Practical Electronics for Inventors, 3rd

[kd7eir]

I just picked up Practical Electronics for Inventors, 3rd edition.  This is such a HUGE improvement over the previous editions!  It has all new chapters on sensors and microcontrollers.  Gone are the days of 22 page erratas for this great book.  I highly recommend this new edition to everyone.

[nadona]

Thank you for the heads-up!
This author is one of the very few who put in a lot of hard work to publish a better edition.
Also, for a book with 1000+ pages, $26.40 is a great price. Here's the link on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0071771336/ref=rdr_ext_tmb

[robrenz]

This is my favorite all around practical electronics book. If I could only keep one this would be it. Its not art of electronics but much more practical for the average guy.

[nadona]

This is my favorite all around practical electronics book. If I could only keep one this would be it. Its not art of electronics but much more practical for the average guy.

1+

I have the first and second editions already. The third edition will be arriving on Tuesday.
I got the first edition for .99 cents, and it was so good I ordered the second edition new. Now I ordered the third.

[TomC]

Hello everyone,

I'm also a fan of this book. Own all 3 editions and have been checking in detail the third edition for mistakes since it was published. In addition to the official errata, so far I've compiled an additional errata through chapter 2, which is where most of the unreported or improperly corrected errors are located. At this point the errata is over 40 pages long. I'm doing this by myself and don't have anyone to double check my work. I'm wondering if there is any interest for this among the members that land in this thread. I'll check for responses, and if there is interest, I'll post the errata here in the near future.

[valentinc]

     I have also read this book and can say that, in my opinion, is the most comprehensive book for beginners... Most books like this don't make you feel like you get it... Some books are written by people who know very well what they teach, but don't know very well how to teach others... So I recommend this book for beginners !

[Rigby]

Hello everyone,

I'm also a fan of this book. Own all 3 editions and have been checking in detail the third edition for mistakes since it was published. In addition to the official errata, so far I've compiled an additional errata through chapter 2, which is where most of the unreported or improperly corrected errors are located. At this point the errata is over 40 pages long. I'm doing this by myself and don't have anyone to double check my work. I'm wondering if there is any interest for this among the members that land in this thread. I'll check for responses, and if there is interest, I'll post the errata here in the near future.

I just ordered the book.  I'd like to see the errata if you wish to share it.

To be clear, are you listing the errata that have been corrected in 3rd Ed. or new errata?

[TomC]

The errata contains new unreported errors, errors that were reported in the second edition errata but not corrected in the third edition, the third edition errata including errors in the errata itself, and new unreported errors caused by corrections inspired by the existing errata documents.

Many of the errors are trivial, some more serious, and some subject to interpretation. I have created corrected pages for many of these errors that could be used in place of existing pages. I took apart my personal copy of the book and three hole punched the pages so I can easily substitute original pages with corrected pages.

[Rigby]

Many of the errors are trivial, some more serious, and some subject to interpretation. I have created corrected pages for many of these errors that could be used in place of existing pages. I took apart my personal copy of the book and three hole punched the pages so I can easily substitute original pages with corrected pages.

This is something publishers should do.  Almost no books freaking lay FLAT on the table and should be bound in a way that lets them lay flat.  They're not books you hold and read page by page, at least not always.  And the ability to subscribe to a service that auto-sends me new pages (or lets me print them) for replacement is a great idea.  now that I think about it, this is how technical docs were managed while I was in the USAF.  We had a bajillion FIVE-ring binders with documents in them, and once a month we'd get a fat envelope full of corrected pages.  It was my job to go through all the changes and replace the old pages with the new.  Our paper documentation was always up to date.

How do you typeset the replacement pages?

[TomC]

How do you typeset the replacement pages?

I scan the original page into a TIFF file and use Microsoft paint and Irfanview to make corrections/changes as necessary. Then I print the new page from the corrected TIFF. It's not a perfect process but the new pages look pretty good, almost as good as the originals.

[Rigby]

For consistency's sake you might be better just scanning all the images and resetting the print in HTML or something like that.  LaTeX, if you know how to do it.

I tell you, though, I absolutely love the idea of getting updates to technical books I purchase, and having the ability to "patch" my book to the latest version.

[TomC]

I tried LATEX sometime in the past, but I found it too feature rich and complicated for occasional use. By the time I wanted to use it a second time I had forgotten a lot and had to relearn. Right now, if I need to rewrite equations or formulas from scratch, I'm using Open Office, it has a decent formula editor and it's free. I don't know HTML, but I've heard that it's not very good for writing equations and formulas, and judging from some of the renditions I see on the WEB I suspect it is true.

I have a little more work to do on the chapter 2 errata, just the last 2 or 3 pages. As soon as that is done I'll upload it and hopefully some of you will give me some input. If there is interest, I'll also upload the corrected pages for chapter 2. That's going to take a little longer because although I've got most chapter 2 pages done, it takes quite a while to do just one page of the few I got left.

[TomC]

Here is the unofficial errata for the table of contents and chapter 2. Please let me know of any suggestions, comments, disagreements, or anything else you'd like to change or add. I appreciate all input!


https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=967A90CA47FD025B!163&authkey=!AHXlbCuYmDtN5IY&ithint=file%2c.pdf

Edit: Link no longer functional , see later posts for the updated link.

[Bored@Work]

Most books like this don't make you feel like you get it...

