Customer Reviews

Electronic Circuits for the Evil Genius: 57 Lessons with Projects

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I just finished reading this book cover to cover. I also read most of the reviews here.

First off, let me say that the points made by the 1 and 2 star reviews are correct. The style of the book is a little disorganized, the format is borderline awful, and it does look like something printed 20 years ago. The title might be misleading in that this is a very basic introduction to electronics book, and certainly not for Genius level anything.

After the first couple of chapters, all of the above negative points had me rather angry. Why I kept reading, I don't know, but I did, and I ended up being pleasantly surprised. This is the first book I've encountered that presented electronic components and concepts in an applied, hands-on manner. My background is in physics, so I've learned something about the theory of electronics, and have studied transistors and op amps, but never knew what the darn things were used to do. For me, this book helped me connect the dots to actually understand the application of principles.

I want to point out this books strong suit - it walks the reader through the design of the circuits presented, not just the final schematic. You can see the thought process that goes into choosing components, and how you add stages to a circuit to produce the overall desired result. For the beginner, this is critical. For example, I've seen many schematic diagrams that don't call out ground connections, or explain why certain parts of the circuit are wired to ground. To be able to design your own circuits, this is a critical piece of understanding. Advanced books assume you know it, and beginning books seem to assume you don't care.

Am I qualified to design any functional circuit for myself now? No. But I do feel like I have the understanding to play with some ICs, and figure out what kinds of stages need to be added to produce the gizmos I want. (Incidentally, my desire to learn electronics stems from my hobby of building backyard haunted houses, and wanting to have some automation and animatronics)

I was going to give this book 4 stars (was going to ding one star for the format), but after reading the others' criticisms, I find myself agreeing with their knocks on the book. Still, I have to say, having read several other books on electronics (including some of Horowitz and Hill) this was the book that finally lifted the veil for me and helped me understand the hows and whys of electronics - I plan on giving the book a thorough reread. So as a supplement to a text that give a little more theory, or for a practical hands-on first time exposure to electronics, I highly recommend this book to the beginning student or hobbyist.

Update (Dec. 2010) - I originally wrote this review over two years ago and I've been steadily learning more and more about electronics. I can honestly reaffirm that this book was the one that really got me over the curve to understanding how circuits are designed and why particular components are added. It does not stand alone as a complete reference on building circuits and making your own electronic gizmos, but as a practical, hands-on, "this is how you make a circuit" guide, I've yet to find better. This book has a valuable place on the road to making your own circuits to do whatever you dream of having them do.

This book sounded ideal, a beginner's book with clear explanations and projects to illustrate the electronics concepts taught in each chapter. The introduction lauds Mr. Cutcher's skill as a teacher so highly I was really anticipating a wonderful tour through the basics of electronics.

Mr. Cutcher may indeed be a great teacher, but he is a very poor writer. His writing is disorganized and confusing, his instructions are unclear and sometimes incomplete, and he works so hard to fit everything into his "electric circuits are like water" analogy that he forces it when he should find a better way to describe it.

Lastly, many of the illustrations in this book are so atrocious that often the reader has no idea what they are supposed to represent. In this age there is no excuse for graphics that look like they were produced by a six-year-old on a Colecovision. I am astonished that this book was deemed ready for publication. Are there no editors in this segment?

I am very disappointed in this book. A good beginner's book is a wonderful thing to find, and this isn't it. I cannot recommend this book to anyone interested in learning electronics; it will be especially difficult for young people who don't have the focus to follow poorly-written or confusing material. I would especially worry that young people would not recognize the faults of the book and come away feeling that electronics is "too hard" for them because they couldn't follow Mr. Cutcher's explanations.

I have read most of the books in this series and they all suffer from the same problems. They are full of errors that could have been corrected before release if the publisher hired a proofreader. This book is especially frustrating with poor graphics, charts, and tables. You can find some corrections to the text if you search the web. Do not purchase components from the source listed in the book (they are extremely overpriced).

I can't say enough how much I'm enjoying this book! I'm learning so much and it's filling in all these gaps in my head regarding electronic circuits. I'd taken some classes on electronic circuits when I was a teen in high school, but much of that has long since escaped my brain. The author succinctly and clearly describes everything that's going on in each lesson without over simplifying the concepts.

I am an electronics teacher of senior grades in British Columbia. One of the hard tasks being a teacher is interesting students enough to take a close look at information you feel will benifit them. At any time in a classroom some students will be ready to learn, while others are out in space. Giving a lesson to the whole class does not really teach students much at all. What I find is students learn best when they are ready and at their own pace. The book Electronics Circuits for the Evil Genius is the best resource I have come across that students can understand and enjoy learning from. It is the first time I have assigned a textbook for my students to learn from, due to the "boring factor" of most resources. If someone wants to build their knowledge of electronics from a solid foundation this book will provide it. The book is also written to encourage students to develop their own projects.
After completing the labs and projects you will have a very good understanding of digital electronics.

