Forrest M. Mims 39; Getting Started In Electronics

[Hollis Abdelkarim]

After hearing lots of talk about Forrest Mims Getting Started In Electronics, even from electronics/robotics veterans, I decided to pick up a copy. Since this book is published by Radio Shack, you can probably pick up a copy at a local store. Unfortunately, many stores have stopped carrying it. I must admit, that it was a $5.00 dollars well spent. Mims has written an excellent book that lives up to its title. If your "getting started," or just want a reference book, I highly recommend this. Now, it certainly doesn't have the depth of The Art Of Electronics, but its 127 pages are packed with great information and circuits. The books covers - Electricity, DC, AC, Wire cable, switches relays, meter, microphones & speakers, resistors, capicitors, R/C applications, coils, transformers, silicon, diodes, transistors, (Bipolar, FET, unijunction), the thyristor, SCRs, TRIACS, optical components, lenses, LEDs photoresistors, photodiodes, phototransistors, phototransistors, solar cells, gates, logic gates, sequential logic, combinational logic, IC families, linear circuits , Op-Amps, timers, regulators, plus 100 circuits. Quite a list for such an inexpensive book. For some his handwritten and hand-drawn text and illustrations would be aggravating, but it does make it easy to read. Beginners will like his illustration of circuit components instated of using the symbols, while oldies may find that a bit strange. Aside from that fact, I think the only other point that I didn't like, was his emphasis on electron flow verses electricity flow. Meaning, he depicted his circuits with electron flow, which is opposite from the electricity, or "hole" flow. This can be confusing sometimes.

To sum up, this is book is one you need in your collection. Tons of great info and circuits make this book a steal for $5.00!

The later Mini-notebook series were produced using similar techniques, although this time mercifully with a mechanical pencil. Each volume took about three weeks to produce, including designing each circuit and building it four times to make sure it worked.

Also every truly gifted engineer and true genuis I have met were self taught. Colledge and education have devolved into much less than they used to be. Technology and information are drivers of innovation not the universities.

I agree about fail-often and education. Inventor types are often surprised at how many serious advancements start as a mathematical abstraction on scrap paper or whatever is handy on a ferry ride. Like the operational amplifier, regeneration and heterodyne in radio, DSP, SDR, etc.

I mean, I know that solar cell are basically photo diodes, but they share the same technology does nto mean they are used the same way and have the same for factor, you are not going to use a photo diode to generate current for powering a device, nor use a solar cell to detect light.

The technology has changed over the years. The old solar cell was not like a modern silicon based solar cell. It was a Cadmium based photo voltaic cell that was so inefficient that it was more often used as a light detector rather than a power source.

I had the same thought at first, but then reminded myself that Cds cells are really photo resistors and not photo diodes, though they were generally used to control a diode in a light switching application.

Possibly, RB was referring to selenium photocells, which DO produce electric current like silicon photocells and photodiodes do. The only cadmium devices I am aware of are cadmium sulfide, which are photoresistors, not photodiodes.

They really are not copyrighted.

If you check copyright law, simply reformatting known or public knowledge is not protected. Copyright requires a substantial new or original thought. The circuit diagrams was a simple collation of existing circuit diagrams!

I have them all around here somewhere. Honestly they should be required materials for any EE program. Take a month and build every circuit no matter how overly simple and old they teach real fundamentals.

Not sure if I still have it, but I remember that first edition notebook back when integrated circuits were new and you could go down to radio shack and buy all kinds of cool stuff including tube amplifiers. The copy I had was bright yellow. Learned a lot from Forest Mims III notebooks. Glad to see he is getting some credit for all the inspiration his work created.

I built my first code practice oscillator using the 555 circuit in the book and parts I bought at the local, now defunct in Canada, Radio Shack. I think it was 1976 when he generously began and long and and happy relationship with me. Thanks Forest.

Bought these when I was a kid, still have them. But they never made any sense to me. Lots of circuit diagrams, but no explanation whatsoever of what each circuit component did, why the values were chosen, etc. Just a little bit of general theory and a lot of diagrams. Absolutely zero information on how to design your own circuits.

