'lectrics for idiots
 

Anyone got some good reading to recommend? Prefer free (especially Free) and online.

As a young protogeek in the early 80s I did get with programming and such, but never got into the soldering and dealing with voltages, amps, circuit load, circuits themselves, converters, inverters, alternators, generators, etc. If pressed and heavily sedated, I may even remember the basic logic circuits from what we called Microarchaeology - computer hardware that was state of the art for home users in the mid and late 80s, which was kinda irrelevant in the days of the original MMX and Pro cpus.

So now I think I want to start trying to learn some of this stuff and work with it with my kids... or at least help make some future science fair a little more geeky.

Thanks!

It's not a book series but check out iTunes U. They have a lot of Electrical Engineering/basic circuit lectures from places like UCal Berkley, etc. I am trying to go over some of these lectures so my courses next semester are easier. You can also check out OpenCourseWare by MIT, it's the same idea but they include worksheets and class notes.

Here is an example of an entry level EE course, http://itunes.apple.com/us/itunes-u/electrical-engineering-100/id461056423 .

Ha - The first link on Google from RWebb's link - safety - third item down - Don't assume black is "LINE" and white is "LOAD"

How to Work with Electricity Safely - For Dummies

Saturday changed out a 220 V pressure switch on a house water pump and kept blowing the breaker until I figured out that one of the Romex 110 lines had two hots. 110 on a white and 110 on the black. The other Romex carried the two neutral lines (one black one white) back to the box.

I double checked there was no power at the device initially but burnt a whole lot of time scratching my head and re-reading directions because I made the assumption that the wiring followed convention.