Like many of us [AnotherMaker] is a fan of the classic Forrest Mims electronics books, specifically, the Engineer’s Mini-Notebook series. They were great sources of inspiration, but at the time, he couldn’t afford to actually build most of the circuits described. Now as an adult, he decided to go through the 555 Timer IC Circuits Mini-Notebook, full of example circuits and explanations, all in Mims’ trademark handwritten style, and build all the circuits for real. And so, a series of YouTube videos are currently being released going over every circuit, how it works, and looking at waveforms on an oscilloscope!
So, PCBs were designed, each containing four of the circuits from the book. With the Mims circuit diagram on one side of the screen and the PCB on the other, [AnotherMaker] goes into a good amount of detail explaining how each circuit works, referring to the schematic and oscilloscope as needed. Each part in the series focuses on the next circuits in order, and eventually the whole series will cover every single circuit in the book.
It’s a great series of videos for anyone learning electronics, especially those who would like to learn about one of the most produced integrated circuits of all time! It’s also an excellent way to bring a fresh perspective to this classic book, while simultaneously bringing the content to a wider audience via online video.
I had the original Engineers Notebook. I built a number of projects, but the one I never did build was the LED o-scope! I need to add that to my bucket list!
Careful with that one! If it’s the 4017-based one wider than 10LEDs there may be a design-flaw in the daisychaining of the 4017’s!
I still have all the radio Shack electronic manuals including some of the electronic kits
I would love to get the one for computing with the little microcontroller on it I can’t remember the name of it I’d love to get that thing.
The video has ads, any money going to Forrest? Want to give back, remove the ads.
I’ve reached out to him. I have a few mutual friends.
Thats great!
That makes you one of the better ones.
He and I have conversed over the years and I owe him so much as he has been a major influence in my lifes direction
The man is an absolute legend. I knew he was to me, but the comments from the video have been wonderful. I really hope he does get to see them. I’m sure people say nice things to him all the time, but still…it’s so cool to see.
I’ll also add that I have over 50 hours up to this point in making the PCBs and the videos and I’m only half way done. The $12 from adsense and PCBWay funding won’t cover a small fraction of the time cost of making the content.
Youtube still places ads even if a channel has monetization off. Giving back doesn’t have to be de-valued for covering a fraction of the costs. It’s still primarily volunteer work and from the video comments, it doesn’t seem like people mind the ads for the nostalgia they clicked for.
That’s great! Thanks for letting us know!
Could have done it with a, oh, wait.
C’mon! Out with it!
Don’t leave us in suspense!
What are those little chips called anyway? Keep forgetting….
Neat learning project. Long time since I worked with a 555. Actually my senior electronics project in ’86 was last time I used one. Ironically I have a couple plastic drawers full of 555s and 556s … Need to find a use for them :) .
An ATMega 328P!
I absolutely love how creative the designs in these books are. I had to buy the whole lot again for nostalgic purposes.
Many years ago I needed a way to switch the output of a large car stereo amp to a resistor bank, at turn on, for a few seconds. The turn on thump was horrible.
Used a circuit from Mr Mims book to do it. Ad a driver circuit to feed a large relay, etc..
All the info to do it was in that book.
Thanks Mr Mims!
I had the full set of mini notebooks and the larger green one… a fantastic range of informative notebooks that were a lot less intimidating than textbooks… it made learning feel… ?softer? less formal, something that could be done for fun, not forced. I have a lot to thank his style for!