Study Aid Review: The Engineering Circuit Analysis Tutor: Volume 4

 

This is the fourth volume of the circuit analysis tutor that Jason put out. It continues the material from the first semester of circuits (usually called Circuits I or just Circuits analysis). It covers the material that comes in the second half of the class after you get through circuit analysis techniques, in which resistors and sources are the only circuit elements. This set introduces circuits in which capacitors and inductors are included. It does not go into the details of the transient and steady-state, those topics are covered in later volumes. This covers the topics of voltage, current, and power in inductors and capacitors, and then inductors and capacitors in series and parallel, and how to draw an equivalent circuit by reducing the parallel and series combinations. Again, this just deals with circuits that have direct current sources and does not cover circuits with alternating current sources.

I find Jason's material very helpful, and my learning style meshes well with his teaching style. He does not cover 100% of the material on every single topic, but he does cover the main topics and the main points of each topic, which is great for exam prep. But it is definitely NOT a replacement for going to class. So, if you learn by seeing examples worked out, this is a good study aid.

Study Aid Review: The Circuit Analysis Tutor: Volume 3

 

Volume 3 of Jason's circuit analysis tutor set includes the material that comes just about at the halfway point of a Circuits I class. Specifically, source transformations, Thevenin and Norton equivalent circuits (both with dependent and independent sources), maximum power transfer, and superposition. These concepts are built from and/or use the various techniques of simplifying circuits like Kirchhoff’s laws, node voltage, and mesh current, which is covered in the first two volumes. This covers about two weeks, give or take, worth of material that will be presented in class (depending on what your professor decides to focus on). In my class, this material was covered just after our second exam which was basically a mid-term exam. Like volumes 1 and 2, this set just covers DC circuits and does not include circuits with AC sources.

The set follows much the same format as Jason's other math and engineering lessons. He introduces a topic and then goes through several example problems, working them out step-by-step. I personally find his explanations very easy to follow and was able to comprehend them a lot better than I did reading the textbook. In fact, many times I found that the textbook made more sense after I had watched Jason's videos. So, if you learn best by watching example problems done, and do not mind watching what is essentially a simulated lecture, then this is a good study aid to use.

Textbook Review: Fundamentals of Engineering Thermodynamics 6th Edition

 

This book was used for my Fundamentals of Thermodynamics class, which was one of a handful of electives I had to choose from to get my EE degree. We used the 8th edition in class, but aside from the homework problems, the 6th edition had all the same explanatory material and tables, and I was able to get a used copy for $25 as opposed to a new copy of the 8th for over $200.

I would call this a decent textbook. The explanations were fairly clear and it gives quite a few example problems at the end of the chapters and often showed a couple of different ways to solve the problems. Luckily I had a teacher who walked through a lot of examples in class, and sometimes she made things a bit easier than the book's explanations. The one nitpicky point is, as others have pointed out there are no answers in the back of the book (or on CD) to any of the problems. And as is the case with most math, science, and engineering textbooks the amount of (and difficulty level) of the problems in the set at the end of the chapters far exceed what is shown in the examples either in the chapter text itself, or the more detailed fully worked out examples will show you how to do. So having some kind of answer key to check yourself would be helpful.

Overall I would say it is a good, but not a great book. The chapters can get a bit long, and honestly, I think the publishers would do a service to students to put out a version of the book with just the material that a one-semester-long fundamentals course would cover. That way students who have to take a full year and get the longer version of the book and students who are just taking the one-semester can get it a little cheaper. But, it is better than some math and science textbooks out there.

Product Review: TI NSpire

 

I have almost all the TI line of graphing calculators including the 84, 85, and 89. The Nspire is very much overkill unless you are going into a hard science or engineering program, where you need to take higher-level math classes and use the concepts from those classes in future classes. In that case, it is very helpful and has a lot of advantages over the TI-89 once you get used to it.

One of the main advantages is that it is far better than the TI89 when doing integration. On the 89, you basically had to code in the integral in a format like int(x, x, 0, 10) to get it to do the integral. When doing integration on this,it is much like how you do it on the 84 plus where it gives you the integral setup like you see it in the book, you enter the limits of integration above and below the integral sign, then enter the function and then tell it what you are integrating over. And of course, unlike the 84-Plus it will give you the exact answer and not just a decimal approximation. The same is true with derivatives.

