Classics.

I sometimes post little blurbs about cool books from my library as a nod to the time when information had to be searched out, checked out, bought, and pored over.  I’ll admit I have a soft spot for old technical how-to and reference books.

I remember going to the library and digging through the periodicals in the science and tech sections and spending a day and $35.00 in dimes to copy articles of interest that I thought would come in handy down the road.  I still have a copy of Fred Cohen’s paper, Computer Viruses – Theory and Experiments written in 1984, which had just been published and that, at the time, I considered a minor coup in obtaining.

For me, the access to information is what keeps me excited about everything.  I have been a collector of information my whole life.  My engineering and design library is pretty extensive but, as the Internet becomes the repository for information, my technical book-buying has diminished.  The last book I have recently purchased is Python Web Development with Django, which, truth be told, the information contained therein could easily be found on the web with a few minutes of Google searching.  We all have our reasons for choosing to purchase a bound copy of information which, most likely, is readily available online, but, for me, the physical manifestation of information, presented in a book that lies open on your workbench or beside your computer, always seems to be preferable to flipping back and forth between your project and a PDF open on your screen.

I digress.

Bob Middleton’s Handbook of Electronic Time-Savers and Shortcuts (Prentice Hall Electronics Library)  is one of those books you simply must have in your hands as a physical book.  This is one of those handbooks so useful and so full of little-known tricks that to own it instantly makes you a better engineer.

Published in 1987, this book is solidly based in the analog world but also includes and extensive Digital Section in part two.

Now, what makes this book classic is the fact that Middleton presents solid, hands-on troubleshooting, testing, gotchas, and insider tricks for digging deep into circuits (at the component-level) that may (or may not) be faulty.  For anyone who hacks old gear or restores surplus equipment, this book is an absolute must.

Not only does the book cover troubleshooting in detail, it also shows you how to build bench-top test equipment and circuits from the stuff you have lying around.  Middleton shows you how to use your Multimeter, Ammeter, VOM, and signal sources to actually find circuit breakdowns the old-school way.  Engineering school never once showed you these techniques.  Trust me.  Case in point? Measuring Inductance.  Do you know how to get a quick measurement of the inductance of a transformer winding?

In the figure below, the inductor to be checked is connected in series with the resistor decade box.  You measure the voltage across the inductor and the voltage across the decade box with and AC DVM.  Then you compare these readings and change the resistance value until the two voltages are the same.

This gives you a quick and easy way to find the inductance which is sufficient for most electrical work.  Of course, EE will show you how to measure this value to the 1000th of a henry but who the hell cares?  When you are attempting to resurrect an old 150W tube amp, you don’t.

Here is another:  Turnover is often encountered in troubleshooting AC circuits.  Turnover occurs in a test situation if the meter reading on your AC voltmeter changes when its test leads are reversed. Look at the waveform in the picture:

Since this is an AC waveform, there is just as much electric charge in its positive excursion as in its negative excursion.  The average value of the AC waveform is zero. When the meter leads are applied one way, you may measure the positive-peak voltage.  When you reverse the meter leads, you will then  be measuring the negative-peak voltage of the waveform.  However, since the positive-peak voltage is greater than its negative-peak voltage, neither of the readings is the actual peak voltage of the waveform, because it has two different peak voltages.

The book is full of practical circuit analysis examples such as these.  I find myself, to this day, going back to this book when working on any type of circuit.  The cover price in 1987? $16.95.  Money well-spent considering my student budget-lifestyle back then.  Middleton also provides incredible depth to his digital section, even though you would imagine that a book written in ’87 on digital circuits would be hopelessly out of date.  Not so.  Aside from the BASIC programs illustrating solving RC integrating networks – a feat of programming prowess that is almost laughable at this point in time – there are still plenty of TTL and CMOS packages out there and the ability to find burned pinouts or problems with circuits exposed to high humidity using digital mapout troubleshooting procedures will make you the hero of your hackerspace today.

This is a book you can find used sometimes;  I’ve seen copies for as low as $3.00. Unfortunately,  it’s been out-of-print for awhile.  A quick Google search didn’t produce the results I was hoping for.  I found the book listed here but, until I uploaded the cover photo to this link, there really is no other information available about this piece of information gold.