And I think here you are badly mistaken. Unfortunately it has become a trend that people prefer things like books that make them feel good instead of making them good. You recognize the small  but important difference?

[valentinc]

        Yes, I admit I was wrong... That is what I was trying to say, that there are many books that make you feel that you know, but when you actually want to apply what you have "learned", you are confused... I myself, years ago, was trying very hard to find some good books for electronics, but I couldn't find very many of them... And I also think that you must first understand the principles behind some circuit, and then the maths behind it... Many authors start from the mathematics point of view and try to demonstrate mathematically why and how things work... Maybe it's not a totally bad idea, but for the most part (and for most people) it just doesn't work like that...

[Sigmoid]

BTW, beware the Kindle or iBooks version of this book. The figures are the CRAP, low resolution with JPEG artifacts! It's worse than something off of an illegal scan download site.
I got 50% back from Amazon after posting a complaint.
Get it on paper. I did.

[casinada]

Great work compiling the errata, you take reading this book seriously. Probably they should have hired you to proof read it
By the time you're done with the errata it will have as many pages as the original book
Some books only make sense when you take the class with the instructor, other books are useless even with the instructor (and I mean the author).
The best books are probably good on their own
Not to boast but I was the first one to report the 3rd edition on this forum
Again congratulations on the effort.

[TomC]

Great work compiling the errata, you take reading this book seriously. Probably they should have hired you to proof read it
By the time you're done with the errata it will have as many pages as the original book
Some books only make sense when you take the class with the instructor, other books are useless even with the instructor (and I mean the author).
The best books are probably good on their own
Not to boast but I was the first one to report the 3rd edition on this forum
Again congratulations on the effort.

Thanks!
I'm hoping that some of you may have the time to look at some part of it in detail and give me feedback if you uncover any errors. Also, if any one suspects that something in the third edition book is an error, even if you are not sure, let me know and I'll try to figure it out. I'm retired (former educator for NCR/ATT), so I have quite a bit of time to pursue these things. The link below is for the unofficial Ch2 corrected pages. I think they match the errata pretty closely. Let me know if you uncover any mistakes.


https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=967A90CA47FD025B!168&authkey=!AJsIsTA2TlrKedo&ithint=file%2c.pdf

Edit: Link no longer functional , see later posts for the updated link.

[uwezi]

Looking for a book I can recommend to students I just ordered the book and will have a look at your errata list once I have the book. Then I think this list should be communicated to the publisher!

[TomC]

Looking for a book I can recommend to students I just ordered the book and will have a look at your errata list once I have the book. Then I think this list should be communicated to the publisher!

In my opinion, this is a very good book in spite of the long errata, specially if you are on a budget. It covers a broad spectrum of the field and uses a down to earth friendly style to convey the subject. There are other good books out there, like for example, The Art of Electronics, one of my favorites. But it's pricey and somewhat outdated.

I've tried to pass on some of these errors to the publisher ever since the early days of the second edition, but got no response. The errata compiled at Bucknell hit the same firewall for years. Perhaps they pay attention only when they are ready to work on a new edition. That's OK, I guess offering interim updates is not part of their business model. However, I'd like to pass on this information to current readers in the hope that it will enhance their experience.

[uwezi]

In our introductory course on electronics we use Neil Storey's "Electonics a systems apporach" as a textbook, and have been using it since the 3rd edition. However, like most textbooks, the author appears to be paid by the word and not by contents. It is much too much text and none of the students actually takes an effort to read anything of the chapters.

http://www.pearson.com.au/9780273773276

(excuse for lack of political correctness if any of my students or the author is following this forum)

In the 4th edition essential parts were skipped, which luckily ere reintroduced in the 5th edition last year. But it also might tell something about a textbook, if there is a new edition almost every year.

For an advanced course - if there was any - I really would like to use "The Art of Electronics", but it lacks the very basics. There are many more books out there, perhaps we should have a best books/worst books here?

Candidates for worst books ever (luckily only German) are almost all recent books from the previously premium German publisher Franzis. Don't bother to buy these. One of the worst is called "AVR-Mikrocontroller in C programmieren" (Programming AVR microcontrollers in C) - most of the programming examples are actually shown in assembler 

[casinada]

Is this the official errata?
http://ebookily.org/pdf/0071771336-9780071771337-pbg-practical-electronics-for-79777079.html

[Shock]

Looking for a book I can recommend to students I just ordered the book and will have a look at your errata list once I have the book. Then I think this list should be communicated to the publisher!

Introduction Into Electronics - Earl D. Gates
Probably the best beginner book I have seen so far.  It is well paced, has illustrations and doesn't over explain things or have too much type.
It has questions (solutions in back) frequently throughout the book but they don't stop the flow of the text.  Appendices cover symbols and metric prefixes and color codes.
For beginners even easier to digest than Practical Electronics for Inventors. The negative would be that it is light on math but there are other books that handle that.

If someone has seen a better beginner book than this I'd be really interested in seeing it.

[Legion]

After reading all the good things about this book in this thread I ordered it. So far I'm really enjoying it. I'm using it with The Art of Electronics. Usually if one doesn't explain something well, the other will.

[uwezi]

Introduction Into Electronics - Earl D. Gates

First result, trying to find this book: "The Metric System, Considered with Reference to Its Introduction Into the United States",
Charles Davies, ISBN: 9781290242271 

Now I found it - from previous experiences I am a bit skeptical about books from Cengage/Delmar Learning, but I'll check it out as well...