Where it really beats the 89 though is when doing integration and if you need to plug in a variable as your limit of integration, where the 89 would throw an error, this will actually do it for you. And you can even use the variable in your function as one of the limits of integration. For example, if you are an EE major taking electric and magnetic fields, when you get to Gauss's Law you often have to integrate over a variable like r, but also have to use r as one of the limits of integration. The 89 cannot pull that off, this one can. Also, the graphs it can produce are much better than the 89, especially 3D graphs which are light years beyond the crappy 89 ones.

The main thing I do not like about it is the battery. While it does have good battery life, and you can get a lot out of a charge, it is not something you can replace on your own. Unlike the 83, 84, 85, and 89 you cannot just pop the back off and put 4 AAA batteries in it. So you have to make sure it is charged well enough before you need to use it. The other thing I do not like, is I have yet to figure out how to get changing the mode from radians to degrees to stick. I can find it in the menu and change the option but then when I go back into a document or even open a new document it always stays in radian mode. Granted it is not a huge deal to just convert radians to degrees, but it is still a pain when it was much easier on the old calculators to do it.

The test mode issue is not something I have run into, but I had ample warning about it. Basically, if you end up in one of the main menus of the calculator there is an option that says "Press to Test" which gives no warning on what it does. You could realistically assume it means to run a diagnostic on the calculator, but in reality, it turns off much of the CAS capability and gets rid of some of the functions (like if you go into the trig menu you only get sin, cos and tangent and the inverses of those not the others). If you know someone that has the calculator you can connect them and get out of it easily, but if you do not, it is a total pain in the ass to get out of it. So basically, NEVER push that unless you are required to for an exam (in which case I would just use an 84-plus (or equivalent calculator) and don't bother putting this into the test mode).

I have not used every feature on the calculator and never will. But I have found it very good for what I have needed to do. I am not sure how it compares up against the HP 50 or some of the other comparable calculators by other manufacturers that are out there. It can be kind of humorous to read all the debates or arguments that go on about what is the better calculator, and my guess is they all have their strengths and weaknesses. So far I have been mostly satisfied with this and what it can do.

Textbook Review: Modern Control Systems

 

This book is very mixed. It does some things well and some things very badly. What it does well is give a lot of real-world examples and great explanations of the theory/concepts and definitions. What it does horribly however is actually teach you how to do the problems. The approach the authors took to writing this would be much better for a masters level control systems class where you presumably already know the basics and are more interested in designing systems than you are trying to figure out how to actually work through the problems by hand. The only solutions it gives are for the multiple choice problems (which are mostly testing whether you know the concepts). There are no solutions for the problems you actually have to work out. The examples in the text itself are basic to intermediate, but provide little to no help for how to get through the harder exercises. They also have mistakes and the examples sometimes omit very critical steps in showing the solutions to the examples. And it does not just steps like taking a derivative or doing integration, which by the time you get to the point in an undergrad degree when you are taking control systems you will use MATLAB, Wolfram, or your calculator to do anyway, but actually omitting steps in setting the problems up.

Like most of the other reviewers, I think it is way too dense to be of much help in an introductory undergraduate class. The authors seemed more concerned about showing how much they know about control systems than they do actually teaching students how to do the work. If they took about half of the explanatory material out and put in more useful examples then it would be a much better book. Given that this thing is the size of an old-school phone book, it should be much more helpful than it is. If you have a good teacher you can get around some of this book's limitations. If not you will probably need to look on YouTube or do some Google searching to figure out how to do problems.

I debated between giving this two or three stars. Honestly, I see it as a 2.5 overall. If you are in an undergrad class just learning the material it is definitely closer to two stars. Once you actually understand the topic though, and are not as concerned with how to do the problems by hand, then I could see this book being more useful.

Textbook Review: Electric Circuits 9th Edition

 

There are worse textbooks out there than this one (for example the textbook I had to use for multivariable calculus) but not many. The problem is that the authors seem to want to skimp on explaining the theory and providing examples and get right to the problems. As a result, you get very little guidance and background on key concepts, a couple rather basic examples, and then a bunch of problems only a few of which the examples provide guidance in solving. If you have an instructor who goes through a lot of examples you can get around some of these deficiencies, but if not you will be lost. In fact, even some of the instructors at my school complain about this book and its lack of guidance.

