Hi guys, welcome to the Q&A video. Yes! I Finally got around to it. sorry it's taken me so long. Yes, I've been a slack ass and yesterday forget about it for quite some time.

but hey, better late than never, right? Make sure everything's working, audio level, check, check and all that sort of jazz because I'm gonna shoot this thing like one continuous video shot. That's the plan anyway. and I was going to actually separate the questions into like different types like you know, personal ones and technical ones and all the rest ones about the blog. but ah, that was too much hassle.

So I'm just gonna go through them all. Although I've only got the YouTube ones here now, some people ask questions on YouTube some people ask them on the forum, some people ask them on the blog websites I think I've already got enough here just for the YouTube ones and I'll have to do a separate video for the forum ones and the blog ones. So yeah, this could take like an hour or more and I don't to have like a two or three-hour video. Crazy.

So I've gone through I've highlighted the questions that like you know are serious questions. They aren't duplicates or anything like that or just does stupid things or stuff like that or just things that weren't actually questions. I was just statements or oh can you you know, do a video about this and stuff like that will not gonna answer those types of questions here. Really questions? they're just suggestions.

um and so yeah. sorry if I skip your question but it means I think it means it's already been answered or it's just silly or whatever. Anyway, here are the YouTube questions I've highlighted them. The ones I think are relevant don't really have any prepared responses to them I've just gone through quickly and highlighted it.

so I'll make up my answers as I go along. So let's go one continuous video Q&A session number one from Miguel Para sorry I cannot pronounce names I'm useless a bit. not even gonna try. So my apologies up front to everyone who: I mispronounced I Have a question that came to mind after seeing big companies to sue each other for licensing fees here.

The bastards purchasing the comp that they have covered that they have covered used that. It seems like just buying apart doesn't cover its usage. Well, it might if your project doesn't like that. but it looks like on top of going through the data sheets, you'll also have to go through licensing investigation.

Is there a place you can find out if a part has licensing fees attached to them? It's really pretty much a non-issue in the industry I've never encountered I've never heard of anyone really falling for that where they've bought a component from Digi-key or one of the other providers and then found out that they have to pay a licensing fee. That's usually not how it works at what if it is. Generally you know they won't sell their through the distributors. you'll have to go through the dealer who'll make you aware of all this sort of stuff upfront.

So really I don't think it's something that anyone ever gets caught by. but if you have and your story, yeah, please leave it in the comments or on the forum. So really I don't think it's an issue. Usually the the licensing fee is done by London this is taken care of by the manufacturer arm for example, they license their arm core but you don't have to pay the licensing fee as a designer who designs that chip in the manufacturer who uses that arm course.

a it's a you know, an Atmel or it's a you know in XP or some other part that uses an arm core. they're the ones who paid a licensee fence so the license fee is embedded in the distributor cost of the part so it's not really something you have to worry about so ma don't lose any sleep over it day. or Gettys Dave I know she talked about the Arduino is a little bit and heavy I have a tough tropical aquarium so my question is how would I go about making a fully automated aquarium? Modo monitor system that has 240 volt outlets turning on heaters and temp drops and turns on and off according sunrise and sunset. Well, there's probably a shield out there and Arduino shield for every thing you can do for driving pump motors for sensing ambient light.

That's easy is just an LDR hooked up to the female is probably a better board that a shield that does that. so just stack them on. They've already got example code and build away. Yeah, you can easily make it cheaper than 600 bucks.

Not a problem, it's all there. Um I don't see an issue there at all. DG Haven Do I use ESD equipment like wrist strap grounding mat in my lab I'm sure that I'm not the only one who does not follow the book on ESD protection when soldering and prototyping Know you're not the only one most people don't you know? I take basic precautions I've got a ESD a proper grounded ESD mat that I generally always work on, but now I don't often get my ESD strap out only if it's a real critical part. I'm paranoid.

You know it's a real expensive part. I've only got one of them and I don't want to blow it or whatever, you know? Yeah, I'll wear a wrist strap, but no generally not because I'm always touching the things. you're always touching the bench so you're always sort of, you know, dissipating that static charge. Usually you know, day to day it's not a huge deal.

Pretty much so. yeah. I don't follow the book just like everyone else. except when I get a bit paranoid.

Um, have I entered a ADK Haru have I ever expended experimented with EMP and magnetic field calculations No I haven't sorry. boring. examine Zim X Z X A.m. ext ass hi Dave I'm about to solder this RF connector on a microstrip line.

On the PCB thing is, the connector can't stand high temperatures. Yes, I'm gonna cut so I figured that I can use this low temp solder paste. Do you think it is appropriate or not? Any suggestions on the tools? Well, you need a high thermal capacity iron and a high thermal capacity tip. and then you need to apply solder to the tip, have flux on there and bring it over so that the molten solder can actually transfer heat to the joint.

Even better than normal. but a high thermal capacity iron like this? JBC one for example, or a Met Cow or something like that does high thermal Pasady connectors much better than something like this. Hakko Fx-888 A Which means that you can sorta at a lower temperature and still make regular solder you know, wet and flow on the joint properly. So there you go.

that's you really need the right iron, the low that low temperature solder paste. They're usually designed for rework. They're not designed for it because I believe there are brittle and they can create brittle joints and things like that. They're not designed for highly reliable joints.

They're designed to just get your parts off and then rework and stuff like that. So yeah, I don't know if the proper tool for the job is a high thermal capacity iron. Ah yes, everyone asked about the bloody power supplier the USB power supply thing. So I'll answer this once and that'll be it because there were about 20 questions on that.

Yeah, it's still one of those things that projects that's on the back burner. I'll probably get back to it after the micro current thing is all sorted out. all the Kickstarter and all that sort of jazz probably get back onto it. It's been a pet.

