Encyclopedia of Electronic Components Volume 1: Resistors, Capacitors, Inductors, Switches, Encoders, Relays, Transistors

If you are a beginner, a hobbyist, or just someone who is interested in learning about different electrical components, you will absolutely enjoy this series. In this book, you will find that it provides the most essential information as to what a particular component is, how it is used, and what to expect from it. It is extremely easy to look up any component within the realm of the volume. Instead of having to go to a computer or potable device each time, I find it much easier to go to this book first. Being that this book is one of many volumes it's very easy to flip through its pages, and if you wish, write notes for yourself inside as well. Upon purchase, you will be amazed at just how much useful information there is for each component in each volume. This is volume 1 of an ongoing series. You don't need to buy all the volumes, but I'm a firm believer in such reference books that if you need something from one volume, you'll definitely need something from the others as well. I purchased volumes 1 & 2 at the same time, I just wish that volume 3 would had been available at the same time, but I can appreciate that there is always information being added too. I highly recommend this book series!

Excellent book

*Encyclopedia of Electronic Components Volume 1* is an outstanding resource for anyone interested in understanding the fundamentals of electronics. What immediately stands out is the book’s exceptional attention to detail. Each component—whether it’s resistors, capacitors, inductors, or transistors—is explained not just in theory, but in a way that connects directly to real-world application. The explanations are thorough without being overwhelming, making complex concepts approachable for beginners while still valuable for more experienced readers. One of the book’s greatest strengths is its use of practical, hands-on examples. Instead of simply defining components, it demonstrates how they behave in circuits, what happens when they fail, and how to test them. This makes the learning process far more engaging and memorable. The inclusion of clear illustrations and step-by-step experiments reinforces understanding and encourages readers to actively explore electronics on their own. Overall, this book strikes an excellent balance between technical depth and accessibility. It feels less like a dry reference manual and more like a guided learning experience. For anyone building a strong foundation in electronics, this is a highly recommended and genuinely enjoyable read.

Platt's 'Enc. of Electronic Components' is a good read, lots of information on the components covered, and strikes a fine balance between underwhelming the knowledgeable and overwhelming those who 'just don't know.' I wanted to know more about capacitors. Now I have read why I might choose polyethylene over mylar, or tantalum caps over electrolytics. I wanted to know more about coils, inductors, and now there is a little more knowledge to fill the wells of memory there as well. Lots of good information on resistors, capacitors (including the actual schematics for RC high and low pass filters), a little later there are LCR filters, diodes, a variety of diodes and transistor types. There is a very good section on a variety of motors - better here than I expected, so I learned more where I hadn't thought I would. Platt introduces the volume by suggesting the book will gather enough information to be usable, in one place, effectively 'peer reviewed' for accuracy and legitimacy, and the book certainly lives up to that aim. In all chapters on components there is a 'what could go wrong' section; that is what I'm going to add here. My two big complaints have to do with typeface/font selection and the layout of illustrations. The font used for formulae I find hard to read quickly and accurately. Most troublesome is the 'pi' symbol which quite often I mistake for an 'n' which I catch because I know the equation - but I can see being caught out. That I would like to see changed. The other complaint is the number of times throughout the book where the text refers to an illustration -- which is on the next page. It sounds like a minor complaint but can be irritating. Those two quibbles aside I'm glad I bought the book. If my bookshelf had a fire, earthquake, tsunami, or house-cleaner come through I would buy another copy quickly. And, once through the first couple chapters, I want to know when the next (two!) volumes are coming out? Worth your time and money.

This book is great as an introduction into Electronics. I think it's useful to have around in case you ever want to look anything up but I was under the assumption it would be more encyclopedic whereas this is sort of like a 6th graders reference book for not any sort of actual practical referencing but just something need to look at in read. There are some chapters that are incredibly long on things like relays that, while correct and useful to people who use a lot of relays, are incredibly boring for 90% of the people that are going to be reading this book. Relay is a great device if you're making an oven but if you're making an oven you're not reading this book. That is to say, the writer is very intelligent as far as electrical engineering goes however the writer is not cognizant of who he is writing to, he switches between thinking his audiences incredibly developed in their Electronics knowledge and thinking that his audience knows nothing about Electronics. For example, the DC motor and AC motor section is the majority of the book. I mean not exactly but it's very long however a DC motor has two connectors and we all know how to wire it up to get it to work it's the simplest electronic component in the world. The mosfet is given 2 pages and is lumped in with the JFET, and enhancement mode, depletion mode, and channel, P Channel, the various regions, and it's applications (of which the P Channel mosfet application listed was something like "no one uses p channel mosfets") are zoomed through. The incongruity there being that the mosfet is very likely the most used electronic component in history and the relay is giving much more detail. however I got this book when I didn't know s*** about electronics and now I do so maybe I can sound all high-and-mighty like this because I read the book and having read the book I Now understand Electronics. It's a chicken or the egg kind of thing. But this is a genuine review and if this is what you want, and I'm sure it is, then you should buy the book because I did and now I know electronics well enough to write a review ragging on this book (chicken/egg ...ya know).

The author did an outstanding job to collect the information and present them in a way even beginners can understand. A great resource for any electronic library from the hobbyist to the professional

I purchased all of Charles Platt's Make: books in the series and they are all just packed with knowledge and beautifully laid out. I highly recommend these books for anyone looking to get into the world of electronics. Another wonderful feature about these books is, if you have any questions about any of the content in these books, Charles will personally reply to answer your quarries. Be sure to check out all the books in this series!!! Make: Electronics Make: More Electronics Make: Encyclopedia of Electronic Components Vol 1,2,3

This is a great book well deserving of its place on anyone's bookshelf. As other reviewers have said, this is not the kind of book you read cover to cover. This is the kind of book you thumb through and mentally index. When you need to know more about a certain topic in your work or experiments, you know where to go for information that is accurate and teaches you what you need to know about that particular topic. And, if you need to go into more depth, this book does a good job of preparing you for the abundance of sometimes overly technical information you'll find on the Internet. My only quibble is that it has been painfully slow for the Author/Publisher to release Vol. II and III.