Maker Pro
Maker Pro

electronic chat

donkey

Feb 26, 2011
1,301
Joined
Feb 26, 2011
Messages
1,301
EDIT: See the 5th post in this thread. It may be useful. It's an experiment. (*steve*)

hi thee. i was wondering if there was anyone with time and knowledge to help me out with electronics. i know basics but cannot figure out quite alot on my my own. these forums are good, however i read through books and some of it makes sense, alot doesn't. also there are time when i see things that make sense to me but books contradict it and don't explain why, or i don't see how the books are right. i have the "electronics for dummies" book which i thought would be a good start but there is no one to convey opinions with. what i was thinking was to start a chat within this forum at a predetermined time for beginners. we choose a readily accessible book to begin with read a chapter per week and then try to find out what it means. i understand the basics of resistors and capacitors, as well as electron flow, wiring. but when ic's are introduced i get lost. i see them as nothing more than a switch (transistors esp) but they seem to be able amplify, convert, and do so much more. also i read about capacitors being able to block dc signal to allow ac signal to pass but the way described seems quite, well odd. is there any chance we could organise a chat to do this? even if we start a sub chat using another site. we could get together, go over basics and then work toward our projects/ideas/uni work together. the biggest problem i have is getting someone qualified to oversee this and then remark on it. they wouldn't have to be online every week, just take time to review chat logs to correct any incorrect assumptions.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

poor mystic

Apr 8, 2011
1,074
Joined
Apr 8, 2011
Messages
1,074
Hiya Donkey (smile)
Brisbane is a good-size city, and you should be able to find electronics hobbyists somewhere. That'd possibly be easier than finding interested beginners and getting a regular chat going. People just aren't usually that constant if you know what I mean.
Of course nothing stops you from posting questions to the forum.
Perhaps there are courses available through one of the educational institutions or the radio amateurs.
I think that if you go out and look for electronics-related things at garage sales and in the newspapers as suits your interest, you'll wind up with a lot of junk and a few acquaintances who might help a bit. Or you could advertise for a second-hand oscilloscope and see what happens.
To get a good grounding with minimum pain we all recommend the following title:
"The Art of Electronics" by Horowitz and Hill.
Good luck!
 

(*steve*)

¡sǝpodᴉʇuɐ ǝɥʇ ɹɐǝɥd
Moderator
Jan 21, 2010
25,510
Joined
Jan 21, 2010
Messages
25,510
Actually, eevblog has "live chats" occasionally.

They generally consist of Dave talking and people sending questions by some form of IM as far as I can tell.

It might be interesting to try something like this, but it is something that the moderators would have to consider. There are issues of bandwidth, availability, and technology quite aside from whether we want to do it.

I think that our current setup allows you to place IM and skype IDs into your profile but regardless, nothing is stopping people who wish to talk to beginners posting a thread with their Id and an invitation to chat.
 

donkey

Feb 26, 2011
1,301
Joined
Feb 26, 2011
Messages
1,301
i know brisbane is big, but transport for me is a problem, as is money to travel to and from. thats why i thought about it on here. i was hoping to review certain material and get feedback as i do it but rather than having a list of topics to go through we could narrow it down to one area per week. then expand on it and give up ideas as to how things work and their functionality in real world applications. as steve has said though its a moderators choice as to whether they do this or not and the grand plan of it is also up to them. i fear there will be times when people will be wanting to discuss certain topics live that we will not be covering that week. also there is the issue of a widely accessible text to read from that is either free or cheap. the good or bad part of it is that once you do this you can just cycle the topics, e.g. week one what is electricity and what is a circuit, week 2 capacitors and resistors, week 3 semiconductors, then go back to week one(there will be more topics but thats the general idea) and then you can study them at home when you have time and when a topic that has you stuck comes up you can jump on to chat about it.
the only reason i haven't started this myself is i am one of the people wanting to learn and it would be good to have someone that can correct us as we learn that way we don't turn what was supposed to be a 10 speed fan into a jet turbinge cos we put a capacitor in there. that gives me an idea hmmm
 

(*steve*)

¡sǝpodᴉʇuɐ ǝɥʇ ɹɐǝɥd
Moderator
Jan 21, 2010
25,510
Joined
Jan 21, 2010
Messages
25,510
OK, as an experiment I have set up a skype user "electronics.point.steve".

