Tucson Annie

Hi Guys,

I'm Annie in Tucson. I just found this site yesterday and knew I had to register! I'm a long time electronics geek...my dad was an electrical engineer so we were always playing with soldering irons growing up, lol.

I'm currently working on a few kits to brush up on my solder skills which are apparently completely lacking! I'm building a transistor/diode tester from Elenco and the solder pads are so close together I know it is not going to work when I finish, lol...oh well...practice makes perfect!

I just returned to school to eventually get an EE degree, but it's going to be awhile. I went to tech school and studied AC/DC electronics as well as logic circuits, but it's been awhile so I have blank spots in my knowledge.

Hopefully you all won't be annoyed if I ask a stupid question here or there!

Thanks,

Annie

bloody-orc

Greetings Annie. Glad to see more people joining.

PS: I hope you don't mind me asking, but you wouldn't happen to be a female now would you?

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Hardwire

Welcome

Don't be worried about asking stupid questions. I'm an EE and I ask plenty of them here.

Tucson Annie

Lol...bloody-orc...yes, I really am! Don't tell me I'm the only one on this board?

And thanks Hardwire, some boards get very frustrated with noobs....lol....

My goal is to know everything! And to fix my guitar effects when they break, lol...

Glad to be here!

Nigel Goodwin

There are one or two, but certainly not many.

I used to be a regular contestant in the "Sharp Electronics Engineer Of The Year" (I won it twice, and I'm still the current holder - as they stopped running it!). Anyway, my reason for mentioning it, they used to have a seperate catagory for women, in two fields TV/VCR and Microwave - and every year the same two women were there in the final, Betty was the Microwave entrant (oldish but quite nice), the TV/VCR one was a stunning young woman, and I'm embarrased to say I've forgotten her name now? (I must be getting old?).

Certainly in my experience it's VERY, VERY rare to find women in electronics, and it's a pleasure to have another one here!.

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Tucson Annie

Thanks, Nigel!

I'm just going to surf the topics for a bit and suck up some knowledge, lol....As I said, right now I'm just building some kit circuits just to practice up on my soldering (which is absolutely horrible at the moment) and learn as much as I can.

I just recently got my HAM ticket and amateur radio is all about homebrew, heh...I want to be able to build my own amps, antenna tuners and the like...

I have a long way to go before I get my EE, I just came back to school after dropping out as a business major at San Francisco State U. I'm working on getting in to the EE program at the University of Arizona...a professor there mentioned that all the Universities in the US are desperate for engineers...no one majors in it anymore, heh.

So, hopefully I'll be here learning for a long time to come!

bloody-orc

Well the first thing one should do, is to get some equipment. nice 1mm solder wire, a good 25-40W soldering iron or soldering station and of course a multimeter. But I assume you already have all those parts (and probably more).
You mentioned in your first post, that the solder joints are so damn close... What kind of soldering iron do you have? I'm using a 0.8mm tip and am soldering small SMDs very well. Through-hole (DIL/DIP) seem HUGE for me

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Tucson Annie

Hi Bloody Orc,

I have a 40watt Weller...I'm not sure of the tip size, but I swear even looking through a magnifying glass the pads are so close! When I heat the pad (I have the solder iron on hi, could that be part of the problem?), the solder flows to the point where it does look like the pads are touching under the mag. glass....I try to use just a little solder, but it still is so close! I guess I'll find out when I finish this particular project tonight, lol..it's a diode/transistor tester.....

As for other equipment, I have a good DMM and I have a cheap scope (Maddell 40mz Dual Channel) that I haven't used much yet....I got it to do some testing of my sideband freq. range on my radio...but I have yet to use it for that...lol.

I'm not sure the size of my solder tip...it's a 'screwdriver' tip and it's very narrow at the top....I'm using .032 diameter 60/40 solder....maybe I can send a pic of it tonight...you guys can have a good laugh, lol...

Nigel Goodwin

My daughter is 16 years old now, and solders pretty well - I taught her when she was about 8 years old?, took about ten minutes that's all!. Essentially you heat the joint with the iron, and apply the solder to the joint - NOT to the iron.

It's like many things, difficult to begin with, but once you get the hang of it, it's just SO easy - but I've been soldering over 40 years now (and some here more than that!). I probably solder almost every day?, so I'm fairly experienced!

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bloody-orc

Maybe yes send some images of the equipment and the "too close" solder pads
I know I shouldn't ask that, but I can't resist the urge to ask, if you can fit yourself in front of the camera :$

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Optikon

It is very rare indeed. I am glad to see it's not zero though. It remains rare in the school systems and thus also remains rare working in the field (i.e. job / career)

I was fortunate enough to have met my wife in school and we're both EE's. Our dinner table work-day discussions could put anyone to sleep (or keep you awake depending on how geeky you are)

Nigel Goodwin

When my daughter was 11 or 12, they did a little electronics at school, and assembled little LED flashers - either astables or 555, I can't remember which?. Anyway, the teacher was showing them how to solder - but Melissa was FAR better than he was!

That was the only electronics they did at school!

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Andy1845c

I find it interesting how stereotypical "manly" interest and hobbys (football, guns, motorcycles, hunting, body building ect.) have far more women interested in them then computers and electronics.

Anyway, nice to meet you Annie, welcome to the boards

Tucson Annie

Thanks guys, I learned to love electronics from an early age when my dad sat me down at his company (he's an engineer) and had me testing resistors and playing with his scope, lol....

I kinda put it all on the back burner for awhile while playing music and working as a telecom tech....but I keep coming back and this time around, I decided to go all the way and get my degree ( I did go to tech school to learn about logic circuits and AC/DC electronics).... Not that I think it is particularly fair, but they have a big push going on to hire women engineers so I should be able to be gainfully employed when I finish....

But really it's more of a personal thing...I love electricity, heh...It bugs me that I can't figure out what is wrong with my monitor amp that I use in my band...I want to be able to open it up and figure it out....

Orc, I'll send some nice pics...boys will be boys, huh?...lol....

Annie

steelerfan11

Annie,

You will be able to get a job really easily after school. I also went to tech school and got a degree in EET. We had 3 girls in my tech class and they all got good jobs. Being a girl will help you get a job as well as going to tech school will help you understand some things better.

My soldering is lacking anymore also. I was certified in soldering but it only lasted 2 years and expired before I could challenge it.

We never learned anything about electronics in high school (only in physics).

Anyway good luck with your schooling Annie...I have 3 semesters left (grad. dec 08).