Just got the second edition. Most of the errors are still there. Glaring math errors. Schematic errors. Simple Example: 100 Watts/12 Volts is NOT 0.8 Amps. It's 8.4 Amps. Nor is 1.5 Volts * .1 Amps = .1 Watts. Both of these errors appear on page 15. These are minor examples. There are many others that aren't so minor and will send you down the wrong path. The errors are frequent and irritating. Basically, this is a resource only useful to readers willing to double check every concept before applying any of it. Hardly "practical".

Well done Amazon! The product has been delivered in according with the estimated delivery date.

I will soon purchase more products from yours.

30 years ago I was an electronics tech. Then programmer. now inventor.
I checked out the first edition at the library and was so impressed with
it that I got online and bought the second edition. It is absolutely
great! I'm looking for breadth, not some full-of-himself-professors
rambling about some nit pick point. This book delivers. The only
omissions I have found so far (not errors) is the omission of Diffused
channel FET's (which operate in both enhancement mode AND depletion mode)
which is a common omission among other books, and the omission of optical
encoders. This is a book about the practical part of electronics, not the theoretical stuff that puts you to sleep. Most books that include
the color codes stop at four band. I have seen more bands too often to
count with no explanation of what the other bands are for. This book
explains four bands, two varieties fo five band and six bands before
you even get to the copyright page!

There is a rule among publishers: "don't include too much information
or you won't have anything to write about in your second book". This is
the second author that I found to violate that rule. (the first author
is the one who told me about the rule).

If you are learning to be an engineer, this may not be your book. If
you are trying to design something. This is where to put your money.

As someone with a technical background, but little knowledge or experience with electronics who is seeking to design and build some special purpose circuits, this is a perfect book. It is well written and very readable (a major plus). It covers the basics, and expands on them to cover some advanced principles. It is well indexed so finding topics is easy. It has a wealth of knowledge on almost every facet of modern electronics.

This book provides a broad background, and deep and practical knowledge of electronics. It provides diagrams of hundreds of circuits, so you can quickly find something close to what you are trying to do, see how it works and find enough theory and background that you can figure out how to get from the example to what you are trying to do without another reference or book. This is very useful.

I have purchased other electronics books, but this makes the rest obsolete. It is now the only one I use. While it does not replace an electrical engineering degree, it comes damn close covering most of what a bachelors program will span in the first two years.

This book is written in a very simple to understand format with lots of useful charts and diagrams. A very good book for visual learners. It is a good resource book for technicians, as well as a good introduction/refresher course in electronic fundamentals. As with any books in the electronics field a very solid foundation in algebra is a must, and knowledge in calculus is helpful... I wish more of my college texts were written in this type of format and easy to understand language. I am looking forward to more books written by Paul Scherz

About 10% of the figures seem to contain errors. Some trivial (like units) and others more unacceptable (Op-amp oscillator in figure 9.2 has + and - inputs the wrong way round). This is not the 1st edition, so many errors of a sometimes critical nature is simply shoddy work.

Conceptually it is a truly excellent resource of >900 pages. No strangely named circuits or jargon are left untouched. V. broad coverage of topics. Finally, some explanations of how circuits work. I'm astonished by the casual way in which circuits are usually presented without any explanation of their inner workings. Here we get a very plain and understandable explanation; I am not a young child but I appreciate the text's great simplicity in this regard.

If it were error free and contained the wealth of circuits that Forrest Mims provides, it would be 5 stars. Dollar per page, it's a fantastic bargain. You can secretly download it via torrent for free, but in this case the real thing is worth having.

This book is great, very straightforward and hands-on. There is just enough theory to understand electronics fundamentals if you really want to read through it. If your just looking for some sample projects to try or to tweak, this book provides some too. Provides plenty of troubleshooting tips.

This book's intended audience is the serious engineer (probably with an engineering degree in a field other than electronics) looking to get into electronics. The book's title hints at this, and the book delivers on this level. This book is too advanced for the neophyte dabbler without any math background, who will quickly get lost in the math and the lack of "cookbook" examples. Make no mistake, there are plenty of example circuits, but they're provided to illustrate concepts-- they're not intended to be a recipe for constructing a real circuit (that's for the engineer to do!)

