Circuitbuilding Do-It-Yourself For Dummies®

Introduction

Perhaps you've never built anything electronic, and now you want to. Perhaps you have built something before, but now you want to do something different. Look no further. Circuitbuilding Do-It-Yourself For Dummies is the book for both kinds of readers. Primarily, this book is intended to act as an introduction and guide to someone just getting started with electronics and circuits. It covers basic tools and techniques. If you are somewhat experienced with electronics, you'll find the book most useful as a workshop reference for specific kinds of tasks. The latter half of the book focuses on specific how-tos: cables, connectors, measurements, and maintenance.

There are so many circuits and applications of electronics that it is impossible to provide a detailed how-to guide for even a tiny fraction of the different types! The goal of this book is to show you the tools and techniques that circuitbuilders use, common to a wide variety of electronic construction needs.

This book presents basic techniques most useful to beginners. As such, you won't find detailed discussions of advanced topics such as fabricating your own circuit boards or performing reflow soldering at home. Nevertheless, if you become familiar with the techniques in this book, it will be easier for you to move on to more sophisticated techniques. I'll also give you pointers about where to find information on them.

This book is not a circuit design course or cookbook. I'll be assuming that you already have ...