31–40 of 115 posts
Their kits come with a helpful pamphlet. I have an old hi-fi with a few annoying component failures I’d like to fix.
I’d say they’re intermediate difficulty. I’m going to start with some soldering practice kits, lightbulb replacements, and pot deep cleans. I’m reasonably confident I can get that done without killing my stereo.
I've got a friend who has been at this since learning in TV repair shops in the 1950s. His emphasis is always on fast turn-around. He doesn't believe in slowly turning on things with old electrolytic capacitors, for example. I've learned quite a bit from him. I've learned not to fear B+, but to give very healthy respect to anything more than 500 volts. (Only use 1 hand, keep the other behind you, always have a safety…
Man, I'd say be very respectful to anything that might be running 120-240V, and be very sure about anything higher than that. Anything <50V can often just be fun tinker whatever assuming you're ok with breaking whatever you're playing with, up to a certain max amperage of your power source. High amperage but low voltage can still cause some serious messups if you don't have the right fuses in place. But I get other voltages are common in Europe.
If you want to git gud? Find some popular piece of electronics with a fatal design flaw that’s trivially fixed with some basic rework that you can flip for $25-$1200. Do this a hundred times. Branch out. This changes year to year but could be fixing joycons, reflowing bga’s, upgrading soldered memory on newer laptops, doing case swaps on consoles or smartphones, and as others have pointed out, lots of automotive, vin…
I've got a friend who has been at this since learning in TV repair shops in the 1950s. His emphasis is always on fast turn-around. He doesn't believe in slowly turning on things with old electrolytic capacitors, for example. I've learned quite a bit from him. I've learned not to fear B+, but to give very healthy respect to anything more than 500 volts. (Only use 1 hand, keep the other behind you, always have a safety…
> give very healthy respect to anything more than 500 volts Man, I'd say be very respectful to anything that might be running 120-240V, and be very sure about anything higher than that. Anything <50V can often just be fun tinker whatever assuming you're ok with breaking whatever you're playing with, up to a certain max amperage of your power source. High amperage but low voltage can still cause some serious messups i…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> give very healthy respect to anything more than 500 volts Man, I'd say be very respectful to anything that might be running 120-240V, and be very sure about anything higher than that. Anything <50V can often just be fun tinker whatever assuming you're ok with breaking whatever you're playing with, up to a certain max amperage of your power source. High amperage but low voltage can still cause some serious messups i…
Nah, 120v ain't so bad. Hurts less than hitting your finger with a hammer.
1. Take things apart, and try to figure out how they work. Don't worry too much about getting them back together. But then, trying to reassemble it is good practice too. There's plenty of old electronic junk that you can explore before throwing it away. Build a mental catalog of how things work and are assembled. Among other things, this will help you when you need to come up with a strategy for getting some particular gadget open -- often 9/10 of the problem.
2. Like others have said, YouTube is great. People will make a video of a repair, or even just getting something open, for a few "likes." Also, most of them are just normal genuine people who aren't trying to be influencers, so it's kind of culturally refreshing. Many of my successful repairs started with YouTube, such as my clothes washer and dryer, refrigerator, lawn mower.
3. Many of my most cherished tools are what I call for "demolition," not electronics specific, like picks, pry bars, a slim knife that can get between things, stuff like that. Another set of cherished tools are my magnifying visor, small magnifying glass, bright flashlight, and a stereo inspection microscope that I got second-hand.
4. A lot of "electronic" failures are actually mechanical in nature, and you can just use your general troubleshooting rundown to figure them out. Switches, connectors, cables, etc.
5. Begin to get the hang of identifying parts, and how part numbering schemes work. It will help you in your search for spares.
6. These days I often ask my spouse for a opinion. She's a laboratory scientist, quite sharp and skeptical. I'll have a hypothesis, and she asks the one question that blows it out of the water.
Good luck! Don't get electrocuted or burn your house down.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> give very healthy respect to anything more than 500 volts Man, I'd say be very respectful to anything that might be running 120-240V, and be very sure about anything higher than that. Anything <50V can often just be fun tinker whatever assuming you're ok with breaking whatever you're playing with, up to a certain max amperage of your power source. High amperage but low voltage can still cause some serious messups i…
Nah, 120v ain't so bad. Hurts less than hitting your finger with a hammer.
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