For someone trying to learn on their own, invaluable.

Jon