You've got to remember, it's been a pet project of mine for years before I even started the blog. So you know, really, it's you know it's one of those things. I've gone through like four or five revisions and it's just something that well it necessarily care if any of it gets you out there. it's just something I got playing with occasionally.

but yes, it's probably going to happen. And what caused the stall before was that there was a problem with the LT 300 eight five visit voltage regulator chip. There's actually a an issue with it where it where it actually blows up and so it looks like I have to investigate that and I may not actually be able to use that device. so I may go back to square one and choosing a primary device on that.

so I've always got to start again kind of thing. So yeah, it'll happen eventually. But and and the problem is I times regret having done now I Almost regret I guess I could say because it should never regret putting good content or putting content out there. but anyway I regret actually almost regret sorry putting that project out there and designing it as I went.

So I've said before it I'll probably say it again when if I do anything more on the power supply I will do it myself here on the bench now when it's finished then I will post document all the steps and then I'll do a bunch of videos on it. so then no one can complain. No one can put me off track and all that sort of stuff because designing something in front of the world you know, and step by step process like that, it's just horrible I didn't I didn't particularly enjoy it. so I don't really want to go through that again.

Um, so yeah, it'll happen eventually. Maybe I don't know. I'll definitely do more work on whether or not it actually makes it out. there is a kid that is.

my intention is to you know it will become my intention is for it to become a you know, a product I probably crowdsource it like I did the micro Karen or something like that. So yeah, probably be my next project again. William Fishman Dave Can I explain about how grounding circuit may develop reactants and helps and hence might actually not be ground at all. Yes, ground is never ground.

It's all to do with the inductance. Every piece of wire be it in the ground path or the power supply. signal lines has inductance in it and well, you know inductance. It changes with frequency, right? So it's ground is not ground when you get anything above.

DC So yeah. so what to do with inductance? You can't really avoid it. You can minimize it by being a big, nice low impedance ground plane. That's why they call it a low impedance or low inductance ground plane.

Lots of via stitching all that sort of stuff to lower your inductance to the ground plane, but you can never really get rid of it. There's going to be some inductance there somewhere. and how to prevent this situation from happening? You just gotta minimize it. There you go.

First page done. William Pietschmann Am I an amateur radio operator? Ham? No. I'm not. And a question.

Any tips on keeping your bench and work area organized? I'm not the guy you should be asking really what's the reasoning behind where you place each piece of equipment on your bench? This is an interesting question actually because my the way I've placed a lot of equipment around on the various benches that I've got here is more to do. more often. it has more to do with how I do shoot the videos then real practical electronics if I wasn't shooting the videos and I was just designing electronic projects all day every day like you know, doing that for a living then that's in the way my own folks use it on it, was using it before. lucky it goes into hibernation mode.

Yeah, it'd be different. it all be. you know, like centered around this solder in workbench area and a lot of people ask I don't know if it's in the credits, not in these questions might be in the other ones but a lot of people ask why do I always use the RAI goal now these days in videos instead of this Agilent scope you the reason? it's just convenience of where I happen to shoot that particular video. If I'm shooting a video where I've got to like use my iron and debug things and you know, do sort of more of your traditional electronics design stuff, then I'm gonna do it here.

and I'm going to use my Agilent scope just because it's sitting here and it's handy. But a lot of the times I'm shooting now videos over on my second teardown slash general video bench and that one. Well I can't use my edge-on scope here I'm not gonna unplug it, disconnect everything and move it over. So I'm gonna use the reigai which see there was some other scope which sits on that bench over there.

So yeah, don't take my lab as an example of a real you know of a proper practical working electronics lab. I Do something. Sonic's here of course. but my day job is shooting videos doing this kind of stuff so it's it's just a different game.

So yes, my lab has changed since I was doing hobby / contract stuff in my lab to shoot more videos. the more I got into the video site and video blogging side of things, the more I realize that the layout and usability of my lab actually changed. Phillipe S. Hi Dave Besides the Art of Electronics, what is the best electronics book in general? look serious I Don't know I haven't you know I haven't used electro? A lot of people ask this.

you know which is the best beginners book I Don't know I haven't used to begin a book for 30 years I I you know 20 30 years I don't know I'm sorry and I haven't looked but the answer to your question is there is no right answer. Well there is a right answer and I'll tell you what it is. It's not a specific book, it's the one that you find you can comprehend the best. Everyone learns electronics in different ways and really, you know some people don't like the art of electronics doesn't work for them.

Some people prefer some other approach and you know whatever one works for you. The best book for you is the one that you read it and you go. Ah now I Get it. That was explained in the way that my mind you know just made it click in there and well that is the answer.

So unfortunately there is no magic answer magic but you have to sort of read many of them and eventually one of them. you will like that style be written or done in a particular way that you that your mind could comprehend so everyone learns in different ways. Key to the new room. So how much does why does so much electronic? You have a ridiculously high lowest operating temperature? I Can see how that isn't big issue in places where are they a design which is usually hot or like California or Australia It's a good question but here in Norway it does cause major is users can't use the gear below 0 degrees which means about half of the year.

Yes, it's a very good question and companies like I'm Agilent for example the Latent, the You 1272, a multimeter I don't know its lowest operational range is like minus five or something like that it's rated for they did like an OLED version which I've got here I think it's the ax or something. Don't quote me but it goes down. It's designed to go down to minus forty. and yeah, it's specifically designed to meet a spec and operate down to minus forty for those specific conditions.

Um, unfortunately you know most of the world you know market is going to be above that. You know that. that's zero degree sort of mark or that minus five or something like that. So really, if you're living one of those cold Nordic countries and you're getting you know six months of the year it minus fifteen degrees.

Well, I Don't know. It's a lot of things like LCDs and things like that won't work properly down at lower temperatures. so a lot of stuff most components will I mean it's you know. Not a huge issue, but battery technology is an issue down at lower temperatures and all sorts of stuff so often.