MATH: To appreciate this book, you must have a decent math background. This includes a solid working knowledge of advanced algebra and trigonometry, along with a 10000 foot view of calculus. A full working knowledge of actually solving differential equations is NOT required, but it's extremely helpful to know what derivatives and integrals look like and what they generally mean. However, the author never requires that you actually know how to solve any differential equations. Also, this book uses complex number theory, but the author provides all the details of complex number theory in the book, so there is no need to know it before reading.

After all those caveats, this is an excellent comprehensive introductory book on virtually all fundamental phenomenon and components of electronics. This includes the physics of the various electrical phenomenon, the real-life components that make up electronic circuits, and the basic "building-block" circuits that real-life circuits are built from. See the table of contents in Amazon's "look-inside" feature for an idea of the scope of topics. If you read and understand this book cover to cover, you will be designing, building, and testing your own basic circuits, without the need to ever rely on a "cookbook" circuit again.

This book does NOT cover the following:
* Advanced building-block circuits
* Specialty components and circuits
* Techniques and guidelines for designing difficult and advanced circuits
* The many "tricks" for designing and debugging circuits that years of experience will teach
* Advanced math for detailed analysis of circuits

The author's style is, above all else, pragmatic in every respect all the way to the very end. The explanations have the unmistakable and incessant theme of "THIS IS HOW IT WORKS AND WHY". The author trudges through as much (or as little) detail as necessary to enable the bright mind to understand, and then moves on to the next topic. Even when there is pure theory out of necessity, the author's style never strays far from cornerstone of always keeping things down to earth and practical.

This book is full of extensive explanations of the "WHY" of various phenomenon and components. For example, the phenomenon of "inductance" goes on for a dozen pages or so, explaining how the motion of electrons creates a magnetic field in a charging inductor, and how the magnetic fields create a back-voltage which acts against the flow of current. This explanation of inductance is decorated with dozens of detailed 3D illustrations showing the wire, electrons, magnetic fields, currents, voltages, etc. Other phenomenon are described in similar detail. The physics and theory that the author presents do not overwhelm you, but are sufficient to leave you feeling like you really understand the phenomenon, rather than just having to accept something as magic.

I gave this book 4 stars instead of 5 because there are too many errata, especially in the theory section. The book is in need of a simple editing pass by a person who understands EE. This is a shame because most of the errata are silly typos or accidental oversights, but they can confuse your ability to understand something when you're learning for the first time.

I have been in application engineering for 30 years and have collected a number of "reference books". I have found that there are some that stay on the shelf (they only look good) and some that I refer to frequently. This book is one of later type as it has the sort of information that permits me to proceed with my project without having to go to another general electronics reference book. It is written in a way that is usable by novices as well as experienced designers. It has the relevant application facts and enough data and math to allow the user to apply it.

Well written, organized, and illustrated, I recommend this book as a positive addition to your library whether you are just starting out or experienced.

I'm student of Riga Technical University, at faculty of electronics and telecommunications. I wanted to have some textbook on the field of electronics, but not only a raw theory, also a bit of practical knowledge. I started to read the book and i realized that this is the book i have been looking for. I can't even compare this book to the books i have read in the university. This is great book if you are trying to refresh your knowledge or start doing something in the electronics field. Also as i started to work at the Institute of Electronics and Computer science, this book was very useful for me, to refresh some information on specific article.
Great book!

Ok, so I see people praising this book and hating it. Those kind of reviews bug me because I can never make up my mind on a book. Fortunately, I bought this book already and didn't read these reviews.

Here's my take. I'm 8 years out of college and working for a big electronics company. I like this book. I need something to help me tinker with electronics and at the same time provide theory. I like the balance that this book strikes. I want to be able to look up old semiconductor company IC logos and at the same time read about RLC ckts resonating. That practical knowledge is hard to come by. There are plenty of good theory books, but I'm tired of amassing a library of many specialized, academic-style books. This book is not a text book, so the "inventor" part of the title should be paid attention to. If you want practice questions for theory understanding, buy a Schaum's Outline. This is the book to grab if you want to suddenly look up a basic logic gate that you forgot or you want to learn/review FM radio.

