Practical Electronics for Inventors

A Fully Updated, No Nonsense Guide to Electronics

Advance your electronics knowledge and gain the skills necessary to develop and construct your own functioning gadgets. Written by a pair of experienced engineers and dedicated hobbyists, Practical Electronics for Inventors, Fourth Edition, lays out the essentials and provides step by step instructions, schematics, and illustrations. Discover how to select the right components, design and build circuits, use microcontrollers and ICs, work with the latest software tools, and test and tweak your creations. This easy to follow book features new instruction on programmable logic, semiconductors, operational amplifiers, voltage regulators, power supplies, digital electronics, and more.

Practical Electronics for Inventors, Fourth Edition, covers:

• Resistors, capacitors, inductors, and transformers
• Diodes, transistors, and integrated circuits
• Optoelectronics, solar cells, and phototransistors
• Sensors, GPS modules, and touch screens
• Op amps, regulators, and power supplies
• Digital electronics, LCD displays, and logic gates
• Microcontrollers and prototyping platforms
• Combinational and sequential programmable logic
• DC motors, RC servos, and stepper motors
• Microphones, audio amps, and speakers
• Modular electronics and prototypes

Contents

1. Introduction to Electronics

2. Theory

3. Basic Electronic Circuit Components

4. Semiconductors

5. Optoelectronics

6. Sensors

7. Hands-on Electronics

8. Operational Amplifiers

9. Filters

10. Oscillators and Timers

11. Voltage Regulators and Power Supplies

12. Digital Electronics

13. Microcontrollers

14. Programmable Logic

15. Motors

16. Audio Electronics

17. Modular Electronics

APPENDIX A. Power Distribution and Home Wiring

APPENDIX B. Error Analysis

APPENDIX C. Useful Facts and Formulas

About the Author

Paul Scherz is a Systems Operation Manager who received his B.S. in physics from the University of Wisconsin. He is an inventor/hobbyist in electronics, an area he grew to appreciate through his experience at the University’s Department of Nuclear Engineering and Engineering Physics and the Department of Plasma Physics.

Dr. Simon Monk has a degree in Cybernetics and Computer Science and a PhD in Software Engineering. Dr. Monk spent several years as an academic before he returned to industry, co-founding the mobile software company Momote Ltd. He has been an active electronics hobbyist since his early teens and is a full time writer on hobby electronics and open source hardware. Dr. Monk is the author of numerous electronics books, including Programming Arduino, Hacking Electronics, and Programming the Raspberry Pi.