When I was a kid I was considered to be "gifted" at math. I actually remember beginning to feel an actual interest in algebra and geometry. Unfortunately there were forces of the dark side that extinguished those. I had some really bad and mean-spirited teachers. Fast forward to near the end of high school and I built a Heathkit combo guitar amp. I followed up on that with a Heathkit head - more power is always better, right?
During the decades that followed I lost interest in building projects until five or so years ago when I decided my garage workshop needed better audio than what I was getting from my computer. This is where my journey into electronics began again.
After buying and returning a couple cheap audio amplifiers I found a 100w amplifier kit on A..zon and figured "wow, that much power for only $40? Why not???" I ordered the kit and was shocked when it arrived. All there was were some puzzling-looking parts and a circuit board with hieroglyphics etched onto it.
Thus began my first steps. I sat and started looking carefully at each of the components, looking things up one at a time, and learned to identify resistors, capacitors and so on. I learned what most of the etchings on the circuit board represented and since I only had $40 at risk, began soldering pieces onto the board. That brought back memories of my Heathkit builds, at least as far as the soldering went.
Not having an instruction manual was a challenge but I finished building one of the two boards I'd received before realizing this kit required an odd sort of power supply. I contacted the seller who offered to sell me a power supply for some number of hundreds of dollars and that was as far as that build went. I was hooked though. And I'd learned a little bit. A $40 educational investment.
The idea of going from a pile of parts and components to something that worked felt really cool. I ordered a $100? $200? stereo tube amp kit from Tube Depot. This kit was built on a pine board. It came with instructions I could understand and after building it and powering up, it worked!!! Now I absolutely was hooked. Big time.
Since then I've painted by the numbers and actually have also learned a bit. That first $40 amp kit I ordered would make sense immediately as far as what goes where is concerned at this point now. I've also picked up a very basic understanding of how tube amps work but only very, very basic. I understand, for example, that tubes need D/C current and that a rectifier converts A/C current to D/C. Whooo hoo, right?
I would absolutely love to really learn electronics and be able to diagnose what's wrong when a kit I've built doesn't work. Even better be able to design a tube amp from scratch. This is where my problem arises.
I go blank when I see a formula, even a basic one like Ohm's law. I just cannot make a connection between what I'm seeing and any real world application. Schematics are a little bit better for me but when I see a schematic I don't make a connection from what I'm looking at and what it represents. What I can do is look at a layout and make that connection.
Maybe I'm just venting or whining. I won't be surprised to see, if I get any responses to this, recommendations that I put on my big boy pants or such. The thing is, though, my inability to make sense of things isn't due to laziness or lack of motivation. Being able to understand these things is very near to the top of my wish list.
I know about different ways people learn and how we can be wired differently (no pun intended!!!) from each other. At some point I want to take a hands-on Amp troubleshooting class. I think it might help me a lot to be able to see the theories in actual use.
If my problems are familiar to anyone here, have you had a chance to take a class or attend a seminar? Did it help? Have you found anything else to break through that wall?
Thanks for taking the time to read this.
During the decades that followed I lost interest in building projects until five or so years ago when I decided my garage workshop needed better audio than what I was getting from my computer. This is where my journey into electronics began again.
After buying and returning a couple cheap audio amplifiers I found a 100w amplifier kit on A..zon and figured "wow, that much power for only $40? Why not???" I ordered the kit and was shocked when it arrived. All there was were some puzzling-looking parts and a circuit board with hieroglyphics etched onto it.
Thus began my first steps. I sat and started looking carefully at each of the components, looking things up one at a time, and learned to identify resistors, capacitors and so on. I learned what most of the etchings on the circuit board represented and since I only had $40 at risk, began soldering pieces onto the board. That brought back memories of my Heathkit builds, at least as far as the soldering went.
Not having an instruction manual was a challenge but I finished building one of the two boards I'd received before realizing this kit required an odd sort of power supply. I contacted the seller who offered to sell me a power supply for some number of hundreds of dollars and that was as far as that build went. I was hooked though. And I'd learned a little bit. A $40 educational investment.
The idea of going from a pile of parts and components to something that worked felt really cool. I ordered a $100? $200? stereo tube amp kit from Tube Depot. This kit was built on a pine board. It came with instructions I could understand and after building it and powering up, it worked!!! Now I absolutely was hooked. Big time.
Since then I've painted by the numbers and actually have also learned a bit. That first $40 amp kit I ordered would make sense immediately as far as what goes where is concerned at this point now. I've also picked up a very basic understanding of how tube amps work but only very, very basic. I understand, for example, that tubes need D/C current and that a rectifier converts A/C current to D/C. Whooo hoo, right?
I would absolutely love to really learn electronics and be able to diagnose what's wrong when a kit I've built doesn't work. Even better be able to design a tube amp from scratch. This is where my problem arises.
I go blank when I see a formula, even a basic one like Ohm's law. I just cannot make a connection between what I'm seeing and any real world application. Schematics are a little bit better for me but when I see a schematic I don't make a connection from what I'm looking at and what it represents. What I can do is look at a layout and make that connection.
Maybe I'm just venting or whining. I won't be surprised to see, if I get any responses to this, recommendations that I put on my big boy pants or such. The thing is, though, my inability to make sense of things isn't due to laziness or lack of motivation. Being able to understand these things is very near to the top of my wish list.
I know about different ways people learn and how we can be wired differently (no pun intended!!!) from each other. At some point I want to take a hands-on Amp troubleshooting class. I think it might help me a lot to be able to see the theories in actual use.
If my problems are familiar to anyone here, have you had a chance to take a class or attend a seminar? Did it help? Have you found anything else to break through that wall?
Thanks for taking the time to read this.
) I also really appreciate the time you took to explain as you did. I realize that took some time! I'm planning to read through a few times.
