If you're going to repair electronics, it would be helpful to understand theory as well; it's not just a matter of using tools, but knowing what's going on, too. The Art of Electronics by Paul Horowitz is a book many recommend.
Ask HN: How do I learn practical electronic repair?
51–60 of 115 posts
Re: Ask HN: How do I learn practical electronic repair?
#52In the US we have community colleges where you can take classes cheaply. Here in San Francisco there is a great Electronics class at CCSF you can take for free, providing you finish the course and are an SF resident.
Re: Ask HN: How do I learn practical electronic repair?
#53If you're going to repair electronics, it would be helpful to understand theory as well; it's not just a matter of using tools, but knowing what's going on, too. The Art of Electronics by Paul Horowitz is a book many recommend.
I have Horowitz & Hill, and they (two volumes now) are probably overkill for hobby repair. There's a large-format book called "Practical Electronics for Inventors" by Paul Scherz and Simon Monk which is a good intro to the physical side of electronics.
For troubleshooting power audio electronics Rod Elliott (sound-au.com) has a large number of useful articles both on simple theory (no poles and zeros) and on practical matters. Bob Cordell's and/or Doug Self's books on designing power amplifiers are good for a bit more "practical theory" (how the blocks are arranged, what goes wrong with poor design and/or a too-small budget for protection).
I don't have recommendations for radio frequency because I've not spent time with it. The ARRL (Amateur Radio Relay League) has several books that are well regarded, I believe.
Re: Ask HN: How do I learn practical electronic repair?
#54I'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…
DC, definitely. Above 60V is dangerous.
AC, 120V will 'bite', 240V will make you shaky (remembers id10t maneuver yesterday, first in a decade). And burn you. In damp environments or with corrosion around, much worse things can happen.
Re: Ask HN: How do I learn practical electronic repair?
#55I learned a lot by watching others do it on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/@EEVblog https://www.youtube.com/@NorthridgeFix https://www.youtube.com/@electronicsrepairschool
I'd like to add these vintage computer oriented channels:
https://www.youtube.com/@adriansdigitalbasement
Re: Ask HN: How do I learn practical electronic repair?
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
Get an isolation transformer and a cheap storage oscilloscope.
A good oscilloscope is stupid expensive but is also amazing for this type of work. I count myself lucky I have a friend who's an electrical engineer and I can borrow his work one. It makes everything so much easier. I'm sure for someone experienced the benefit is marginal but having a bunch of probes and being able to see the waveform feels like cheating for an amateur like me.
Get old stuff. It's possible to acquire old oscilloscopes and all sorts of (once really expensive) lab equipment for free or for cheap from trash bins at universities or from the Craigslist equivalent in your country.
Re: Ask HN: How do I learn practical electronic repair?
#57Just yesterday I fixed a broken wireless N64 controller receiver with the help of ChatGPT. I tried looking for YouTube videos, but didn’t find the exact thing I needed, and since I’m such a newbie I needed a lot of hand holding.
Anyways, I took pictures of the components and described what I was seeing. It walked me through things really well and asked me to do tests and report back. It even told me how to use my specific multimeter after I took a picture of it. I ended up soldering a jumper cable from the console power supply line (not working) to the micro usb power line (working).
It actually works now and really saved me 30 bucks buying a new controller.
Re: Ask HN: How do I learn practical electronic repair?
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
> A good oscilloscope is stupid expensive They're not that bad. You can get a good entry-level oscilloscope from a company like Rigol or Siglent for ~$300.
You can get an extremely shitty one for 20 dollars https://www.instructables.com/Flea-Scope-18-Msps-13-BoM-WebU... but when you are just starting its pretty cool!
The cheapies are less useful for debugging real problems, due to their bad UI and severe limitations.
A good, fast reacting multimeter is likely better thing to get than a cheap scope.
That said the cheapies might be usable for debugging audio stuff.
Re: Ask HN: How do I learn practical electronic repair?
#59I'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…
> You'll definitely need to learn to solder. Probably implied here, but learning to desolder is huge too. And there are tricks to it that didn't come easily to me. When you buy your first iron, I think it's worth getting some flux and solder wick as well. Taking circuits apart cleanly and properly can make repairs so much easier.
Me the complete soldering newbie was very surprised when he discovered that desoldering is much more difficult than soldering. Getting a blob of tin to conduct is easy, getting the blob of tin out of there… impossible without tools and technique. Obvious in hindsight.
Re: Ask HN: How do I learn practical electronic repair?
#60If you're going to repair electronics, it would be helpful to understand theory as well; it's not just a matter of using tools, but knowing what's going on, too. The Art of Electronics by Paul Horowitz is a book many recommend.
Probably helps with ‘works on a breadboard but doesn’t when soldered on the protoboard’… guess what I’m trying to figure out today ;)