And because the commercial operating temperature range is from 0 to 70 degrees C or something, it's not from minus 40 or something like they'd have to get like over the military with extended consumer temperature range I Forget the exact ranges, but then there's a military range which goes over a wider range. Again, the automotive sorry from you know, some negative temperature up to positive temperature. There's all these different aspects, but a lot of consumer gear is just designed for that consumer range 0 to 70 70 degrees, not 70 degrees ambient of course. But you know a lot of things a lot of products will car kit at.

you know, 40 degree ambient or something. So if you get a hot country like Australia for example, in summertime, things just kill themselves because fall over the Cape's just dry up and all the power supplies fails because they weren't designed for those high ambient temperature environments. For example, my car is a European car, right? German Car I'm pretty cold in Germany so that's designed for cold conditions. It was shipped here and supplied with a battery.

Warm up on it like a little. You know better. What the hell you know? Yeah. Grading Germany useless here, right? So rip that off.

Ah, so yeah. Unfortunately, that's just. it's just. you know, a commercial thing.

Sometimes you don't want to spend the extra money or you don't want to do the compromises which you might have to to work on lower temperature. Well, hope you answer that. Hmm. what is the one thing you'd like to tear apart and inspect on your blog? asks? Photon Military stuff? Space Probe IG You know I don't know I Don't know? Really? Yeah, Like a lot of us, space stuff is really cool.

You know anything that's you know, really those sort of one-off things that you know they don't mess anything that's mass-produced as me, you know. But those one-off often those one-off things that you know, one-off military things or one-off you know, space things? Yeah, they're They're really cool ones to tear down. I Think Is it good to get a decent winter holidays? Is good to get a desoldering pup with a piece of metal sticking out? Huh? Get it ass? Richard Zing Hmm. what is the best scope for a beginner on a budget and what is your opinion on bench top multimeters using your scope versus using your scope for the same task? Well answer the second question first.

A bench top multimeter is a totally different tool to an oscilloscope. There, you know it's totally different. One is for viewing waveforms, one is for taking measurements where you don't view the waveform, and a multimeter is capable of greater greater precision and resolution. then an oscilloscope is.

They're two entirely different tools. so I don't know why you would. There's no pros and cons of one versus the other. Really different tools for different jobs.

What is the best scope for a beginner on a budget? What's your budget? You know, he's a hundred bucks. He's at three hundred bucks. He's at five hundred bucks because there can be a big difference between 300 and 500. For example, I I Reckon the best value for money scope on the market at the moment for a begin and for me, the beginner scope price for the last 30 years probably.

and I didn't Old magazine video on this where I went through old magazine articles with ads for test equipment stuff and it's pretty much the beginners price of oscilloscope has always been sort of seven, eight hundred bucks or less at the time. not accountant, counting for inflation and all that sort of jazz. but yeah, but let's say now it's dropped. You know, the market has changed a lot in the last five years, so let's say it's like 500 bucks or 600 bucks or something is a good beginner price.

Ultra low end beginner, but sort of reasonable is the RAI goal 1000 Z-series Auric and that's by far the best value. Get four channels, you get analog like display. You get reasonably high waveform updates per second. You get deep memory.

just you know there's no contest. Yeah, you can go for 300 bucks EP but I reckon you get 10 times the value by jumping from 300 to 500 as you do from yeah, just paying 300 bucks for, you know, oh, one or something like that. Um, anyway. but really any scopes gonna do the job.

A lot of people fuss over which scope multimeter to get in the end. As long as you've got something, even if it's got some quirks, it's a tool that's gonna do a job and well, if it fails on you or gives you dodgy results, well, you know you might learn something. It's all good. so just you know.

Just don't fuss over too much over what you get when you're a beginner, just get something. Any scopes better than nothing. Oh the crazy student. I've always been wondering how did you manage to become this skilled and knowledgeable within electronics? A few people asked this at what age did you start studying and what was your main resources or information? please tell us a little bit more about your story.

I've done a video on Go what's a cold? can't remember the number. it's probably like number 30 or something like that. It's a real old video and I've done a video about how I started in electronics, so watch that. I'm sure someone will link it in down the comments or if I remember I'll link it in.

but I'm average for someone of my average knowledge and skills for someone of my experience. really. I've been working in the industry for more than 20 years. I've been a hobbyist for, you know, more than 30 years.

Well over 30 years. So you know you just acquire a lot of Norwegian stuff, but there's some. There's tons of areas that I have no knowledge in whatsoever. and that's another question.

I think which is further on about. Anyway, we'll get to it. Um, I better get a move on here. How long will be going on for 22 minutes? She's only gone through one enough pages? Yeah, it's just time.

Really? Um, and yeah. Oh answer that more later. What resources? What? All my main resources and information back before the Internet kitties came along, it was data books, application, books, magazines. That was it.

Well, the only places you've got information. Um, you know it was well. I feel happy If you're lucky and you belong to a club or something like that, maybe you can talk to some people when you got your first job, for example, you might be able to. you know you might have a mentor or something like that, but pre the internet it was a totally different world.

You couldn't just jump on Google and get something. was all the books Oh I had book ID Thousands of books I had like five complete bookcases like this tall. probably got a photo somewhere if I don't think I'm gonna complete one of at least while. I'll try to find it one day and you know it's just books and books.

Data sheets, data books. I had hundreds of data books. So I had you know complete collections of all the electronics, magazines and things like that. That's where you got the information.

I'm totally different world these days and now I Wouldn't give up a current information revolution for anything. Where do I see myself and the Eevblog in a year's time? That's easy. Exactly the same. Doing the same stuff five years.

probably doing the same stuff. ten years. mmm don't know. Will you to be around? in ten years I'll still be making content I've been making content publishing stuff my whole life like my whole adult life.

so it's not just this blog. I was doing it well before that. so I'm still gonna do that I think regardless of what I end up doing, have other people in my office building corn on road to my repair schools and asked me to repair their broken crap. No, because nobody knows what I do here.

They have no idea. In fact there is a viewer who actually works in the building. but apart from that no nobody knows what. I do he almost died like a couple nearby do and but that's it or anyone is walked by and you know managed to maybe gone.

