Gordon McComb has penned 60 books and over a thousand magazine articles. More than a million copies of his books are in print, in over a dozen languages. For 13 years, Gordon wrote a weekly syndicated newspaper column on personal computers. When not writing about hobby electronics and other fun topics, he serves as a consultant on digital cinema to several notable Hollywood clients.

Earl Boysen is an engineer who, after 20 years in the computer-chip industry, decided to slow down and move to a quiet town in Washington. Earl lives in a house he built with a wonderful lady and finds that he is as busy as ever with teaching, writing, house building, and acting.

Want to hook up your home theater system?

Want to fix it so your garage band rocks the neighborhood?

Want to solder the faulty wire on your old phonograph so you can play those 60s albums you’ve kept all this time?

Whether you’re a do-it-yourselfer , hobbyist, or student , this book will turn you on to real-world electronics. It quickly covers the essentials, and then focuses on the how-to instead of theory. It covers:

Fundamental concepts such as circuits, schematics, voltage, safety, and more

Tools of the trade, including multimeters, oscilloscopes, logic probes, and more

Common electronic components (e.g. resistors, capacitors, transistors)

Making circuits using breadboards and printed circuit boards

Microcontrollers (implementation and programming)