via HACKADAY: Analog Engineer’s Pocket Reference Needs a Big Pocket

We always admire when companies produce useful tools or documentation that aren’t specific to their products. For example, consider LTSpice. Sure, it has the company’s models baked in. But there’s no reason you can’t use it for anything. Thanks! We were interested to see Texas Instrument’s fifth edition of the “Analog Engineer’s Pocket Reference” is still freely available. While we aren’t sure a book with nearly 200 pages in it is a “pocket reference,” we do think you’ll enjoy it, even if you don’t want to use TI’s offerings. This book has been around for 50 years, but it is updated periodically, and this version is the fifth iteration.

The book has several sections ranging from conversion between units and color codes to amplifier noise calculations and understanding ADC settling times. Want to know more about PCB microstrips? Page 85.

You do have to create a TI account to download, but if that bothers you, you surely have a throwaway e-mail address somewhere. Some of the information is basic. You probably know how capacitors add in parallel, for example. But some of the data is a bit more obscure. For example, most people don’t know the slope of the change in voltage drop over a diode according to temperature.