[Shameless Plug] A New Book

i like this guy's transparency.

r b-j

Congratulations and good wishes.

How software specific is it? In other words, do you think it covers the basic concepts in an accessible way that would also help for someone who might want to implement parts or all of the system in an analog way?

"If you like the food, tell your friends; if not, tell us." Well, OK!

Congratulations! I'm sure this is the culmination of more work than you imagined when you undertook the task. Is a vacation in order?

Jerry

I was involved in the copyediting / technical commentary side of this book. _My_ answer to your question (as a disinterested third party who has read the book in probably more detail than the average skimmer) is that as long as you can transform mathematical models into analog circuits, the text is pretty agnostic as to HW vs SW implementation.

A filter is a filter. A summing stage is a summing stage. It doesn't really matter if this is bits moving inside a DSP or implemented as a fistful of R/C/L/opamps. If I recall correctly, there's no sample code with the book, or if there is it's minimal/pseudo, so there is really no bias.

"This site requires scripting to be enabled in your browser. Please change your Internet Options, then click here to go to our home page."

...Jim Thompson

Does it hit on the practical stuff, like windup, slew issues, saturation, auto/manual bumpless transfer, the nonlinear nasties?

John

ISTR talk of saturation and nonlinearity issues. I'd better not answer this in any detail without going back to my archives of the manuscript (if I even still have them). It was quite a while ago when I went through it, so my memories are fuzzy and I don't want to do Tim a disservice.

The book does talk rather a lot about behavior I would describe as idiopathic :)

-- snip --

I assume that means you don't want to look at it.

I doubt that It'll make any difference, but I'm going to forward your comment to my editor and the marketing folks I met at the show.

Tsk tsk. Not only is their sample code, but the CD has a makefile and a test framework to prove that it's 100% bug free (well, maybe rounded up to the nearest 10).

I would say that about half the book is software specific, and half is general control. While there is a whole chapter devoted to implementation in software there simply isn't any space devoted to implementation in hardware. If you already know a bit about the Laplace transform and implementing transfer functions with op amps then I think it could be a very useful book.

Well, the subject line did say "shameless".

I think I passed over bumpless transfer entirely -- I have an extreme distaste for changing modes, so even though I've implemented systems with bumpless transfer it didn't make it into the book.

I do go into how to limit slew rates elegantly, although not by that name.

There's a chapter on practical nonlinear control: it describes the effects that nonlinearities have on system behavior in general, why you must pay attention to nonlinearities, common nonlinearities including saturation, friction and backlash, and what to do with them without needing a Cray instead of an 8051, and without twisting your brain into a pretzel.

I turned the manuscript in at around 9:30 on Christmas Adam (12/23), after pretty much doing nothing but book for all of November and December.

Now I'm starting to think about articles, and supplements that will go onto my website until it's time for the 2nd edition.

Elsevier never gave me the CD contents ;)

I'll be buying a copy anyway.

But I see no need for scripting on web sites... and it's dangerous.

...Jim Thompson

You know, I was going to immediately reply (before even reading the message) saying "why would you say that it's a shameless plug?" ... Then, when I read that final part, I could only agree with the subject ;-)

Carlos

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That seems like a lame excuse for leaving something out of what is supposed to be a "practical" book. Regardless of your "distaste" for it, mode changing and bumpless transfer have been requirements for all of the control systems I've ever seen or worked on.

Perhaps a subtitle should to be added:

"except for the bits the author finds distasteful"

I find Microsoft Windows distasteful, but were I writing a book about desktop PC OSes I don't think I could justify leaving it out...

It wasn't a conscious decision to exclude it. Over the years I've put in more energy into designing mode changes out of systems to avoid the subject than I have gracefully implementing bumpless transfer. At any rate, I just plain overlooked (d'oh!) the issue, either for the purposes of illustrating how you can avoid the mode changes _or_ for the purposes of explaining and illustrating cases of bumpless transfer.

I've already penciled it in to my markup copy, so if the book makes it to a 2nd edition it'll be in there. In the meantime I'll write a supplement for my website.