Best books and Kit

Hi Steve,

Regarding books, I like books that don't 'dumb-down' yet are easy to read. I'd suggest an old book called 'The Art of Electronics'. It is old, but the information is still relevant, and there is no other book I'm aware of that is as practical yet still explains theory briefly (so that you can research the theory in detail elsewhere).

It is an expensive book but worth it (it is rather thick and full of useful information) and has high resale value if you don't like it (I've not met anyone who did not like this book).

As for tools, I think an oscilloscope is virtually essential (even an old, slow one from ebay is better than nothing) even for near-beginners. I'd recommend a straight analog one, rather than the small 'pocket' scopes, which may confuse people who are not familiar with bandwidth, sample rate and filtering. An old scope is still a cost of £100+ though, so it may put off complete beginners unless they feel they are committed.

As for mechanical tools (for building things), the cost can grow rapidly too : ( If you don't want to spend too much and already have the basics like wirecutters, etc.,

then how about tweezers (for surface mount), a scalpel knife (cut tracks and all sorts of general work), thin desolder braid (extremely useful) and a small magnfier with light (could be a cheap pocket one).

Steve,

Books are a difficult one, there's such a wide range of things to cover and the subject can rapidly get complex. For example, most of my books from college start on page one by throwing you into the shark infested waters of complex notation, trig and other high level maths that looks very intimidating. Unfortunately it's all relevant.

As for tools, while I generally agree with shabaz I'd say a lot depends on how serious you are. If you are serious, then the advice is likely to be that if you already have soldering iron and multimeter, go buy better ones

Get a manual spring loaded desolder pump (or better, a proper vacuum driven one), a solderless breadboard for prototyping with pin-through-hole stuff.

While a scope is a good investment, they still cost a lot even on places like ebay.  If you're going to be doing largely digital stuff (very common these days) then why not try something like a Open Logic Sniffer (http://dangerousprototypes.com/open-logic-sniffer/) instead ?  While it's true a logic analyser can be a tad complex, so can a scope for someone who's not used one before and the OLS is effectively a (very cheap) digital-only scope with a few very useful features that don't tend to appear on scopes that cost less than a car.

One thing that will probably prove invaluable is a reasonable, adjustable, bench PSU that has it's own voltage and current meters, ideally with adjustable current limit.

If you're going to do a lot of surface mount stuff, I can easily recommend getting a second soldering iron. Or if you're serious enough, a proper hot air pencil.

As shabaz points out you can quickly spend a small fortune. Whatever you do, try to buy decent quality tools - it really is worth it in the end.