/hard/ - Hardware General #3

"laern to walk" Edition

>What is hardware general?
Hardware general is a thread to discuss anything pertaining to the more hardware side of technolo/g/y, be it computer architecture, data sheets for that new processor, elecrical engineering, low-level language design, etc. If its /hard/ it belongs on /hard/ware general. It has a sister thread on .

>--------resources-------- digikey.com/
[more to be added if suggested]

--Recommended literature:
"Essentials of Computer Architecture - 2nd Edition" - by Douglas Comer
"Computer Architecture: Fundamentals and Principles of Computer Design - 2nd Edition" - by Joseph D. Dumas II
"Digital Logic and Computer Design" - by M. Morris Mano
[more to be added if suggested]

--Recommended tools:
Logisim (logic circuit simulator) -> cburch.com/logisim/
KiCad (PCB builder) -> kicad-pcb.org/
The general is still a newborn so feel free to suggest changes or improvements, feel free to contribute or help shape it.

Other urls found in this thread:

leeseshia.org/)
oshpark.com/
diagram.com.ua/english/library/elektor-electronics-magazine/
4pcb.com/pcb-prototype-2-4-layer-boards-specials.html
youtube.com/watch?v=FZoBIYFvN7Q
eleccompengineering.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/structured_computer_organization_5th_edition_801_pages_2007_.pdf
wavedrom.com/
twitter.com/NSFWRedditImage

> It has a sister thread
lol

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not sure where to post this QTDDTOT so I will post here.
Anyone know the name for this molex type plug? It is weird and sideways flat

Computer Architecture: A Quantitative Approach is better

Also pick up a (legally free) copy of:

Introduction to Embedded Systems: Architecture, Programming, and Design by Lee and Seshia

From their website

I'll also add that, besides the book-lernin stuff, if you're coming from a background with little combinational logic circuit design, than I'd suggest learning first about how to create truth tables for different logical sentences, then learning how to create a circuit from the results of the truth table via product of sum and sum of product, and then learn some optimization via Karnaugh maps. Also learn how to go from desired output values for different combinations on a truth table to making a logical sentence and circuit

I believe that once you learn these concepts everything else at the logical design level like Computer Architecture, etc. will be relatively easy and not surprise you at all

>Computer Architecture: A Quantitative Approach
>Introduction to Embedded Systems: Architecture, Programming, and Design by Lee and Seshia
noted.

any books or beginer guides for newbies who may visit the thread?

twin thread then?

i'm very thankful for your input, do you happen to have any suggestions as to the order i should organize the reading list in? I hope to organize it in a top-down fasion of increasing difficulty.

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Absolutely start with Computer Organization topics before Computer Architecture

Usually in universities they are offered as a two part deal with Org coming first

It's very rough to jump into comp. arch. without a background in organization, which is logic gate level

After building your combinational logic skills, move to sequential circuit design and working with clocks. After this you'll be a pro at the ultra-low level and ready to tackle computer architecture correctly

I got into circuit design thru Minecraft in 2009 when I started going on Sup Forums

I was in 9th grade at the time and now am a teaching assistant for computer organization and architecture at my university and run an FPGA lab so I've been in the logic gate world for almost my entire CS career, so I cannot think of many ways to get a newbie into the topic besides having a desire to actually want to learn it

learn about binary representation and adders, etc as you're learning combinational logic, I suppose

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lol, why would you need 1,000?

you're gonna have a hard time getting a thread like this to take off on Sup Forums when your average Sup Forums poster is of a rather low caliber
case in point

come join us over in OP

soldering smt components fucking sucks and I wish it hadn't become so popular

can't even circuitbend shit nowadays because of it

wait I think I was in 7th grade

haha shit I didn't even see you linked to /ohm/ in the OP. nevermind.

never know. i only picked up 100.

and 50 for protoboarding

what basic bitch benchtop power supply would you all recommend?
and what are the best bang for your buck used oscilloscopes that I could find on ebay?

Holy shit how does aliexpress get such low prices for components?
Lowest i can get for 50pcs on digikey is 15.16.

you're buying directly from the manufacturers in china, and in bulk

I'm hoping i can make this work. Its definitely gonna be a more Sup Forums-esque version but i'm hoping that if i keep feeding this agar that eventually it'll make some cheese.

sounds damn good, added it to the OP for next thread.

and resources to recommend?

I recommend putting Basic Engineering Circuit Analysis by Irwin and Nelms on there. That's a starter for the analog side of things.

The next step would be an electronics book that uses the mathematical models introduced in the circuits book to model real circuits. Two I've seen suggested and look solid from a scan of the table of contents are

Fundamentals of Microelectronics - Behzad Razavi

Microelectronic Circuits - Adel Sedra, Kenneth Smith

Under IC sources mouser.com. It's worth checking both digikey and mouser for something.