What's the eevblog or Google wet you know and to figure out what this guy does, um talking to myself. They can probably hear me through the walls but it is that Saturday year? So yeah, it's all good. Oh boy, how's my audio level? It's all right. mm-hmm Been benefiting Props in the way.

Whatever. hi Dave Do you think the radio interference remote device such as phone or tablet could actually interfere with the important outboard systems are onboard systems of an aircraft. Ben Ah Ben of Kent Props is his username. Thanks man.

Um no, not really. Yeah, it's possible. but no, there's so much engineering and testing and validation which goes into aircraft systems, it's it's just really that they could interfere I mean it's just crap. look at NIT nowadays they're getting sticking iPads on the back of seats and they tell you to turn off your our iPad But oh there's one there.

got a special you know it's not. It's just garbage right? And so many people. It's just the sheer statistics of it. The number of flights per day? thousands of thousands, Maybe tens of Thousands of flights per day.

You know, hardly anyone turns their phone off I Turn mine off just. But not because I think it's gonna crash the plane just because. Well, you know. Look, we've been asked to.

fine. Okay, let's do it. I Have no problem with it, but nobody else does. I sit there watch other people.

lasers go right. everything's left on. So if it was in issue then you know it would have popped up. it would have been found.

There's no evidence for it whatsoever. Really, not that I'm aware of. Anyway, there was a case where a cornice plane dropped over Perth or something like that. Man, they think because it's near one of the U.s.

Secret Transmitting staff secret transmitting stations or something over on the west coast of Western Australia near that is interfering or something out of a maybe. but jeez, it's not gonna be a little phone or tablet. I Hate how they you know, they just don't understand like you know you've got a Kindle they'll ask you to turn your Kindle off and you go on. What? Sit in here.

it does nothing. It's powered off right I press a key. it does a little wake up. Tiny little processor loop and it's gone like my watches is still continuously operating.

Other things that continuously operate. It's just what do I and Lou know? Jason Jason Olaf Fenske hi David Grew up primarily in the BJT well to find that the options are pretty much MPI no PMP He doesn't know much about a field effect transistors. Yeah, blah blah. What are the major types of fits I might want to use? MOSFET J FET what else? I'm pretty much MOSFET has pretty much taken over most markets because they are the most versatile ones.

you might use. J fits on on some front end or I don't know some area stuff or something like that. but generally MOSFETs pretty much handle. you know, a lot of the stuff you're gonna use amplification and power and switch in and all that.

So the good stuff is really, you know, pretty much covered by MOSFETs. So I myself find myself using MOSFETs I'm all the time. Jeff It's very really and there's others there's you know. IGBTs And there's all you know.

one's for obscure applications and stuff like that. which really, you know. unless unless you're really into that sort of niche thing and if you are, you're going to need, you're gonna already know that you need those specific types of fits. So yet, MOSFET If you're gonna learn one of them, yeah, just get your common MOSFETs But you learn MOSFETs J fits and you know, maybe some of the other ones.

but MOSFETs are the go. What do you recommend to gunk up components? In a way, the PCB is resistive against environmental influences, but still removable in case you want it later robbed. Yet us that um, you can get reenter abou potting compound, reamp, enterable potting Jill 3m and other companies I think I can't remember the exact you know model numbers and part numbers and stuff like that. But yeah, search for Google for re in terrible potting gels? there are.

It's like a gel. It doesn't sit hard like your solid resin potting compounds. they're more traditional ones that sit like a brick and you cannot repair whereas the Renewable put in re-enter will gel. You can actually put pots inside your product and then gunk it all up with this REM herbal gel and then you can still stick a screwdriver through, adjust the pot, pull it back out and at all them.

the gel just all reforms and forms of water probe, watertight and moisture tight seal. really cool stuff but it's sticky, emits globular and it's really everywhere when if you really want to take it apart for servicing. I Don't think there's anything better than that stuff. but I don't know I Haven't been involved in that for quite a few years now.

What is my least favorite part of Electronics design? What areas of the field do I think could be greatly improved? David Lee Swenson Three names? Um, what is? You know, what is my least favorite part of electronics? are? you know, probably doing that. Doing the grind of production manufacture stuff like that can be satisfying sometimes, but sometimes it's just. it really is a grind. You know, something as simple as the microcurrent just takes a ton of work to get into production and buying.

You know, sourcing parts and buying them and all that sort of jazz. And yeah, you've got to keep reiterating things. All that was available a week ago, but now it's not. Everyone's out of stock.

and well, I might have to read my design to, you know, use something that's in stock. Yeah, probably that. LRE b7 How often do you diagnose a board ship fire just by smell? I'm under the impression that I can smell heat damage to Cheers I'm not sure if that's just superstition on my behalf generally like, because I'm not in the service industry. so I'm not servicing here.

But generally, when you get gear in, you're probably not going to be able to. you know, smell something that you know, some component that fried itself a weekend. maybe? you know you can still smell them. Yeah, it smells a bit wrong compared to a reference unit.

you know, reference melons. Yeah, that's a bit dodgy, you know, so you probably get used to. the smell is, but generally you know if you're working and troubleshooting on stuff and and even if you don't see the smoke, you'll generally smell it. And yeah, it's a dead giveaway.

So yeah, it's not that common that I'm actually diagnose in faults by, you know, I'm not gonna smell individual chips I'm you often can't get down the lap that level. It's more of a visual thing. Go around with the put under the commander's microscope here or another you know, jeweler's loupe or something. You have a look and you can generally see like the cracks in the chips and stuff like that.

So Sabrina Killian said go Sabrina sorry if you want, but here in Australia Sabrina is kind of a girls night and that's cool. Um, if I had just five hundred. there's a lot of stuff before this, but if I had just five hundred US dollars for a lab, what would be the most indispensable bench device and at that low end should I buy or build? Without a doubt, an oscilloscope is the most indispensable bit of gear for electronics work. You can't beat it to be able to see inside your circuits what they're doing I mean you know I'm Oh yeah, a multimeter is essential, right? You can't get by without a multimeter.

we can. If you've got a scope, you can probably use it as a crude multimeter. It's just fine. Um yeah, yes, scope scope every day of the week.

