Customer Reviews

Practical Electronics for Inventors

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Having limited financial resources, I checked this book out from my local university library before buying it and have been working my way through it to see if it is worth purchasing. I do expect to purchase this book despite its major flaw, i.e., poor proofreading and/or insufficient editing. Scherz employs a novel and useful approach, dealing first with basic DC and AC R, C and L circuits using math up to and including some calculus and differential equations. His discussion is reasonably thorough without being too detailed. Scherz stresses that, for those who do not wish to (or can not) follow the math in detail, he has the results summarized. His treatment of Thevenin Theorem applications is the best I've seen and his introduction of imaginary number equations for AC circuit analysis is an excellent primer. After the basics, Scherz switches to what he calls an intuitive approach to discussing electronic components and their application in circuits. This makes a lot of sense.

I did not find his use of water or rope analogies to electronic devices or circuits useful, but that is my personal preference.

The big problem with Scherz's book is poor proofreading and/or editing. One has to be on constant watch for errors. These range in degree:
From simple mislabeling
Missing a dT term in working out the relation of W to C and V
on page 22, referencing fig 2.37 in the third paragraph of
page 34 when Fig 2.37 is meant, giving 5/13 + j1/15 on page 33
when 5/13 + j1/13 is correct, mislabeling the right hand side
of fig 2.4, etc etc )
To simple math or verbiage errors
Substracting rather than adding 0.375 x 5000 for Case I on
p 18, calling the third number on capacitors "3rd digit" rather
than "multiplier" on p 106 or leaving out the word "not" in
Rule 2 for npn case on page 142,
To incorrect statements
Saying (P 53) that notch filters reject all frequencies except
those near the resonant frequency, when in fact notch filters
pass all frequencies except those near the resonant frequency.

This is simple sloppiness and detracts from the straightforward reading of an otherwise useful book. I hope a second edition will appear with these unfortunate errors (and lots I've probably missed) corrected.

Like the other reviewers I found this book a great resource. It has great practical information and diagrams and whacks straight into what you can do with the components and what they are supposed to do without boring you to death with electron theory.

Now, I must say although I have a degree in electronics I am quite rusty on fine points and one thing I never did well and subsequently never used, were FETS. I have found unforgivable errors in diagrams and examples in the transistor chapter...mostly related to MOSFETS. When you deal with P and N channels and layers...YOU MUST NEVER make mistakes in a textbook...practical or not. I had to reread sections 10 times to realize that gate voltage polarities were reversed...and the worst..an n-channel depletion layer MOSFET turning on a relay when positive biased at its gate by an AND gate. Hello? An ENHANCEMENT n-channel sure..but like..what the heck???

Especially when new learners will be tackling this stuff, some find it hard enough to cram into their brains without it being explained wrong. This book needs fixed!! It is also not really designed for new learners...although I can say new people can gain a lot from it, but you really have to have some background or I could see getting lost fast on the loose use of formulae and Ohm's law (fundamental but we all had to at least learn and practice it first) SO...good book again could be THE greatest practical instruction book ever if it was cleaned up. I back up the previous reviewer who said that. ONE STAR for the glaring lack of responsibility. It really is a 4 and 1/2 star book but hopefully the bad reviews will kick start the author and McGraw into releasing the second edition.

The preface indicates that the book is primarily for electronic neophytes who, apparently, fill the ranks of inventors & hobbyists (?). I would think that the persons who would get the most out of this work would be those with some formal traning in electronic circuit design, perhaps those about to graduate or just grtting established in discrete, commercial circuit design. Also good for the older crowd to stay current.

What I see is a voluminous & varied amount of material focusing primarily on discrete circuit design & the IC's/components available for such work. There is very little math - calculus is avoided where possible. There is a lot of practical info on general circuit development. There is a good overview on digital, op amps, filters, PSs, stepper moters & microcontrollers among others. Some nuggets for the EE too. Remember how you rejoiced when they introduced Phasors during sinusoidal steady-state analysis? But after converting everything into complex numbers & solving the problem, why did you through away the imaginary part? See an elegant little explanation in Chap. 2.

