An essential book for electronics enthusiasts, 15 Oct 2002

By	S. Ellis "sellis131" - See all my reviews

It is a very good introduction to the fundamentals of electronics, such as how transistors behave, as well as having a large number of "cookbook" examples of good and bad circuits.

It is written in a nice, easy, informal style, without heavy emphasis on mathematics. Although it is the kind of book you can dip into, it is actually readable enough to sit down with and read whole chapters - and there are precious few reference books you can do that with.

There are sections on transistors, FETs, discrete analogue circuits, timers, op-amps, how DACs and ADCs work (essential if you are doing any serious work with them), how to drive logic signals over large distances and why you need special line drivers, RS232 and UART operation, address decoding for peripherals, driving multiplexed displays, and many others.

If there is a downside to this book, it is that the specific information in the microprocessor section is a little dated. (The reference design uses a 68008, for example, although it does list the 68040 and 80486 as available.) However, the general principles of logic-driven designs are still sound, even if some of the actual specific devices have changed.

It's not cheap, but it's the best £45 I've paid out in a long time.

 Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? (