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Let me start by saying, this book is not for new comers, or (ugh) “newbies”, to electronics.  This book is intended for those who have a solid understanding of electrical engineering fundamentals, but want to expand to the next level.  Bogatin’s amount of detail is on-par with a textbook but writing style is more casual.

Understanding signal integrity use to be “Black Magic.”  It is taught in a language which resembles engineering speak, but sounds like randomly assembled terms purposefully meant to confuse people.  Personally, I remember hearing “signal integrity engineers talk” and wondered if they were speaking in code.

Review: 5 out of 5

Modern smartphones have eliminated the need for a number of devices.  Often I use my smartphone as a scanner (CamScanner), car GPS, voice recorder, security token, pedometer, light controller, and oh yeah, a phone.   My electronics bench is currently home to a Bench Power Supply, an Oscilloscope, and a Function Generator.  While good instruments, they should worried because they’re going to get replaced with one device: National Instrument’s VirtualBench.

You might also be interested in my Full Video Review of the VirtualBench!

Title:  The Art of Electronics by Paul Horowitz and Winfield Hill.

 

Most electronics books are written by engineers, for engineers.  It is difficult to find an extremely comprehensive book which covers most Electronics subjects that is written in plain english.

This is that book.

Recently I realized most of my projects were all Arduino-based.  There are lots of other prototyping platforms available in the market, and the TI LaunchPad, based on the MSP430 is one of them.  In fact, I have had one of these boards sitting in my box of stuff ever since they came out.  At $5, they because an impulse purchase when I was buying some other stuff.

So, I dusted off the original box and recorded opening it up.  Let’s see how it works.