Table of Contents

Introduction 1 Book I: Getting Started in Electronics 9 Chapter 1: Welcome to Electronics 11 Chapter 2: Understanding Electricity 23 Chapter 3: Creating Your Mad-Scientist Lab 39 Chapter 4: Staying Safe 61 Chapter 5: Reading Schematic Diagrams 71 Chapter 6: Building Projects 85 Chapter 7: The Secrets of Successful Soldering 123 Chapter 8: Measuring Circuits with a Multimeter 135 Chapter 9: Catching Waves with an Oscilloscope 149 Book II: Working with Basic Electronic Components 161 Chapter 1: Working with Basic Circuits 163 Chapter 2: Working with Resistors 205 Chapter 3: Working with Capacitors 233 Chapter 4: Working with Inductors 257 Chapter 5: Working with Diodes and LEDs 269 Chapter 6: Working with Transistors 295 Book III: Working with Integrated Circuits 323 Chapter 1: Introducing Integrated Circuits 325 Chapter 2: The Fabulous 555 Timer Chip 337 Chapter 3: Working with Op-Amps 375 Book IV: Getting into Alternating Current 395 Chapter 1: Understanding Alternating Current 397 Chapter 2: Working with Line Voltage 409 Chapter 3: Building Power Supplies 423 Book V: Working with Radio and Infrared 435 Chapter 1: Understanding Radio 437 Chapter 2: Building a Crystal Radio 451 Chapter 3: Working with Infrared 463 Book VI: Doing Digital Electronics 481 Chapter 1: Understanding Digital Electronics 483 Chapter 2: Getting Logical 499 Chapter 3: Working with Logic Circuits 519 Chapter 4: Interfacing to Your Computer's Parallel Port 549 Chapter 5: Working with Flip-Flops 583 Book VII: Working with BASIC Stamp Processors 607 Chapter 1: Introducing Microcontrollers and the BASIC Stamp 609 Chapter 2: Programming in PBASIC 631 Chapter 3: More PBASIC Programming Tricks 655 Chapter 4: Adding Sound and Motion to Your BASIC Stamp Projects 675 Book VIII: Special Effects 693 Chapter 1: Building a Quiz-O-Matic! 695 Chapter 2: Building a Color Organ 735 Chapter 3: Animating Holiday Lights 747 Chapter 4: Building an Animatronic Prop Controller 771 Index 801

About the Author

Doug Lowe still has the electronics experimenter's kit his dad gave him when he was 10. Although he became a programmer and has written books on various programming languages, Microsoft Office, web programming, and PCs (including 30+ For Dummies books), Doug never forgot his first love: electronics.