Can someone recommend a good electrical theory book?

[nowhere.elysium]

Right: I'm approaching this dash project of mine with a better grounding in programming than in electrical/electronic design, and I'm struggling with some of the concepts.
I do, however, have a talent for reading a lot of material in a short space of time, and successfully taking a lot of it in. As such, I need a book that'll give me a general command of the theory, preferably without devolving into large tracts of mathematical notation that relies excessively on the greek alphabet.

I understand the concepts of electronic logic, because, well, it's pretty damn logical, and as such is largely unambiguous. Analogue electronics pretty much eludes me, though, because my teacher at the time decided I was worth noting other than utter despair, and gave up. In his defence, I was more interested in the other modules we were studying (radiation and ballistics), but dropping me from the course was a little harsh, and has come back to bite me now...

If anyone has any recommendations, then I'm all ears. If you can find me a non-DRM ebook/PDF edition, then you're awesome, and you know it. Doubly so, because it means that I can read it on my kindle, as opposed to lugging a dead-tree-format text around with me.

NB: I'm already aware of Horowitz and Hill's "The Art of Electronics" but I think crunching through 1000+ pages of content may stretch my retention abilities more than a little. I'm making my way through it anyway.
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'10 SV650SF, '83 GS650GT (it lives!), Questionable DIY dash project, 3D Printer project, Lasercutter project

[el_oso]

it depends how deep you want to go with theory. Sadly all my electronics knowledge is very maths heavy.
what kind of knowledge are you looking for, as electronics is a very broad subject. are you just after things like resistance, ohms law, reg/recs, RC,
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Duke 390
Previous: '05 XR125L | '96 XJ600S Diversion |'05 Suzuki GSXR1000 | '05 Honda CBR125-R | '97 YZF 600R Thundercat | '11 Honda CBR250
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[nowhere.elysium]

Predominantly, I'm after a basic understanding of analogue electronics, since that's the bit that I'm having the most trouble with.
Things like how to safely step down voltages, but leaving the ability to read enough of the original signal to be able to make sense of it.
As an example, let's say that there's a thermistor that I want to be able to read from, but it's powered by a +12v feed, and my board can't take more than +5v without getting damaged.
I've had a couple of different answers to this, mostly involving using resistive voltage dividers - I get the basic concept of this, but I want to know why should I use that, and is there a better option, or are there any implications to consider involving the fidelity of the signal after it's been through the voltage divider?

There's also things like how to determine the difference between a current-limiting resistor, and a voltage-limiting resistor? I appreciate that to someone who knows about electronics I may well just be spouting phrases out of context, but I need to get a handle on that context.

I don't mind crunching through mathematical functions; I just need to understand them first - most books that I've looked at just jump straight into the maths without at least making a clear definition of what the symbols used actually represent, and why that convention is used.

I have, however, found this site, which seems to break it down pretty well (if somewhat exhaustively - the volumes he's published weigh in at about three thousand pages).
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'10 SV650SF, '83 GS650GT (it lives!), Questionable DIY dash project, 3D Printer project, Lasercutter project

[el_oso]

a current limiting resistor is basically a fuse. if too much current goes through the wire then it gets hot and melts.
a voltage limiter is a diode, and it is this diode that is responsible for creating you regulated current for you bike. after applying 0.7v to a common silicon diode you switch it on. because diodes are governed by an exponential function adding a lot more current produces very little change in voltage
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a5/Diode-IV-Curve.svg/500px-Diode-IV-Curve.svg.png

i do have a book somewhere on my home pc all about electronics that you are after. potential dividers, resistance, memristance, diodes capacitors, inductors etc. i'll try and dig it out.
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Duke 390
Previous: '05 XR125L | '96 XJ600S Diversion |'05 Suzuki GSXR1000 | '05 Honda CBR125-R | '97 YZF 600R Thundercat | '11 Honda CBR250
Car: Jeep Wrangler 4.0L

[swampy]

https://i1098.photobucket.com/albums/g378/swmpy50/51NFFQKunRL_SL500_AA300_.jpg


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[Nick 50]

If you have a look at the link below and let me know if any interest you. I have an account and will be able to download them and either send them to you via e-mail or stick them in my dropbox.

Electrical & Electronic Engineering textbooks

https://bookboon.com/en/textbooks/electrical-electronic-engineering

[neil.]

May be worth talking to Pete at work... He has a lot of electronics books in the office and a background in EE (degree and MSc). Fred also teaches it and can probably point you in the right direction as well. Trevor is also a God when it comes to analogue stuff, ex HAM and all that.

[nowhere.elysium]

swampy - Ye cheeky shite *clips around the ear*
Nick 50 - thinking you, that's very helpful - I'll pm you momentarily
neil. - I did ask Trevor, and ended up being talked in circles quite a lot. Got some useful information, and alot of rant with it. Same goes with Fred, really - it's kinda like asking Teflon-Mike - the information is definitely there, it's just under the strata of personality and anecdote. Haven't tried Peter, though - I'll give him a shout. Convenient that I'm dropping by today, I suppose.
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'10 SV650SF, '83 GS650GT (it lives!), Questionable DIY dash project, 3D Printer project, Lasercutter project