New Book Teardown #1: The Art of Electronics 3rd Edition (2015) | In The Lab With Jay Jay

This post is part of my video blog and you can find more information about this video on this show’s homepage which is here.

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Silly Job Title: Charge Charmer

This video is part of the New Book feature of my video blog.

In this video I review the venerable The Art of Electronics 3rd Edition by Paul Horowitz by Winfield Hill published in 2015. This monstrous tome includes some 1,220 pages.

This is a long video, because this is a long book!

While I was writing up these notes for the video I found a wealth of fun stuff. Here are a few links:

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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!

Plato Model 170 Wire CutterThis is an image of the product.notes

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Diode Experiment | Project 3/10 | Maxitronix 10in1 | 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 on this show’s homepage which is here.

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In this video I do the third Maxitronix 10in1 Electronic Project Lab project: Diode Experiment.

When I looked at the resistor on the bottom I thought it was red – brown – black – gold which would have been 21Ω but I think I misread brown and that was actually purple which would be 27Ω which stacks better with the two measurements I made both of which said 27Ω.

In the video we examine the forward voltage of our germanium diode and get various readings. Typically a germanium diode should be around 0.3V versus silicon diodes which are usually around 0.7V.

The component testers we use are these:

On the FNIRSI component tester the Ir is the “reverse current”, also known as the “leakage current”. This is the small amount of current which flows through the diode when it is reverse biased (that is, basically, connected the wrong way around).

I asked ChatGPT a few questions about diodes and their specifications which you can read here: Germanium Diode Forward Voltage if you’re at all interested in such things. Of course you should be doubly suspicious of anything you read on the internet. :)

The really amazing learning for me in this experiment was how hot the germanium diode got versus the lamp, which was so surprising. Just goes to show how good an idea it is to actually do experiments and measure things! The thermal imager we used was the UNI-T UTi260B.

Also I think I’m coming around to the view that an oscilloscope is a pretty poor voltmeter. My oscilloscope is an MSO5074 70MHz 4 Channel MIXED SIGNAL OSCILLOSCOPE and I love it but I think in future I will limit my use of the oscilloscope to situations where I’m actually dealing with some sort of oscillator. I think simple digital multimeters would have been better test equipment to use for the kinds of readings I was trying to take in this experiment.

I hope you enjoy the video. Stay tuned for the upcoming projects. If you’re interested in seeing them don’t forget to subscribe!

Also, if you’re interested in getting any of these Maxitronix kits yourself the best place I know to look is on eBay. Let me know if you find them somewhere else!

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!

aToolTour Black Hexagon Deburring Drill BitThis is an image of the product.notes

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Morse Code Oscillator | Project 2/10 | Maxitronix 10in1 | In The Lab With Jay Jay

This post is part of my video blog and you can find more information about this video on this show’s homepage which is here.

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

In this video I do the second Maxitronix 10in1 Electronic Project Lab project: Morse Code Oscillator.

In this video when I’m talking about the tuning capacitor I say that 0.001uF is 1,000 picofarads, but of course it is 1,000 nanofarads; I would have put a correction into the video but I didn’t notice the error until I had already published it.

There was some follow up discussion about topics raised in this video over here: propagation of electricity.

Stay tuned for the upcoming projects. If you’re interested in seeing them don’t forget to subscribe!

Also, if you’re interested in getting any of these Maxitronix kits yourself the best place I know to look is on eBay. Let me know if you find them somewhere else!

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 L-shaped ScrewdriverThis is an image of the product.notes

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Morse Code By Light | Project 1/10 | Maxitronix 10in1 | 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 on this show’s homepage which is here.

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

In this video I do the first the Maxitronix 10in1 Electronic Project Lab project: Morse Code By Light.

Stay tuned for the upcoming projects. If you’re interested in seeing them don’t forget to subscribe!

Also, if you’re interested in getting any of these Maxitronix kits yourself the best place I know to look is on eBay. Let me know if you find them somewhere else!

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 Magnetic Claw Pickup ToolThis is an image of the product.notes

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Introducing Maxitronix 10in1 | Maxitronix 10in1 | 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 on this show’s homepage which is here.

