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| | Home Electronic Gadgets for the Evil Genius : 28 Build-It-Yourself Projects | |
|  | |  | | | Electronic Gadgets for the Evil Genius : 28 Build-It-Yourself Projects | | | | | SKU:
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Usually ships in 1 business days | | | | | | The do-it-yourself hobbyist market, particularly in the area of electronics, is hotter than ever. This books gives the “evil genius” loads of projects to delve into, from an ultrasonic microphone, to a body heat detector, and all the way to a Star Wars Light Saber. This book makes creating these devices fun, inexpensive, and easy. | | | |
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| | Product Details | | Author: | Bob Iannini | | Paperback: | 302 pages | | Publisher: | McGraw-Hill/TAB Electronics | | Publication Date: | March 12, 2004 | | Language: | English | | ISBN: | 0071426094 | | Product Length: | 10.74 inches | | Product Width: | 8.46 inches | | Product Height: | 0.57 inches | | Product Weight: | 1.42 pounds | | Package Length: | 10.8 inches | | Package Width: | 8.5 inches | | Package Height: | 0.6 inches | | Package Weight: | 1.45 pounds | | Average Customer Rating: |  based on 30 reviews |
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| | Customer Reviews | Average Customer Review: ( 30 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
122 of 129 found the following review helpful:
 Overview of Interesting Projects Apr 06, 2005
By Stuart Gardner
"www.sdgardner.com"
This book assumes alot. To start with, a back ground in electronic engineering. If you don't have practical real world (or at least laboratory experience), you could get yourself, or worse, someone else, killed.
I wouldn't suggest this as a source book for high school science projects; it's as likely to get you a term of 5 - 10 in a state run facility (not college) as an A grade. Given the current climate, using a high power laser pointer could land you in a fair bit of trouble (the book does point this out). This is also one of the better documented projects.
The other factors that the book does not consider are:
* Budget. These are not low cost projects.
* Time. Plan on doing research outside this book.
From the 28, there is one project I plan to try. Read the contents page before buying - unless there is at least one project you really want to do (and sink time and money into). I would pass. Some of the plans are more like overviews.
143 of 154 found the following review helpful:
 Very misleading, yet fascinating at the same time Feb 21, 2005
By COSMOS
I was intrigued by the types of "gadgets" that could be built with the guidance of the book and decided to pick up a copy and start with the "Laser Window Bounce Listening Device". The most important restrictive factor in building these projects, for me, happened to be the cost of each. Since the book claims on the back cover that "needed parts are listed, along with their sources - and most of these projects can be built for $100 or less." Great, I thought! "$100 or less". Not so! The book is very misleading in this respect. For example, there are a total of 28 different projects to build, of which only 15 are "$100 or less" (many are a few hundred dollars)! The book misleads you further by giving the total price for "basic parts" ONLY or "specialized parts" ONLY!!
Let's add insult to injury by mentioning that the book seems to be an advertising tool for the author's company: Information Unlimited. This is the source for the "specialized parts", such as the "printed circuit boards"...that is, IF you can find the part!
So, getting back to the project I had wanted to build: the "Listening Device". The book says that the project would cost "$100 for BASIC PARTS" (my emphasis). Really? And what about the other parts? The most important parts, such as the "image converter tube" for the "See in the dark" project or "the special prepared plasma tube" for the lightsaber project? Where on the website can I find these among many other "specialized parts"? Asking questions about parts from their company is just as tedious and a waste of time as you will be sent from one phone number to another to get a small piece of information. Not worth it.
So, overall, the book may seem innocent and fun to learn from and exciting in its list of potential projects to build, but if you don't have a lot of throw-away cash AND a lot of throw-away time, especially spent at their advertised company, then I highly advise staying away from this book.
75 of 80 found the following review helpful:
One word to describe this book: ripoff! Aug 27, 2006
By Koen Van Baelen
The book claims you can build all projects with standard components. However, every project contains at least one component that can only be ordered on the website of the author! No details about those components is provided to force you to buy it in his shop and make it almost impossible to find it somewhere else. Also, the claim that all projects can be built for less than 100$ is an outright lie! Most projects are very expensive.
I can be very brief about this book. Don't buy it! It's just an advertisement folder for his own company disguised as a book. Besides, every project in it can be found in one form or another on the internet for free.
62 of 72 found the following review helpful:
 Update: I like this book now. Not a rip (like I thought!) Mar 23, 2006
By C. Brittain
"C. Brittain"
UPDATE:
It's been four years since I've bought this book...and I have to say....I'm a convert. What I typed below was true (so I wanted to keep it. It's there under "Old Review"), but what the author is doing here is showing a way he did it...which is fine....
I realized a few days ago that the book is good when I was sitting around STILL reading from it. The experiements are pricey as hell..but so are all usual physics/electronic experiemnts...the sheer amount of bad ass projects in this book make it worth it.
This is the way I attack it: I look at his project, see how he does it, then try to create it my own (and frequently cheaper) way... For instance: the laser bounce window listener. I recreated for about 20 bux (major short cuts) and the sucker WORKED....
In sum, yes its a great book. The experiments are pricey, but they are great starting points.
The Old review:
Ok....we bought this book for the physics club so we could build some cool gadgets and what not. I completely agree with the other peoples review that the author just plugs his website through out the book. WHAT A RACKET!!! He GROSSLY underestimates the cost of building each product. For one of them called the "Two inch spark tesla" thingy...he says that it is a fun expirement that will cost approx. $25 dollars.....So he then goes on to list some parts needed for the project. Most of them are pretty easy to find. But three of them are not...they include a 400V square wave transformer, TWO 25Kv Pulse transformer, and a 300V SIDAC switch....now all these parts are very very very hard to find...(Dont count on radioshack or even your average electronics store carrying these things)...so i went on [...] and i will copy and paste the following prices from his price list...
Chapter 15 - 2 Inch spark Tesla Coil with Timer
SIDAC - 300 volt Sidac ....................$[...]
28K074 - TYPE1PC Switching Transformer ....$[...]
CD25B - 20 kv Pulse Transformer ...........$[...] (you need 2)
PCLITE - Printed Circuit Board ............$[...]
which is more than 70 BUX!!!!....WHAT A LIAR!!!
in addition to the fact that a SIDAC switch is completely unnecessary. there are many cheaper ways to accomplisih this with out using a sidac....SIDACS ARE VERY RARE (as well as the transformers)...WHICH FORCES YOU TO GO TO HIS WEBSITE!!!!
in short the author chooses to build his circuits using rare pieces to force you to go to his website!!!
29 of 32 found the following review helpful:
 Giant commercial... Dec 16, 2006
By M. Newton
Meh, I had high hopes for this book, I really did.
Some of the projects are really interesting, but as it's been pointed out many times before the whole thing is just a book of plans from his website. Every single project requires at least one (often many more) special part that can only be order for an arm and a leg. Expect to spend several hundred dollars for the cheaper things.
I did learn a lot, and aside from his special parts everything else is clearly labeled and listed, so the book is far from a waste. Anyone reading this type of book should have enough of a background to be able to replace with their own cheaper components.
I did enjoy it as a good read, but please Mr. Iannini: lay off milking people from your site so much.
See all 30 customer reviews on Amazon.com
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