Everybody else seems to think they were the greatest thing since sliced bread. I did like the looks of the diagrams and hand lettering. But I guess you had to be a lot smarter than me to actually learn anything from them.

I grew up with f.mims and many others; I was a sponge for information, I would get it wherever I could. I also agree with the comment about Don Lancaster and snake oil. Some of his projects were from another planet.

I found a discouraging new item some years ago, in which a doomsday virus eugenics-promoting U-texas professor had a big public argument with Mimms over the topic of overpopulation, with Mimms basically getting browbeaten in front of a large technical audience for having the audacity to suggest overpopulation may be a myth, or dependent on a consumption-paradigm exploitative of resources and citizens.

I had the Engineers Notebook when I was younger too. Gave me more than one idea for things I never did have the time or money to make. (including at least one project that would have featured a microprocessor back when the microprocessors listed in the catalogs were things like the Z80 rather than the easy-to-use/easy-to-program microcontrollers of today). Then I ended up shifting away from electronics to focus more on my computer programming hobby (more than anything else I think the fact that computer programming was a much cheaper hobby than electronics is probably why I ended up sticking with that)

Thank you! Great flash back story. I know I had them all plus a yellow phone book sized catalog of circuits that probably came from RS also.

Unfortunatly just this past summer it all went to the dump after finding the entire collection soaked from a roof leak.

But the great memories or learning before the internet will always be with me!

So true. Every attempt I made to shop at radio shack resulted in a sales droid trying to sell me for a higher price a cell phone that I could buy cheaper elsewhere. They would be disappointed when I told them I was there for parts even when I often would spend more on parts than the price of the phone they were trying to push.

I think RS saw the error of their ways toward the end, but it was too late. My local RS had a full stock of Arduino products, as well as a good variety of project boxes, battery holders, and several cabinets of drawers full of components, switches, and connectors. Once again I could walk into a store with a parts list and walk out with everything you needed to complete a weekend project. Overnight shipping is what REALLY killed Radio Shack.

Ive been collecting Mr. Mims books, since I was able afford them an able to get hold of the atari, altair and the trash80 had to use 8 bit assembler code to convert them to cp/m, my uncle got them for me and i started coding back then, found my first Mims book and collected almost all of them the last 55 years :), at least it feels that long ago.

This book is a complete electronics course in 128 pages! Author Forrest Mims teaches you the basics, takes you on a tour of analog and digital components, explains how they work, and shows you how they are combines for various applications. It even includes circuit assembly tips and 100 electronic circuits and projects you can build and test. Even if you're not new to electronics, this book makes a great shop reference.

I found "Getting Started in Electronics" when I was 10. That book started a hobby that turned me into an electrical engineer. 26 years later I still keep a copy in my reference library.I've been hoping that Forrest will get around to writing a second edition. That old book is still very relevant, but there have been so many advances that I would love to see them in his classic handwritten "engineers notebook" style.

Wow, that brings me back to middle school. I guess I'd have to recommend the book for any electronics noob. For the more experienced, Horowitz and Hill: The Art of Electronics is a standard reference for analog though dated in places with respect to digital.

Mr. Mims' book got me started in electronics at the age of 10. The first circuit I remember building was the 0-9 digital counter using a 555, 7490, and 7447. My dad got me that book in 1985 when it was only a few bucks at Radio Shack. I loaned it out, never got it back, replaced it, loaned it out, never got it back, etc. I found an original green-cover copy a few years back on ebay and it's in my permanent library now.

I attribute my career as an automation engineer to the basics I learned from Mr. Mims. His writing style is unique, in the style of an engineer making notes. His handwriting is good, though, unlike most engineers :-)

I would absolutely LOVE to see him write an updated version, maybe get into microprocessors, etc.

This exact book was available FOR FREE at Radio Shack a couple of years ago... I remember getting one from them when I was still in NYC.

The funny thing is that being free I initially thought it would be mostly advertising / uninteresting, but as others mentioned it's actually really nicely written...

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