Have any helpful maker tips? Send them my way!

Be aware that you need _many_ of these bags. I think I'm currently in my 3rd batch of 200 bags (but I also sort quite a lot of my discretes like transistors and diodes).

I just looked at the IKEA online store - the particular box I used is not available anymore (they were from the TJENA series), neither in the US nor in Germany

A bit of extra care with the enclosure and user interface can give a finished and professional look to a project.  In the example below a PCB was designed and used as a faceplate. 

Clean connections into terminal blocks.

To keep wire ends from fraying and bending, I like to use wire crimp ferrules (like:  https://www.newark.com/weidmuller/0462900000/terminal-ferrule-18wg-crimp-white/dp/17M8275?st=Connector%20ferrule ) to provide quick and clean connections into terminal blocks.  This allows me to quickly setup a test of my boards against an environment that simulates the customers setup.  These ferrules crimp to the wire ends to make insertion simple.

Gene

Most of the my tips are for easy bread-boarding/prototyping, I will update with pictures later on:

• Solder current limiting resistors to LEDs to save some space and time.... and use a big resistor (lets say 1k ohm) so it works with many common voltages, and if you don't mind sacrificing some brightness.
• Solder resistors to jumper-wires (10k to 100k ohm), this makes easy to add current-limiting-resistors, pull-up, pull-down resistors to hard to reach places in your breadboard, specially when working with switches.
• Some devices won't stay put into breadboards -like those switches with just 2 leads-, so I file small notches towards the tip with a jewelers file and they will stay in place.
• TO-220 devices -specially beefy mosfets- are hard to insert into breadboards -actually their leads are wider than a breadboard can support and will oversize the breadboard holes over the time-. This can be easily solved by twist their leads 45 degrees.
• Some SMD devices are really handy when prototyping (some devices aren't available in through-hole, or are way more expensive), well, I make breakout boards for the SMD devices I will be using often like SOT-23-3 mosfets, ATtiny, ATMega, Optocouplers.

An my best tip for makers is, to join the E14 community! .

Luis

These are great, thanks so much Luis! Trying to organize all these ideas now!

Assembly

If a machine screw doesn't seem to be going in then stop, wind it back out and check. There is probably a reason and getting a bigger screwdriver isn't the solution. Get some light in there. Is the hole deep enough, is it threaded all the way down, are the threads of the same diameter and pitch. Carrying on regardless will often end up with stripped threads or the fastening shearing off - both of these will take much longer to fix !

[ Large thread gauges of stainless steel bolts into aluminium threads have a horrible habit of binding/galling. This can be prevented to some degree by slowly tightening and lubricating the threads. ]

Rod

One thing to watch with old books is that sometimes the circuits were redrawn by graphic designers from scrappy, hand-drawn originals. A classic mistake was adding additional dots where there shouldn't be joints. There's a nice example of that in the particular schematic you reproduce.

You're right! I didn't see that : )

The book has other errors here and there, which I would not have noticed when young. Like there is a H-bridge from discrete parts in there, that would have cause frustration.. I wonder if that is the root, the source of all the interesting H-bridge circuits on the web...

I'll find a better example schematic from a different book for a photo, hopefully error-less!

Don't skimp on a good soldering station. Melting this tin solder is a pain and a good soldering station is essential.

I find having a notebook to be a good idea at first, but it tends to fall apart for me because the way one thinks and refines things is not linear by nature.

So I tend to prefer loose scraps of paper (I know, bad idea) and pencil (which is probably even worse thanks to the graphite dust). I would draw things out, scribble, cross things out, grab another sheet, draw it neater, change things up, etc. Having it to hand and not having the restriction of "bound" books with pages in order is highly useful especially when drawing parts of circuits on each page and re-ordering/re-drawing/replacing one page here or there. Pencil can also be erased, which I find helpful, along with the pressure-sensitive nature of the medium which allows some variation in thickness/darkness of lines to help distinguish "messes" of wires crossing over each other. But doing things by hand rather than drawing it on a PC the first time can be quite helpful.

Another thing is just to build things - while some people like breadboards, I've gotten over it myself and I prefer veroboard. Sometimes my first iterations are soldered straight to board - cut traces jumpered over (whoops), bits desoldered here and there. Having desoldering tools is very important, but the durability of veroboard has helped reduce the number of times things work "if I jiggle this wire a little". Don't be afraid to build on something more permanent.

Adding in features to debug the circuit (whether deliberately, or accidentally) is useful - things like breaking out every leg of an IC even though you might not use it, or adding test point connections (I know, it's been mentioned before) is useful if it doesn't compromise signal integrity. Adding idiot-proofing features is also handy (if your circuit allows) for common errors like reverse polarity, missing connections, etc. Using keyed connectors can work as a double-safeguard. Just sprinkling header pins can be handy.

Having a decent hot air gun and soldering station helps, along with making sure you take care of it and don't abuse the tip. Powering down when not actively in use helps save the life of the bit. Having a scope, PSU, DMM within reach of the soldering station also helps reduce the pain of having to move between debugging and soldering. Just don't get tempted to do both at the same time or risk a soldering-iron induced short.

Keep an emergency metal tin or sturdy pot nearby in case your experiments with batteries go horribly wrong. Some are quite volatile, so being safe is best.

Have a can of canned air or similar around as you can use it to do some quick thermal-inspired troubleshooting.

Print out datasheets and annotate them by hand. Read them over and over - it's probably your best friend. Likewise, print out schematics, stick them to the bench/wall.

I don't know ... most of these things are probably not "tips" as such - my benches aren't exactly highly exciting or special. But I just make do with what I have.

- Gough