Control Systems for Complete Idiots (Electrical Engineering for Complete Idiots)

Nice book, it is like an abstract of an introductory control system book.If you knew the subject matter and have not used for a while this is what you need.If you are starting out is a guide post.Enjoy it.

If you want to quickly remember the main concepts of LTI Systems, this is what you need. Simple to read

An Amazon reviewer states that "For example, the author claims that a bounded function is a sum of an uncountably infinite number of Dirac delta functions. But the Dirac delta function is unbounded; this is obviously wrong. " Unfortunately the reviewer is wrong. The area of a Dirac delta function is bounded, a unit impulse has an area of one. In a convolution, it's the areas that are summed with the area of each impulse scaled by the size of the input function at the point of the impulse. This is why the convolution integral converges. As for the the book, one can't expect a full on textbook, buy a textbook if you want that. The only thing I would say that was a major omission was any significant discussion of negative feedback which is central to any discussion of control systems.

I am super interested in finishing this but the typos and errors in English are very difficult to ignore.

I have about 50 years experience in electrical engineering and have been teaching a grandchild about radio, electronics, etc. I have a fair amount of control systems experience too, and thought I'd give this book as an introduction. BAD choice. I don't know if the other books in the series are like this, but this (Control Systems) book is badly written, jumps all over the place, uses acronyms that are never explained, tries (badly) to describe concepts like Laplace transforms, and generally speaking, does very little to set even a basic framework for control systems theory OR practice. The grammar is also terrible, the writing style (?) is painful, and there are typographical and descriptive errors by the bucket. Needless to say, I am not giving this book as a gift. I really dislike writing bad reviews, but anybody considering this book better buy another book instead.

This is a good introduction to control systems. This covers most of the topics covered in a typical beginners control system class, albeit with less rigor. This is a good place to start learning about control systems.

This book presents itself in the preface as being an intuitive introduction to control theory with minimum math but that is laughable. It is mostly math and explanations of math at 100mph before you run out of pages 45 minutes after picking the book up. I feel like a text book would serve you better because a text book won’t explain Laplace transforms AND solving differential equations so quickly (5 1/2 pages for this book after sending you to the appendix to learn about both Fourier series and transforms in 3 1/2 pages)Also laughable was their claim they connect the machine gun of math concepts with real life situations. Chapter 1 the introduction chapter features real world examples of extremely simple concepts like open and closed loop systems, chapter 3 features a joystick example of transfer functions, and then from that joystick example on page 17 to page 47 where a small example of stability appears you are subjected to equations, block diagrams, and explanations of equations and block diagrams. When I say explanation I mean tables of properties of equations as well as English statements purely describing components of the equations. The term “intuitive” is clearly a buzz word for publishers in this book, not the reality.Albert Einstein said “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.” The volume of topics covered in as few pages as this book contains does not follow Einstein’s axiom.If you see the cutesy cover to this book and think “I’m familiar with Calculus and maybe also an idiot but I’d like to learn control theory” you would have a better time reading Wikipedia. This book races through so many mathematical concepts with only three real world examples in the entire book that I sincerely felt duped by the title and how this book advertises itself. Perhaps I’m too much of an idiot for this book but I believe an idiot like me deserves more explanations and tie ins to the real world, not fewer pages with fewer examples... perhaps like a textbook.Want to avoid paying for this book but familiarize yourself with the topics of control theory? Google/ lookup on wikipedia/ find YouTube videos for:-time varying and time invariant systems-linear/ non linear systems-continuous time vs discreet time-open vs closed loop systems-Laplace transforms- Fourier series and Fourier transform-solving differential equations-transfer functions-unit impulse function-impulse response-block diagrams-signal flow graphs-mason’s rule-time response analysis-first order systems-second order systems-transient response specifications-stability of control systems-auxiliary equation-root locus-frequency domain analysis-bode plot

Worst technical book i have ever seen. Not one definition of equation coefficients, no not one, no examples and no explanation. best use of it... tear out the few useless pages there are and use them to light a fire in your fireplace this winter... don't waste your money on this author .

Very nice explanation, easy to follow and neat diagrams. May be more worked out examples would benefit the kids more.

esperaba mas. No lo volveria a comprar

Appreciate the author's effort, but if you could look inside, first page of writing would put you off a bit.Nicely illustrated. But would need a rewrite with much more care - to be useful to most people for the price. Imo

Very helpful easy to understand for year 11 daughter who hasn't done things like this previously.

Great great book,Simple. Good for introduction and review for exams. User this for practising the questions.Also it's phone friendly for ebook readers