Customer Reviews: Read 3 more reviews...
 Don't bother December 18, 2007
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
I bought this on impulse while ordering another book. Sorry I did, wasted my money. I can't really figure out who the intended audience is: If you have never been exposed to electrical schematics you wouldn't likely want this compendium of symbols with no conceptual background, and if you have had even a little conceptual background you have already been introduced to most of this. You don't need a book to find out what the schematic drawing of a transistor is, for instance, because any instructional material dealing with electronics circuits that you look at will include that information. Reading the individual symbols used in circuit diagrams and schematics isn't difficult- they are just symbols you can look up in any table of electronic symbols. The difficult part is conceptualizing how the components work together by "reading" the schematic- following the signal or current flow or being able to identify functional blocks, something this book does not help you with. All the circuits used as examples in this book are very basic, and the theory that is discussed is very superficial. I am not saying this book has no value, but it's value is minimal and can be easily found in the introductory chapters of most any primer on electronic circuits. For that I recommend a similar vintage TAB book written by G. Randy Sloan entitled "TAB Electronics Guide to Understanding Electricity and Electronics".
 excellent book October 25, 2007
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
This was an excellent choice. It gave me exactly what I wanted and needed, was in excellent condition, and was received in a timely fashion. Thanks very much.
Get this book!!!!!!! September 5, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I'm just getting started teaching myself electronics. I've never been able to make heads or tails of a schematic. However, after about 2 evenings reading this book, I now have no problem reading the schematics for the beginners projects I've been working on. This book also explains WHY some of the symbols look the way they do, which goes a long way to help in reading schematics even if there is a symbol a little different than what's in the book. I would recommend this to anyone learning electronics.
good place to start January 30, 2005
28 out of 28 found this review helpful
I'm not a particularly techie sort of person, but I found I needed to have a grasp of the electronics of some of the equipment I use (I'm a musician). Most beginners books are overwhelming in theory and completeness and end up more confusing than anything else. This book is baby talk and exactly what I needed. The five stars are for its simplicity and usefulness. It has flaws and it's not exciting to read, but it has the simplest explanations of components I have come across. If you don't need to know everything, but just fix your wah wah or explore a little circuit bending, this book will demystify a lot of electronics for you. It won't tell you how to do anything, but it will enable you to figure out what you need to know from more complicated books. If, like me, you've started with electronics a few times and given up because the books you've used have offered way too much information and spent too much time on electrons, or just been written from too knowlegable a point of view (one 'basic' book I tried has four pages on capacitors that I read several times without really ending up knowing what they did), this is the book for you. It will make the books that have frustrated you in the past far more useful.
 The facts ma'm, just the facts. August 25, 2004
8 out of 14 found this review helpful
Yup, this is a nice, basic book for learning how to read a schematic. If you intend on working with electricity and will need to read schematics then this is where to start.
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