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  • Welcome to our site! Electro Tech is an online community (with over 170,000 members) who enjoy talking about and building electronic circuits, projects and gadgets. To participate you need to register. Registration is free. Click here to register now.

Electronics Beginner

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csten

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Hi Everyone!!!

I know there is a lot to learn on this site for me. My interests-building high quality audio equipment (what does reference audio mean?) Can I build high quality speakers with interesting shapes and curved surfaces? I initially started with 2 Piia kits, a stereo tube preamp and a Theramin. The preamp works great and on the Theramin I am completing the enclosure (has to be artistic of course but still work with the electronics). I learned to solder better as my first 10 connections were...ah...less than stellar but got really proficient and it became really satisfying to make the best solder connections I could.

I am an artist, mostly sculpture and metals and High School art teacher but electronics really scratches my OCD itch, anybody else like that on here? I have a Bachelor''s Degree in industrial technology (art minor) but it was all mechanical engineering and CAD. I was required to take one semester class in electronics but the PHD prof spoke no English. I have technical reasoning skills and have been educating myself with several good websites but this one seemed to have a broad spectrum of electronics information as I want to learn not just DIY audio or analog synthesizers but all that plus...vintage arcade video games, interactive art installations.....etc. etc....

I found this site while trying to find an online users manual for one of the scopes I have, didn't exactly find the manual but I see this place could get me further along in my electronics skills and abilities so here I am.

I have three older scopes and a function generator. I have a good soldering station and a good work area and a DMM. I have found sites that have PCB's that I am interested in building and am confident that I can order components from suppliers but I am hesitating because I lack understanding of some details like power supplies, how to use my scope and when, why and how do I look at particular parts of circuits with it. What is the function generator used for? I know it creates a specific wave form and frequency-or is it amps? but why and when do I use it?

Sorry for the long winded post but I wanted to throw all this out there in the hopes of being directed to specific threads to post these questions. I want to really pour into this and build some cool electronics. Some postings look like they are from very knowledgeable people and I want to be certain I don't ask a really stupid question in a brilliant thread...not wanting to bruise my ego right away.

Thank you for reading and hope someone can help.

Regards
Chris
 
Enjoy, I read most of the post that interest me.

The forum is very tuned to your needs, to provide information such as, Parts you can obtain in your location, adding that to your profile would be important.

I included the U.S. which is sufficient. Your location might be a little different.


kv
 
Hi Everyone!!!

I know there is a lot to learn on this site for me. My interests-building high quality audio equipment (what does reference audio mean?) Can I build high quality speakers with interesting shapes and curved surfaces? I initially started with 2 Piia kits, a stereo tube preamp and a Theramin. The preamp works great and on the Theramin I am completing the enclosure (has to be artistic of course but still work with the electronics). I learned to solder better as my first 10 connections were...ah...less than stellar but got really proficient and it became really satisfying to make the best solder connections I could.

I am an artist, mostly sculpture and metals and High School art teacher but electronics really scratches my OCD itch, anybody else like that on here? I have a Bachelor''s Degree in industrial technology (art minor) but it was all mechanical engineering and CAD. I was required to take one semester class in electronics but the PHD prof spoke no English. I have technical reasoning skills and have been educating myself with several good websites but this one seemed to have a broad spectrum of electronics information as I want to learn not just DIY audio or analog synthesizers but all that plus...vintage arcade video games, interactive art installations.....etc. etc....

I found this site while trying to find an online users manual for one of the scopes I have, didn't exactly find the manual but I see this place could get me further along in my electronics skills and abilities so here I am.

I have three older scopes and a function generator. I have a good soldering station and a good work area and a DMM. I have found sites that have PCB's that I am interested in building and am confident that I can order components from suppliers but I am hesitating because I lack understanding of some details like power supplies, how to use my scope and when, why and how do I look at particular parts of circuits with it. What is the function generator used for? I know it creates a specific wave form and frequency-or is it amps? but why and when do I use it?

Sorry for the long winded post but I wanted to throw all this out there in the hopes of being directed to specific threads to post these questions. I want to really pour into this and build some cool electronics. Some postings look like they are from very knowledgeable people and I want to be certain I don't ask a really stupid question in a brilliant thread...not wanting to bruise my ego right away.

Thank you for reading and hope someone can help.

Regards
Chris

Welcome to ETO Chris :D

We are all here to help......just try and decide what you want us to help you with :confused:

Then we can try and help. Otherwise, it is difficult to help :confused:

I like the scopes and function generator parts of your post though....shows you know stuff....but don't know what to do with the stuff you have.

My suggestion is to contact Nigel. Maybe he can give help :p. I don't have his contact details though.

Best regards,
tvtech
 
I primarily use the function generator to test a circuit functions correctly.. You can use the generator to inject a signal into a circuit, whilst monitoring the output with the scope... You cane easily find errors and faults with designs or when repairing..

I use a scope to check the output of my smps under severe loading... I can check the Schottky diode is quick enough ( otherwise they ring like mad ).

They ARE the most useful tools ever.... Even today we had our pic32 hooked up to a scope, just to measure a delay we had created...
 
Hey thanks everyone

I'm going to venture out in the general population to ask some specific questions in other threads. I am grateful for all help and hope to become more proficient in electronics.

Regards
Chris
 
Hey!

I'm Gerard, from the Philippines! Currently taking up Electronics and Communications Engineering. I'm new here and joined because I just want to meet people from all over the world who share the same passion. Would love to have feedback from you guys and share some knowledge.

As a sophomore taking up a 5-year engineering course, I've already taken the following electronics related courses as my majors:

- Electric Circuit Analysis (Kirchhoff's laws - mesh and nodal analysis, method of superposition, Thevenin, Norton, Source Transformation, Linearity and Proportionality, circuits involving continuity variables in DC steady state, etc.) All of which even involve independent source variables, op-amps.

- Engineering workshop

- Math and Physics courses, as well as Chemistry.

As you see, I've got a long way to go but then again it's a start. Looking forward to getting to know you guys here in the forums and talking about topics that revolve within the scope of our field. I would love to get to know other perspectives and lessons from people all over the world.
 
Hi and welcome to the forum.
 
A function generator can be used to check out an amplifier. Sine for frequency response and square for rise time. Although for true repairs you might need a levelized sine wave generator with low distortion and a distortion analyzer.
 
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