If I'm on-line you can chat to me. I'd prefer it not to be about things that we can easily discuss on the forums.

I'm also not available all the time. And I can be called away at short notice. I will have no hesitation to remove your contact (and possibly ban you from here too) if you abuse this form of contact.

My security settings require that you be in my contacts list before you can send me a message, and I will NOT accept contacts unless you have sent me a private message on these forums first (mention your skype ID so I know).

Any problems, add a reply here.

I'm making this sticky for a while until I see how this all works, or until I get sick of it. :)
 

donkey

Feb 26, 2011
1,301
Joined
Feb 26, 2011
Messages
1,301
steve this is by no means for me alone, i was thinking of using an open chat for a vast majority of beginners. i sincerely thank you for your efforts and hope this takes of but once again its for the community to understand things. i might start with a forum heading in the homework section then if at any point the written language does not convey the intended message we can use skype. just a quick thing though, is skype audio only? cos i was hoping to use something within text that way transcripts can be posted as well so that people can follow to understand better.
 

(*steve*)

¡sǝpodᴉʇuɐ ǝɥʇ ɹɐǝɥd
Moderator
Jan 21, 2010
25,510
Joined
Jan 21, 2010
Messages
25,510
steve this is by no means for me alone

If it was for you alone I would not have replied in this thread, set up a new skype ID and made the thread sticky. (I would have just PM'ed you with my normal skype ID)

This is for anyone who has been around long enough to have access to private messages (which means 10 posts I think)
 

(*steve*)

¡sǝpodᴉʇuɐ ǝɥʇ ɹɐǝɥd
Moderator
Jan 21, 2010
25,510
Joined
Jan 21, 2010
Messages
25,510
Thanks to PoorMystic who tried to talk to me last night. Unfortunately my PC decided then to have audio problems, and then to do a series of updates when I tried to reboot it.

Murphey strikes again.
 

conductor3

Jun 7, 2011
84
Joined
Jun 7, 2011
Messages
84
EDIT: See the 5th post in this thread. It may be useful. It's an experiment. (*steve*)

hi thee. i was wondering if there was anyone with time and knowledge to help me out with electronics. i know basics but cannot figure out quite alot on my my own. these forums are good, however i read through books and some of it makes sense, alot doesn't. also there are time when i see things that make sense to me but books contradict it and don't explain why, or i don't see how the books are right. i have the "electronics for dummies" book which i thought would be a good start but there is no one to convey opinions with. what i was thinking was to start a chat within this forum at a predetermined time for beginners. we choose a readily accessible book to begin with read a chapter per week and then try to find out what it means. i understand the basics of resistors and capacitors, as well as electron flow, wiring. but when ic's are introduced i get lost. i see them as nothing more than a switch (transistors esp) but they seem to be able amplify, convert, and do so much more. also i read about capacitors being able to block dc signal to allow ac signal to pass but the way described seems quite, well odd. is there any chance we could organise a chat to do this? even if we start a sub chat using another site. we could get together, go over basics and then work toward our projects/ideas/uni work together. the biggest problem i have is getting someone qualified to oversee this and then remark on it. they wouldn't have to be online every week, just take time to review chat logs to correct any incorrect assumptions.












most of my experience comes from books i take what i learn and build stuff my first project was a digital clock with a total of 14 ics and 6 led displays ( hand made)

my brother broke it but i salvaged the parts


im still very young to be into it so much


i only understand it from my projects
 
Last edited:

(*steve*)

¡sǝpodᴉʇuɐ ǝɥʇ ɹɐǝɥd
Moderator
Jan 21, 2010
25,510
Joined
Jan 21, 2010
Messages
25,510
Well, Poor Mystic seems to be the only person brave enough to try to contact me, so I guess there's not much demand.

I'll un-sticky this now,
 
Top