Is there a Harvard course based on the book that I can take?
A reader asked: “What is the name of the summer course? When is the summer course? How many hours is the course – cost? Is it too late to sign up.”
Unfortunately, the only way to take the course based on Learning the Art of Electronics at Harvard is to be enrolled as a student. (The course is also taught in some form at University of Maryland and possibly at Stanford University in the EE Makerspace).
The course used to be taught by me in-person in Cambridge, MA, as a seven-week summer session by Harvard Summer School
and during the term, also in-person, by someone else in the Harvard Extension School
https://extension.harvard.edu/academics/programs/take-a-course/#courses-designed-for-impact
I stopped teaching summer school in 2017 and as far as I know it is no longer available in the summer program. I believe the person teaching it during the term as an evening class stopped when the school insisted he could only teach it remotely. (As you can imagine it is not a course that lends itself to remote teaching – although I did teach it for two terms remotely during COVID as a normal Harvard course, but only the digital portion of the book).
Harvard’s PHYS S-12, taught by Nathan Melenbrink and available in the Summer and Extension School covers some simple electronics in addition to 3-D printing, laser cutting and other fabrication techniques. It is not based on our book but is a fun course to take if you live nearby.
You might want to check your local community college or adult education to see what they offer. Also, in the current world there are a huge number of online resources including videos that could help you tackle it on your own.
Finally, I just gave my step-nephews an Arduino and a Raspberry Pi for their birthdays. Both (but particularly the Arduino when paired with the https://store.arduino.cc/products/arduino-sensor-kit-base) is a fun and easy way to get into embedded computer programming.
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Can you recommend any all-in-one test equipment?
A reader asks:
“I’d like to know if you guys can suggest a good mini lab kit to give me the capability of a freq gen, a oscilloscope, a digital signal monitor, a power supply . all in one. I’ve seen this devices used in university courses used in engineering schools.”
My response:
The one I am familiar with is the Digilent Discovery
https://digilent.com/shop/analog-discovery-3/
https://digilent.com/shop/analog-discovery-3-pro-bundle/
which runs about $380 to $410.
It uses a computer for control and display through USB.
It includes a (approx.) 25Mhz scope, a variable +/- 0.5 to +/-5V power supply (at 800mA max), and a dual channel 12Mhz waveform generator at up to +/-5V.
I am not a great fan of these because of the limited range of the function generator and power supply and the need to use a computer for control but Harvard did send them to students for home use in their undergraduate lab course during the time we were remote because of COVID.
You can find the earlier version (analog discovery 2) on eBay for somewhat less. I have attached an evaluation of Digilent’s openscope product I looked at in 2020 when I was trying to find something to send to students who had to work remotely. It is similar to the analog discovery product.
Digilent has a new product with an included scope, function generator, multimeter, power supply breadboard that looks much more capable (variable up to +/-15V power supply) coming out in June but there is no pricing on it yet:
https://digilent.com/shop/adsmax/
My guess is it will be more expensive than the analog discovery 3.
For my classes taught during COVID, I sent students a 20Mhz two-channel picoscope – https://www.picotech.com/oscilloscope/2000/picoscope-2000-overview (again controlled through USB). It includes a function generator as well but it is limited to an output of +/-2V. The price has gone up enough since then that the low-cost scopes in my oscilloscope post are probably better choices.
I did find this on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Oscilloscope-Plus-Function-Generator-Rechargeble/dp/B09SSC5ZKP
It has a built-in display but again is quite limited. The power supply is +/-5V and 3.3V fixed and there is no specification on current output capability, scope bandwidth or function generator output range.
I am not sure what you plan to use this equipment for (the experiments in our book?) or what your budget is but personally, I would recommend scouring eBay for more capable used equipment. I bought three of my favorite HP triple-output power supplies for about $150 and sold one to a friend for $50. I bought an older, higher output triple-output supply for $50 on eBay as well. As long as you are willing to wait, in my experience eBay often has some bargains. My function generator was a closeout at about $170 and is very capable. (However, I did talk my wife into giving me a very nice oscilloscope as a birthday present <g>.)
