Hi there. From 3 years old, I always had a thing for building things and technology. I liked computers and building structures or ‘machines’ when playing with my toys. I still have the same passion now I’m 17-18. After some serious thought, my first school of choice in University is Electrical & Computer Engineering, and second Mechanical Engineering. I really love both subjects, I just have a talent in electronics, tech and computers so that’s why I’m going for EE first choice.

Now to the real topic. I really like playing video games, but it’s not constructive, is it? So I decided to occupy myself with making stuff like inventions, or fixing things, I hope you understand what I mean. I was astonished by circuit building so I invested on a mainstream soldering iron and solder wire. In general, part of my money are used on tools like screwdrivers, wire strippers etc. (when I visit a hardware store, I feel like I’m in Paradise!)

I really like doing this because it is my passion to tinker with things mentioned. I like learning from the Internet, watching tutorials on how to create this or fix this or how this works. So what I would like is some feedback. First of all, is it good to do this in my age? Also, I always want to learn stuff, I just don’t know how to organize the succession at which I should learn (for example, in electronics, should I start from core theory of electronic physics, how components work, or what?)
And last but not least: Could you suggest some resources about building simple machines at home?

If in anything you suggest there is math or physics it’s still welcome, so far it’s possible for a high school student to understand.

Thank you!

Hi, I opened up an Xbox 360 quick charge kit. The plastic is a bit damaged at the top, where the two pieces of plastic connect there is a bit of a gap. If I put filler across the gap & it touches the circuit board will it short out or will it be OK?

I fried my 500gb external drive’s board. We’ve already tried a replacement case but the drive does not even spin. Even bought an identical hard drive only to find there is a difference in how the circuit board is mounted on the new hard drive. I really want my data back without having to pay 0 to do it. Please help!!!

Thank you in advance!
Thanks IBMguy and George!

We’re very technically deep in trying to fix this issue and I wish it was easy enough to buy the parts through ebay or amazon…lol! In a perfect world right?

If anyone wants to follow what we’ve done so far, please go to: http://forums.seagate.com/stx/board/message?board.id=onetouch&message.id=6258

Hopefully we’ll get this figured out and can help others that have experienced this dreadful event.

Seagate should make their products and parts where this could never happen…which seems to be a common problem for their customers. I am very disappointed with their technology. I’ve learned my lesson.

This is regarding Electronics R&D Circuits.
It’s must and should to follow some "IPC" standards those are designing circuits.I want that "IPC" standards freely.
Anybody having that standards feel free forward it to my email id.

Me and my lab partner recently completed a lab experiment dealing with transistor data and "the collector characteristic curve for the CE connection". We completed the experiment on our actual workbench and on an electronic circuit simulation program (Multi-Sim). The results on Multi-Sim were twice as much as our actual results. For example 13.582 mA on Multi-Sim was 6.53 mA for our actual results; but both were the same circuits. Any reasons of why this may be happening or troubleshooting ideas are greatly appreciated.

I got this from a LED flashlight and i want to by a circuit board like this to put IR LEDs in it.

http://s683.photobucket.com/albums/vv197/desmond31993/?action=view&current=Image001.jpg

I got this from a LED flashlight and i want to by a circuit board like this to put IR LEDs in it.

http://s683.photobucket.com/albums/vv197/desmond31993/?action=view&current=Image001.jpg

I’m going to make this circuit (http://forum.allaboutcircuits.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=13352&d=1257607202) ( A LED lamp using Phone line power, this was found from internet). In this circuit, the well-known LM317T volt regulator is used to control the voltage. However I have a doubt of arrangement of these components. As per the data sheet, In order to control voltage, two resistors need to be used as my 2nd pic(http://forum.allaboutcircuits.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=13351&d=1257607202). So please tell me whether this is correct….. (I’m not an electronic expert..:-( )

Specifically, this one:

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2102845&tab=summary

I want to cut up some of the pieces and am not sure if it has lead in it or not. Also, if I coated it with nail polish and it does have lead, would that make it safer?

I got this from a LED flashlight and i want to by a circuit board like this to put IR LEDs in it.

http://s683.photobucket.com/albums/vv197/desmond31993/?action=view&current=Image001.jpg