Forrest M Mims Books Pdf

[Anthony Small]

Thelater Mini-notebook series were produced using similar techniques, although this time mercifully with a mechanical pencil. Each volume took about three weeks to produce, including designing each circuit and building it four times to make sure it worked.

Also every truly gifted engineer and true genuis I have met were self taught. Colledge and education have devolved into much less than they used to be. Technology and information are drivers of innovation not the universities.

I agree about fail-often and education. Inventor types are often surprised at how many serious advancements start as a mathematical abstraction on scrap paper or whatever is handy on a ferry ride. Like the operational amplifier, regeneration and heterodyne in radio, DSP, SDR, etc.

I mean, I know that solar cell are basically photo diodes, but they share the same technology does nto mean they are used the same way and have the same for factor, you are not going to use a photo diode to generate current for powering a device, nor use a solar cell to detect light.

The technology has changed over the years. The old solar cell was not like a modern silicon based solar cell. It was a Cadmium based photo voltaic cell that was so inefficient that it was more often used as a light detector rather than a power source.

I had the same thought at first, but then reminded myself that Cds cells are really photo resistors and not photo diodes, though they were generally used to control a diode in a light switching application.

Possibly, RB was referring to selenium photocells, which DO produce electric current like silicon photocells and photodiodes do. The only cadmium devices I am aware of are cadmium sulfide, which are photoresistors, not photodiodes.

They really are not copyrighted.

If you check copyright law, simply reformatting known or public knowledge is not protected. Copyright requires a substantial new or original thought. The circuit diagrams was a simple collation of existing circuit diagrams!

I have them all around here somewhere. Honestly they should be required materials for any EE program. Take a month and build every circuit no matter how overly simple and old they teach real fundamentals.

Not sure if I still have it, but I remember that first edition notebook back when integrated circuits were new and you could go down to radio shack and buy all kinds of cool stuff including tube amplifiers. The copy I had was bright yellow. Learned a lot from Forest Mims III notebooks. Glad to see he is getting some credit for all the inspiration his work created.

I built my first code practice oscillator using the 555 circuit in the book and parts I bought at the local, now defunct in Canada, Radio Shack. I think it was 1976 when he generously began and long and and happy relationship with me. Thanks Forest.

Bought these when I was a kid, still have them. But they never made any sense to me. Lots of circuit diagrams, but no explanation whatsoever of what each circuit component did, why the values were chosen, etc. Just a little bit of general theory and a lot of diagrams. Absolutely zero information on how to design your own circuits.

Everybody else seems to think they were the greatest thing since sliced bread. I did like the looks of the diagrams and hand lettering. But I guess you had to be a lot smarter than me to actually learn anything from them.

I grew up with f.mims and many others; I was a sponge for information, I would get it wherever I could. I also agree with the comment about Don Lancaster and snake oil. Some of his projects were from another planet.

I found a discouraging new item some years ago, in which a doomsday virus eugenics-promoting U-texas professor had a big public argument with Mimms over the topic of overpopulation, with Mimms basically getting browbeaten in front of a large technical audience for having the audacity to suggest overpopulation may be a myth, or dependent on a consumption-paradigm exploitative of resources and citizens.

I had the Engineers Notebook when I was younger too. Gave me more than one idea for things I never did have the time or money to make. (including at least one project that would have featured a microprocessor back when the microprocessors listed in the catalogs were things like the Z80 rather than the easy-to-use/easy-to-program microcontrollers of today). Then I ended up shifting away from electronics to focus more on my computer programming hobby (more than anything else I think the fact that computer programming was a much cheaper hobby than electronics is probably why I ended up sticking with that)

Thank you! Great flash back story. I know I had them all plus a yellow phone book sized catalog of circuits that probably came from RS also.

Unfortunatly just this past summer it all went to the dump after finding the entire collection soaked from a roof leak.

But the great memories or learning before the internet will always be with me!

So true. Every attempt I made to shop at radio shack resulted in a sales droid trying to sell me for a higher price a cell phone that I could buy cheaper elsewhere. They would be disappointed when I told them I was there for parts even when I often would spend more on parts than the price of the phone they were trying to push.

I think RS saw the error of their ways toward the end, but it was too late. My local RS had a full stock of Arduino products, as well as a good variety of project boxes, battery holders, and several cabinets of drawers full of components, switches, and connectors. Once again I could walk into a store with a parts list and walk out with everything you needed to complete a weekend project. Overnight shipping is what REALLY killed Radio Shack.

Ive been collecting Mr. Mims books, since I was able afford them an able to get hold of the atari, altair and the trash80 had to use 8 bit assembler code to convert them to cp/m, my uncle got them for me and i started coding back then, found my first Mims book and collected almost all of them the last 55 years :), at least it feels that long ago.

You can find Forrest online on Twitter at @fmims, on Facebook under Forrest Mims III and on his website about his science research, ForrestMims.org. Many thanks to this living legend for being on The Amp Hour!

Awesome Interview and all I can say is that I give credit to Forrest M Mims for getting me to this point in my life as a Student in Electrical engineering. I hope to hear him again on the Amp Hour in the near Future.

You should try to get Don Lancaster on your show (www.tinaja.com) He wrote many books which I used extensively, such as The TTL Cookook, The CMOS Cookbook, The Active Filter Cookbook are among some that I remember. He also had articles in most of the hobbyist magazines and had many suggestions regarding what to become involved in regarding electronics.

Great interview and great show especially when you have guests ?

As a software guy who which he learned electronics, could you ask your guests on how to learn electronics at this time and age, Arduino is great but it is too digital.

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