If you do not find your instructor all that helpful I recommend looking into the MathTutor DVD circuits lessons. Those are DVD sets that do a far better job of explaining the concepts from the course, and more importantly, the instructor goes through many many examples of problems. You can tell that he used a version of this book to select problems from because some of the examples he worked through are number-for-number problems from this book. In all those 6 DVDs cover about 90% of the material in a first-semester circuits class (with the exception of the material on Op-Amps and the complex power material). If you need the book in order to do your homework problems you will not have much of a choice but to get it, but I would not spend a ton of time trying to do any in-depth reading of it because it probably will not help much.

Study Aid Review: The Circuit Analysis Tutor Volume 5

 

This is the 5th in Jason's circuit analysis tutor set and the last one that deals with DC current. This, along with the other 4 volumes covers approximately 75% of the material you will get in the first semester of circuit analysis if you are in the class for EE majors, or more if you are in the class for non-EE majors. This set uses more calculus than the others, mostly differentiating and integrating exponential functions. In fact in some of the problems he goes through you do not even get a circuit diagram, just a description of what is going on and then you have to use the equations to solve them.

This set deals with inductors and capacitors in circuits that also have resistors. The RL and RC circuits. Like with all of his DVDs Jason only presumes you have the math and circuit experience to be at that point. So basically that you have learned the material on the other 4 volumes and have taken calculus. He does not assume that you have any experience with RL and RC circuits, even though some who have taken physics may have gained some experience with them in the second semester of the class. The shows how to solve each problem step-by-step and does not cut corners.

I used this set (and the other 4 volumes) and worked through them over the summer before I took Circuits I and II. I can tell you that many of the problems he works through are word for word out of my textbook that I used, and while Jason does not touch on every single concept or problem type in every chapter, he does hit the main points, and the things concepts that we were tested on. I got a B in the first semester of circuits (because of a couple of brain farts on exams) and an A in the second semester. I used Jason's math, chemistry, physics, and circuits DVDs with much success. I finished my EE degree with a 3.8 GPA and got As in most of the core classes. You will still have to study and go to class in order to do well, but if you use these as a supplement as they are intended to be used they will absolutely help you.

Study Aid Review: Schaum's Outline of Advanced Mathematics for Engineers and Scientists

 

This is not really a book that is tied to any one specific course like the other Schaum's outlines are. This is meant to be more like a reference where you can go to look up concepts that you may have forgotten. It is like a condensed textbook that has the key things that you need to know but does not go into a lot of detail about the theory and do a bunch of proofs as a textbook will. Let's face it, we all forget things from class after a while, especially things that we do not use on a regular basis. Most people will be able to remember how to take simple derivatives or integrals, but far fewer people are going to remember how to set up a triple integral or do Laplace Transforms off the top of their heads after they get done with the classes where they have to use them. That is where this will come in handy.

I think the best way to use any of the Schaum's outlines is to use them in conjunction with learning the concepts in class (because they give you far more examples worked out than your book ever will) or as a reference guide once a class is over. At that point, you can use it as a substitute for your textbook because you will not be as likely to need all the detail and rigor of a full-blown textbook by then. It is not something that is going to be useful to teach yourself the concepts from initially. That is because of the lack of detail and the fact that some of the outlines are edited badly and can contain errors. Once you understand the material the errors and typos can be easy to spot, but when you are first learning that is not always the case. I have only glanced through this particular outline so far, so I am not sure how many errors (if any) are in this one. I know some of the outlines have more errors than others, but just be aware if something does not look right when you are working through a problem, it may not be that you don't know what you are doing.

Textbook Review: Fundamentals of Engineering Thermodynamics 6th Edition

 

This is a good engineering textbook in terms of explaining the theory. In that aspect, it is clear and concise and provides many good examples in the chapter text to guide you in doing the homework problems. All of the problems sets are long and the problems get more challenging as you get into the later problems, and generally, each problem sets up the next problem meaning the technique that you have to use to solve one problem gives you a guide for how to approach the next one, but the next one will have some twist or wrinkle that makes it a bit harder. And, some of the problems are actually two-part problems in which the solution to the first problem is then used to solve the next problem. The one drawback is that the book (at least the sixth edition) does not provide any answers to problems, even the odd-numbered problems, which makes checking your work very difficult. One of the big plusses that the book provides that I wish more math and engineering textbooks did is a summary at the end of the sections, just before the problem sets, that list out the equations from that section and tells you the kinds of problems each of the equations is used for. So, while the book is not perfect, it is definitely one of the better textbooks that I had to use while getting my electrical engineering degree. 