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

In this video I introduce the Maxitronix 10in1 Electronic Project Lab. This kit has 10 projects which we will be working through in future videos.

I did check out the URL listed on the manual: www.maxitronix.com — but there’s nothing there any more, it is simply listed as for sale. I tried looking in archive.org but I only found some default content from the hosting provider.

Stay tuned for the upcoming projects. If you’re interested in seeing them don’t forget to subscribe!

Also, if you’re interested in getting any of these Maxitronix kits yourself the best place I know to look is on eBay. Let me know if you find them somewhere else!

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!

ZKETECH EBD-A20H Electronic LoadThis is an image of the product.notes

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Channel News #2: Announcing Maxitronix Xin1 Projects Feature | In The Lab With Jay Jay

This post is part of my video blog and you can find more information about this video on this show’s homepage which is here.

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

In this video I announce the new “Xin1” feature of the show. In the Xin1 feature we will work through the various Maxitronix electronic project labs that I own. We will be working through the following project kits, one after the other:

  • 10in1
  • 20in1 (actually branded “Sensor Robot 20”)
  • 30in1
  • 59in1 (actually branded “Electronic Digital Recording Laboratory”)
  • 60in1
  • 130in1
  • 200in1
  • 300in1
  • 500in1

That’s 1,309 projects to do!

As I mention in the video each time I start a new project kit I will do an introductory video to cover the front matter in the manual and to give an overview of the projects in the kit. Then I will make one video for every project in the kit. The project videos will be in this form:

  • Project introduction
  • Project construction (in the booth)
  • Demonstration and testing (on the bench)
  • Conclusion and review

And starting today the plan is to have a new video on the channel every day. So let’s see how I go with that! :)

Update 2024-05-10 jj5 – it turns out daily videos were way too ambitious. My new goal is three videos per week. Also standby for updates to the video format, I am thinking I will add a circuit simulation in LTspice and maybe an actual circuit build on a PCB designed in KiCad and manufactured by PCBWay.

If you’re interested in getting any of these Maxitronix kits yourself the best place I know to look is on eBay. Let me know if you find them somewhere else!

Update 2024-05-10 jj5 – I also found many of these kits are available at Altronics.

John's collection of Maxitronix electronic project labs

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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 Craft Knife SetThis is an image of the product.notes

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Old Book Teardown #3: Vest Pocket Guide To Electrical Testing And Troubleshooting (1987)

This post is part of my video blog and you can find more information about this video on this show’s homepage which is here.

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Silly Job Title: Charge Charmer

This video is part of the Old Book feature of my video blog.

In this video we take a quick look at Vest Pocket Guide To Electrical Testing And Troubleshooting by John E. Traister published in 1987 with 130 pages.

In the video I also wish everyone a happy new year, talk a little about upcoming Xin1 projects, and mention how expensive it will be to upgrade my scope to 350 MHz.

And if you’re interested the Wikipedia page for Logic Analyzer says that the first commercially available instrument to be called a “Logic Analyzer” was the HP 5000A Logic Analyzer, introduced in October 1973.

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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!

Victorinox Swiss Champ Red Swiss Army KnifeThis is an image of the product.notes

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Interlude #3: Demo Of The New Studio Cameras – Now In 4K! | In The Lab With Jay Jay

This post is part of my video blog and you can find more information about this video on this show’s homepage which is here.

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

Silly Job Title: Charge Charmer

Old Book: Vest Pocket Guide To Electrical Testing And Troubleshooting by John E. Traister published 1987 with 130 pages.

Today is just a quick video to demo my new camera setup made possible by my new studio workstation ‘verve‘.

In the video I demo the new mat/bench camera which supports various zoom levels. Then I demo the iPod touch camera for showing some of the bench equipment. Then I demo the HDMI system which supports two microscopes, the MSO5074 oscilloscope, and the AV switch which usually would show the Xbox among other things (but I couldn’t get the Xbox to work in this video, drats). Finally I demo the thermal cam.

Sorry for the dodgy audio in this video. I will try to make sure that doesn’t happen in future videos.

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!

3ELIGHTING 14″-42″ VESA Wall MountThis is an image of the product.

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