Customer Reviews

Troubleshooting Analog Circuits (EDN Series for Design Engineers)

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As a self-educated analog electronics designer and manufacturer, this is the book I use and recommend most. Everything in it is true. Everything in it is useful. Every page reminds you that the best test instrument is you brain. "Inspirational stuff" indeed!

When things aren't working in your circuits use this book to get you started on how to find WHY things aren't working. This book is a collection of essays originally published by the author, and a couple of other contributers in trade magazines. They in general consist of lists and explanations of problems and how to fix them. These lists are grouped by kinds of circuits. I would have liked to see more specifics on power supply problems and on Phase Locked Loops and other oscillators. Of particular use (at least to me) is the advice on equipping your bench. If you build huge boards this isn't as valuable as if you build 100 - 200 component circuits. The author has an overly anti-Spice bias, but his cautions are generally worth remembering. (I once took a grad course on the internals of Spice, and another one on the internals of mechanical simulation programs - they all require that you understand the problem before you rely on the computer). Obviously large very inter-related circuit boards will require more computer aided design because of the sheer complexity. This book does tend to attribute a lot of problems in systems to heat, whereas my most typical problem is poor mechanical connections of some sort (bad connectors, solder joints, etc). I use this book as a reminder of what I need to be aware of when I have a problem. A lot of the engineers at HP and elsewhere really like this book, and THEY are the analog design "water-walkers" that I truly respect

Even for a seasoned engineer, there are useful tidbits and tricks in here that can really save you.... Lots of stuff is just common sense, but it's the little nuggets of gold hidden within this book that make it a worthwhile read. If you're just starting your career as an Electrical Engineer or technician, this book will make a tremendous resource. For the amateur, there's lots of good stuff in here such as diagrams for nifty and inexpensive test equipment - learn how to build your own active scope probe for [very little]! Well written and humorous it's not a heavy technical read, but one that will definitely impart some very valuable knowledge.

This book is a collection of his articles from EDN magazine. It flows well and is a pleasure to read. Bob basicly describes the things that could go wrong with items such as resistors, capacitors, inductors, diodes, transistors and oscillators. As the title states, if you need to troubleshoot your designs on the component level, buy this book.

Trouble shooting analog circuits gives tips on trouble shooting along with extensive analog quirks in common components. If you didn't know that cermet pots are better, there is a danger in using too many ceramic bypass caps and the capacitance of the human finger nail then you NEED this book. P.S. The other book is the art of electronics by Horowitz and Hill.

A fun read, and an excellent reference filling the huge gap between datasheets and most texts. A must have for anyone who touches hardware. I can't count the number of times I've gone to this book whenever I'm not quite using a device as intended, or I've got a sinking feeling I'm about to shoot myself in the foot with a design. I own *lots* of books and this book is packed with useful info that isn't found in any of them and isn't all that intuitive to start with.

Troubleshooting Analog Circuits takes a device-centric approach. About half of the chapters focus quite specifically on a type of device, and proceed to tell you a few common ways in which that type of device can fail. The other half of the chapters are quite random and don't seem to fit together very well, although they also contain useful information.

The primary theme in this book could be condensed quite simply: Don't assume anything. A recurring theme in the book is "This type of component is usually pretty reliable, but might sometimes be out of tolerance, so don't assume it's correct." Pease reiterates this same theme for resistors, capacitors, test equipment, circuit configurations, and so on. Virtually everything boils down to "x might not work, so if the system it's in doesn't work, x could be the problem".

This, in turn, means the book boils down to little more than a collection of random observations which normally would remain unpublished in some engineer's notebook, but are just valuable enough to make a published book in this case, because Pease has so many decades of experience that his experience is worth a bit more than the standard spurious observation. Even so, this book is in no way a comprehensive guide on how to troubleshoot anything. It really is a collection of thoughts and tips from Pease; it should be called "Bob Pease's Book Of Tips And Tricks".

Pease is also singularly obsessed in his hatred of SPICE. While he's correct that SPICE can't be relied upon for perfectly accurate simulation of anything, it's funny that he rejects its use so strongly in a book whose overwhelming theme is that *EVERYTHING* is unreliable. The accompanying photo of Pease throwing a computer off a roof is, like the rest of the book, amusing but hardly useful. In the end, this book contains a lot of information that *could* be useful, but don't rely on it as any kind of resource on troubleshooting. It has little to do with troubleshooting at all; its main audience is seasoned engineers who can benefit from a fellow engineer's experiences.

This book can be a quick read, but also has examples of problems you may or may not run into. He's written for EDN for years, and I've always enjoyed his style (and the occasional tirade on repairing VW bugs!!!)...

Working in an environment of Spice fanatices who's circuits don't always work, it's a relief to know that I'm not alone. Bob also writes with a humorous approach which requires some wit in the cut-and-dried field of electronics.

even as a newby, i was able to glean very helpful info about analog circuit design & troublshooting.