Teach Yourself Electricity and Electronics, Fourth Edition
- ISBN13: 9780071459334
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Learn the hows and whys behind basic electricity, electronics, and communications without formal training The best combination self-teaching guide, home reference, and classroom text on electricity and electronics has been updated to deliver the latest advances. Great for preparing for amateur and commercial licensing exams, this guide has been prized by thousands of students and professionals for its uniquely thorough coverage ranging from DC and AC concepts to semiconductors and integr
Rating: 
(out of 22 reviews)
List Price: $ 34.95
Price: $ 16.87
Nyrius LT12 12 Language Global Digital Talking Translator Foreign Pocket-Sized Electronic Speaking Dictionary
- Cross-translate 12 international languages using any of the 8400 built-in phrases
- Auto power off, volume selection and reset button
- Handheld electronic translators are the modern answer to paper dictionaries
- Device speaks the foreign phrases aloud
- Integrated alarm clock and data bank with password lock
This translator serves as a handy speaking tool for international travellers and tourists.
It allows the user to cross translate 12 international languages and each language stores 700 commonly used travelling topic sentences.
You’ll be able to communicate easily and quickly in a foreign country.
Simply select the language, topic of conversation, and sentence you would like to speak using the LCD display.
The translator will display the sentence in the original language (usually English) and
Rating: 
(out of 70 reviews)
List Price: $ 79.99
Price: $ 41.50
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Review by E. J. Vicknair for Nyrius LT12 12 Language Global Digital Talking Translator Foreign Pocket-Sized Electronic Speaking Dictionary
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We purchased this translator for a recent trip to France and Italy. We played with it before we left and attempted to use it a few times during the first part of the trip. Navigating through the various menus to try to find the one phrase you’re looking for just takes way too long. And, it is missing key phrases like, “Do you speak English?” After the first couple days, we gave up on the talking translator and relied instead on a French/Italian/English phrase book with pronunciations that we picked up for free at the library. Save your money – it is not nearly as useful as you might hope.
Review by David Harrington for Nyrius LT12 12 Language Global Digital Talking Translator Foreign Pocket-Sized Electronic Speaking Dictionary
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Tronics prompted me to send a review, so I will.
Some background:
I travel internationally about once a year to different places. I usually bring an English-to-XX/XX-to-English dictionary with me when traveling, in case I cannot find an English speaker (which is usually not too hard to do, but getting them to admit to it is harder
. I find the dictionary approach very easy – you look up the word and show the other person the translation.
My English-Chinese/Chinese-English dictionary seems to have approximately 6000 words each direction that I can look up by simply spelling it from either language.
I looked on the web for electronic dictionaries. Unfortunately, none of the available devices seem to provide a simple language-to-language translation with look-up by spelling (except maybe for the common European languages). Since I also travel in Asia, and work for a Chinese company, that doesn’t quite meet my needs.
For languages with different alphabets that are rather dissimilar, such as English and Chinese, having a device support look-up by spelling for both languages becomes difficult. The hierarchical menu approach seems a way to support look-up in dissimilar languages.
Now for the device itself.
My Chinese-English dictionary weighs 10.25 oz (290g). My Nyrius, plus carrying case, lanyard, and 1 paper word list weighs a total 3.75 oz (110g). That may not seem like much difference, but a 10 oz book in your pants pocket is not small and unobtrusive, especially for a day of sight seeing. The Nyrius is small enough for a shirt pocket (or you can hang from the lanyard).
If you are doing a multi-stop vacation, such as touring Europe, multiple dictionaries would add to your luggage weight, while the Nyrius would handle multiple languages in one small package.
Usability:
I have not yet traveled with it internationally, so I am not sure how well it will work for me in different situations. I cannot see using this to carry on a conversation; look-up seems way too slow. Maybe with lots of use, look-up becomes much faster.
I find look-up of random words to be fairly difficult on the device, since you don’t know which words are supported. I thank the company for providing small paper listings of the menus, since I can visually find which words are available and how to get to them much faster on paper than on the device. And since listings are provided in multiple languages, you can let the other person also use a look-up list to find words themselves. (They do not currently have 12 lists, though.) The lists are lightweight and easily fold up to carry in the carrying case.
I find some navigation counter-intuitive. The words are numbered; if you press the “up” key, it shows you the next lower numbered word; if you press the down key, it shows you the next higher numbered word. I suppose it corresponds to looking at the words on the printed list – word #181 is higher on the printed page than word #182.
I think the display is pretty primitive. The device is similar in size to a cellphone (actually a bit larger than many cellphones). The size of the screen is only two characters high, which is awful compared to cellphones. The screen is black-on-gray which limits its visibility compared to cellphones. The left-right scrolling is painfully slow compared to cellphones or computer screens. The word translator could be so much better in a decent cellphone handset or a PDA.
I give this device four stars; it seems to do what it set out to do reasonably well, and at a low price. Based on info available from the web, it seems to do a good job compared to competitive products. I wish they had shot for loftier goals, though.
I think this translator could be much more than it is. I wish I could find a translator with better features that I think current technology could easily support. Imagine this device having a USB port or an SD port, and you could buy support for a single language on a USB flash drive or an SD card. And then you could buy only the languages that you need, when you need them. And you could buy the current basic dictionaries, or advanced dictionaries as they become available. And you could buy new languages as they became available.
