calling all electronics geeks
|
| Author | Content |
|---|---|
| tuxchick Dec 02, 2009 11:22 PM EDT |
What does it take to become proficient in learning your way around the guts of audio equipment like receivers, amps, CD and tape players? Is that something that can be learned from books and nothing-to-lose electronic carcasses, or is that something better learned in a classroom? What kind of tools constitute a basic kit, and what sort of costs? I know, "it depends"... I'm just trying to get an idea of a starting point and a general overview. |
| tracyanne Dec 03, 2009 12:17 AM EDT |
You could learn it from books and carcasses, but as you say, that depends. It depends on your aptitude, your previous experience in other related areas, and simply your ability to pick things up. You are already a pretty technically oriented person. I haven't touched that sort of thing in years, I used to be an Audio technician, designing speaker systems, worked for Sanyo in New Zealand. It's not difficult, but it does take a bit of time and patience to learn a bunch of new stuff. Probably didn't help at all. |
| azerthoth Dec 03, 2009 12:36 AM EDT |
I did my learning the hard way, several metric tons of schematics and learning how to fly some really archaic test equipment. |
| tuxchick Dec 03, 2009 1:04 AM EDT |
What I have in mind is learning how to do simpler fixes, like re-aligning the lasers in CD drives. To give one notorious example, there are several generations of Thinkpad CD/DVD drives known for creeping slightly out of alignment, and IBM and Lenovo are good about replacing them. But all they do is whack the things back into line and ship them out again, so you have this giant rotating pool of dumb CD drives circulating endlessly around the planet. One of their engineers told me it was a minor tweak to the manufacturing process to prevent it, which naturally was a big hairy deal and took years to implement. I'm also thinking about keeping my prized old hi-fi gear going as long as possible, like my nice old Pioneer SA-7500 stereo amp. It's already been repaired twice. I love it, it is pure clean sound, and they used stronger watts in the olden days because it's 45 watts per channel, and outperforms modern amps boasting higher wattages. (watts vs. amps, kids!) I prefer fixing things to throwing them away. It may not pay off as a career, but as a sideline and personal satisfaction it's been on my wish list a long time. I see my geek friends repairing computer power supplies, replacing motherboard capacitors, replacing wimpy resistors with stronger resistors on washing machine circuit boards-- and so on. |
| tracyanne Dec 03, 2009 1:21 AM EDT |
W = V * A |
| mortenalver Dec 03, 2009 4:04 AM EDT |
My father did his military service about 40 years ago, and they were to learn the basics of electronics. In particular, they learned about Ohm's 3 (!) laws: 1) V = R*I 2) I = V/R 3) R = V/I |
| Bob_Robertson Dec 03, 2009 2:44 PM EDT |
Ohm MacDonald had a law
Eee Eye Eee Eye Arr
And with this law he had some POWER
Eee Eye Eee Eye Arr
With a Watt Watt here and a Watt Watt there,
Here a Watt, there a Watt, everwhere a Watt-Watt
Ohm MacDonald had a law
Eee Eye Eee Eye Arr. A degree in electronics and electrical engineering has been of GREAT help in computer networking, especially diagnostics of circuit problems. But a particular hardware item, like a CD/DVD drive, is much more a specific of that one bit of hardware than a general electronics background would help with. Ok, maybe it would overcome the hesitation to jump in and take it apart. The real work is getting used to the idea of using a volt meter to isolate the problems. Actually fixing the problem is often trivial, if you can reach it, once you know what's busted. Like that capacitor that just exploded because it was soldered in backwards. |
| hkwint Dec 03, 2009 9:05 PM EDT |
Hey Bob, don't you love it, when your washing machine just broke because some $0,03 capacitor exploded and they sell you a whole new board for $40 + $30 labor exc. VAT? Almost better than working at proprietary software firms isn't it? |
| hkwint Dec 03, 2009 9:06 PM EDT |
ed - that's twice. |
| Bob_Robertson Dec 04, 2009 12:53 PM EDT |
For most of my life, basically since I realized that I wasn't going to be an astronaut, I've thought that plumbing was one field I could really feel good working in. There's something really honest and noble about something that really serves people's needs. What a miracle it is, truly, to have clean water, hot AND cold, any time someone wants it. Wow. Then I learned about septic systems, and changed to electrician. :^) Dirty Jobs is one of my favorite shows ever. The truly glorious nature of the market, where people do what they do to make their lives better, but can only do so by making other people's lives better in the process. It's also fun to see just what will gross out Mike Rowe any more. :^) He's my hero. |
| azerthoth Dec 04, 2009 3:30 PM EDT |
heh, I keep thinking he should be around when we change the oil in the bull gear of my radar at work, I don't think that it's dirty enough though. |
| gus3 Dec 04, 2009 4:44 PM EDT |
@az: He's also done some fairly "clean" jobs (by comparison), like soap-making. If management will let you, you should send it in. The worst that can happen is nothing. |
| hkwint Dec 04, 2009 8:39 PM EDT |
Was'n that with Schmeichel as well? Anyway, the dirtiest job I saw was (not in the mentioned show) diving up parts of dead rotten bodies from the Ganges. A great service to the people who wash themselves over there and drink the water, and probably good for your immune system too. But the poor fellow needs lots of alcohol to keep up with the gore and smell. |
Posting in this forum is limited to members of the group: [Editors, MEMBERS, SITEADMINS.]
Becoming a member of LXer is easy and free. Join Us!