Under tools LT Spice. It runs great under wine by the way. It's the best spice style sim I've used.

i use this hantek with my win10 tablet as a dso.

most of the stuff i look at is low freq.

part of an ltc1799 oscillator I'm making to replace the crystal clock in old electronics for circuit bending practices

man do I wish I had leaded solder because this lead free shit sucks

cheap and does what i need.

wow price going up. was only 40 bucks when i picked up. that was from amazon.

if you use anything other than aliexpress for parts you're a special kind of retarded

OK i organize Literature into Catagores and according to my guess of their relative difficulty in descending order (please correct my mistakes):

--Recommended literature:
---Boolean Logic and Algebra, Discrete Mathematics, etc:
[more to be added if suggested]
---Circuitry:
"Digital Logic and Computer Design" - by M. Morris Mano
"Basic Engineering Circuit Analysis" - by Irwin and Nelms
"Fundamentals of Microelectronics" - by Behzad Razavi
"Microelectronic Circuits" - by Adel Sedra, Kenneth Smith
[more to be added if suggested]
---Computer Architecture
"Essentials of Computer Architecture - 2nd Edition" - by Douglas Comer
"Computer Architecture: Fundamentals and Principles of Computer Design - 2nd Edition" - by Joseph D. Dumas II
"Introduction to Embedded Systems: A Cyber-Physical Systems Approach - Second Edition" - by Edward Ashford Lee and Sanjit Arunkumar Seshia (free pdf at: leeseshia.org/)
"Computer Architecture: A quantitative Approach - 6th Edition" - by David Patterson
[more to be added if suggested]

Also added a section for tutorials or guides for those who wish to get started:

--Where to start:
- Discrete Mathematics and Boolean Algebra
- Electronics Circuits
- Computer Organization
- Computer Architecture
[more to be added if suggested]

Added LTSpice and Mouser elec's.
Here's an anime as a thank you for all the contributions.

Why are there so many Indians in hardware now?

have someone even read all these books or are meme recommendations like the math books at /sci/?

I'm not a troll or something, just really curious because I'd like to learn more about this as my EE degree advances.

Have not seen the first at my school. Most are still in CS

>"Microelectronic Circuits" - by Adel Sedra, Kenneth Smith
This is pure shit

OP here.
So far i've only read Essentials of Computer Architecture. I think its a really good introduction to the computer side of EE since it introduces you to core concepts (like binary, hex, registers, assembly lang, etc). I haven't read the others so i can't be sure about them.

will be removed then. The reading list is not set in stone so i'll add and remove as necessary.

mags

What's the cheapest PCB printing service?

still in publishing or no?

oshpark.com/
its KiCAD compatible so all you need to do is make the board, upload the diagram, and wait a couple of months. They ain't fast but they cheap. 2-layer prototype is 5$ per square inch for 2 boards.

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these look like they come from the 80's but they're new.
Any online magazines?

look at the date on the cover

they have articles like this

sadly a lot of the us mags are gone (popular electronics, radio-electronics).

>not suggesting Patterson & Hennessy books
Absolutely haram

Don't forget to include eagle in there, it's free for students and it's pretty nice to use.

Mouser and aliexpress are nice places to buy your shit from too.

Make your own power supply out of an old computer psu, this should be more than enough for a beginner.
As for an oscilloscope, those cheap diy kits from aliexpress should cover the basics for you until you really feel the need for something better (at this point, you'll know pretty well what you'll need and won't need to ask for recommendations).

dirtypcbs.com and jlcpcb.com are cheap and somewhat reliable

I can recommend razavi it's a pretty comfy book

there's a lot of books, which one(s) specifically?

>Patterson and Hennessy books
what books specifically, we making the book list concise.
>eagle
you mean EagleCAD right?

Yes, but you're not a good goyim, and you're not going to pay 5 bucks for a 5 year old magazine.
diagram.com.ua/english/library/elektor-electronics-magazine/

das right

For a 60 sq in board, Advanced Circuits will seel you one for $33 (if you are a student minimum on the order is 1, otherwise it is 4) 4pcb.com/pcb-prototype-2-4-layer-boards-specials.html

oshpark.com is pretty GOAT

then you get to the chinese manufacturers such as seeed studio and which is super cheap and slow, but tends to have lead finishes (Not RoHS compliant).

Depends shipping, quality, size and quantity. Try using pcbshopper . com. oshpark is fast if you're on the US west coast, but quote expensive for anything but small boards. Chinese manufacturers will typically be cheapest. You can get 10 medium sized boards from china with a two week shipping time for less than $25.

>what books specifically, we making the book list concise.
"computer organization and design the hardware/software interface" is my favorite one
>you mean EagleCAD right?
I've known it as EAGLE my entire life. If you're talking about the CAD software recently acquired by Autodesk, then yes, that's the one.

