where do the smart people come from?

[Boaterguy]

sweet, i'm getting active components when i google that but still the same address.

[m4a1usr]

My question is this : if nobody understands the technology we have, and there is no community to support the people who want to learn, who did the smart people learn from and where did they get their start?

That can be tough in todays enviornment. Unless you are enrolled or involved in a education program that teaches you basic E&E. (Electronics and Electricity). Your alternative options are to enlist in the military and choose a field associated with component level repair. As far as finding a local electronics whorehouse with anything you desire, much less employees who know what you are taliking about all I can say is good luck. Thats been disappearing for the last 2 decades. Online ordering is about the only choice anymore. Knowledgable employees are only going to be the "old" guys you need something to do to supplement their retirement benefits or are bored in life. Off the street, minimum wage young guys are not going to have a clue unless they are modifying their gamming computer with some web page advice.

You want to know electronics? No I mean REAL electronics. Not the swap out board crap being touted as todays repair dogma. Go to university, college. Become a double E. (Electronics Engineer). You will know why a circuit wont work just by looking at the parts. You wont need a wiring diagram. The parts will speak for themselves.

John

[siberianhusky]

Can't say you stand much of a chance the staff knowing much, but check out Active, I do a lot of electronics stuff and have found most anything I've needed there. LOL except most of the components I use repairing vintage guitar tube amps.

[siberianhusky]

http://www.active123.com/store.cfm?CKEY=CA&lang=eng

Found their website everything online is pretty much in stock in the toronto one.
If you're ever in Toronto check out this place on Queen ST.

http://www.activesurplus.com/index.shtml

Everything from resistors to bins of doll heads! Usually a person in a gorilla suit out front!
If you're after air to surface rockets, 50 cal. machine guns or rocket launchers there is a place in Oshawa that can set you up! Just meeting the owner of that place is worth the trip!

[drwayne]

i'm 15 so I can't really ge over there easily, especially with my parents.
I guess I can't spell farad, but he didn't know what a capacitor was, barely understood what a volt was, and he works in a shop that sells electronics?
bell bought them out, so bye bye self education, I guess i'll wait 4 years so the teachers can explain to the students why 2+2=4 and then we can move on to subtraction.
but back to my original question : at 15, where can i get a start on electrical engineering (ie. capacitors, transistors, diodes, and more complicated things and making circuits with them). i've downloaded virtual breadboard but it won't work without j# which refuses to open in .exe form... KMN.

Let me raise my hand and say...
You need an outstanding knowledge of, and ability in math, to excel in this field.
I dont mean on your computer screen ... real pen and paper stuff. You cannot break new ground using old routes.


or could grow an articulated tail and become a board assembler. ( no offense to my staff )

[Boaterguy]

so my father went to three speciaty electronics stores today, including active components and reset eectronics, asking for an NPN TIP 30 transistor, they all stated that it was not specific enough to give me an individual component.

[drwayne]

so my father went to three speciaty electronics stores today, including active components and reset eectronics, asking for an NPN TIP 30 transistor, they all stated that it was not specific enough to give me an individual component.

Save your Father for later....
Send your mouse shopping

[Flying Scotsman]

Doc and John as usual on the button, I learnt my fractious knowledge of electrical matters by the school of hard knocks and it was not pretty.....education is the only way.

Douggie

Let me raise my hand and say...
You need an outstanding knowledge of, and ability in math, to excel in this field.
I dont mean on your computer screen ... real pen and paper stuff. You cannot break new ground using old routes.


or could grow an articulated tail and become a board assembler. ( no offense to my staff )

[siberianhusky]

I know I got tip32's in toronto and they had a pretty large selection, you have to go and look for yourself, the chances of the minimum wage cash register drone knowing anything about the thousands of components in stock is nil. ABout all the computer would tell him is something is in stock and roughly where it may be.
There a racks and racks of packaged components, you find the semi-conductor section and go from there.
I've shopped at the one in Toronto many times and still have to look through racks and racks of components to find what I'm looking for.
Chances are you will know more than the person who rings up your purchase!

[Boaterguy]

I guess i can order online, I just don't understand what i'm missing, NPN TIP 30 is pretty specific, I don't think it can get much more specific.

[drwayne]

I guess i can order online, I just don't understand what i'm missing, NPN TIP 30 is pretty specific, I don't think it can get much more specific.

I want a 6cylinder car with 4 wheels and a cdplayer.
What do you mean.. that's not specific ? .. that's common as !

so my father went to three speciaty electronics stores today, including active components and reset eectronics, asking for an NPN TIP 30 transistor, they all stated that it was not specific enough to give me an individual component.

http://www.datasheetarchive.com/TIP30-datasheet.html

You can get cheap ones that barely handle base rates... lifespan less than a snowflake in summer..
or other more costly that handle more than base... suitable to most any home project ...
or then there's the quality units that cost a kidney, but worth the expense

Nuthn worse making beta circuitry to discover the Mk1 circuit failed due cheap components... then worked fine Mk2 with quality components .

[Boaterguy]

the circuit states TIP 30, that's it.
I've given up on that project and I'm gonna start on a strobe circuit I found.

[Jeff Wohlt]

Hmm...well let see. Jc Penny, Tina Turner, Kathleen Turner, Walter Cronkite, Jesse James, Walt Disney, Brad Pitt, Mark Twain....and so many more. I guess I have to answer your question with MISSOURI! LOL

[johnson22456]

Hmm...well let see. Jc Penny, Tina Turner, Kathleen Turner, Walter Cronkite, Jesse James, Walt Disney, Brad Pitt, Mark Twain....and so many more. I guess I have to answer your question with MISSOURI! LOL