Electronic Sensor Circuits & Projects, Volume III (Engineer's Mini Notebook) [Paperback]

Forrest M. Mims III (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 2004

Electronic sensor circuits convert light, temperature, sound, and other signals into a form that can be processed by electronic circuits. Learn about solar cells, photoresistors, thermistors, and magnet switches. Then build circuits that respond to heat, pressure, light, and more. This Engineer's Mini Notebook is a compilation of three of Forrest Mims's notebooks: Sensor Projects; Solar Cell Projects; and Magnet & Magnet Sensor Projects.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Forrest M. Mims, III, has written dozens of books, hundreds of articles, invented scientific devices, and travelled to the Amazon for NASA. He loves to share his knowledge with eager students!

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: Master Publishing, Inc. (February 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0945053312
• ISBN-13: 978-0945053316
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #262,939 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Thanks very much to Amazon's reviewers or for their kind comments about my books. "Getting Started in Electronics," which has sold more than 1.3 million copies, seems to have received the most attention, so I'll comment on it here.

The book was developed during a 58-day marathon session of laying out the book and then drawing/printing the pages with a 0.7 mm mechanical pencil. It was then necessary to develop and test each of the 100 circuits. Each circuit was built and tested at least three times to avoid errors. The final round of tests was done directly from the hand-lettered text. The problem with the final testing was that many of the circuits could be built from memory without referring to the circuit diagrams in the book. This, of course, could have allowed errors to slip through. So it was necessary to check off each connection to make sure the book version was correctly reassembled from scratch.

This was the first Radio Shack book that was entirely hand-lettered. Dave Gunzel, then Radio Shack's technical editor, decided it was time for a fully hand-lettered book, and I was glad to oblige. "Engineer's Notebook," which preceded "Getting Started in Electronics," was introduced with several typed pages before full hand lettering was begun. It was Dave's idea to introduce these books, which eventually led to the "Engineer's Mini-Notebook" series. Dave used to witness science entries in my hand-lettered lab notebooks, and those notebooks triggered his idea for me to do the hand-lettered books.

A full list of my books, scientific papers, magazine articles and newspaper columns is at www.forrestmims.org. My scholarly history of Hawaii's Mauna Loa Observatory will be published by the University of Hawaii Press. I am planning a popular version of the Mauna Loa Observatory book and a memoir about my work as a serious amateur scientist.

Forrest M. Mims III
www.forrestmims.org

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting little circuits that can easily be expanded, June 22, 2007

By 

calvinnme - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (TOP 50 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Electronic Sensor Circuits & Projects, Volume III (Engineer's Mini Notebook) (Paperback)

This is a pretty interesting entry in Forrest Mims' Engineering Notebook series. In this short book Mims introduces the reader to circuits that convert physical phenomena such as light, temperature, and sound into electrical signals that can be processed by circuits comprised of commonly found electronic parts such as the 741 op-amp. Mims includes brief explanations of the operation of a variety of sensors and then uses these sensors to build small useful circuits. He includes construction notes and a theory of operation for each circuit. Mims includes such interesting circuits as those that detect the cursor on your computer screen and the position of a compass needle. As far as their usefulness, that is really up to the imagination of the reader once he or she gets these smaller circuits working as to what larger task they would like to employ them in. As with most of Mims' books, his circuits do seem to work the first time and you can't beat the price. A very interesting addition to your electronics library assuming you already have a basic understanding of electronics and circuit construction methods.

18 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Neat little projects to help you learn., December 1, 2004

By 

Tim Greer "Mr. Tim" (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Electronic Sensor Circuits & Projects, Volume III (Engineer's Mini Notebook) (Paperback)

The projects are interesting and fun. You can learn things from this book, but will certainly need to know some foundations and basics first. Other books serve that purpose, however. This isn't meant to be complex or a book to learn those things, of course.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Electronics parts are plentiful on the web, January 26, 2008

By 

Cornytheclown (sitting at my desk) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Electronic Sensor Circuits & Projects, Volume III (Engineer's Mini Notebook) (Paperback)

Music girl stated that the book contains hard to find parts...not sure if she means older outdated parts or simply because radio shack and other electronics stores are no longer serving electronics hobbyists.

There are many web resources for electronics parts. Some with small minimum order requirements. Mouser, electronics express, digi-key are three of the ones I use.

Please search the net for electronic components. If you are serious about the hobby these larger electronics companies will serve you well.

The companies above also have print catalogs they will mail you which is handy for seeing their product lines and they also have very good online ordering sites.