Good beginners text/manual on circuit-building?

[halstaff]

Originally Posted by HomeyDaClown

Mims books are the best but you should also have a good supply of Magic Blue Smoke to replace any you should lose in your ventures.

http://www.sparkfun.com/products/10622

Smoke testing is an art when it comes to electronics design and building.
We should all do our part to preserve the precious Blue Smoke that's left.

Sad to say that the Magic Blue Smoke has all been sold and the product retired. Too bad as mine is all gone.

[hpropman]

Originally Posted by HomeyDaClown

Mims books are the best but you should also have a good supply of Magic Blue Smoke to replace any you should lose in your ventures.

http://www.sparkfun.com/products/10622

Smoke testing is an art when it comes to electronics design and building.
We should all do our part to preserve the precious Blue Smoke that's left.

LOL too funny - "Ben! Ben! 150amps through that small wire can anyone say toaster" -

[Spooky Dave]

Now I'm tempted to intentionally fry some electronics just so I can be part of the blue smoke club. I once blasted an LED in half by omitting the resistor, and the top half of the LED flew a few feet. But I didn't see any blue smoke. Either way, Homey, I agree it's good to have some on hand for future efforts!

[hpropman]

Just remember not to touch the chip after it lets out the blue smoke - there is a Picaxe 08M out there somewhere with my fingerprint permanently etched to its surface. allow it to cool down before you do anything with it.

[JeffHaas]

So far the most expensive part I've fried is worth $2.50 (now I read the spec sheets more closely!) So I'm not doing too bad.

[Otaku]

My best effort came from reversing the polarity on a 556 timer IC. It instantly blew a nice crater in the top of the chip.

[HomeyDaClown]

Blue Smoke is very hard to see, especially when you're working on Halloween props. Like a poltergeist, it appears, does it's damage and dissappears very quickly leaving behind a faint unmistakable odor.

It works beyond the speed of light and can sneak out without any notice.

And to think Adafruit is giving away badges for people that let it loose:

[Restless Spirit]

Originally Posted by HomeyDaClown

Mims books are the best but you should also have a good supply of Magic Blue Smoke to replace any you should lose in your ventures.

http://www.sparkfun.com/products/10622

Smoke testing is an art when it comes to electronics design and building.
We should all do our part to preserve the precious Blue Smoke that's left.

Reminds me of an engineer I used to work with. He said his favorite programming command was the EBRS command. I said I've never heard of that command. He told me it meant "Emit Burned Resistor Smell"

[JeffHaas]

Oh, and then there was the time when I was first learning all this stuff. I had eight LEDs hooked up to an EFX Prop-2...and in my excitement, forgot the resistors. I had demo code that would turn on the LEDs one after the other (you guys can see what's coming) and when I powered it on, I watched in surprise as the LEDs burned out and made a nice "Pop", one after the other, right down the row. I managed to stop it before they all went!

[HomeyDaClown]

Originally Posted by JeffHaas

Oh, and then there was the time when I was first learning all this stuff. I had eight LEDs hooked up to an EFX Prop-2...and in my excitement, forgot the resistors. I had demo code that would turn on the LEDs one after the other (you guys can see what's coming) and when I powered it on, I watched in surprise as the LEDs burned out and made a nice "Pop", one after the other, right down the row. I managed to stop it before they all went!

That's called running in monostable mode or "One Shot"

I learned to be careful when I first started building electroncs
at age 9. My grandfather passed away and left me all his Radio Tv repair
business tools and parts includinge his soldering iron. Very much like this one:


It made a lot more than Blue Smoke appear....
I had burnt fingers.....good thing Surface Mount stuff wasn't around yet