Make: 
Electronics

A fantastic book

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Make: Electronics is a wonderful book by English writer Charles Platt that gives an absolute beginner in electronics the opportunity to dive into the fascinating world of resistors, transistors, and electricity.

Make: Electronics is built on the principle of "learning through discovery": you learn electronics and electricity through practical experiments, literally getting a taste of electricity, while the experiments are designed to be safe for beginners. Make: Electronics is written for complete beginners: everything is explained clearly, and no prior experience in electronics is required.

I really enjoyed reading this book, learning the basics of electronics, carrying out the experiments, and assembling complete devices from individual components. Electronics became my hobby after that, and I became much more interested in the field. I sincerely recommend this wonderful book.

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What is needed for this?​

First - buy the book.

First of all, you need the book itself. Look for it in local bookstores or get an electronic edition; it is easy to find online. I read the e-book because I couldn’t quickly buy a print copy. The book has three editions. I read the second edition, and the component lists for the experiments below are based on it.

Below are some links where you can purchase Make: Electronics in electronic or print form:

• Make: Electronics (in English) Amazon (2nd Edition), Amazon (3rd Edition), Enbook.cz (3rd edition), Nejlevnejsi-knihy.cz (3rd edition),Bol.com (3rd edition), Ibs.it (3rd edition)

• Make: Elektronik (in German) Amazon (2nd Edition), Amazon (3rd Edition), Depunkt.de, Bol.com, Kobo.com (3rd edition)

• L'électronique en pratique (in French) Bol.com

• Make: Electronica (in Spanish) Bol.com , unfortunately, in Spanish, there is no second edition of the book.

• Eletrônica para Makers: Um manual prático para o novo entusiasta de eletrônica (in Portuguese) Amazon.com.br  is also only the first edition.

• Elektronika. Od praktyki do teorii (in Polish) Empik.com​

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Second - buy components.

In order to plunge into research with the book, you will need tools and electronic components. All needed components are relatively cheap and affordable, and most likely, you will find the majority of what you need in a large specialized electronics store.

Another, simpler option, especially for a beginner, is to buy a ready-made component kit assembled specifically for this book. For example, Chaney Electronics used to sell such kits. However, they are fairly expensive, and the company is located in the USA. I live in Europe, where shipping may be unavailable or can almost double the price of an already expensive kit.

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As a result, I decided to assemble and buy the necessary components myself.

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This was not an easy task for me, I ran into some difficulties in selecting the required components:

• I needed to buy everything in advance because ordering components as you progress through the book is inefficient and adds extra time and shipping costs.

• Because I am a beginner in electronics, as are most readers this book is intended for, the list of required components initially looked intimidating (18 different resistors, 16 different capacitors, and almost a hundred different items for the first 25 experiments).

• Some components were simply unavailable in local stores, or the available versions differed from those specified in the book, and at the time I could not tell whether a different version of a DPDT switch would work for the experiment.

• Some inexpensive components, costing only 1-2 USD, would have had to be ordered from different online stores, which would be inconvenient and uneconomical because of the shipping costs.

• Almost all components, with the exception of wires, were 2-2.5 times more expensive in local stores than the same items on AliExpress. Buying components on AliExpress is a practical option, where you can find practically everything, but the main drawback is delivery time, which can range from 10 to 30 days.

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I decided to pay more and place an order with the local store GME.CZ because I was eager to start reading the book and doing the experiments. I found about 70% of what I needed at GME.CZ and ordered the rest from AliExpress.

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As it turned out later:

• Some of the components, although technically compatible, were inconvenient to work with. The important thing was that I could complete the experiments and continue reading.

• Some additional equipment and accessories could have made circuit assembly significantly easier, even though the book described some of them as optional or did not mention them at all.​