Ask Slashdot: Good Books and Tools For a Software/Hardware Hobbyist?

postermmxvicom writes "I have a friend who is a mechanic, but enjoys tinkering with software and hardware as a hobby. I want to get him a gift that will either broaden his horizons or deepen his understanding in these fields. He is proficient at soldering components and removing them from circuit boards. His programming experience is with a wide variety of scripting languages. He recently used teensy and arduino boards and an accelerometer to add some bells and whistles to a toy car he made. He also used his knowledge to help a friend find and correct weaknesses in his shareware (that would have let 'customers' share more freely than intended). He is fascinated that people can create chips to modify existing hardware. Do you know of any good books or kits (or even tools of the trade) that would appeal to a hobbyist and allow him to grow? Is there anything that might also play off of his handyman/mechanic abilities?"

Tools Make things

[DeTech]

As an engineer and tinkerer I have to throwin a plug for increasing his capabilities. If he has a multimeter, get him a scope. If he has a dremel tool, get him a mini mill (shapeoko), etc.

Web Browser...

[swanzilla]

...and a nudge in the direction of Sparkfun, Adafruit, Hack-a-Day, et. al. This particular community is vast and welcoming for the most part. Example code, parts lists, and detailed write-ups are all over the place.

AoE and ARRL handbook

[vlm]

I want to get him a gift that will either broaden his horizons or deepen his understanding in these fields.

If he's a reader: the ARRL handbook, the Art of Electronics, if radio shack still sells the Forrest Mims books get those...

If he just wants to mess with ckts you could do worse than the 200 in 1 lab kits etc. "Snap circuits" are a bit expensive but a lot of fun.

His programming experience is with a wide variety of scripting languages.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programming_paradigm [wikipedia.org]

The little schemer book/series as appropriate

I've found over a couple decades that no one really knows what to get me, but me. Maybe your best bet is wake him up early on saturday, feed him lots of pancakes, stuff $200 in his wallet, drive him to the ham fest flea market in your area, and see what he finds for himself?

Re:Amateur radio

[toygeek]

Amateur radio is good, IF he is someone who is really social. I'm not, and I found it quite boring after a while. I think people forget that aspect of it. The whole idea of ham radio is to talk to other people, and quite frankly, I don't WANT to talk to other people for a hobby. I want to build things, modify things, break and fix things, etc. I do think that there are many aspects of the hobby that ARE enjoyable, but unless I NEED to communicate with *other amateur radio operators* then its useless to me.