Practical Electronics for Inventors, Fourth Edition 4th Edition, Kindle Edition

For a little background, I own a previous paperback edition of this book from years ago which is buried in storage. As I look into making several projects now that my 3D printer build is complete, I find myself in need of a refresher. I was overjoyed to see a new edition of this book had been released and was available on kindle. Now 20 minutes and 14 pages into the book I've given up and will be buying the paperback edition. In those first 14 pages I encountered 2 places where example calculations should have been displayed and an instance where the symbol for a battery was to be shown. All three situations just had a blank space with references in the text to the missing information the only indication that something was missing . As a result it's not worth my time to continue since I'm not willing to deal with the frustration of this which I assume will continue through out the text.It's a shame too, since I thought the index was well laid out, liked the hot links within the text that take you to other referenced sections of the book and know that the content of the paper edition is probably outstanding. Thank goodness that Prime will get the physical book to me quickly.04/20/16 Edit: I've raised the rating of this book from 1 to 3 since I received the physical edition of the book which is awsome and I realize the 1 rating was a little harsh. That being said, I firmly believe that if you are going to publish a kindle edition of a nonfiction book, it must be identical to the physical edition. Someone purchasing the kindle edition should be able to receive the exact same information in a kindle edition as in a physical edition. If you can't publish a book like that, I don't think it should be published as a kindle at all.I've also added a couple of images from the physical and the kindle edition of the book to illustrate the issue that I'm talking about.

This is probably the only book on electronics that you need. Really you could probably learn all of this on the web, but this puts a summary of everything all in one place. In some sense it's like an electronics textbook, but it's better than that because it's much more howto-oriented. And for $20 or so it's an amazing deal.My main complaint is that the chapter on theory is a bit weak in making the math comprehensible. The main problem there is that in some places a new formula is introduced that uses a variable such as Q but Q is never defined. If I were writing this then I would create a callout box every time a new formula was mentioned that clearly spelled out what each variable is even if it seems redundant. For example: "Ohm's Law: V=IR. V=Voltage (Electromotive Force) in Volts, I=Current In Amps, R=Resistance in Ohms. I depends on V and R." And do that for every single one. This would make it much more useful for reference when you need to look up a formula and can't remember what Q is supposed to mean.But the main point of this book is the non-theoretical information that it provides. For example, the real world models of various components like capacitors and wires and how they look in schematic form when stray inductance and leakage current resistance are added. Also, the chapter which is almost like a rewrite of the theory chapter but with most of the theory replaced with the details of various types of real world components that you usually don't think about (such as different resistor and capacitor technologies) is extremely useful. Most of these little details tend to get left out of things like textbooks, perhaps based on the thinking that they're too irrelevant.Though I wish some of the math stuff had been handled better, anyone trying to build electronics in the real world should buy this book. After buying this I really don't feel like I need any other book.Lastly, some reviewers mentioned the thin paper. I didn't find that to be a problem. I used to buy some "low cost developing world editions" of books that were printed on paper not much better than newsprint and this book has much better material quality for not much more money than a comparable low cost developing world edition of a textbook.

The kindle edition is not worth buying. The formulas are in images which don’t display. So you read along, finally get to the formula only to have it just have a box with “img” in it. You have to return within 7 days and for a book of this type that’s very quick. I’m stuck with a useless book now. DONT BUY THE KINDLE BOOK FOR THIS BOOK!

Having a BSEE, a copy of "The Art Of Electronics" and many copies of the Amateur Radio Handbook I must say that this is the best book on electronics I have seen in years. All of the practical knowledge I had to pick up over a 30 year career with just the right amount of math for the neophyte. I had to learn about heat sinks from a Thermalloy catalog. Now, here it is along with many other fabulous explanations in one bound volume! Thank you to the authors for putting this together AND offering it at an affordable price!

I'm a certified electrician as well as an electronics engineer and i felt compelled to warn the would be buyers of this book that it has some life threatening errors in it. Specifically where the book references an electrical panel and shows that the neutral bus is connected to the ground bus by a bonding cable. This is a deadly mistake and should never be done. Panels have separate buses for the ground and neutral wires in the system for a reason! They are never connected together. The second related error is that there is about 1 Amp of current on the ground wire and that this is normal. The correct answer here is that under normal circumstances there should be ZERO current on the ground system as this only occurs under ground fault situations and must be corrected by the electrician. The third error is found near the back of the book where the power grid is described. The authors show that the power grid is connected to ground (again the neutral wire). This is an error as well. I checked with my college professor on all these points and he almost fell out of his chair when he saw these diagrams. These errors could cause a loss of life and this book should be edited immediately and this version pulled from the store.

Firstly, I don't think this type of book works on Kindle (even on iPad). The large format makes is readable but this is not a book for linear reading and you can't jump around in the way you can with a printed book.Secondly there is far more theory than is needed for practical electronics (I guess it's about 1st year university level). The practical doesn't flow very well from the theory. Most practical electronic design is achieved without recourse to the detailed mathematical treatment presented in this book.Finally, from my point of view, the treatment of instruments offers little about some of the low cost equipment available for the PC which most hobbyist (inventors) would use today.

I got the third edition as a physical copy and liked it so much I ordered the kindle version of the 4th edition. Both are excellent and I find the balance of theory and practical explanation spot-on for what I was after. Images are fine on the android kindle app and perfectly legible. I don't find having to click onto them to zoom distracting, and the text has been parsed sensibly so it reads in order with the images. ie things flow and are not jumbled up. I think they've done a good job with the kindle version.Content wise the book is a good summary and reference book for post-Alevels and undergrad or the home hobbyist who isn't afraid of a bit of theory that is well explained. I'm finding it easy going and a good recap of things long forgotten. Hopefully the later chapters will take me onto the more detailed side of things that is my aim in revisiting this stuff after several years. It starts with the basic physics of electronics and circuit equations, then goes smoothly through the basic circuit analysis tools like Ohm's laws,Kirchoff's laws, superposition (thevenin & norton's theorems) etc so it really is a good reference book. You don't need any prior knowledge before picking this up though basic maths and physics from GCSE/early A-level will help. There are some detailed equations touched on in passing (degree level stuff) but these are for background and then simplified for practical use to the more basic forms that people will use in reality.The worst criticism is the US references to fawcetts and the like, but i can live with that for a book this clear and well structured.

I have an older edition and chose to update to the newer one. Of course the way transistors work has not changed, or any other of the theoretical and basic stuff.The contents are greatly expanded resulting in a much bigger book. The contents are very worthwhile and many an Arduino user new to electronics would be well advised to get and read this book.

The only slight disappointment is that I would have liked diagrams in colour.Especially the first two pages listing electronic symbols; such as resistors and capacitors.Otherwise for the price of $40 and 998 pages excluding the index that is good value.Well written the math can be a bit heavy but is explained logically.Happy with my purchase although, I have only plowed through the first 40 pages so far !