So if I have 500 bucks I would probably you know only at 500 bucks I'd probably get like maybe one of the cheapest digital scopes I couldn't really get a 100 and for like 250 bucks or something like that. maybe a ride to old 1052 Ii or something like that for like under 300 bucks I'd get like a $50 multimeter and get power supply and you know, Yeah, there you go. So let's go. Hmm Robert Bardos Why our vacuum tube amplifiers described as sounding warmer than solid-state amplifiers? Distortion It's because they distort.

There's no other reason why a sound sounds warmer. It's because it's distorting. And vacuum tubes don't necessarily do that. You can actually design vacuum tube amps to have incredibly low Distortion I'm no audience, but if I'm pretty sure that's the case.

And in that case, it doesn't sound like a tube anymore because there's no distortion in it. You know, gets down to that vanishing level where it's just all in your head. You know it's a head psychology when you do a true a be double volt line test. Know where between a point you know if you've got a point o 1% Distortion tube amp and 0.01 percent distortion linear.

They saw the state amp and they both perform. Not just a distortion, but they both have the same performance characteristics designed for the same performance characteristics. You will not hear the difference. Psychology and anyone who says otherwise is just it's just uneducated.

I'm sorry quant Rama There's a few things before this: what jobs did you have during your career and overall, what niche of electronics did I learn about design in each one? Well, yeah, I've got a LinkedIn profile out there somewhere. You can see what jobs I've had I don't think it's got all of them on there. There's a couple of little ones I've left off here and there, but yeah, I've been involved in a lot of the a lot of people know in the military side of things for a lot of years, this seismic underwater exploration stuff. and on the military side it's always been underwater.

So underwater electronics is what I've done for like I don't know, maybe 15 years of my career I did that? I'm not sure the exact. think of it. Yeah for most of my career I did underwater electronics our summer boys marine oil, seismic exploration and stuff like that. So there you go.

So yeah, I'm familiar so that's why in the audio. So you know I'm into like the real high precision ad Delta-sigma ADC Z' and stuff like that low noise stuff, low power stuff, massive channel distribution systems and an ax low frequency stuff like the marine seismic industry for example was you know, up to DC the 2 kilohertz like 2 kilohertz is high frequency in that sort of field. although some of the underwater stuff I've worked on was a megahertz or two and for summer underwater sonar work and stuff like that. but yeah, mostly.

anyway, although I'll talk about my there's another question about my first job which is different which I'll talk about Zoey Zoey yay Zoey Bora How can I determine the Henry's of an unmarked inductor? What kind of meter should I be using? Use an LCR meter LCI inductance capacitance resistance meter. Um, just go to ebay and get a cheap LCR meter that even one that measures if you know one kilohertz or something like that, it's gonna be fine. That's kind of generally. I'll tell you that although a better LCR meter will go up to like a hundred kilo.

Hertz For example, some multimeters have. you know, a lot of multimeters have capacitance function and some having duck tant's function as well. They're okay, but no, every good lab should have a proper LCR meter. What can they drink soon? Everyone now calls in one Hi! Dave You mentioned a little while back it used to work as Big Defense.

Yeah, mm-hmm Do I think engineers should care about the moral implications of their work? That's an interesting question. Um, and where should one draw a line? Well, it's up to you. It's a moral question, right? But no, it's It's interesting. Like the military stuff I've worked on is Eva in the defense section? You know, sensors for you know, underwater sonar and stuff like that.

In fact, one of my military applications sauna boys actually helped save the life of a round-the-world sailor who was lost at sea. Um, so you know. Fantastic. So you work on military stuff and it can have unintended civilian, you know, really good happy ending consequences stuff like that.

But yeah, I probably wouldn't have worked on weapons. you know stuff like that? I Yeah, probably not and been, you know, an environmentalist I care about the environment. Um, but hey, I spent 10 years working on you know, oil survey equipment I hate oil, you know. But I worked on this oil survey equipment.

Why? Well I it was a job and there'd be I didn't really care as much about it back then as I did now. but still, you know I did care. But the other thing was is that the one that the exploration gear I was working on was world leading in that it was actually ironically saving the environment as well as as well as you know, searching for oil which obviously kills the environment. but hey, at least in its own little way, it was saving the environment cuz a lot of this survey gear, a lot of the other competing server.

In fact, all the other competing survey years out there used to actually release tons of oil into the ocean. You know, cuz they'd tear. they'd be oil field cables weather whereas the survey seismic cables whereas the ones I worked on war world leading world first solid cable so they didn't have any oil in them. So they're actually environmentally friendly oil exploration cables.

Ironically, it's messy. You know the irony is massive. But anyway, so where does it draw the line? Yeah, personally, I would have probably drawn the line at weapons perhaps even though I do like military stuff I find it fascinating I've got a you know, I'm a I'm a huge nuclear weapon buff for example and stuff like that. but you know in terms of the history and the politics behind it and all that sort of stuff.

I read a ton of stuff on that really fascinates me. but would I work on it? Ah, maybe not. So yeah. I don't know, you've got to draw your own line.

Um, maybe you know. For some people, it's not just that the weapons kill people. it's the fact that you know that there's you know, weapons at all and the beating. the military industrial complex.

you just refuse to work for the military-industrial complex for example. and yeah, I wouldn't blame people for doing that. No, in fact, I encourage it. However, because a thing is the military, like the military projects and stuff like that suck up so many talented engineers and they just get them to work on.

you know, the NSA or whatever you know. So I can't blame you know people for just you know having a moral stand. no I'm gonna not work for Defense I'm not gonna work for the NSA I'm not gonna work on any secret or anything like that and hey, you know support you have you ever built any projects using but I probably wouldn't go back to the seismic exploration stuff I wouldn't do it again I don't know I would with hindsight I spent too many years working there I should have gone I wanted to but I was too lazy. really.