You can buy what looks like a reasonable oscilloscope for about $180 new (see my comments at https://learningtheartofelectronics.com/a-reader-asked-about-oscilloscopes/ ) . The FNIRSI has a built in 2MHz (10Mhz for sine waves) function generator (but the specifications do not say what the output range is.)
2025-06-01 Update
Analog Devices also has an all-in-one USB connected device, the ADALM2000 Advanced Active Learning Module. It includes a two-channel 25Mhz oscilloscope, a 30MHz function generator, a logic analyzer, and a +/- 0 to 5V @50mA power supply for about $232. The function generator is limited to +/-5V output. A $38 power booster board provides +/- 0 to 5V supplies at 400mA or – 1.5V to -15V and +1.5 to +15V power outputs at 700mA. (Interestingly , the power booster appears to be open source, the Analog Device page for it includes schematics and Gerber PCB files.) Again, these types of devices seem limited to me and you are dependent on the vendor for the PC software.
Read MoreDo I need to buy The Art of Electronics and what about parts kits?
A reader asked:
I have 2 questions about the book. I was looking on the LAoE website and it said that it’s a companion book to the book “The art of electronics”. Does this mean that I need to get both books? I have the LAoE already but not the “The art of electronics”. Since I don’t have a background in electronics I just want to make sure that I’m getting everything. My second question is about the parts list. I’ve noticed that its quite extensive and it requires getting parts from multiple websites and vendors, what I’d like to know is would a electronics kit with different electronic parts be acceptable or do I need to get the exact parts listed in the parts list?
My reply:
You do not have to buy The Art of Electronics, nor should you as a beginner. AoE is a reference compendium of electronic devices and circuits while LAoE is a set of labs to try those circuits and devices out. But LAoE is complete itself; it explains the devices and circuits it uses so you do not need any additional texts. Once you are familiar with the contents of LAoE you might consider AoE if you want more depth or more complexity. We have included notations in LAoE to particular sections of AoE for people who have both or want more information but you can just ignore those.
We have tried to get as many parts as possible from a single source (Digikey) but some items either were out of stock when we made up the parts list (you might want to check again when you put together an order) or are only available elsewhere (the FPGA for example). Electronics kits for the capacitors and resistors should work fine (although most resistor kits don’t include parts over 1M Ohm – check to be sure since a few labs use a 10M resistor) and general kits may include op amps and transistors that can be substituted but we haven’t tested them and as a beginner it may be difficult to tell if something is similar enough to work.
On the other hand, you don’t have to do every experiment/lab in the book or at least not all at once. For example, you might want to do the digital chapters 14 through 19 first so you only need those parts to start (and with only a few exceptions the parts in the digital parts list all are available from Digikey). I taught the second half of the book remotely during COVID and had to send parts kits to my students and it was not an unreasonable number of items. Many of the oddball parts are only used in one or two labs so you can skip those if you don’t have the part (see High Cost Parts).
Read MoreWhy are there two columns for prices in the parts list?
A reader was confused by the two price columns in the parts lists. He was unsure which applied to a hobbyist wanting to do the experiments in the book.
I replied:
There are two price columns for almost every part on each Parts List. The first is the single quantity price (“Price (Qty 1) $US”) which you need to multiply by the “Qty Needed” column value to see how many you need to buy and what it will cost for a single person to do the labs. The “Qty Price $US” and “Qty” (which is the number of parts you get for the listed Qty Price) columns are for institutions equipping a lab for multiple students who plan to buy in quantity for teaching the book as a course to large number of students.
For example, the first item on the Analog Parts list is the 6.3V Transformer which cost $11.72 for a single purchase in Feb 2025. You only need one of these to do the labs that require it. However, a university lab such as the one I taught in is not going to buy just one, rather they might choose to buy 25 of them for $253.29, thus saving a bit under $40.
