There's a lot of good, free electronics information out there on the web. There are even quite a few book-length texts out there, which is my main focus here. I also link to some collections of links to shorter pieces, but the point is the same: I don't intend this page to link directly to individual pieces on narrow topics.
Lessons in Electronic Circuits by Tony Kuphaldt is a six-volume series of electronics textbooks. It's still a work in progress, so one of the other general electronics books will still cover more ground, but it's still a useful reference.
Designing Analog Chips by Hans Camenzind is surprisingly useful to those only using analog chips, not designing them. The book takes a very accessible approach, with minimal mathematics. The first parts of the book cover circuits you could just as well make in discrete form. While the later parts get into circuits that you cannot reasonably make except at the IC level, it's often helpful when using analog ICs to have some idea of how they are made. If you've ever looked at the schematic of a chip in a datasheet and wondered why there are strange symbols like transistors with multiple collectors, this book will clear the fog. The author is the designer of the popular 555 timer and 8038 waveform generator ICs, among others.
Navy Electrical Engineering Training Series ia a collection of 24 PDF documents that appears to be a complete course in electronics. Your tax dollars at work.
Most of the big electronics manufacturers have large collections of application notes, and other large documents. A lot of this simply tells you how to apply that manufacturer's parts, but a fair chunk of it is quite generic. Here are links to the main "library" pages, with some highlights:
Main Page — Huge library!
A Collection of Amp Applications by James Wong
Avoiding Passive-Component Pitfalls by Doug Grant and Scott Wurcer
Noise and Operational Amplifier Circuits by Lewis Smith and D.H. Sheingold
User's Guide to Applying and Measuring Operational Amplifier Specifications by Ray Stata
High Speed Amplifier Techniques by Jim Williams. Not quite as wide in scope as Mancini's op-amp book, this is still quite impressive for a free, general-purpose amplifier book.
Op Amps for Everyone by Ron Mancini et al. An excellent book on op-amps, from theory to applications. It is available as a free PDF or as a paper book.
ePanorama is the best single collection of links to other electronics information on the web. If it's out there, there's a fair chance that ePanorama has a link to it. (Think "Yahoo for electronics".)
rickcr42's DIY Links Resource on Head-Fi is a good list of links for audio DIY.
This article is copyright © 2016 by Warren Young, all rights reserved.
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