Study Aid Review: Schaums Outline of Thermodynamics for Engineers, 3rd Edition

 

Thermodynamics is a class that many engineering students end up taking either because it is required for the particular branch of engineering they are majoring in, or because it is a part of a group of a few electives that they have to pick from, and it is the least-bad option. I was in the latter group, as it was one of three classes I had to pick from when getting my electrical engineering degree, and it was the best of the bunch. 

Thermodynamics is a class that is basically a blend of physics and chemistry. Thermo basically, combines what you learn in the thermodynamics chapters in chemistry and the thermodynamics chapters in physics, makes the problems a bit different than those in either class, and then gives you an entire semester of that. If you have a really good teacher who goes through a lot of examples and makes everything clear, then you may not need this to really teach yourself the subject. But, even in that situation, you will probably come across a homework problem or two that you get stuck on, and there are enough example problems in here that you can probably find a pretty close example to use as a guide. 

This is one of the outlines that does teach you some of the theory but does not go into it as much as a textbook will, and then has a decent amount of worked-out examples and some problems in which you are just provided the answer. I did notice that the chapters were laid out a bit differently than they were in my particular textbook, and this definitely included material that we did not cover in class. But, I was always able to find what I was looking for, and did not notice a bunch of mistakes (although I did not look at or try to work through every problem). So, overall, I think it is a good resource that can help you get through a thermodynamics class as painlessly as possible. 

Product Review: Haitronic 120pcs 20cm Length Jumper Wire/Dupont Cable Multicolored(10 Color) M to F, M to M, F to F

 

This is a set of jumper wires that will get you every possible connection type. If you are just connecting components on a breadboard, you get a set of wires with M-to-M connections. If you are connecting to an Arduino or Raspberry Pi, you get a set of wires with M-to-F connections, and you also get a set of wires with F-to-F connections for the times you need those. You get 40 wires of each connection type, which will be plenty for most people's needs. If you are an electrical engineering student and have to do circuit labs, especially at home, these are invaluable and much better than the jumper wires you will get with most kits. I definitely recommend them.

Product Review: GemRed Plastic Multi-Function Angle Finder

 

This is marketed as usable for physical therapy to figure out range of motion. What I used it for, and what I personally think is the best use for it is for math and/or engineering students who want to use it to draw accurate angles in their notes or on homework. If you are in geometry, trigonometry, or engineering classes like statics or dynamics or any similar classes in which you are going to be working with angles a lot, it is very helpful to keep the lines and angles in your work looking nice. I would not describe it as something that is absolutely necessary for a student but definitely can come in handy.

Product Review: SainSmart IIC/I2C/TWI Serial 2004 20x4 LCD Module Shield For Arduino UNO

 

The meager instructions that came with this (at least when I purchased it back in 2017) are pretty useless and incorrect. If you dig around online or look at the Amazon reviews you can find the correct instructions to get it to work. Basically, you have to check the l2C address (which is wrong in the instructions), check that you are using the correct l2C address, if your Arduino has more than one, and make sure you are giving it 5V of power.  Once you get it working, it works as it should. I used it for a build for an independent study project, and once I got everything set up correctly, it worked as expected to display a message based on the amount of vibration detected from a piezoelectric sensor. 

Product Review: TOPS Engineering Computation Pad, 8-1/2" x 11"

 

It looks like standard engineering paper and does, ultimately, get the job done. But, it is very flimsy, and tears (where you do not want it to) very easily. It is much lighter weight than some other engineering papers out there which can definitely cause issues if you have to erase a lot. So, if you are a student and are required to turn your homework in on engineering paper if you get this I suggest working out the problems on regular paper and then transferring over your final answer to this so you can turn in a clean copy. 

Textbook Review: Vibration Spectrum Analysis

 

I used this book for an independent study class in my electrical engineering program. I was building a vibration detection device and used this to get some background on the theory to be included in the final paper. It is well-written and concise. It is not likely a book that someone is just going to pull off a shelf and read for pleasure and you need to have the math and science background needed to get into an engineering program to really understand it. But, if you need something that lays out the concepts without having to do a bunch of searches online, this is a good resource.

