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!

My trusty old 60GB Zen Vision M seems to have died for the last time. For several years I’ve been dropping it at least once a month, and it held up great. Once in a while it’d start skipping in a video and I’d open it up, reinsert the hard drive ribbon, and voila! Good as new (minus a few scratches). But this last time it gave me a firmware error message, and even after reloading the firmware it still wouldn’t work. I tried my usual fix, but nada. So I tried something else and somehow in all this the female battery connector on the circuit board broke off. I tried using glue (it was late, I was tired, and had no soldering iron…Idiotic, I know…), but while it worked for a few minutes, it broke off when I closed the thing up again, and I don’t know how to get the glue off (Loctite Super Glue) so that I can try soldering it back in place. If you know how to get superglue off electronic parts PLEASE let me know. Otherwise, where can I get just the connectors?

PS how can I anonymously post a picture of the part online?
PPS It’s a Li-Ion battery, charged the same way as an iPod.
Here are pics of the parts, f=female part, m=male; sorry, the photos are not great quality..

http://willhostforfood.com/files4/8/0/8/8088432/circuitboard.JPG

http://willhostforfood.com/files4/4/7/3/4735930/f1.JPG

http://willhostforfood.com/files4/9/4/3/9433512/f2.JPG

http://willhostforfood.com/files4/6/9/0/6903238/f3.JPG

http://willhostforfood.com/files4/3/7/4/3744156/f4.JPG

http://willhostforfood.com/files4/4/0/2/4029836/f5.JPG

http://willhostforfood.com/files4/2/3/7/237101/m1.JPG

http://willhostforfood.com/files4/6/4/9/6495692/m2.JPG

http://willhostforfood.com/files4/1/8/3/1832487/m3.JPG

For example, how do you solder something like a microcontroller onto a conventional PCB ( the pins are 1mm apart). Should I solder the component under a microscope with an extremely small tipped soldering iron, or use a technique, e.g. wave soldering?

Thanks, any help will be greatly appreciated – as you can see I am a bit of a novice in the field of electronics!!

Cheers

If I dont have a breadboard or a perfboard to experiment with circuit prototypes, does anyone have any other ideas what I can use? I’ve got plenty of components, soldering iron, wires, etc. I just need something to hold the circuits together, thoughts?

i am looking to solder a circuit board, was just wondering which would be better a " Hot Air Soldering " or a " Soldering Iron Station "?

Can i remove soldered components from a circuit board using a soldering iron?

any answers appreciated.

I have recently started electronics and have bought a breadboard and soldering iron. What is a store where I can find most wires and components (I've tried radioshack no wire there). A real store please, not an online one. Also, what type of wire should I use for general circuits?