Electronic Circuits for the Evil Genius

There is truly a lack of good, basic hardwire electronic "how-to" books. The market seems interested in this type of fun project compilation. This is another book in our extremely successful "Evil Genius" series. So far, each of the books has sold about $50,000 in less than 3 months. With this book and another (Scrap Electronics for the Evil Genius), we should have a nice "cluster" for our next catalog. The perfect addition to our "Evil Genius" series, this book details everything an electronics hobbyist would want to know about circuits and circuit design through 57 Lessons. Readers work through 5 distinct, useful projects to reinforce their learning.

Customer Review: A fine hands-on supplement

I just finished reading this book cover to cover. I also read most of the reviews here.



First off, let me say that the points made by the 1 and 2 star reviews are correct. The style of the book is a little disorganized, the format is borderline awful, and it does look like something printed 20 years ago. The title might be misleading in that this is a very basic introduction to electronics book, and certainly not for Genius level anything.



After the first couple of chapters, all of the above negative points had me rather angry. Why I kept reading, I don't know, but I did, and I ended up being pleasantly surprised. This is the first book I've encountered that presented electronic components and concepts in an applied, hands-on manner. My background is in physics, so I've learned something about the theory of electronics, and have studied transistors and op amps, but never knew what the darn things were used to do. For me, this book helped me connect the dots to actually understand the application of principles.



I want to point out this books strong suit - it walks the reader through the design of the circuits presented, not just the final schematic. You can see the thought process that goes into choosing components, and how you add stages to a circuit to produce the overall desired result. For the beginner, this is critical. For example, I've seen many schematic diagrams that don't call out ground connections, or explain why certain parts of the circuit are wired to ground. To be able to design you own circuits, this is a critical piece of understanding. Advanced books assume you know it, and beginning books seem to assume you don't care.



Am I qualified to design any functional circuit for myself now? No. But I do feel like I have the understanding to play with some ICs, and figure out what kinds of stages need to be added to produce the gizmos I want. (Incidentally, my desire to learn electronics stems from my hobby of building backyard haunted houses, and wanting to have some automation and animatronics)



I was going to give this book 4 stars (was going to ding one star for the format), but after reading the others' criticisms, I find myself agreeing with their knocks on the book. Still, I have to say, having read several other books on electronics (including some of Horowitz and Hill) this was the book that finally lifted the veil for me and helped me understand the hows and whys of electronics - I plan on giving the book a thorough reread. So as a supplement to a text that give a little more theory, or for a practical hands-on first time exposure to electronics, I recommend this book to the beginning student.





Customer Review: A good enough starter for electronics

Coupled with the available parts kit, this book provides a nice starter for hobby electronics. A young person new to electronics would probably require some assistance, but an adult could work his way through fairly easily. I spent a few hours with my nephew and he really enjoyed seeing LED's and transistors work at close quarters. The photos of the circuits are not terribly clear and better printing or the use of illustrations would be a help.
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