Book Review: Arduino For Dummies 1st Edition

 

The Arduino is a microcontroller that can be used to do anything from something as simple as causing an LED to illuminate to controlling a robot. However, if you are not all that adept at programming and/or building circuits, it can be somewhat daunting to use. I used one to build a vibration-sensing device for a class in my electrical engineering curriculum, and since I only knew the basics of programming, I got this to help figure out how to program the device. The book has a lot of good information in it and presents the information in an easily understandable way. If you have some experience and programming and know the basics of circuit design the book is easy to understand and use.  The material may go over the head of a total novice, but you can definitely have beginner to intermediate skills/knowledge and easily follow along with the material.

Textbook Review: Fundamentals of Electric Drives

 

This was the book required for my undergraduate electric drives class in my school's electrical engineering curriculum. This book is a bit of a double-edged sword. On one hand, according to my professor, it is pretty much the only textbook on electric drives that is suitable for an undergraduate-level class, as other textbooks get into detail that is appropriate for graduate-level classes. On the other hand, it has a lot of errors, most of which would be impossible to discover unless someone who knows the material tells you about them, such as errors in the equations. The book has a ton of equations, with little explanation beyond just a couple of examples in the chapter text of what they are useful for and how to apply them. The one plus is that the problem sets at the end of the chapter are short, but trying to figure out how to solve them with the instruction from the chapter text is not the easiest thing in the world. Unfortunately, the author of the book has passed away, so unless another professor takes up the mantle of updating the book and putting out a new edition, then this is the only edition that is going to be released, with flaws and all. So ultimately, if you are looking to teach yourself the material in the book, I would definitely look for a study guide so you can double check the material in the book, and if you have to use it for class, be prepared to ask a lot of questions.

Study Aid Review: Schaum's Outline of Basic Electrical Engineering 2nd Edition

 

The title of this guide may lead some to think that this is really a starting point for someone that is either at the beginning of an electrical engineering degree program or thinking about electrical engineering as a major. And it is really not that so much as it is a guide that takes the large concepts that you learn throughout the course of an electrical engineering degree like circuits analysis, electronics (circuits made of diodes, transistors, etc.) digital logic, electric drives, etc., and condenses them into one guide. So, it is more a review of the core concepts of an electrical engineering curriculum and can be used as a primer once you graduate to brush up on concepts, prepare for the PE exam (for those who will take it), etc. It is not necessarily a guide that will be extremely helpful to use in an introduction to electrical engineering class that many schools have that gives you an idea of what you can do with the major, may have you build a couple of basic soldering projects or the like. It has some calculation mistakes in it (which knocks it down a star for me), but if you need to brush up on the theory for some reason, this is an excellent guide to get the big picture without all of the fine detail.

Textbook Review: Microelectronic Circuits 6th Edition

 

This is a huge book (over 1400 pages) that is used for a two-semester class in an electronics class in an electrical engineering curriculum. It is so big that it could also likely be used for a master's level electronics class as well. The book is definitely kind of a slog to get through. Thankfully, my teacher did not teach directly from the book, and taught pretty much just from memory and experience, and created his own homework, quizzes, and exam problems. So, the book, while required, was more of a reference guide. The handful of times I did have to read anything out of the chapters I could follow what was going on, but I cannot really say how much the theory and examples in the chapter text prepare you to do the problems.

Generally, I would say that it is not likely to be the easiest book to teach yourself the material from. But, if paired with a decent study aid or supplement you can likely use it if you are trying to teach yourself the material. It does review some of the material that you would learn in the first year of circuits, but the focus is definitely on transistors, diodes, and how circuit components such as operational amplifiers are made using different types of transistors, and then gets more advanced from there.

Textbook Review: Engineering Statistics 5th Edition

 

This is basically a statistics textbook with examples and problems that are geared more toward engineering contexts than what you would see in a statistics class in a pure math curriculum. Like many textbooks, it falls into the trap of giving you the basic theory for the various concepts and showing you a couple of easier examples, then giving you a problem set with a bunch of problems that are harder than the examples in the chapter. Many of the problems require the use of statistical software (in my class we used MiniTab), but the book is not really keyed to any particular software program and as a result, does not give anything more than basic instructions about how to approach those kinds of problems.

Overall, I would say the book is okay, but not great. To be honest I hated stats in general and had to really grit my teeth to get through it. I would not say that this is something you can easily teach yourself from. It explains some concepts well, but others, not so much. For example, I never did understand ANOVA no matter how many times I read the chapter text. Most people are going to get this because it is required for a class they are taking, in which case you are going to have to get it regardless. If you are looking for something to learn stats from I would definitely look for a non-textbook study aid.