Old Book Teardown #9: Basic Electronics – Volumes 1 through 6 (1955) | In The Lab With Jay Jay

I mostly published this ten hour long video just to exasperate Dave Jones. ;)

This post is part of my video blog and you can find more information about this video over here.

You can support this channel on Patreon: patreon.com/JohnElliotV

Silly Job Title: Buzz Boss.

In this video I take a good long hard look at the entirety of this book.

The book is Basic Electronics – Volumes 1 through 6 written by Van Valkenburgh, Nooger and Neville, Inc. and published in 1955.

The book is about the state of electronics at the time it was written. It was commissioned by the United States Navy, who used it to train their technicians. Later, it was released for civilian use.

In the book there is lots of material on vacuum tubes, which were state of the art at the time. The sixth volume adds material on transistors and frequency modulation, which were bleeding edge technology at the time.

I learned heaps from reading this book, particularly about the various types of vacuum tubes (also known as “valves” by the British): diode, triode, tetrode, pentode, and Klystron, among others.

Also I learned that the name “transistor” is a contraction of “transfer resistor”, I didn’t know that!

If you would like to watch this video but don’t have ten hours to spare, you can find out how to increase the playback speed more than 2x on my YouTube hacks page.

The links to archive.org I mention in the video are these:

Also I found PDFs for Volumes 1 through 5 here:

Oh, and the link for Make: magazine is here: https://makezine.com/

Thanks very much for watching! And please remember to hit like and subscribe! :)


Following is a product I use picked at random from my collection which may appear in my videos. Clicking through on this to find and click on the green affiliate links before purchasing from eBay or AliExpress is a great way to support the channel at no cost to you. Thanks!

RV77 4K HDMI USB 2.0 4-Port HDMI KVMThis is an image of the product.

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Tools for IoT Hacking

I’m reading Practical IoT Hacking: The Definitive Guide to Attacking the Internet of Things and it mentioned some equipment I’m interested in:

USB Cables Drawer

I organized my USB cables drawer. Left is USB 2.0, right is USB 3.0. Front is Mini-B and iPhone cables (including Lightening cables), middle is Micro-B (5-pin and 10-pin) and Type-A, back is Type-B. Conspicuously absent are Type-C which are filed in a different drawer. Also front-right are adapters, switches, hubs, and there’s even a USB light in there.

John's USB cables drawer

Extra Content #15: Unboxing of M6013 Capacitance Meter and MESR-100 ESR Meter | In The Lab

This post is part of my video blog and you can find more information about this video over here.

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This is an old video I found while tidying up my files today. I recorded this back in September 2023, around about a year ago. Figured I might as well publish it on Elliot’s Extras.

In this video I unbox my Yum Cha M6013 Capacitance Meter and my Yum Cha MESR-100 ESR Meter. Then I attach some banana plugs to one of my Yum Cha Probe Tweezers.

Thanks very much for watching! And please remember to hit like and subscribe! :)


Following is a product I use picked at random from my collection which may appear in my videos. Clicking through on this to find and click on the green affiliate links before purchasing from eBay or AliExpress is a great way to support the channel at no cost to you. Thanks!

Yum Cha Stainless Steel TrayThis is an image of the product.

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Extra Content #14: Previously Unreleased Content: Cleaning Resistors and Having a Chat | In The Lab

This post is part of my video blog and you can find more information about this video over here.

You can support this channel on Patreon: patreon.com/JohnElliotV

Today I was organising my media files and I found this old video. I recorded this back in August 2023 but I never released it. I think back then I didn’t have this second channel and I decided this video wasn’t good enough for the main channel, so it just kind of got forgotten. But I thought it was fun so I have published it here for the record.

In this video I do a time lapse of me cleaning my resistors. While the time lapse is playing I include a narration in which I discuss things I had been reading at the time. There are two links for the show notes, being these:

Thanks very much for watching! And please remember to hit like and subscribe! :)


Following is a product I use picked at random from my collection which may appear in my videos. Clicking through on this to find and click on the green affiliate links before purchasing from eBay or AliExpress is a great way to support the channel at no cost to you. Thanks!

Yum Cha USB 3.0 Powered 4-Port USB HubThis is an image of the product.

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Extra Content #1: AliExpress diodes | Learning Electronics In The Lab With Jay Jay

This post is part of my video blog and you can find more information about this video over here.

You can support this channel on Patreon: patreon.com/JohnElliotV

This is an old video I released on Elliot’s Extras back in September 2023. It didn’t get a write up on the blog at the time, so just doing that now. In this video, which was the first ever video for Elliot’s Extras, my second channel, I organise some of my diodes from AliExpress. This is a really long and really boring video, a perfect fit for the first Elliot’s Extras video. :)

Thanks very much for watching! And please remember to hit like and subscribe! :)


Following is a product I use picked at random from my collection which may appear in my videos. Clicking through on this to find and click on the green affiliate links before purchasing from eBay or AliExpress is a great way to support the channel at no cost to you. Thanks!

Tungfull TH-161 Rotary Tool Accessory SetThis is an image of the product.notes

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Mail Call #6: More Loot from Amazon and AliExpress! | Learning Electronics In The Lab With Jay Jay

This post is part of my video blog and you can find more information about this video over here.

You can support this channel on Patreon: patreon.com/JohnElliotV

In this video I take a look at the following equipment which arrived in the mail.

The large scales I mention in this video (which can measure up to 30kg) are these ones: Disenkelubo 30kg 1g Electronic Scale.

You can find more info about how to use the screw pitch gauge on YouTube: Stainless Steel Pitch Scale Gauge.

Thanks very much for watching! And please remember to hit like and subscribe! :)


Following is a product I use picked at random from my collection which may appear in my videos. Clicking through on this to find and click on the green affiliate links before purchasing from eBay or AliExpress is a great way to support the channel at no cost to you. Thanks!

JST XH2.54 Pre-crimped Connector KitThis is an image of the product.notes

Let’s go shopping!

Mail Call #5: Loot from Amazon and AliExpress! | Learning Electronics In The Lab With Jay Jay

This post is part of my video blog and you can find more information about this video over here.

You can support this channel on Patreon: patreon.com/JohnElliotV

In this video I take a quick look at a few cheap bits and pieces I picked up from Amazon and AliExpress recently.

The stuff I got from Amazon was:

The stuff I got from AliExpress was:

I’ve got some more loot on order, so stand by for another mail call video soon!

Thanks very much for watching! And please remember to hit like and subscribe! :)


Following is a product I use picked at random from my collection which may appear in my videos. Clicking through on this before purchasing from Amazon, eBay, or AliExpress is a great way to support the channel at no cost to you. Thanks!

Arlec PB91 Plug-In RCD Safety Switch With Surge ProtectorThis is an image of the product.notes

Let’s go shopping!