Newbie: tips on how to start?

you

I built my first electrical circuit at the age of 11 or 12 (1946-47) while living in house that had no electrcity, only gas, for heating lighting and cooking. It was nothing more than a couple of switches, a battery and a lamp mounted on a piece of plywood. Couple of years later built my first radio and it worked; sort of! Went on from there experimenting learning how to solder correctly, was given a couple of books. Acquired old bits of radios and things electrical, jars of screws nuts, bolts tape, tubing, brackets etc. etc. Broke quite few things and/or didn't fix em, while learning but it was cheap learning at that. Later learned electrical theory which explained why and how things worked. That led to a 40 year career in telecommunications and other opportunities ................... now approaching 80 I still dabble and first inclination is to fix something that is broken than replace it. And truthfully most of the stuff around here is kinda old but it works fine. Whether you make or fix something yourself, contract it or out or buy anything outright one finds oneself much more knowledgeable and willing to get advice. The effect on the bank account is also healthy and one ends up debt free and able to sleep at night! Must go and put the battery back in one of the three smoke detectors; had to take it out recently when very humid weather kept setting it off. the other two on the main floor not as sensitive! Fiddle and have fun and wonder and learn as you go along; it can be anything from making a watch battery fit with a piece of tin foil to wiring up a speaker for the patio. Just work safe. Oops just remembered that I was vacuuming the spare bedroom yesterday and one of the outlets is cracked, must replace that right away .......... safety item.

8 Years old, I was given a gift at xmas where it had knife switches, duals,singles etc, lights, buzzers and battery holders. I made my first 3 and 4 way switches to operating bells and lights.. then I got the idea to apply that to the house. That's where I was stopped! At age 10, I helped my father wire the barn. That's when I learned how the electricians did those fancy light circuits. I told my father I thought the electrical parts were a little too basic and should be improved. He told me to learn electronics and get out of his hair because it was beyond him!

I was dangerous then! :)

If by "plastic" you mean double-insulated, no, by 75 they were *very* common. They started coming out in the mid '60s, IIRC, and were ubiquitous by '75.

Wimp. I've worked with techs who would reach out and touch the second anode lead with their bare hand to test for high voltage.

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Anyone wanting to run for any political office in the US should have to
have a DD214, and a honorable discharge.

It would be simpler to make sure you can't cut the cord with the saw.

--
Anyone wanting to run for any political office in the US should have to
have a DD214, and a honorable discharge.

I built a radio at age eight.

You still are. :(

--
Anyone wanting to run for any political office in the US should have to
have a DD214, and a honorable discharge.

spare?

This isn't a forum, it's a newsgroup.

--
Anyone wanting to run for any political office in the US should have to
have a DD214, and a honorable discharge.

Batteries? ;-)

In your opinion what's the difference?

Rui Maciel

=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D= =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D You can edit your typos in your own messages in a forum?

USENET has newsgroups, the web has forums.

This is a USENET newsgroup. It's echoed on a few web pages, but it's still USENET.

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Tim Wescott
Wescott Design Services
http://www.wescottdesign.com

Do you need to implement control loops in software?
"Applied Control Theory for Embedded Systems" was written for you.
See details at http://www.wescottdesign.com/actfes/actfes.html

Bzzzt! A "forum" is a place for public discussion.

...and is a public forum.

Main Entry: fo·rum Pronunciation: \?fo?r-?m\ Function: noun Inflected Form(s): plural forums also fo·ra \-?\ Etymology: Latin; akin to Latin foris outside, fores door ? more at door Date: 15th century

1 b : a public meeting place for open discussion c : a medium (as a newspaper or online service) of open discussion or expression of ideas

You seem to be a bit confused. As it was already pointed out, a forum is nothing more than a public meeting place for open discussion. Sites which are ran on software packages such as phpBB are still forums, just like any usenet newsgroup you happen to come across. Just to drive the point home, google offers a web interface to usenet newsgroups through it's google groups service. Do you believe that accessing sci.electronics.basics through google groups would make it a forum but accessing it through a usenet client would take that definition away from it?

Rui Maciel

What's this second anode?

I've never seen a battery operated saw I would buy. :(

--
Anyone wanting to run for any political office in the US should have to
have a DD214, and a honorable discharge.

Usenet is hosted on multiple servers around the world. A 'Forum' is hosted on a single machine, or a single, small server farm.

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Anyone wanting to run for any political office in the US should have to
have a DD214, and a honorable discharge.

That requirement seems very arbitrary.

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This is a handheld critular saw. a cord short enough to be intrinsically safe isn't long enough to be useful.

But, yeah, definately more care would have helped.

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I have a 9.6V 3-3/8" Makita circular saw that worked great on cedar siding. I could even use it while on the ladder. I resided my house in VT with it. It paid for itself in that one job but I haven't found much other use for it.

A couple of years ago I bought an 18V 6-1/2" Dewalt circular saw. It's *very* useful. I've used it to cut down several sheets of 3/4" ply.