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"Fundamentals of Electric Circuits" by Charles K. Alexander and Matthew N.O. Sadiku is pretty good for circuits and EE related stuff - My university uses it to teach other engineering majors all about EE stuff.

"The Art of Electronics" by Paul Horowitz and Winfield Hill is too famous to not have in a list of hardware.

this one looks interesting

One last resource that may be useful - octopart .com compares a lot of the distributors like Mouser and Digikey.

Just found this guy
youtube.com/watch?v=FZoBIYFvN7Q

>It is weird and sideways flat
>sideways flat

what are you trying to make? almost all electrical designs can be done with minimal dip components and perfboards as long as ur not going into uhf speeds .

Can I download manga guide anywhere?

add "Structured Computer Organization" from Tanenbaum

the 5th edition can be directly downloaded here:eleccompengineering.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/structured_computer_organization_5th_edition_801_pages_2007_.pdf

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free parts

>de-soldering parts that cost a fraction of a cent
Honestly, I do it too to satisfy my OCD.
But it is pretty retarded.

I want to 3D print and build a diy tablet. Is this a right place to look for a help?

Besides designing the case it looks so far as it's going to be mostly finding compatible parts on Chinese websites and 2nd hand stuff.
I want to make it a super 2in1 that'd be an android tablet but also would have a docking station with windows.

I also thought about making the tablet a screen when docked to the mini-itx docking station.

So far I managed to plan stuff like
Monitor
>TTL tablet screen + TTL to hdmi+vga chinese board
Tablet mobo
>Going to salvage something at a local computer market
Case
>3D printed

Docking station
>Simply a 3D printed mini-itx case with the hardest part the connector to the screen.

How crazy am I and how feasible is that?
Difficulty-wise, it seems only a bit more complex than rasperry pi projects that'd you find on hackaday. Just time and money consuming.

Are you talking about an actual portable tablet?
Even mini-ITX is pretty big for that.
And you also have to think about the power supply.

Tablet+Screen part would use a 2nd hand android tablet that'd be fitted or something along these lines.

Mini-itx would go to the bottom. They're tiny so 6-8cm height and width would depend on the screen size.

>And you also have to think about the power supply.
I found some small power supplies. They might be not enough to make a gaming monster out of the itx/dock part but I don't mind.

The project evolved from an idea to fit a modern computer into a Toshiba T3200/T1100 as they had a high part behind screen. But then I realized if I'm going to 3D print stuff, then why not print the whole thing. Also I love convertible laptops, but they lack performance I need at home.

Arrow has 10% off everything with the code MARCH10

Post your home etched PCBs

>pcb

this is how you wire perfboards

Is there any market for an EE that wants to work in this field?
Is it worth it to get a master/phd? if so in what areas?

Oh shit, I used that book in my first year of college. It was really good.

bump

bump

you're going to be hard pressed to find a job without a master/phd in this field

I don't think I've ever had anything ship this fast before

now the other half of the shit I ordered, the things I actually need for my projects, are gonna take weeks to ship

It's always like that.

And when you finally have everything, you'll notice you'll need an additional part.

ayy I forgot to post the picture with this

I just know I'm gonna run out of pots by like just one or something and I'll have to shovel out at the Friendly Neighborhood Electronics Shop for like $2 a pot

Is embedded systems a good carrier choice? I have a degree in CS and a developer job but I find it pretty boring and want to switch over to something interesting. My only experience with embedded systems is a few arduino projects tho.

no more run down the street to get some quickie parts.

I wish I would've gotten into electronics sooner

logisim for logic and toy for machine code
what's a good gateway into fpga?

I have a Microcenter 5 minutes away from me, it has a whole section dedicate to electronics. The section is about the size of a Radio Shack store, no cell phones to be found, just normal components +microprocessors and IOT stuff that would of kept Radio Shack alive.

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Not bad. How do you do it?

toner transfer

Still logisim, it's the same stuff pretty much. Logisim evolution has tools to program FPGAs.

wavedrom.com/
For timing diagrams.

Logic Friday for truthtables and gatediagrams.

free if your time is worthless

Who VHDL or Verilog here? Do you have a job using these languages?

christ, thought that was labview.

Where can I get a few PCBs made? Every website I visit wants me to make a few hundred, but I only really want maybe ten or fewer.

i worked for one chip company. about 95% of the designs were verilog, 5% were vhdl.

its been popular for decades

i'd add "Digital Fundamentals" by Floyd. it's a beginner textbook for digital electronics.

PSA: ALIEXPRESS IS NOT A GOOD SOURCE FOR PARTS.

Once you've been around the block a time or two, you find that dealing with counterfeit components really is not worth your time.
For a hobbyist, I recommend JoeKnowsElectronics on Amazon for resistors and capacitors. Digikey/Mouser/Arrow for the rest.
Arrow has free overnight shipping.