Electronics: A Systems Approach [Paperback]

I have bought this book on the back of the many positive reviews left on this website. However, upon recieving the book I was shocked to discover that there are no answers provided for the written excercises contained within the book. This means that the student cant check up on whether his answers and thus his methods are correct or not! In order to receive a copy of the worked examples, you must go to the companies webpage......and state at which academic insitution you are a TUTOR at. Students get no access to the excericse answers. And it is not a question of simply registering as a 'tutor' as it is stated that this will be checked upon prior to providing the CUSTOMER WHO ACTUALLY PAID FOR THIS FRIGGING BOOK with the answers.

I have been through a honours degree course 10 years ago and I can honestly say that I have never come across such a nippy study book in all my life. If I found a book as a student which didnt allow me to check up on my progress, then it would get left on the shelf (which I suppose is the beauty of buying books in shops as oppossed to online).

In short. If this book is part of your coursework, then you are getting made to purchase it and therefore this review will be irrelevant. If on the otherhand you are considering buying this book as part of a program of self-study.....then move on.

This is the standard text for electronics engineers at Warwick University - written by a member of staff there (I'm a physicist). Neil introduces electronics for people who have no experience in the field, starting with the very, very basics like SI units and Ohm's law. By chapter 6 we've covered all the bread and butter passive components - resistors, capacitors and inductors under direct current and the focus switches to AC.

There is a chapter on filters which is useful, if brief. Personally I would have liked to see a bit more on radio frequency circuits, and RLC circuits in general. I would have devoted a chapter to that, rather than sneaking into the end of a general chapter. Frankly you could fill books on most of the central chapters, but this is an introduction and all the important details are there.

The second half of the book deals with practical applications of all the components mentioned previously, centering mainly around transistors and op-amps. This coverage is excellent, most importantly the details are up to date, unlike some other classic references which are getting seriously old now. There is a useful table of opamp circuits in the back of the book (or somewhere like that) which is useful if you forget what an integrator looks like. The chapters are full of slick diagrams with well presented information, including a schematic of a typical opamp (makes you think how complicated your average IC is).

Nice touches are chapters on power electronics and noise suppression, not necessary for many people, but it's good to have it there for interest or if you actually need to consider EMI. Finally there are chapters on logic and digital electronics which is very important if you're designing electronics these days. Like the rest of the book, the coverage is relatively short on specific bits, but overall all the important ideas are covered lucidly.

I liked the sections on microcontrollers and digital systems, although not directly useful if you want to learn about how to program a PIC or AVR chip, it is well worth reading simply to understand how the chips work on a substructure level.

All in all, it's an outstanding book. Although it clocks up well over 700 pages, it doesn't look like a huge book - I carry it around with me and it's not a burden unlike some tomes. The content is all very easy to understand even if you have no knowledge of electronics or even, hesitantly, science. I would say that an A-level knowledge of maths is essential, if only to appreciate the equations. Electronics design requires you to be able to work out formulae, but in a lot of cases you can plug numbers in so you could probably get by with GCSE. There is a primer on complex numbers in the back, amongst other bits and bobs. There are plenty of exercises to do, of varying difficulty, but none of them should pose much of a challenge if you've read the material. Plenty of references to PSpice is nice, so you are encouraged simulate the ideas Neil discusses.

The whole systems approach is a good one, it's an engineering idea, but then it is electrical engineering. The examples in the text are designed to show you how the topics taught are applicable in real-world applications. It is not a how-to book where you can look up a circuit that will do specific task X, but it will show you how to design an electronic system so you can work out how to solve problems yourself.

Unmatched for anyone who wants an all-in-one reference on basic electronics. Serious hobbyists should consider supplementing with books on signal processing, control theory, RF circuits and probably something more meaty on digital design.

This a great book. It covers all the material in my first year electronics modules and is actually understandable! The numerous worked examples are a great help in making the key points clear. I am an electronics student, but I would have thought it would be good for students of other engineering streams too. Every engineering student should have a copy!