Best Websites to Learn Electronics
Electronics Tutorials
About this Site:
Electronics Tutorials is a topical library of easily digestible tutorials teaching various electronics principles from DC circuits to electromagnetism. They also have a collection of useful resources.
Antenna-Theory.com
From the Site:
In the spirit of Einstein: “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.” This website will strive to make antennas understandable, without unnecessary complexity.
ESP (sound-au.com)
About this Site:
ESP is all about audio projects that get “the best performance for less money”. The site is a tremendous resource for learning about analog signal processing, especially audio, building upon basic knowledge.
All About Circuits
About this Site:
This site hosts a free textbook that teaches from the very basic, foundational principles of electricity and electronics, to the physics of conductors and insulators, and beyond.
Best Video Resources to Learn and Practice Electronics
w2aew on YouTube
From their About Section:
Mostly videos on hobby electronics, test & measurement, ham radio, and other stuff. The site is mainly geared towards the hobbyist. Be sure to let me know if there’s a similar topic that you’d like to see a video on!
GreatScott! on YouTube
From their About Section:
Awesome Electronics Tutorials, Projects and How To´s
ElectroBOOM on YouTube
From their About Section:
Want to subconsciously learn while being entertained? Then subscribe!!
IMSAI Guy on YouTube
From their About Section:
Greetings and welcome to my channel, where I tinker with technology in the comfort of my garage…My goal is to make science and electronics accessible to everyone, regardless of their educational background.
The Signal Path on YouTube
From their About Section:
…a science & electrical engineering video blog for [all skill levels]…dedicated to provide free education spanning a wide range of electrical engineering & science topics.
Scullcom on YouTube
From their About Section:
This channel is for those who are interested in electronics. It includes projects for the hobbyist and tutorials as well as test equipment and electronic product reviews and teardowns.
Julian Ilett on YouTube
From their About Section:
I buy cheap electronics modules and components direct from Chinese sellers via eBay. Most of this stuff works fine and the gadgets that I build work OK. But some of it is dodgy (even fake) and that’s where the fun starts!
Behzad Razavi on YouTube
About:
Behzad Razavi teaches electronics on YouTube. His channel is very humble, without a profile picture or about section, but according to community members, high quality.
Ben Eater on YouTube
From their About Section:
Subscribe to see tutorial-style videos about electronics, computer architecture, networking, and various other technical subjects.
EEVBlog on YouTube
From their About Section:
NO SCRIPT, NO FEAR, ALL OPINION An off-the-cuff Video Blog about Electronics Engineering, for engineers, hobbyists, enthusiasts, hackers and Makers Hosted by Dave Jones from Sydney Australia
Mr Carlson’s Lab on YouTube
From their About Section:
Electronic “how to’s,” and random project descriptions.
Phil’s Lab on YouTube
From their About Section:
Analog and digital electronics design, PCB design, control systems, digital signal processing, and more!
Vocademy on YouTube
From their About Section:
Learn electronics technology for free. This channel has the video lectures that accompany my free course at Vocademy. No tuition, no student loans.
Afrotechmods on YouTube
From their About Section:
Straight to the point electronics tutorial videos with practical examples taught by a professional electronics engineer. Website: http://www.afrotechmods.com.
Neso Academy
From their About Page:
Neso Academy offers world-class learning resources on engineering courses, school syllabus, competitive exams, and many more.
[not all offerings are free]
The Best Video on Transmission Lines and Reflections
Comment:
This is an old video by Tektronix, and is the biggest reason I understand transmission lines and reflections today. Well worth the watch.
Notice something out of date or have a suggestion for an addition? Contact me.
Books and PDFs
Radio Electronics Made Simple (1956)
From the Preface:
In order to provide the many people who are interested in radio and electronics, either as a hobby or as a career; with a basic and fundamental background, this book has been written. No prior experience or specific education is needed as this book is simple and easy to understand. Using but a minimum of mathematics, it sets forth the basic concepts in a clear, non-technical manner. By means of every-day language, it explains the more difficult principles and scientific laws associated with this field.
The Scientist and Engineer’s Guide to Digital Signal Processing
From a Reviewer:
“The material is nicely presented and was a pleasure to read. I believe you have achieved your objective of making the material understandable to even those having a very modest level of mathematical sophistication, which should make this a very popular work.”
— Vernon L. Chi
Director, Microelectronic Systems Laboratory, University of North Carolina
Practical Radio Circuits
About:
This PDF appears to be from a magazine, and teaches radio design and gives instructions to build basic radio circuits, as well as patterns for making PCBs and other parts. I always like this older stuff because it uses simpler technology and is easier to follow and understand.
Radio Hobbyist’s Designbook
From the Explanation:
Radio Hobbyist’s Designbook or RHdb (for short) was designed to guide you into design of electronics apparatus that relates to radio. It assumes you know something about electronics but you can skip Chapters which cover familiar subjects. Mathematics needed in design is down to simple algebra and trigonometry. Topics cover the frequency spectrum of DC through VHF.
Fundamentals of Electrical Engineering I by Don H. Johnson
From the Introduction:
…we will be concerned with how to
- represent all forms of information with electrical signals,
- encode information as voltages, currents, and electromagnetic waves,
- manipulate information-bearing electric signals with circuits and computers, and
- receive electric signals and convert the information expressed by electric signals back into a useful form.
Technical Documentation
CERN: RF engineering basic concepts: the Smith chart
From the Abstract:
The Smith chart is a very valuable and important tool that facilitates interpretation of S-parameter measurements. This paper will give a brief overview on why and more importantly on how to use the chart. Its definition as well as an introduction on how to navigate inside the chart are illustrated. Useful examples show the broad possibilities for use of the chart in a variety of applications.
