26-05-2020, 05:52 AM
(This post was last modified: 26-05-2020, 05:54 AM by Diabolical Artificer.)
The Art of Electronics is ok, but I wouldn't call it a beginners book, it's more for intermediate's, still it's not bad. I had/have a few issue's with it; they don't give answers to the questions set at the end of each chapter, also there's a few circuits in there that don't work. Also the Radio Designers Handbook is very dry. When I read it at first I just tuned out, too much heavy maths, it's hardwork, though it is the Bible for valves.
There are several free online sources Rob, The Valve Wizard - http://www.valvewizard.co.uk/for one, it's written in an easily understandable manner, there's also the AX84 project - http://ax84.rru.com/ that is aimed at begginers,here's a load more - Aitkin amplifiers - http://www.aikenamps.com/index.php/white-papers and - Lenard - http://lenardaudio.com/ some good stuff here - http://www.angelfire.com/electronic/funw...Heart.html too. Also try typing "valve/tube amplifier PDF" into your saearch engine, there's tons of free stuff out there.
When I started learning this stuff I read a lot of these papers and articles, it wasn't untill I built a simple valve tester (emision) that it all started to make sense though. When I applied a varaible negative DC voltage to a valve grid and saw the current change, it started to click, so I'd recommend getting a few old EF80's, I have a few you can have (as have we all), knocking up a PSU or two then apply some of the bumf on the bench.
Yep, by all means have a go, don't worry about making mistakes, in fact make as many mistakes as you can, you learn more that way & valves are hard to blow up, also trannys are cheap especially if you pull em out of old consumer gear, in no time you have enough caps etc to keep you busy.
Andy.
There are several free online sources Rob, The Valve Wizard - http://www.valvewizard.co.uk/for one, it's written in an easily understandable manner, there's also the AX84 project - http://ax84.rru.com/ that is aimed at begginers,here's a load more - Aitkin amplifiers - http://www.aikenamps.com/index.php/white-papers and - Lenard - http://lenardaudio.com/ some good stuff here - http://www.angelfire.com/electronic/funw...Heart.html too. Also try typing "valve/tube amplifier PDF" into your saearch engine, there's tons of free stuff out there.
When I started learning this stuff I read a lot of these papers and articles, it wasn't untill I built a simple valve tester (emision) that it all started to make sense though. When I applied a varaible negative DC voltage to a valve grid and saw the current change, it started to click, so I'd recommend getting a few old EF80's, I have a few you can have (as have we all), knocking up a PSU or two then apply some of the bumf on the bench.
Yep, by all means have a go, don't worry about making mistakes, in fact make as many mistakes as you can, you learn more that way & valves are hard to blow up, also trannys are cheap especially if you pull em out of old consumer gear, in no time you have enough caps etc to keep you busy.
Andy.