In the end I wanted to go work on a renewable energy stuff or wonder move from an oil exploration company to a renewable energy company I never really got the chance to do it I Had a couple of interviews and stuff like that but it didn't really work out. but yeah, I kind of, you know I regret working so many years on oil exploration because I hate it. Have I ever built any projects using vacuum tubes and still a solid state? No. I've never worked on vacuum tube projects.

what do I think about? Nikola Tesla Cool guy. Freaking awesome. but no I'm not into Tesla's stuff. another Tesla fanboy sorry deep Raj Kundra Last Toy Dave Can you give some tips on analyzing faults on PCB Consisting of analog and digital components.

Where to start: Normally always start the power supply got all the troubleshooting, thou shalt measure voltages and then you know you might want to measure some current. Is your current over drawing everything? drawing excess current? Something like that? Oh Jesus You know, start from the input. If you're not getting new input signal, you're not gonna get an output signal. Um, no.

and usually most electronics been hour long. Digital is you know, has that modular flow through to it so you've got the input over here and you know and then flows in. You know might be an input amplifier in terms of an analog thing, you know, and then there, an instrumentation amplifier example. Then there might be an analog to digital converter which then goes into the digital part of things.

Then there might be some you know, extra processing and stuff like that. And there's a power supply off on the side which feeds power to everything. And you know it's pretty modular. so check stage by stage, never assume anything.

Golden rule of troubleshooting. Apart from measurement voltages, don't assume anything cuz you're coming guts up. Murphy will get you every time. Mm-hm Tony Gee, your videos have really got me interested in learning more about electronics.

Awesome and a purely hobbyist level. What would you recommend as a starting point for self education on the subject? Build stuff Doesn't matter what it is, what are those? Yeah, at the really entry-level hobbyist thing. I Still recommend those you know. fifty in one project kits.

Stuff like that build up with little spring terminals and stuff like that. You can still buy them and they're great. They're great. They've got nice word books with you know examples and explains everything.

Stuff like that. That's a great way to do it. And I hope your project fails I Hope every beginner up there everything you build up fails because you'll learn hell of a lot by fixing it. Trust me Buying to buy, troubleshooting it.

Trust me. I'm not being mean I Really do genuinely hope your project fails game. Qui Realistically, is there any room for hobbyists to breaking of the game within niche product and get and not get sued for unwittingly violating dozen patents? That goes back to an earlier question: Don't worry about it, don't worry about it, just build the kit, design it, put it out there and you know if you act it, don't even worry about looking at patents. It's ridiculous waste of time.

Just go and do it. Really? I mean yes, you know so many people go, kind of. do it because I might violate upon my catsuit. Who cares, right? If you're really ultra paranoid about that thing, set up a corporate dummy corporation, sell the product under that name, and if you ever get sued, just shut down the company and forget about it, move on to the next project.

It's just. it's not worth worrying about. Almost hardly ever happens. There's so many people out there just ignoring it and making you know 99.99% of people just ignore that and just go do stuff.

and very rarely do they get caught. Um, oh Bloody Sword Hi! Dave I Love your videos and one I should say And my question is, what the hell are modern tablets or smart phones assembled? Why are they assembled with so much adhesive and glue? Good question. Is there really no other way to do it? Is it special Irish shield in an adhesive or something? Not generally. Although you know some of the plastics they generally have.

RF screening RF screening on the inside would be interesting to hear your point of view. Thanks and greetings from Germany The manufacturers are always looking to optimize their production processes. Always they're gonna though. Have you know a team of people just indicated it's Samsung or something and manufacturing the phone? Team of people dedicated just optimizing the production processes and that'll spin back into the design of the cases and everything else.

If they can do and automate a machine to dispense a couple of Dobbs of glue like this is going to be quicker than an automated machine or somebody's sitting at a factory line and putting in screws for example. It's just generally it's going to be quicker, so you can bet your bottom dollar. There's a reason there's a real valid reason why they're using glues. It's not designed to be hard to take apart or whatever.

There's no conspiracy theory going on there. it's just purely they're trying to save cost and time. production. That is everything.

Absolutely everything. Trust me. So yeah. Oh 46 minutes I've gotten through three pages.

There's yeah like eight to go I Talk too much Apple Singh In Which way can I get inspired to learn moral alone That can you tell me? How is your or an electrical engineer a normal working day totally depends on what company you work for. There are, you know? Look at an example big engineering company I work for. There's military projects, even the civilian projects for example. Generally gonna have a couple of meetings a week.

For example One: you know you can have a good day where nobody bothers you. You just left in the lab, you've already got your tasks to do. In fact, you might have a whole week where that happens. Wait, you just sit down your design and stuff and nobody bothers you and everything's hunky-dory But then you'll have the days and the weeks where nothing gets done because everyone's coming to hassle you.

Or you've got ten meetings that day and it's just waste and you fall asleep in the meetings anymore. Yeah, right, it can be that bad, you know? So yeah, you've got to take the good days with the bad at virtually any company. even when you work for yourself here all of days. worry, nothing done because too many emails.

but you know, advertisers to deal with in or production issues to deal with or something else that comes up. All my labs do miss. You need to clean the bloody thing up and that's not enjoyable. Got to do it.

So yeah, normal working day? no such thing. Mayhew's embedded systems Oh Part One: Also doing know some good ways to shield my workbench from electromagnetic interference. mine. he's talking about fifty Hertz Main: Some: how to shield out 15 Hertz Main Time: It's not.

It's not a huge amount you can do about it. Fifty Hertz gets in everywhere. It's a real pain in the ass. Not like you can just shield your base, you're benching and it's gonna magically go away.

It's just permeating everything. 50 Hertz is you know can be difficult to get rid off? No, just deal with it on an individual basis for an individual project. can't just magically you know, design your lab to be not really any way to be. you know 50 Hertz free or whatever it's it's pretty hard to do Oh worry about it.

