Beginner Hardware development guides

Question

I'm looking to get started with Arduino and I wanted to know any good books out there. Any help would be appreciated

Answer 1

What is your experience level? What types of hardware?

I would probably put "Making Things Talk" close to the top of the list.

Depending on your experience some general electronics books like "The Art of Electronics" and "CMOS Cookbook". An excellent free resource is http://www.allaboutcircuits.com

Answer 2

This is a very good book for complete beginners:

Joe sent me a copy to see what I thought of it.

It's also available with a hardware kit.

Answer 3

"Getting Started with Arduino" by Massimo Banzi, then "Practical Arduino" by Jon Oxer and Hugh Blemings

Answer 4

The question of how best to get started with Arduino is an important topic. Before recommending books, let me suggest a three step approach:

1) Talk with the community. Since you posted here, you are already doing this step.
2) Get your hands dirty as soon as possible, and keep them dirty. Build kits - they allow you to make something cool without understanding all the parts, so you can focus on learning a particular aspect. As you get better, modify kits.
3) Read books and blogs. There is a lot out there for free, and you will soon be spending more than you intended on your new hobby :)

Books to start with is a very active topic on the Arduino News forum. (arduino.cc)

That discussion suggests http://earthshinedesign.co.uk, (go to bottom left, External Links, top link, "The complete Beginners Guide ...") which is a free download. I would suggest trying that.

I tried Getting started with Arduino, and found it OK, but "meh". There is better stuff nowadays. Making Things Talk is well worth the money and pretty basic, but not for complete beginners.

Answer 5

Make: Arduino Bots and Gadgets

You can download it for free.

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Arduino: A Quick-Start Guide by Maik Schmidt

Answer 6

Forrest Mims' books on electronics are great for understanding the basics. For the digital stuff, I find the internet (Google, AVR Freaks, this site, Arduino forums) and the datasheet for your microcontroller to be the best guides.