Wi is Fi | Understanding WiFi
About:
Wi is Fi is a different sort of resource. It is not an electronics oriented website, but the info is so comprehensive, going over how WiFi works and the various encoding, decoding, modulation, and demodulation schemes, that it becomes useful as an example to reference for the communications designer.
The Fourier Transform and its Applications, Prof. Brad Osgood, Stanford
From the Introduction:
Methods based on the Fourier transform are used in virtually all areas of engineering and science and by virtually all engineers and scientists. For starters:
- Circuit designers
- Spectroscopists
- Crystallographers
- Anyone working in signal processing and communications
- Anyone working in imaging
Databases and Search Tools
Sci-Hub | Access to Scientific Academic Articles and Books
From the About Page:
Sci-Hub started as a tool for providing quick access to articles from scientific journals – such articles are the main medium of communication of scientific knowledge today.
Previously this knowledge was only available for high prices that most people cannot pay. Sci-Hub has revolutionized science by making all paid knowledge free.
MIT OpenCourseWare
From the About Page:
MIT OpenCourseWare is a free and open collection of material from thousands of MIT courses, covering the entire MIT curriculum.
Knowledge is your reward. Use OCW to guide your own life-long learning, or to teach others. MIT does not offer credit or certification to users of OCW – and asks for nothing in return.
No enrollment or registration. Freely browse and use OCW materials at your own pace. There’s no signup, and no start or end dates.
Made for sharing. Download files for later. Send to friends and colleagues. Modify, remix, and reuse (just remember to cite OCW as the source.)
Alldatasheet.com
About:
Alldatasheet is a massive library of of datasheets searchable by part number, marking, and description. The search algorithm does prefer exact or near-exact matches, unfortunately, making it sometimes difficult to find datasheets for parts made even by TI, AD, and ON Semi, to name a few. If struggling with Alldatasheet, try searching Mouser or Digikey to see if any products turn up.
Library Genesis
About:
Library Genesis is a data base of free ebooks. Use it to look up books on any electronics topic you want to learn about and go from there.
Google Scholar
About:
Google’s search engine specifically geared toward academic (and legal) research. It’s a good tool to keep in your toolbox for finding info and existing research on any electronics topic you choose.
Tools, Calculators, and Design Aids
Online
Ohm’s Law Calculator
About:
Beyond the named function, the site also has a few other useful calculators, including a resistor divider calculator and LED calculator.
Online Smith Chart Tool
From the Site:
This free online interactive Smith chart tool is a calculator which can help you design matching networks and obtain maximum power transfer between your source and load. This tool is javascript so it works on Windows, Mac, IOS, Android… or any device with a web browser.
Falstad Circuit Simulator
About:
An online applet to simulate and visualize circuits. It also includes a link to download the software to run locally on your own computer (Linux, Mac, and Windows).
Binary/Decimal/Hexadecimal Converter
About:
A useful calculator for digital electronics and embedded systems programming hosted on a very popular website.
WOKWi ESP32, and Microcontroller Simulators
About:
An online microcontroller simulator, boasting a claim to be the “World’s most advanced ESP32 simulator”.
Texas Instruments WeBench Power Designer
About:
An online tool for quickly and easily designing power circuits using TI parts.
Alternatronics Calculators
About:
A young website featuring several calculators aimed at beginners, with explanations for how the results are obtained.
Software
KiCAD EDA
From the About Page:
KiCad is an open source software suite for Electronic Design Automation (EDA). The programs handle Schematic Capture, and PCB Layout with Gerber and IPC-2581 output. The suite runs on Windows, Linux and macOS and is licensed under GNU GPL v3.
Analog Devices LTSpice
From the Site:
LTspice® is a powerful, fast, and free SPICE simulator software, schematic capture and waveform viewer with enhancements and models for improving the simulation of analog circuits. [Windows and Mac Only]
SimSmith
From w0qe.com:
SimSmith has been around since about 2011 and is written by Ward Harriman, AE6TY and runs on Windows 64 & 32 bit, Apple Mac OS X, and Linux machines. It is totally free with absolutely no viruses, nag screens, pop ups, or crippled features. SimSmith started as a rudimentary Smith Chart program but it has grown into a competent analysis program that can solve a large number of common RF problems.
Saturn PCB Toolkit
From the Site:
The Saturn PCB Toolkit is the best freeware resource for PCB-related calculations you can find.
It incorporates many features that PCB designers and engineers are in regular need of like current capacity of a PCB trace, via current, differential pairs and much more. Please download our PCB Toolkit today for free and enjoy!
PDF Charts
Smith Charts
About:
This site hosts a couple Smith charts; a basic one, and a double overlaid one. The site also has a few RF calculator tools.
Suppliers for Electronic Parts
Tayda Electronics
From the About Page:
The very best parts source for electronics hobbyists. We supply hobbyists worldwide with affordable parts for their electronics projects. We ship daily using the most efficient & economical methods.
DigiKey
About:
DigiKey is one of the most popular, and most used electronic component distributors in the world. They are trusted by large corporations and small businesses alike.
Mouser Electronics
From the About Page:
Mouser Electronics is a global factory authorized distributor of semiconductors and electronic components. We specialize in the rapid introduction of the newest products and technologies from our authorized manufacturers, supporting the newest designs as-well-as the manufacturing supply chain. Founded in 1964
Blog Posts
Hello World!
This blog will be used to share single resources that have helped me personally in learning electronics or in circuit development. It will also be used as a vehicle to teach electronics with an intuitive approach. If you don’t understand something to a level that it’s intuitive to you, do you really understand it at…
electronics-resources.com 