Also, us as a young engineering student. hobbyists before I was in any professional environment. Did I have any friends I could share my hobby with? No. Unfortunately I didn't spend my entire childhood alone in my lab out in my back shed which was my lab and no I really know the few fend friends I did have they've You know they weren't into electronics at all.

made no one until I actually went to study electronics I didn't know anyone so I spent a good ten years, spent a good ten years completely alone learning electronics on on my own. Never spoke to anyone else about it. No pretty sad really. um-hmm jammed winter I am seen fair at beating electronics all the time.

The seem to reduce noise. however I do not understand how they work and how to use them. Could I please do a short tutorial. Oh yeah, maybe I probably shown it here or there somewhere.

Perhaps ferrite beads there? It's a wire with a bit of ferrite around it and it changes impedance with frequency. Hence, you'll get like a a 600 ohm ferrite for example. That's you know what it'll be rated at. It'll be rated at that frequency at 100 megahertz, for example, 700 megahertz.

It's going to have a 600 ohm impedance basically. and if you put that in series with your power supply, well, we could decoupling caps and everything else and then in your power supply filter caps height: 600 Ohms Do that. You know you can do the math. Easily defined what the drop-off in the frequency response is.

so that's how they work. Basically, they change with frequency and I go look at the data sheet for a ferrite and all have a characteristic curve over frequency. Oh, there's the phone. Yeah, So much for my continuous interrupted video, uninterrupted video.

They write - squeeze Boise go easy. What? CAD program do I recommend for beginners. Is it free? look - look I don't know. just pick one really.

whether or not it's a Kicad Eagle dipped race. Whatever. I use the Altium I've always used Altium So sorry I don't really have any recommendation of which one's better than another J'son I was thinking how would you would I react if Sagan wants to do accounting dear I'd be pretty disappointing one end up in account him but I'm not a pushy parent I don't care which Nobel Prize he wins. You can choose any field he's likes.

Not a pushy parent at all. No, not a county knows boring now I want him to do something exciting I'm sure it will end up doing something exciting, but hey, ultimately the decision is what do I think the current status for electronics engineering in Australia any long term suggestions for the country? Oh you know it's pretty much the same as it always. In terms of job market. it's pretty much the same as it's always been.

If you're good enough there's always a job and you know a lot more manufacturing. You know some manufacturing is coming back. Here is lot of still a lot of designs than done here so you know any suggestions for country. RG I don't know.

keep Tony Abbott out for a start. What a really oh so embarrassing it. worse than George W Bush G's ever just bought a fluke 111 morning man is wondering if it's a good one. ah sorry I haven't looked at there.

Is that the electrical one? That's the electrical meter right? in case that case, it's not designed for electronics use. So I don't recommend it for electronics use the fine electrical meter. I'm sure have I designed a chip before us me Elsa fee um not really. no as no, not a custom chip no.

I've been involved in custom chips and doing some test stuff for them and things like that way way back. but no, not not really I've never had to design my own ASIC that's what you're talking about Basically no. but I have done a little bit of work on it Alex you you you you? what? was your my favorite project I made as a child? uh-huh probably the I did a young speech synthesizer using the SPO 256 al to speech elephone chip which was all the rage back in the day and I breadboard all I build it and hook it up to it I then I drove it from from the parallel port on a PC and I wrote a little app to app wrote a little program to you know, send all the allophones and make it talk and that I Guess it was pretty trivial, but for a young teenage kid getting something like that working and it talking to you, that was pretty awesome. Now that's pretty awesome that was.

yeah, that was good even that was pretty trivial to do I guess but still working. Had a few issues cuz driving the parallel from the parallel port over you had issues and you know signal integrity issues and learn a fair bit. didn't work first. Go Where is the best place to go? learn to build an Ohmmeter? No.

I didn't even highlight that one. Um far said Cuy far I Want to become a good piece of bead design, especially for gigahertz frequencies and especially for 1.8 gig? GSM BAM What do I recommend for electrical engineers like me? I Want to learn good practices? The microwave. PCB Design As always practice. how do you get to? Carnegie Hall You practice you? Yeah, you have to build stuff up, but you know, doing a hobby level stuff? That's how you know.

It's not that easy. You have the good hour test equipment, be able to measure its performance and you know stuff like that. But there's you know, just study. There's tons of stuff out there on.

You know the good and bad aspects of RF design and stuff like that. What materials to use is a big deal. You're not always going to use Fr4, for example. You might use more exotic materials for microwave stuff and things like that, but yet, you can't beat working on real projects from go too low and that can't be beat.

So yeah, go out there and build some projects. software-defined radio or something? maybe I don't know. right up in that region? Don't know. it's not really my field.

now. how many minutes a week do I exercise? You seem more muscular than the typical peak or was it because of some military training, etc. No, no military training. And yes, I am more muscular than your typical geek.

Yeah, that there's some bicep snap and yes, I am. I'm also a a qualified fitness trainer. People don't know that. Um, but I don't teach.

But yeah, I am qualified. go figure. How many meals a week do I exercise I try and get the gym three maybe four days a week on a good week. Sometimes it - sometimes might be one, you know.

and I used to be seven days a week used to be, but I design I train for muscular endurance not for big build. hence people you know they meet me on very slim build I'm very slim. but yes, yes, I am quite quite muscular. No, no military training, no never been involved in that.

how my solar panels working at her thank you very much. Luigi you asked that? um Barry BPL how old solar panels working out any graphs of the output I'm up on that PV output org I've linked that into one of my blog posts of the previous video I occasionally post updates on haven't really got it automated yet I can't so I know, forget - every couple of weeks I extract the data and upload - PV out so you can see my response, graphs and stuff like that and I have. Overall, it's been steadily increasing since winter when I stored it and I think in the middle of winter or something and now as comers come, summers come along I really see the output pumping up I think I'm 20 kilowatt hours a day now whereas I start out at like 8 kilowatt hours or 10. so it's like almost doubled from winter to summer which is really good.

Cambron built what got me interested in the electronic side of electrical engineering versus power Engineering or computer engineering or any of the other various subfields. I'm just always been into electronics, how things worked, All stuff I took apart was electronics wasn't power stuff. so I just never got into it. And yeah, when I went to study their word choices, you know I could have done power engineering branch.