Imagine having the translator on your cellphone or PDA rather than in a separate device, so you only need to carry one device. Imagine improved hierarchical searching with drop-down menus on better screens. Imagine being able to download the dictionaries of choice to your cellphone for use with a common cellphone application. Imagine support via your cellphone provider for a specific language payable one month at a time (the license continues until you explicitly discontinue it) – since I usually travel to one place once a year, for one to four weeks, that would make much more sense than having a 12-language translator that sits idle 11 months of the year. Imagine support for voice-driven look-up, similar to the voice command capability of some existing cellphones. Ah, what could have been.
Still, I think this devices deserves its four stars for what it offers at the price.
Review by Tigger for Nyrius LT12 12 Language Global Digital Talking Translator Foreign Pocket-Sized Electronic Speaking Dictionary
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This translator is a lot of fun.You can actually hear what it is supposed to sound like so I can say it kind of properly. The only thing
I have a problem with is there is no way to type in any words. You can only get the phrases that are programmed in it. So if someone answers me, I have no idea what they are saying. I just need to carry a dictionary or phrase book with it. I’m excited about using it in my travels..Japan this year and Europe next year. This is fun!
Review by Summer Williams for Nyrius LT12 12 Language Global Digital Talking Translator Foreign Pocket-Sized Electronic Speaking Dictionary
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I purchased this translator as a gift for my mother’s four week tour of Europe. Over all, she was very happy with the item. Occasionally, she said there were times when she couldn’t find how to say a particular phrase, but for the most part, she was thrilled that this one device served her quite efficiently through all of the countries she traveled. She especially liked the verbal pronunciation, the pre-grouped categories of phrases, its small size, & its included alarm clock which allowed her to cut back on bringing one more item. As for me, I certainly appreciated how reasonably priced it was for how well it served my mother on her trip. You can absolutely find better translators but doing so on par of the cost per value of this translator would be difficult. It’s a great item for the price.
Review by Delwyn J. Wendler for Nyrius LT12 12 Language Global Digital Talking Translator Foreign Pocket-Sized Electronic Speaking Dictionary
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This is a well designed easy to operate translator. It will cover 95% of what you need being a tourist. The only flaw I see in this machine is not being able to enter your own sentences, but that might be a flaw in all machines, so I would bring a dictionary for those times. Good voice quality and volume. I will bring a set of watch batteries with me on the trip as I don’t know about the availability of those batteries in Europe.
Review by John Public for Teach Yourself Electricity and Electronics, Fourth Edition
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This one is really good. It starts off assuming you know absolutely nothing about electricity other than you shouldn’t stick knives in electrical sockets and ramps you up. Lots of simple, easy to understand diagrams and a layman’s explanation make this a book you don’t have to be a technogeek to understand. Unlike most college textbook authors, this person WANTS you to understand what they are saying. I really liked the quizzes at the end of each chapter, and the schematic symbol appendix.
There is a bit of a downside (or upside depending on what you are looking for). While the author presents the basic formulas and theory very clearly, with lots of examples, there is not an awful lot of “extra” math or theory. He of course drills on stuff like capacitors in parallel/series, phase diagrams, and power formulas but (for example) in discussing magnetism the author does not tell you about the (force current) hand rules, or which side is north on a coil of wire. This is great if you want to understand magnetism, but not so good if you want to do calculations.
If you want to learn how to wire a house, design a computer, build a motor, or get into short wave radio, this probably isn’t the book for you. If you want to thoroughly understand basic concepts, electrical components, and some motor concepts, this is worth looking at. As for me, within 4 hours of getting this book it was my favorite among the 2 dozen electrical books I have.
Review by E. Roberts for Teach Yourself Electricity and Electronics, Fourth Edition
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Thanks very much for giving such a clear vision of how circuits work. I was really lost in my electronic’s class. Your explanations of how voltage, resistance, and current interplay was a big help to me.
Review by John Lawler for Teach Yourself Electricity and Electronics, Fourth Edition
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This is a great introduction to electronics. If you’re just starting out in electronics this book would make a great companion to your texts.
Clear simple explainations actually make it a fun read. You can easily read this one cover to cover.
My background is in electrical/computer engineering (graduated from Purdue Cal in 1996).
Review by William Maloy for Teach Yourself Electricity and Electronics, Fourth Edition
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I bought this text to help me bone up on electronics as part of my HAM Radio advocation. I did not expect such a complete work. As I said in the title you will use this as a reference for years to come. I feel like I got more than my monies worth!
Review by obug for Teach Yourself Electricity and Electronics, Fourth Edition
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Just to make this clear, I’m writing this as somebody who does NOT have a degree in Electrical Engineering. I’ve been trying to get into electronics for years and have tried many different books.
I’ll break this review into three sections as I think this book needs three different ratings.
1. 5 stars for teaching basic electronics theory and concepts. The majority of the theory is in the first two sections of the book. After wrestling with “The Art of Electronics” and the 1st edition of “Practical Electronics for Inventors” for years this was the book that finally made sense. The chapters are well paced and the tests are a good way to help think about what you’ve learned.
2. 3 stars for Section 3. This is an issue because section 3 is where the book starts with diodes, transistors, and electronics circuits. As far as helping us understand electronics, this section is not even near the level of the first two sections of the book. More importantly, the author does not adequately explain the circuits presented.
3. 1 or 2 stars for teaching “Practical” skills. After moving through almost 3 sections of this book, I understand a lot of theory but can’t understand what is going in a basic circuit when I look at one. This book is completely lacking in the practical aspect. I assumed all this would be explained in the third section but it isn’t.
I think this would be a great first book. You will, however, need other books to learn some practical skills, which is why you wanted to get into electronics in the first place.