Earlier reviewers have spent some time on the errors. Suffice it to say that there are many preventable, inexcusable errors. Many are typos & schematic errors, but others leave you wondering. How could an author with such an obvious command of this subject matter confuse electrical power & electrical energy or enhancement-type & depletion-type FESs? Fun for the EE's - How many errors can YOU find?

Other impressions: 1) If you're responsible for designing a special circuit - maybe a filter or switching PS & need some pactical info on the subject, would you not search out a book devoted to that single subject? 2) The Water Analogies - spare me, please; Rube Goldberg would turn over in his grave. 3) What about citing a few references every once in awhile? 5) How many of these schematics (for the novice) were modeled or breadboarded?

And finally to McGraw-Hill: Don't you people have any technical proof readers on staff? I think YOU owe us all a recall on this book to be replaced free with an error corrected revision.

The revision will be worth 4+ stars; as is 2- stars. There are similar books w/o the errors.

This book rocks! I'm an engineering student, and I've been looking for a book like this for some time. It's really covers topics in a manner that I can understand, and seems to touch upon everything in electronics, from theory, semiconductors, integrated circuits, stepper motors and servos, microcontrollers, LCD displays, etc. The drawing are pretty damn cool too. I highly recommend this book to anyone--beginner or engineer.

It's probably safe to assume that the majority of people who read books about basic electronics do so because they intend to build things. This book caters to such an audience. It provides theory and examples that allow you to build your own basic circuits. The concepts aren't easy, but the author helps you understand them.

This book has enabled me designing simple electronic circuits and understanding more complicated ones. The book explains the use of most electrical components in a concise and (most often) easy to understand manner. I like to sit down and just browse through the broad contents of this pleasantly written and illustrated book and enjoy. But beware, I am quite sure that I found several mistakes in the electrical diagrams and even in the calculations. Furthermore, in my opinion, a book this complete should also contain some information about vacuum tubes. In spite of this I believe this is the best introduction to electronics I have run across, and I have recommended this book to my friends and colleagues.

Great book! This book takes you from basics (using flowing water as an analogy) to designing elementary digital circuits. It's guaranteed to become dog-eared from use as you rely upon it as both a text and reference manual.

I've been an electronics hobbyist since TVs had tubes and transistor radios were leading edge technology. Over the years I've forgotten much of what I had learned, and hadn't learned a great deal in the digital arena. This book re-taught me what I had forgotten, in a better way than I had first learned it, and brought me up to speed on digital circuits.

Yes, as another reviewer noted, there are some errors that crept in. They often do. They aren't show stoppers and they shouldn't stop you from buying and using this valuable guide.

This is an excellent book as far as content. It offers practical and insightful information for the engineer and hobbyist. It is not loaded down with formulas and theory. This is real "hands on" stuff! Be careful though as there are alot of typos. I believe it will become one of the classics like The Art of Electronics by Horowitz and Hill. A must have for the engineer, hobbyist or inventor!

I confess that I bought the book because the majority of the reviews were very favorable. I was looking for a good explanation on how a SCR, a TRIAC and similar devices work, as well as some challeging examples to "sink in" the knowledge. I was dissapointed with what I found on the subject, as well as many others. Sometimes the material presented looked more like a typical data sheet on a device, rather than a textbook presentation. After a two-day review I returned the book for credit.
The book might help readers without any previous exposure to DC or AC circuits or electronic devices. I do say maybe because I have reservations about using the water analogy to explain active semiconductors. Too many valves have to be taking in account in carrying the analogy, masking the basic concepts that differentiate one from another.
I do commend the author for explaning the basic components used in electric and electronic circuits in detail. Very few books cover the different types of wires and other passive components when covering the basic knowledge on circuitry.
"The ABC of electronics" could have been a better choice for the title.

This book has an excellent intuitive grasp of electrical concepts; but it kind of loses its charms when you find that many of the problems worked out have numerous glaring numerical errors, and a lot of them introduce numbers (e.g., strange voltages given when solving transistor calcs.) that makes no sense, as in you don't know where these numbers came from with respect to what the problem is trying to solve. Other than that, the book is worth the price if you ignore the sample problems, or can work through them enough to find their errors.