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Intimacy with electronics

malus_lupus

Is there a good way to get intimate with electronics per se?

An example; With a car, if the radiator goes out I know how to fix it no issue same with electronics anyone could do it but the issue I have and many people do not get is the difference between those.
With the radiator, I know why it exists where it goes, what it does, why it is there and probably even the history of it. I know why who etc.

With electronics, if something breaks I know the typical route to take, to test the components and if something is wrong then change it. I however only know that and it feels off to me. Like a well-guarded door between me and knowing the other bits i.e. why it is in that spot, why they chose that component over another, why it is the weak point etc. I know that if I look hard enough I can find a data sheet that tells me what that component is and to an extent what it is but that still does not do much. A transistor in one circuit could be used differently in another. I hear transistors are really just switches controlled by computer hands and nothing more but I never see a good example of it others use it for another thing but why who knows. I know if it is there and it is broke I replace it like a trained monkey and nothing more. I do not mind bringing something dead back to life it is a joy of mine but I feel there is a wall still there though and I have a disdain for that wall.

Are there any good videos for such a thing or is this something that will have to be forced in some regard? I can't go to college before you say something like that. I kinda blew my chances at college do not get me wrong I had As and Bs for what I did but I am a dropout of sorts.



That I have no clue why it exists. I have no clue what components they are. It has no reason to exist. This is a circuit board in my opinion that does not need to exist. On one end you have a 5v motor on the other a USB plug and in the middle this strange circuit board. What is the purpose of this thing, what is its story? I know there was a battery supply that was hooked up as well, I know there is a push switch as well for turning it on and off but all of this could be done without a board. Also, one of the worst things to solder on a stuffed animal like pillow, makes me a bit nervous every time.
Then there is this.




This went to a Halloween thing it controlled a speaker, a mysterious object no one here identified, and LEDs. The motor that was involved was not hooked up.

I could never get the audio to work. I can even see the audio happening on my multimeter after poking around with it so I took the board out and wired the motor, and the LEDs straight to a switch and it works fine I have no clue the story behind this board nor its importance to me the only important thing was the brains that said hey here is the audio file and once I could not get that work it was no good to me. I eventually figured out what the transistors do sorta actually it is grey considering I hear conflicting things about them or three various things which I dunno what to think of in this case on this board. I learned how to test them and what the letters meant and that was it they were good so I left them alone even though I have no clue of what they are doing, why they are there. I could have missed something due to this to cause me to find out how to make the audio work proper. I dunno. Power comes in on the cap why aren't caps for smoothing? Doesn't smoothing involve Preliminary components if it is not for that then what is it for to make sure enough voltage is supplied? Why are the resistors crossed like that I dunno? Why is there a blank EBC with one resistor in it that makes absolutely no sense to me, what would happen if I put a transistor there instead?

imageimage

Also here is the mysterious component nobody
figured out. It is an odd one.














image

  • 0

    You have lots of good questions and a healthy curiosity, those are half the battle to understand electronics. Start with the most useful relationship V=I*R then try taking it one component at a time to understand a bit more about how it works. For example a bipolar transistor can be a switch as you mentioned or an amplifier. It basically amplifies current - when connected properly, feeding current in the base to the emitter results in a larger current flowing between collector and emitter. It acts as a switch when you turn the base current on or off because the collector current correspondingly also turns on or off. So the control signal at the base determines whether some device connected to the collector gets power or not.

    When used as an amplifier you typically convert the currents to voltages using resistors (remember that V=I*R equation - if you pass a current through a resistor it will have a voltage across it), so now a small voltage across the base resistor results in an amplified voltage on the collector resistor. The amplification is basically the ratio of emitter resistance to collector resistance. So a small emitter resistance and a large collector resistance provides a large voltage amplification. There is more to know about transistors, but the basics aren't too difficult.

    By the way, you aren't the only one who can be perplexed by looking at a circuit board. Genius level PhD engineers can easily be completely mystified about what some component is doing on a circuit board.

  • 0

    I am an engineer who worked for many years with thermodynamics, fluid flow, pressure, valves, pumps, compressors, etc.  Like you, these things are in some sense easier to grasp for me.  But even so it would not be possible to walk into a complicated plant I wasn't familiar with and identify everything that was going on.  There are fluid flow analogies for electronics that are often taught.  Those are OK but I have learned more by starting with the basics like Doug describes and gradually working through simpler circuits that interest me.  Pretty soon you will start to understand more complicated things.  And often they are just building blocks from simpler arrangements.  You can spend a lifetime gathering an understanding of electronics - or for that matter any area of engineering.  That is half the fun of it though image

  • 0 in reply to fmilburn

    The issue is I do not have all that much of money usually I am in the red monthly so I could never do those things. Starting with something that is already together really doesn't help me much in that regard. I fix electronics because I am poor lol.

     

     

    Here is an example of how poor I am. My helping hand broke I called him stubby then his other hand came off and I cannot get it to stick I solder sculpted some to get it to stick for a bit and it stopped working after a bit so I created this. The other guy spoke of Genius I am technically one but this looks like it was created by someone with below average intelligence. I cannot cut a straight line to save my life even with a guide on a saw.

     

     

    This was tossed together with a screwdriver, hot glue, a drill and a hacksaw lol.

    (dddd it refuses to add the image and when I type it scrolls back to the top so I have no clue what I am typing sorry. I may try to add it later.  I am currently looking at the pillow at the top end of it. the ddd at the start was me seeing if I can fi this issue sadly I can't. If this is full of typos I do apologize I cannot see a thing.)