This book and Art of Electronics will get you into electronics with practical understanding. Get those and some of Forrest Mim's books for simple projects and you'll be good to go.

Good luck.

Ok, so I see people praising this book and hating it. Those kind of reviews bug me because I can never make up my mind on a book. Fortunately, I bought this book already and didn't read these reviews.

Here's my take. I'm 8 years out of college and working for a big electronics company. I like this book. I need something to help me tinker with electronics and at the same time provide theory. I like the balance that this book strikes. I want to be able to look up old semiconductor company IC logos and at the same time read about RLC ckts resonating. That practical knowledge is hard to come by. There are plenty of good theory books, but I'm tired of amassing a library of many specialized, academic-style books. This book is not a text book, so the "inventor" part of the title should be paid attention to. If you want practice questions for theory understanding, buy a Schaum's Outline. This is the book to grab if you want to suddenly look up a basic logic gate that you forgot or you want to learn/review FM radio.

This book and Art of Electronics will get you into electronics with practical understanding. Get those and some of Forrest Mim's books for simple projects and you'll be good to go.

Good luck.

My title says it all. To the author: this is a great book, but there are still some gotchas. Please post an errata page.

My title says it all. To the author: this is a great book, but there are still some gotchas. Please post an errata page.

Listen, I am not the type to be a naysayer or malicious detractor, but realistically this most certainly is the WORST book I have ever tried to read. Having just finished my Bachelor's in Electrical Engineering, I wanted a light book on electronics that would serve as a refresher that I could use getting ready for my PE exams. Boy, was I wrong with this one. I think that maybe the proof-reader for this text might have been tipping a few back or possibly works in the liberal arts side of university, because there were so many problems with the subscripts and references to circuit elements that I found myself starting to guess my capabilities! The only saving grace was that I had a friend who had read the book "Art of Electronics" who told me that I, in fact was a retard for reading this book and to pick up his. I did what he told me to do and boy what a difference. DO NOT buy this book!! It is much more mathematically intense and theory driven to be effective as a guide for anyone tinkering in electronics, and as a reference text for us EE's, it is so full of mistakes, it sucks. Do not bother.

Listen, I am not the type to be a naysayer or malicious detractor, but realistically this most certainly is the WORST book I have ever tried to read. Having just finished my Bachelor's in Electrical Engineering, I wanted a light book on electronics that would serve as a refresher that I could use getting ready for my PE exams. Boy, was I wrong with this one. I think that maybe the proof-reader for this text might have been tipping a few back or possibly works in the liberal arts side of university, because there were so many problems with the subscripts and references to circuit elements that I found myself starting to guess my capabilities! The only saving grace was that I had a friend who had read the book "Art of Electronics" who told me that I, in fact was a retard for reading this book and to pick up his. I did what he told me to do and boy what a difference. DO NOT buy this book!! It is much more mathematically intense and theory driven to be effective as a guide for anyone tinkering in electronics, and as a reference text for us EE's, it is so full of mistakes, it sucks. Do not bother.

This was a great book for me just starting in electronic. Very technical in plain english so you could under stand and practice.

This was a great book for me just starting in electronic. Very technical in plain english so you could under stand and practice.

Very good section on microcontrollers. Espectially the pages on the Basic Stamp.

Very good section on microcontrollers. Espectially the pages on the Basic Stamp.

It really best book I ewer seen. it huge and cower everything even programming microchips in the end. If I understand this book after many tryes with others books, than anyone can

The first edition was great, but was plagued with errors and typos. The second edition has many of these corrected, but unfortunately many remain. I've started collecting them in amazon's wiki, at the bottom of the product page, and I hope you will contribute too as you find errors.

The second edition also has a greatly expanded theory section. It's improved in many ways--for example the explanation of what inductors do and how they work is now correct. But it is much longer, and you might not want to read all about magnetic fields and non-ideal capacitive effects in inductors if you really just want to know what inductors do in a circuit.

Overall, you get a huge amount of information for a low price, and it includes a lot of detailed practical information that it's hard to find in textbooks.

I bought this book last year and since then I've shot right into topics of electronics I never imagined ever being within my reach. All I needed was information on how to use a transistor but now I'm using IC packages and diode without giving it a second thought. Great book, highly recommended!!!