Please make sure that every user that has read my answer(s) or questions is able to view this particular post BEFORE trashing it.

A number of you may be thinking about the answers I wrote, especially recently.

I have been rejecting (if you want to call it that), some answers because they don't seem to help. In fact, almost all answers come with no explanation. Worse yet, I get answers which require me to use a completely different, and more complicated circuit or an IC.

As some of you know I was a student at college, but now I am not because I can't afford a CENT for it! (even though I am working, and paying rent). When I do buy electronic components, I buy them cheap.

The problem with getting different circuits as answers or "change this...", "change that..." as answers is that I have to throw money in the garbage! (piece of a circuit board + whatever other components I can't get off).

If I can be explained WHY a certain configuration works over another, and WHY I shouldn't use a particular one, then I can understand better.

so the key thing here is the answers to the why

I'm not sure if this is the place for me.

__________________
-=: The best low-priced components to troubleshoot with are the speaker and the LED :=-

 

MSTECHA, if you do not like the answers you receive, then ask for further explaination or ignore them! You have every right to make up your own mind and often, there is some misunderstanding involved which exacerbates the situation.

If you are on a very tight budget and have to think twice about trashing something, then it is up to you to be especially careful about getting to the bottom of things. Also, people are lazy. People would much rather say it sucks than to give a detailed explanation for how they arrived at that conclusion. But, if you ask for the explaination, you'll probably get it. Don't blindly follow advice. Do whatever it takes until it makes sense to you (or not) then choose. It's all part of the learning experience. Learning new & exciting things about electronics doesnt have to cost much money but it might cost ALOT of time invested. Consider slowing down & going back to basics occasionally while you pursue understanding..

 

You can't expect a five year course as the 'why' for an answer?, you've been given plenty of 'why' answers - but you simply ignore them - presumably because you don't understand the answer?.

The reason you don't understand is because you haven't got the basic knowledge required to let you understand, and you don't seem interested in trying to acquire it?.

To put the situation in perspective, it's very similar to this:

You want to dig your garden, say to plant potatos?, and you decide to use a banana to do so!. All us 'gardners' tell you that's completely the wrong implement, you should use a spade.

You completely ignore everyones advice, but continually ask for advice on using a banana to dig your garden.

This is EXACTLY what you have been doing!, except in electronics.

__________________
PIC programmer software, and PIC Tutorials at:
http://www.winpicprog.co.uk

 

On another note,
I find myself in your situation all the time. Sometimes trashing everything and starting over is the right thing to do! Something is learned by those experiences though and next time around, you'll be much better informed.
If I had a nickel for ever time I trashed a whole concept/idea/design/calculation etc... and started over from zilch, I'd be
"independently wealthy."

 

MStechca,
We DO explain WHY your circuits don't make cents (sense):
1) A super-regen isn't a real radio. It doesn't have a multi-tuned RF amplifier with AGC, mixer and local oscillator. It doesn't have a multi-tuned high gain IF amplifier also with AGC. It doesn't have an FM detector.
A super-regen overloads easily and has high noise and distortion. A real radio tuner has all these necessary things and doesn't need to tune to the side of an FM station to use an AM detector to "slope" detect it.
A super-regen tuner is a toy.

2) We explained WHY the outputs of a counter don't switch series capacitors in and out, which is necessary to tune your radios, and offered a simple and cheap varactor tuning method instead.

3) We explained WHY all electronic circuits have and need a supply bypass capacitor.

Rent? In your small town it is cheap. Come to the big city and see real rent prices. Of course in the big city well-paying jobs are numerous.
When renting you are throwing money away. You have a job so are able to buy a cheap house with a low-interest mortgage. Then you fix it up and sell it with a profit. I hope you don't have high-interest credit card debt, I never did. I never purchased anything I couldn't afford.

You're throwing away good parts because you can't get them off? When I was your age I invested in a temperature-controlled soldering iron and a solder-sucker with a piston in an aluminum barrel. 40 years later I still use them every day to remove parts from stuff that I usually get for free.

Electronics education? The web is full of good information. I learned a lot from magazines at the library.

I think you just need a little common sense and some good luck. :lol:

__________________
Uncle $crooge

 

mstechca,

don't be afraid to ask question until you get the answer that makes sense to you. just be persistent. this place is great with lots of knowledgable guys and very friendly atmosphere. i think i must be the guy with most rants so far (sorry everyone, i have short fuse...). not everyone will always find time for prompt answer but this is still much faster way to get an answer compared to alteratives. and i think most people here come to learn...

 

Yup i totaly agree....

 

if you are throwing away components that are good don't do the circuit in the first place. i do it on a simulation program, look at it while running to make sure there are no bugs and use cheep prototyping board to build it on.

i also use a soldering iron and solder-sucker with a piston. it works great!

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when you post that reply, im just kidding.

 

This is amazing. 7 replies in this post in less than 3 days.

I wasn't asking for anyone to write a book (of answers).

in this whole scenario, I would wonder why a spade is better than a banana, and how it is better. Since I know the difference, there is no need to answer it.


at least you do.

I see difficulties coming. I just want only one tuner, not two.

It has a self-quenching oscillator.

I can live with an AM detector.

in 99% of the cases, yes. But I tend to control that by changing capacitor and resistor values.

toy, or not, if it works, that is all that matters to me.


If I use varactors, then I will have to buy more stuff and pay more

Why do you clain that VCC and ground are exactly the same at RF?

Small town? LMAO
I live in a city of 500,000 people, thats about 1/4 of Toronto.

I got an OK job.

I understand, but I have my family to deal with. and I don't know if I get approved on a < $1000/month income.

in general, yes. for the answers to "why this " and "why that " questions, no.

I need more luck.

__________________
-=: The best low-priced components to troubleshoot with are the speaker and the LED :=-

 

A good FM tuner has a tuned LC network at its antenna then an RF amplifier with AGC followed by another tuned LC network for good selectivity and freedom from overload.

Because the impedance of a 1000pf supply bypass capacitor is only 1.6 ohms at 100MHz. It is like a dead short.

__________________
Uncle $crooge

 

That could be done for mstecha's superregen.

__________________
I'm no electronics god, i just talk too much.

 

Hi Zach,
A simple super-regen uses positive RF feedback to get its gain. It is almost impossible to adjust the feedback to just below the oscillation point so it is allowed to oscillate then "squelch" its gain back down, build up the gain and squelch again at an ultrasonic rate. Therefore if it had an RF amplifier it would amplify its own radiation.

__________________
Uncle $crooge

 

What if he were to freeze the banana?
:lol:

__________________
Jeff Zimmerman
To the optimist, the glass is half full.
To the pessimist, the glass is half empty.
To the engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

Give it a try!, and let us know how you get on?.

__________________
PIC programmer software, and PIC Tutorials at:
http://www.winpicprog.co.uk

 

but 1.6 ohms isn't 0 ohms.

is there such thing as "RF heat"? because maybe that is what is happening.

I think I'll have to go with a high-impedance capacitor.

__________________
-=: The best low-priced components to troubleshoot with are the speaker and the LED :=-