This book was great... I started the book thinking that when a LED came on it was pure magic. Now a have a vast understanding of electronics and I have been able to move on to more advanced projects such a building a sumo bot. I found that his book covered what most electronic books lack. It started with the simplest stuff and explained components where most other books expect you to know what the parts are and how they work. I especially enjoyed the amplifier lessons and the intercom. Over all I found this one of the best written, easiest understood and most enjoyable electronic text.

If you are looking for a manual for beginners in electronics, this book is the one you'll want. My name is David De Pieri, CEO of theSopTeacher.com and high school shop teacher. Electronic Circuits for the Evil Genius, as the front cover states, is a book with "Concepts and Applications for beginning analog and digital concepts." I have had the great pleasure in using this material in my introduction to electronics classroom. Dave Cutcher is a master teacher of electronics and his book makes it very easy to dive into electronics without a lot of prior knowledge. The reader becomes familiar with electronic concepts and applications very quickly. For this reason, Dave's book is ideally suited to complete beginners, as well as, a refresher for the hobbyist.

There are many images and schematics in this book that accompany his clear and easy to read format. He has thought provoking questions in each chapter which students can answer as they move through the lessons. He has developed a complete kit that includes printed circuit boards for all the projects in his book. If you know anything about teaching, you know that kids and people in general, learn differently. Using this book, you will realize that it is designed for the independent learner and for those 20 to 30 kids you have in the class seated in front of you.

When you have electronics teachers give this book a five star rating... believe that these gentlemen understand what they have when they use "Electronic Circuits for the Evil Genius" in their classroom.

I would not hesitate to buy a class set. In fact... I already have.

David De Pieri

When I first saw this book, I thought "this is for me!" I was, at the time, a beginner in electronics, although I had some experience years ago building musical effects boxes created by Craig Anderton whose instructions were very well written. I also purchased the kit that went with the book. I was very excited and couldn't wait to get started. Soon I was sorely disappointed and cursing the author and the company that sold me the combo package. The book is filled with typos, grammatical errors and very poor analogies. The instructions are confusing at best, but I waded through the rest the best I could as I did not want to lose my investment. I searched the internet thinking that there had to be something better our there. Indeed there is. I found several courses that are offered free of charge that are leaps and bounds better than this piece of rubbish. I am sorry I spent my money. About the only thing I learned was to breadboard a few simple circuits and make a few LED's light up, and this was done only after a great deal of frustration. I had to utilize the free internet courses to understand what this book was trying to teach. At one point the author even went as far as to make humiliating remarks, debasing the way a student constructed one of the projects and then laughing at the student for getting it wrong. If anyone should be laughed it is the author for his inept writing skills and inability to explain simple beginners circuits. Don't bother spending your money. There are a lot better books out there and as one reviewer said, the kit is way overpriced. Consider instead an excellent book "Electricity and Electronics" second edition, by G. Randy Slone. Unlike the Evil Genius book, it is extremely easy to read, and filled with clear concise instructions, as well as theory, and 25 useful projects. I purchased it at Amazon for a mere $12.46.

I wanted to teach myself some electronics . I began watching some lectures on you tube and at the same time picked up this book. Outstanding explanations of how electronic circuits work. I watched a lecture on you tube on transistors - it was so confusing then I read Daves explanation using a water faucet - it was crystal clear. Great graphics an great explanations really helped me make sense out of some basic electronic devices. The only weakness is when he reached the more complex IC (INtegrated Circuits) I could have use a more in depth explanation of how they work. He sort of lost me there. but overall outstanding book and explanations - would highly recommend keep the good work up Dave!!

You know, this book - Electronic Circuits for the Evil Genius was surprisingly very useful. I bought the book in order to supplement an electronics course that I was teaching at a local technical college and it turned out to be pretty much what I used for the introductory class.

The edition that I purchased had some typos and printing errors and was somewhat convoluted in its format but used as a "introduction" to electronics, it was more than adequate. And what made it really convenient was being able to order to "kit" to go along with the book and thereby save students from having to go to local shops and specialty supply houses to find pieces/parts.

It's pretty simplestic in its approach but that was exactly what I was looking for. The examples are good enough for beginners and even though the 2nd half of the book gets a little muddled and confused, I'd still recommend it for a first tutorial in electronics. There's enough there to peek the student's interest and make them want to delve into electronics a little more.

I can't say that I'm a fan of the title of the book and I'm not so sure that I understand the connection but if that was the author's preference, then, hey, let him call it whatever he wants (but not to be confused with another project book that's much more indepth with a similar title by R. Iannini).

Hal