Practical Electronics for Inventors | Paul Scherz | Thorough conceptual overview of modern...

Practical Electronics for Inventors | Paul Scherz | Excelent

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Practical Electron...

	Practical Electronics for Inventors Paul Scherz McGraw-Hill/TAB Electronics, 2006 - 952 pages average customer review:based on 60 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Thorough conceptual overview of modern electronics

I am currently a graduate researcher in the nanoelectronics field, and I find that this text provides an excellent overview of the theory and applications of general electronic devices. I often find myself referencing this book in order to get a no-BS explanation of various electrical semiconductors or integrated circuits. The book is not quite the technical reference that I often encounter (such as Horowitz), but this is definitely not a weakness! Sometimes, when you want to understand the basics, the technical stuff can cause pain. Instead, this book addresses the topics clearly, concisely, and in a simple fashion. "Practical Electronics for Inventors" is a thorough and well written overview of the electronics present in much of modern technology. The only minor weakness is a lack of "further reading" references or "technical references", but on the most part, other technical texts are easy to find

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Excelent

Excelent book to beginers, covers almost electronics themes.

Great book for hobbyists who want a bit of theory

The diagrams and explanations in this book are great for hobbyists who want to understand the electronics a bit more without going into too much theory. It's a good balance between real world applications and in depth theory.

Lots of good simple examples - Useful for the forgetful inventor

I am going to write this review with the scope being that this is not a theory based book or a textbook. In this scope, it is easier to appreciate what this book brings to the DIY electronics table.

Read: I must say this book is very easy to read and to understand. For example, the transistor section explains the simple operation of transistors quite well. I have already went through college for electrical engineering and I got something out of the semiconductor section of this book. It has a very simple writing approach and even the diagrams are presented as pseudo-pencil drawings, lending the whole book an almost notepad feel, adding a familiarity which lessens any intimidations one may have about electronics. Also, the author likes to use water analogies to relate to electricity (such as transistor action) and I must say he does so quite effectively. I thouroughly enjoyed the approach.

Function: This book has a tremendous amount of great example circuits. It covers many topics from audio technology to individual components, and onto digital electronics. Its examples flow quite well with the presentation of information, although there are quite a few typos (more on that later). None of the examples are all that useful by themselves, but are good to use as starting points toward many other circuits.

Accuracy: This book has the most typographical errors of any electronics book I have ever read. I am very dissapointed with the proof reading and to the amateur with little experience these problems could prove very confusing. While almost all of the typos are harmless in the circuits they will cause a lot of scratched heads wondering what is going on. Quite a few of the error involve consistency. For example, one diagram will have currents labeled with some variable and subscript, then the next diagram uses a different variable subscript (quite obviously by mistake) for the exact same value. In some cases the subscripts conflicted with other subscripts in the same diagram! This is unfortunate.

Rating: I would give this stars 4 stars if not for the errors. This is seriously a valuable book to have around. I know I use it a lot when there is a common circuit I need (say, a current mirror or a 555 timer circuit) but can't quite remember how it all goes together. It is a nice book in that regard and this lends well to its title, as it truly is practical. However, because of it unusually high amount of errors, I must give it a 3 star rating, although I wish I could give it 3.5. If you don't mind sifting through some typos, then consider this a 4 star rating.

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Poor Math

This book is alright if you are interested in the idea behind things, but get a second source for your math. The math is riddled with typos. I am fairly good with math, I've completed 3 semesters of college calculus. However, when I start to look at his math I find my self asking now how'd he get that? Or in some questions he asks one thing and then uses a different number in his solving. For example in Chapter 3 on page 83, he asks how much current a battery will provide when connected to a circuit with 100 Ohms of resistance, but he solves it for a ciruit with 1000 Ohms of resistance. Not a big deal in this situation, but when you are trying to follow his calculus, there are parts that you are wondering if he made a mistake, or if you just can't follow all of his steps. When he gets in to calculus equations he doesn't provide good explanations of how to do the math, just a sample problem for you to try to figure out how to do it.

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