123 Robotics Experiments for the Evil Genius (TAB Robotics) | 
|  | | | Title: | 123 Robotics Experiments for the Evil Genius (TAB Robotics) | | Author: | Myke Predko | | Publisher: | McGraw-Hill/TAB Electronics | | Type: | Book / Paperback | | Publication Date: | 23 January, 2004 | | ISBN / ISBN-13: | 0071413588 / 9780071413589 | | List Price: | $24.95 | | You Save: | $8.48 | | Amazon Price: | $16.47 | |
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| Editorial Review / Publisher's Information:
Product Description
Text provides 123 experiments to bring out the genius in every basement hobbyist. Introduces readers to robotics, electronics, and programming; so you don't need to be a science whiz to get started. Shows how you can create simple robots and models using inexpensive materials and tools found around the house and workroom. Includes a printed circuit board. Softcover. DLC: Robotics.
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Customer Reviews:
• Didn't Get A Pcb Board 30 September, 2006
It's hard to give an objective review, as I didn't get the PCB Board with this book. I emailed McGraw-Hill, going to see why it didn't have one. If I can't get any help there, I'm going to contact Amazon about this....
Update: I got a response back from McGraw-Hill, these are no longer going to come packed with a PCB board. They said something about a CDRom, but I didn't get one with my book. This is really uncool, as most of the experiments are predicated on having that PCB. So, I would urge anyone who was really considering this to perform the experiments to pass it up. I would not recommend this book to anyone!
- Reviewed by customer ID: AWBE6FWLYNXTR
• Not Too Helpful, Kind Of Boring. 06 October, 2006
I was really excited when I read the table of contents of this book, as I thought it was going to talk about everything I wanted to know. It turned out that it was really boring. I gave it a good try, and forced myself to push through chapter after chapter. I read, but skipped many of the experiments, because they were set up to fail, to show you how something Couldn't be done. For example, one "experiment" on the construction of a robot's frame, was glueing pipe cleaners as joints between 2 tubes of cardboard. It went on to build a whole cardboard tube man, just to show it wouldn't stand up. Needless to say, I'm glad I didn't spend my day constructing that, as I would not have learned much about robotics. I couldn't tell if this was for kids, because it got somewhat complicated. I did buy it in a University bookstore though.
The hardest part of the whole thing, was buying all the parts. Some of them are listed in a way that nobody else lists them, and decoding them took a while. It also, unfortunately, like many robotics books, asks you to spend quite a bit of money on parts. This book pretty much just got so boring, that I began to question if it would actually explain the things that it claimed it would. I ended up giving up on it, and it set me back a bit on my robot experiments, just because I was so bored by it. It also set me back a bit of money for parts.
If you are looking for something to explain things in a fun, understandable, and productive way, look elsewhere.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A2V42L32SJX4JI
• A Mixed Bag 10 June, 2006
The book doesn't as much explain how to build a robot as it explains robots by their building blocks; electronics, microcontrollers, sensors, motors etc.
This is both the book's greatest strength and its greatest weakness; if you take the time and effort to go through each example, you will gain a solid understanding of electronics; understanding you need to have in order to design and build (as opposed to assemble one from a kit) a robot.
The drawback is that it is time-consuming to go through all the experiments, and it is not always obvious why a given experiment is relevant to robotics. Also, unless you already have drawers full of electronics components and tools, it's going to be quite expensive to buy everything you need -- about $150.
Unfortunately, the author didn't provide a good parts list for the book, so unless you buy a kit with all the components (see link that another reviewer provided), you'll probably need to order parts from several sources.
It is not clear what audience the author is writing for; one chapter may be very basic and simple, while the next is very advanced.
Finally, the book would have benefited from a more thorough proof-reading before going to press; there are some annoying typos and errors in circuit schematics.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A12ZL0OWRJ0E9F
• Too Many Mistakes 10 October, 2006
I agree with some of the other reviews. There is some helpful information in
this book but it's nothing which can't be found elsewhere.
It might be worth reading but I suggest skipping the
examples since they contain too many errors, and aren't
spaced or documented well enough for easy understanding and debugging.
- Reviewed by customer ID: AX9IQ5OH14D5O
• Misleading Title 10 May, 2006
This author has the ability to obscure even the simplest concepts.Perhaps it is intentional, sort of a puzzle book where you have to work so much more (and spend so much more) to get anything done. Calling this book 123 robotics experiments is misleading at best. More than half of the book deals with textbook homework of the dullest kind and generally assumes that the user understands terms or concepts that have not been previously introduced and which only a seasoned engineer would know what they mean.
You will learn, enjoy and save a lot more if you get the BASIC Stamp Discovery Kit which is not only a superb introduction to practical robotics but it also includes all you need to succeed.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A344SZG2YXSVUE
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