Book Review:
Title: Electronic Systems
Author: M.W.Brimicombe
ISBN: 0-17-448067-9

Category:
General Electronics

Brief Description:

"Electronic Systems" is a general Electronics book aimed at providing a good grounding in the Electronics subject as a whole. The book is biased towards no particular field of Electronics, but instead gives the reader a good base knowledge of analog and digital electronics.

My Review:

I used this book many years ago whilst studying for an A-Level in Electronics, and I feel that it offers an education to approximately that grade, and would probably also be suitable for GCSE level. I later bought the book to keep as a reference because I found it to provide a very good general knowledge of Electronics and was therefore good to have at hand as a reference book to quickly look up a topic. Of course, Electronics is a huge subject and as a result you will find it lacking in many areas if you require an in-depth knowledge in a particular area of Electronics, but as a general knowledge handbook to provide a basic Electronics knowledge it's pretty good at covering the subject area.
The book covers, amoungst other things;

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Logic Systems (TTL logic gates, boolean algebra, solving logic problems, schmitt triggers, Programmable logic);

Timing Systems (Capacitor charge/discharge circuits, oscillators);

Analouge Systems (Analouge Signals, OpAmps, Positive & Negative Feedback, Non-Linear Amps);

Power Amplifiers;

Bipolar Transistors (Transistor as a switch, Transistors as Amplifiers, Tristates, Differential Amplifiers);

Field Effect Transistors (JUGFET behaviour, FETs as variable resistors, MOSFETS);

Transistors as multivibrators(Bistable, Astable, Monostable);

Audio Systems (Audio Amplifier Ideal Characteristics, Distortion, Feedback, Noise, Interference, Filtering);

Sequential Systems (D-Flip-Flop, Memories, Binary Counters, Frequency Dividers, Sequences, ADC);

Shift Registers (Processing Words, Processing Numbers, Serial Transmission, Synchronous Counters);

The MicroProcessor (Microprocessor Systems, CPU operation, Registers and OpCodes, lots of project examples);

Negative Feedback (Closed Loop Gain, Position Control, Speed Control, Stability, PSUs, DC-DC converters);

Signal Transfer (Comms systems, Carrier keying, Frequency Multiplexing, AM, FM, Radio Receivers)
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There were a couple of things I disliked about the book. Firstly, I found the organisation to be confusing. Usually, it is better if chapters follow each other's subject area so that the next chapter is a progression of the one before, but Electronics Systems seems to spread the whole subject area of Electronics across the entire book seemingly at random. Everything is seperated into specific chapters, so it doesn't take long to find what you're looking for provided you use the contents page, but to give an example the book starts off talking about logic (ie digital systems), then moves on to timing systems and oscillators, which is analog stuff, then it moves to Amplifiers and transistors, Audio Systems etc (which is fair enough) but then it goes back to Digital Electronics with Sequential Systems, Shift Registers, Microprocessors etc. Having done that, they move back to an analouge area with Power Supplies, Negative Feedback in Control Systems and transmission and communication stuff. It's all very confusing if you're just trying to flick through the book to find what you want, so I found that I HAD to use the contents page if I wanted to look something up.
The second negative I'm going to give on this book is that despite being a "general" Electronics book providing a basic, general knowledge, it does seem to focus on Maths too much. Personally, I feel general Electronics books should take a more practical approach and be biased towards word descriptions, but this book is sometimes guilty of describing the operation of circuits with too much maths, which can be confusing to the beginner.

Other than that it's an excellent book and, if you can plough through (or ignore) some of the more complicated maths parts you're still going to be left with an excellent grounding in Electronics with a very broad knowledge. There's Question sessions at the end of each subject area, which can be good for revision, and if you've got some basic equipment at home you can also build a few of the circuits to review their operation in real life. I would definately recommend this book to the Electronics Newcomer.

My Rating:
7/10

PS: I found the /5 rating to be insufficient. 3/5 implies a very average book, which this one isn't. 4/5 implies a VERY good book, but due to the focus on maths and bad organisation I didn't feel this book quite deserved that either. There's no way to describe a GOOD book with a /5 grading so I've had to use a /10. Hope you don't mind!

Brian

 

Thanks for the informations
it really helped me
whish you best of luck

 

thanks for the book

 

Thank you for the information.

 

Thanks for the informations

__________________
I do you see X Plus

 

Corrected.

__________________

I do not answer private messages asking for help because no one else can: benefit from advice I may give or correct me if I'm wrong.

Please ask on the open forum if you have a question and I'll be happy to help, if I know the answer.

 

Sounds good, I like that book. Can I have one?

 

Thank u Very Much It Is Very Useful

 

Thnk You Very Much

 

thank You Very Much

 

thank you, Can I have one?

 

thanks for your valuable post.

 

Anyone can have the book. Just take that ISBN number to your local book store and have them order it for you.

Brian

 

thank you very much
you work very hard , very very good ....

 

thank you very mutch