101–110 of 274 posts
Something isn’t right. You can see the bench surface.
I have the theory our desks/workbenches reflect our own mind, but I digress... :)
This is some unpopular opinion but please, do not buy extra components thinking that you will use it in some extrea projects. Only buy components that your current design needs. It's even better if you can get a board house to assemble them before it arrives at your desk. Otherwise it is the beginning of the fall to a hoarder life. Except if you are playing in RF or some black magic where simulation does not cut it..…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I see "self-healing" cutting mats all the time in tech videos, with the measurement grid and angles printed on top. I'd like to get one at some point.
As someone who runs an University electronics lab I'd recommend to instead get on or more silicone mats (they come with slots for small parts and such). They withstand heat better (curtting mats can deform permanently when heated wrongly), prooved to be more durable and are very easy to clean. If you need a cutting mat for actual precision cutting of paper, get one and treat it carefully.
I used be an ameteur electronics enthusiast. When I was young, I used to assemble trivial circuits (dancing lights etc.): I could go to an electronics shop. They used to sell hobby kits for simple, accessible, devices. The kit had circuit layout, component list, labels, what goes where and all. I then assembled them per the layout ("this leg of the transistor goes to the left leg of the capacitor"). It worked - I use…
I have (had? getting better!) this same issue, and it really killed excitement of electronics for me for a long time. I asked @theacodes on here this same question, on a post they'd written that like.. actually got into "ok, I'm putting this capacitor here, because it's gonna do for me, another way I could do the same thing is..", and their reply is here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33484848 I do think there…
I think I've a PDF copy of The Art of Electronics. One day...
I used be an ameteur electronics enthusiast. When I was young, I used to assemble trivial circuits (dancing lights etc.): I could go to an electronics shop. They used to sell hobby kits for simple, accessible, devices. The kit had circuit layout, component list, labels, what goes where and all. I then assembled them per the layout ("this leg of the transistor goes to the left leg of the capacitor"). It worked - I use…
This is just a fantastic page, why aren't more on the internet like this, with specific parts lists and sources? Very similar to the stations we had when I was doing computer repair a decade ago (no, I will not fix your computer.™) and out of everything on there, be sure to get a good ESD mat, or else you'll never stop chasing random glitches. I just want to add that the best way to get over starting friction is to h…
But another problem is that such pages are just really hard to maintain. In a year or two, half of the items you're liking to are going to be out of production. This is especially true for stuff like no-name test equipment, low-cost breadboards, etc. There's just no stable brand or URL to use.
I used be an ameteur electronics enthusiast. When I was young, I used to assemble trivial circuits (dancing lights etc.): I could go to an electronics shop. They used to sell hobby kits for simple, accessible, devices. The kit had circuit layout, component list, labels, what goes where and all. I then assembled them per the layout ("this leg of the transistor goes to the left leg of the capacitor"). It worked - I use…
I have (had? getting better!) this same issue, and it really killed excitement of electronics for me for a long time. I asked @theacodes on here this same question, on a post they'd written that like.. actually got into "ok, I'm putting this capacitor here, because it's gonna do for me, another way I could do the same thing is..", and their reply is here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33484848 I do think there…
This is some unpopular opinion but please, do not buy extra components thinking that you will use it in some extrea projects. Only buy components that your current design needs. It's even better if you can get a board house to assemble them before it arrives at your desk. Otherwise it is the beginning of the fall to a hoarder life. Except if you are playing in RF or some black magic where simulation does not cut it..…
Yeah, there are things you shouldn't be buying "just in case" - for example, a stash of SoCs will age faster than you can use them - but definitely buy a hundred of common capacitors, such as 100 nF, 1 µF, or 10 µF, rather than buying them one-by-one.
You generally don't need a complete set of all standard resistances or capacitances - there are precious few circuits where you need precisely 47 pF and 6.8 kΩ - but there's plenty of stuff that goes into almost every single project you build. Battery clips, 100 Ω / 1k / 10k resistors, 100 nF / 1 µF / 10 µF decoupling caps, LEDs, PCB-mount switches...
I miss brick walls
This is a very comprehensive list (and the organisation is pretty inspiring) but missing a few things I have personally found very valuable in what I do (which involves a mixture of smallish new projects and retrocomputing repairs/upgrades/etc) - main one I'd mention is low melting point solder to use for desoldering larger components (both plated through hole and SMD) - it took me ages before I tried it and it's mad…