You can also save money by excluding some higher cost parts that are only used in one or two labs. For example, the LTC1150 op amp is $12.52 but is only used in a single lab in Chapter 7L. Another reader asked which items these are and we have now published a list to help you decide which (if any) of the more expensive parts you may not want to purchase by skipping the lab or labs that use it.
Read MoreA reader asked if he could skip purchasing some of the more expensive parts
A reader asked: “The parts lists are essential resources, thank you for making them available. It would be very helpful for planning purposes if the lists also identified which labs use the less routine and more expensive parts (as you already do in some cases), especially for hobbyists such as myself.”
In response, I added a page to the web site listing the more expensive parts and where they are used. I also discuss which of them you can consider skipping to save some money and which are more important.
https://learningtheartofelectronics.com/about-the-book/parts-lists/high-cost-parts/
Read MoreSome advice on buying an oscilloscope
A reader asked what “[w]hat would be a good [oscilloscope] (hopefully economical) that would be able to handle your course and build my own headphone amplifier/preamp and “stomp boxes” for an electric guitar? What do I need to consider when purchasing a capable, reliable oscilloscope? Is there a particularly good place to purchase one?”
Here is my answer:
There is some information on oscilloscopes in the online chapter:
https://laoe.link/appendix/Appendix_F_Equipment.pdf
but ultimately it depends on your budget and needs. The audio devices you list do not require an expensive oscilloscope. Nor are they likely to require more than two channels (a few of the experiments in the book are easier to debug and understand with a four-channel scope). You can get a very inexpensive two-channel scope suitable for audio work for under $100 (some as low as $38 – https://www.amazon.com/FNIRSI-DSO-510-Oscilloscope-Generator-Automotive/dp/B0DJX6W58S/ – 10MHz is adequate for audio work):
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=oscilloscope
These are hand-held, with a small display but should be sufficient if your budget is limited. (I have no personal experience with them so I cannot recommend a particular unit.) Cheaper handheld scopes are usually limited in bandwidth and may be limited in sensitivity (the smallest voltage signal they can display) so it depends on if you want to look at something like the output of a guitar pickup (a very low voltage) or not.
Moving up, you probably want at a minimum a 100Mhz scope for the digital half of the book and to see the parasitic oscillations discussed in Chapter 9. I am familiar with Siglent scopes (I bought a dozen of the 2000 series for my lab at Harvard ). This 1000 series, 4-channel, 100MHz scope for $500 is a very capable scope that should get you through all the experiments in the book.
https://www.amazon.com/Siglent-SDS1104X-oscilloscope-channels-standard/dp/B0771N1ZF9/
You can also get a two-channel scope for less from other vendors, but I am unfamiliar with the brands or their products.
https://www.amazon.com/Hantek-DSO2D15-Digital-Storage-Oscilloscope/dp/B08MDSG839/ ($225 for 2 channels, 150Mhz)
https://www.amazon.com/FNIRSI-1014D-Dual-Channel-Oscilloscope-Generator-Bandwidth/dp/B097T5NRTZ/ ($180 for two channels, 100Mhz)
https://www.amazon.com/HANMATEK-Bandwidth-Oscilloscope-Channels-Professional/dp/B0833YFNKP ($170 for two channels; $240 for four channels, 100Mhz/110Mhz)
These include a built-in signal generator (which tend to be limited in amplitude but could be adequate for what you are doing).
All of these are incredibly powerful tools at prices an order of magnitude less than what was available when analog scopes ruled the earth.
I like Amazon because I have Prime so shipping is free and they are very generous with returns, but you may be able to find them elsewhere for less. You might want to make a decision soon because when stock runs out the next batch will probably cost more due to Trump’s tariffs on China (most likely all of the scopes listed above come from there).
Links and prices as of May 2025
Update 2025-05-16
The latest bonus edition of Elektor (free to download) has a review of one of the low-cost ($85 at Amazon) hand-held scopes on p22.
https://www.elektormagazine.com/files/attachment/61810
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