Fantastic book.

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Make: Electronics learning through discovery - this is a wonderful book by English writer Charles Platt that enables the absolute beginner in electronics to plunge into the fascinating world of resistors, transistors, and electricity.

This book "Make Electronics" is built on the principle of "study through discovery" i.e. you study electronics and electricity through practical experiments, literally tasting electricity (all experiments in the book are safe).

I enjoyed reading the book, studying the basics of electronics, and conducting experiments. Electronics became my hobby after that. I sincerely recommend you to get acquainted with this wonderful book.

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What is needed for this?

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First - buy the book.

First of all, you need the book itself. Look for it in your bookstores or download it (I read the e-book because I couldn’t quickly buy a paper version). The book has 3 editions, my experience and descriptions below is related to the second edition.

Below are some links where you can purchase the book "Make Electronics", as an e-book as hard copy:

• Make: Electronics (in English) Amazon(2nd Edition), Amazon(3d Edition), Enbook.cz, Bookshop.cz, Nejlevnejsi-knihy.cz, Bol.com (2nd edition), Bol.com (3d edition), Ibs.it(3d edition)

• Make: Elektronik (in German) Amazon(2nd Edition), Amazon (3d Edition), Depunkt.de, Bol.com, Kobo.com(3d edition)

• L'électronique en pratique (in French) Bol.com

• Make: Electronica (in Spanish) Bol.com , unfortunately, in Spanish there is no second edition of the book.

• Eletrônica para Makers: Um manual prático para o novo entusiasta de eletrônica (in Portuguese) Amazon.com.br  is also only the first edition.

• Elektronika. Od praktyki do teorii (in Polish) Empik.com

• Электроника для начинающих (in Russian) Ozon.ru, Oz.by, kabalka-book.com. You can find it also on LitRes.ru, but there is only the first edition.​

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Second - buy components.

In order to plunge into research with the book, you will need tools and electronic components. All needed components are relatively cheap and affordable, and most likely you will find the majority of what you need in a large specialized electronics store.

Another, simpler way, especially for a beginner, is to buy a pre-assembled set of components compiled specifically for this book, for example, this one: from Chaney electronics (experiments 1-11, experiments 12-14, experiments 15-24). But firstly, it’s not cheap, and secondly, these guys are located in the USA. I am living in Europe and delivery is either impossible or almost doubles the price of the already quite expensive set, so it was not an option for me.

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As a result, I decided to assemble and buy the necessary components myself.

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This was not an easy task for me, I ran into some difficulties in selecting the required components:

• I needed to buy everything at the start because ordering components as I read is completely unreasonable, I will spend extra time and money for delivery.

• because I am a beginner (and most readers of the book) in the field of electronics and I was scared by the list of required components (18 different resistors, 16 different capacitors, the total number of various positions for the first 25 experiments almost a hundred!).

• some of the components were simply not available in local stores, or they were different from what was needed, and I couldn’t understand at that time whether the different version of the DPDT switch was suitable for the experiment.

• part of the components (small, at a cost of 1-2 USD) would have to be ordered in different online stores in the country, which is completely inconvenient due to the extra cost of delivery.

• almost all components (with the exception of wires) in local stores were 2-2.5 times more expensive compared to exact same ones, in the AliExpress store. Of course, you can and should buy components on AliExpress where you can find literally everything there, but the main drawback is the delivery time, it could take from 10 to 30 days.

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I decided to overpay and place an order at a local GME.CZ store is really eager to start reading and studying. In this store, I found 70% of the required, and ordered the rest on AliExpress.

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As it turned out later:

• with a part of the components (although technically they were compatible), it was not convenient to work, but most importantly, I performed experiments and continued reading.

• the presence of some additional equipment and accessories could significantly simplify the assembly of circuits, despite the fact that the book "Make Electronics" stated that it was optional or even nothing was said about it.

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How many experiments are there?

There are 34 experiments in the book.

If you buy pre-assembled sets of components, then all of them cover the need for only the first 25 experiments. It makes sense as from the 26th experiment, specific components are required (a permanent magnet in the form of a cylinder, a huge amount of wire, etc.).

Buying the components yourself for fewer experiments than 25 - makes no sense at all! These experiments are the minimum that will allow you to enjoy the book and learn the basics of electronics, but for the rest of the experiments, you will decide whether it is worth buying the necessary components.

I want to turn your attention to the fact that the purchased components, and especially the tools, will definitely be useful to you at home, even if the electronics do not become part of your life (which is very unlikely :)).

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Help me to choose, what I really need!

Below I have compiled a table where you will find a list of components and tools that you will need to perform experiments 1-25 of the second edition of the book "Make Electronics", including soldering of finished devices.

I have bought and sincerely recommend you buy everything you need in the AliExpress store. You will never find such a good price in local stores, and the product quality sold by trusted sellers (via links) is very good.

The tables below provide a list of components, the number of items you need, links to the described product, and the alternative link if the main link does not work. Also in the "Comment" field, I turn your attention to some important nuances of the selected position.

The information below is divided into 3 blocks:

1. Absolutely necessary components and tools, without which you will not be able to perform experiments from the book. (I also included components for assembling and soldering a security alarm circuit in experiment 18 (without an alarm body frame) since assembling such a device on a circuit board is a very important skill and a lot of attention is paid to it in the book)

2. Highly recommended components and tools to facilitate circuit assembly and increase comfort.

3. Optional tools and materials that would be nice to have, but it's up to you. There will also be optional components for completion of experiment 18 - burglar alarms (enclosure, buttons, and connectors on the alarm body frame).

All necessary components and tools are mentioned below with additional comments, nuances, quantified and links where to buy you can freely find in this Google-Document.

I really hope that this information you will find helpful.