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The Laws of Electronics

  • Thread starter Philip Pemberton
  • Start date
P

Philip Pemberton

Jan 1, 1970
0
Created by me and a friend (Andre - testing_h+yahoo+com) on IRC...

First Law of Electronics: Capacitors have a voltage rating. It is best not to
exceed this rating, unless one wishes to experience the pleasure of having
shrapnel extracted from his or her skin in the local hospital.

Second Law of Electronics: Resistors have a maximum voltage AND a maximum
power rating. Exceeding one or both is likely to result in treatment for burns
at the local hospital.

Third Law of Electronics: The penalty for attempting to break Ohm's Law is
electrocution.

Fourth Law of Electronics: Wear gloves while etching PCBs, unless one enjoys
the smirks and sneers of his or her workmates after they see one's bright
yellow hand.

Fifth Law of Electronics: Beware the thunder that lurks in CRTs, even after
they have been powered off for many an hour. Forgetting this rule will likely
result in an unpleasant experience involving a defibrillator in an ambulance.

Sixth Law of Electronics: Tesla Coils are not toys. If one values his or her
life, stand well clear of the discharge terminal.

Seventh Law of Electronics: High power lasers are not toys. It is not funny to
point an energised 20W CO2 laser at a workmate, especially one who is seven
feet tall and built like a gorilla.

Eighth Law of Electronics: Short circuit large batteries and lithium-ion packs
at your peril. Many a fire or explosion has been caused by the careless
application of a spanner on a car battery.

Ninth Law of Electronics. Testing IC's and power transistors by putting one's
finger on top of them is a really bad idea. Better to use a thermometer.
[submitted by Andre]


Anyone want to add to this?

Later,
 
A

Al

Jan 1, 1970
0
Philip Pemberton said:
Created by me and a friend (Andre - testing_h+yahoo+com) on IRC...

First Law of Electronics: Capacitors have a voltage rating. It is best not to
exceed this rating, unless one wishes to experience the pleasure of having
shrapnel extracted from his or her skin in the local hospital.

Second Law of Electronics: Resistors have a maximum voltage AND a maximum
power rating. Exceeding one or both is likely to result in treatment for
burns
at the local hospital.

Third Law of Electronics: The penalty for attempting to break Ohm's Law is
electrocution.

Fourth Law of Electronics: Wear gloves while etching PCBs, unless one enjoys
the smirks and sneers of his or her workmates after they see one's bright
yellow hand.

Fifth Law of Electronics: Beware the thunder that lurks in CRTs, even after
they have been powered off for many an hour. Forgetting this rule will likely
result in an unpleasant experience involving a defibrillator in an ambulance.

Sixth Law of Electronics: Tesla Coils are not toys. If one values his or her
life, stand well clear of the discharge terminal.

Seventh Law of Electronics: High power lasers are not toys. It is not funny
to
point an energised 20W CO2 laser at a workmate, especially one who is seven
feet tall and built like a gorilla.

Eighth Law of Electronics: Short circuit large batteries and lithium-ion
packs
at your peril. Many a fire or explosion has been caused by the careless
application of a spanner on a car battery.

Ninth Law of Electronics. Testing IC's and power transistors by putting one's
finger on top of them is a really bad idea. Better to use a thermometer.
[submitted by Andre]


Anyone want to add to this?

Later,


Tenth Law of Electronics. That red color on the collector plate of a
transmitting tube is not paint. Remove power immediately.

Al
 
J

Jamie

Jan 1, 1970
0
Doug said:
| Anyone want to add to this?

First theorem of electronic operation: All electronic devices are
powered by magic smoke, and will stop working if you let too much of
the magic smoke out.

(It's not really a law, so theorem it is!)
and you haven't seen the Electronic Smoke recharging kits
being sold on EBay ?
 
L

Lumpy

Jan 1, 1970
0
and you haven't seen the Electronic Smoke
recharging kits being sold on EBay ?

It's a ripoff. The smoke must have a specific
density. Altering the density by replacing it
with smoke of a different resonant frequency
will cause circuits to behave differently.

For RF circuits, if you let BLUE smoke out
and replace it with RED smoke, the resultant
resonant freq will be lower. Throws off tuning dials.

Audiophile AF circuits have individual hermetic
canisters filled with smoke at a specific density.
The best ones have 31 different densities (1/3
octave each).

Guitar amps for blues players, typically will
have smoke from hickory wood and swamp ash.
Amps designed for heavy metal players will
have smoke from mercury or lead.

A lot of current day "60's retro" guitar amps
have smoke from imported hemp. The tone
of these amps doesn't even come close to the
tone of original 60's amps with Colombian
cannibis smoke.


Lump
 
C

CWatters

Jan 1, 1970
0
Some more...

Transistors are available with the legs in different orders (CBE, EBC etc).
In fact every permutation is available except the one you used for the PCB
layout.

20 year old oscilloscopes always work when the boss visits the lab.

Soldering irons that heat up "instantly" take too long to heat up.

Tiny SMD components make you sneeze.

Never let an electrician measure your IQ with a mega.
 
B

Bob Myers

Jan 1, 1970
0
Soldering irons that heat up "instantly" take too long to heat up.

Not to encourage drift, or anything (who, ME?), but has anyone
tried one of those little "Cold Heat" soldering gadgets which have been
showing up on the late-night-TV informercials and such? Something
like that would be really nice to toss into the travel bag, but being
a naturally cheap sort I'm loathe to fork over the $19.95 to try
one out sight-unseen...

Bob M.
 
A

Al

Jan 1, 1970
0
Bob Myers said:
Not to encourage drift, or anything (who, ME?), but has anyone
tried one of those little "Cold Heat" soldering gadgets which have been
showing up on the late-night-TV informercials and such? Something
like that would be really nice to toss into the travel bag, but being
a naturally cheap sort I'm loathe to fork over the $19.95 to try
one out sight-unseen...

Bob M.

Yes, I bit. The wire stripper that came with it works really good on
most wires. 22G or less solid wire will just be severed.

I put 4 rechargable batteries in mine. It works OK when you can put
both sides of the electrode onto the conductive surface. I pushed a
little too hard and broke off the tip of the carbon (??) electrode. It
works OK for desoldering, but there is no way you can "tin" it for
soldering.

If the wire stripper doesn't come with it, forget about it.

Al
 
B

Bob Myers

Jan 1, 1970
0
If the wire stripper doesn't come with it, forget about it.

OK, thanks to Al and Jeff for the responses; looks like my
first instinctive reaction (which is never to buy anything
from infomercials) was right...

Bob M.
 
P

PeteS

Jan 1, 1970
0
<< Anyone want to add to this? >>

There is no such thing as a purely digital circuit. Electromagnetic
compliance testing proves this daily.

Cheers

PeteS
 
B

Boris Mohar

Jan 1, 1970
0
You will be wearing shorts when you slap you knees together to catch the
molten solder ball rolling off the bench.
 
C

CWatters

Jan 1, 1970
0
The recoil from a solder sucker is inversly proportional to size of the item
being desoldered.
 
P

PeteS

Jan 1, 1970
0
When replacing a small SMD part by hand (such as a 0402 resistor or
cap), the success of the operation varies inversely with the
correctness of the replacement part.

Cheers

PeteS
 
T

Tom MacIntyre

Jan 1, 1970
0
Good stuff... :)

Don't put your solder station next to the telephone...when you drop
the iron, don't try to catch it, let it hit the floor...never
tongue-test a wall-wart. Hope I haven't repeated anybody's thoughts.
:)

Tom
 
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