Hardly anyone chose the power engineering branch. So I got into the electronics branch so it was also you know, communications or something like that as well. but no. So I always been into electronics because you read mmm Electronics Australia Magazine For example, when you're a kid, well, you know they don't really go into the power engineering side of things.

That's all you know. Triple five, timer, chips, and electronics. you know, sort of. you know, low power, low voltage stuff.

so it was natural. Do I like computer programming? Um, yes and I used to really ask? Ritchie Ward yes and I used to be really into programming. There was a quite a quite a time there where I didn't do much electronics I was more into the programming side of things and I've written for example, a fitness application before. All of this was pre smartphones even got a I was good my brother-in-law I tried to convince me to.

well I wrote a patent application for it. he anyway he convinced me to do that and yeah, I did lots of projects back there. maybe the early 90s or something when the electronics hobby industry was sort of dying off. sort of in the 90s there I was getting more and more into programming.

So yeah, but I don't do it for fun these days. back then I used to do it a lot for fun I used to really be in the programming mmm mmm asks Dave how was it growing up said before I you know I'm a very solitary childhood I had a very, very solitary childhood he kept to myself, had hardly any friends you know and didn't want to know my parents. it was, you know, very distant with the whole world. so um, then somebody asks further on.

Anyway, we'll get to it. Um yeah, my childhood growing up is pretty lonely. but I didn't mind it I spend I was happy doing my electronics out in my shed. hmm DJ's syndics asks: have I ever stolen anything? how old were when I became interested in electronics I was like five or six or something when I first started electronics is very young as young as you could be.

really have I ever stolen anything? Um, no, not really. I've liberated a few bits of gear from companies who are throwing stuff out like I cants and companies who throw stuff out. So I did lots of Verdun even when I wasn't supposed to. they said you're not allowed to take that.

We're by policy. we're gonna toss it in the dumpster bin. Yeah, no, not on my watch. So there you go.

So yeah, I've liberated quite a few bits of gear from companies but never actually stolen I don't think so. How did I get started as an engineer you? Jim Brian Well, I've done the video on it. how I got started as an engineer I took stuff apart when I was five or six years old and you know curious about how things work. It's a old man Kke global climate is getting chaotic.

more forms and storms and fires. What are those emergency electronics items you stand by besides drinking water and first-aid kit, flashlights, portable radio, cranky charger I don't know, are you asking if I was a prepper and if I was one of these people who prepped for Armageddon Author: you know the New World Order taking over. but whatever, you know what stuff would I have in my kid I don't know. I I'm a big fan of standardizing on battery types, you know, so like if my gear has you know all double A's like yeah if I'm going out if I'm going bush or something.

For example, I'll try and stand everything in my kennel of trying to either be standardized on double A's or triple A's or something for example. So I can swap batteries in gear you know if my torch fails, but I made my GPS Well, you know I can take the batteries from the GPS and put them in the toilet or vice versa, right? And so I can swap batteries around. that's really important. Battery compatibility I think so power, portable power and the ability to charge I think would be a high priority and storage a high price energy storage a high priority in my prep a kit I guess cuz you can't do jack without some power these days I won't even try and pronounce it up our players I would like to I did try and pronounce it I'd like to hear how you feel my weak I am very.

You are very busy nowadays and professional bloggers. how much time you use for doing videos, how much time for video editing? how much for my wife and Siegel Sagan has in Cole Sagan and that kind of stuff I Have a feeling that's quite hard to balance all this stuff. Yeah, it is because it's not just a job for me, it's my hobby as well. So you know, how do you draw a line between you know, work and hobby? well? I don't work on life Yeah.

I Try and draw a line I Try and work irregular hours here at the lab and regular business hours for example. like I've always got to be home by 6 o'clock so that you know I can see say again and you know, play with him a bit. you know bar theme, put him to bed, read him a story, all that kind of stuff. So yeah.

so even if I'm flat out I will you know I always make time for that. So yeah, so you see me in a lot of the times in the video I Go. oh look, it's you know. Oh I've got to go.

It's because you know I'm going home to fulfill my family commitments every what do what a play was saying in X hours a day you know and teach him stuff. it's cool. Um I will up until this week actually this Monday he's going to preschool this Monday Whoa. Geez, time flies.

Let me tell you, seems like just the other day that I was shooting that video. that first video of him when he was a tiny baby in the old lab. Unbelievable. But yeah, he's going to preschool for the first time.

So I used to take him at least one full day a week. that's why I would not do anything and the wife you know I've done a sort of agreement that will have weekend's like I'm working Saturday here today it's actually Saturday but hey tomorrow full-day full family. Don't go into the beach you know and yeah, bugger it I just leave it behind sometimes earlier this year in January I Just took you know, seven, eight days off. then we just went.

You know you probably didn't notice. but yeah I Wasn't here for like more than a week and yeah, that was fun. Geez I need more drinks? So yeah, it's it's hard to balance. There's a lot of hours I need to spend.

Um oh, you had more questions How much time for video editing I've got video Inin down to a fine art I do most of my video and in at home I did do some like edited one video here I just shot one on a breadboard. just edited here I've got video down editing down to a fine art so it doesn't actually take me a huge amount of time to edit my videos. Most of the timers are spent on shooting and just around generally. Matthew Lynn What books do I recommend for troubleshooting in digital circuits once again I Don't know I'm sorry I don't have any recommendations for books Jim-jim 1977 Dave Do I think super capacitors can replace batteries in cars in the future? The point where electronic cars of energy, they've become the default I Don't think so I Don't think Super Caps are gonna be able to beat chemical batteries any time? Mike I Can't see it either.

but I haven't kept up to date with the technology, so don't quote me on that I Haven't researched Super Caps. but yeah, I don't don't really see that happening? Maybe Hmm I don't know. Maybe they could combine them for some short charging or something because I think the super capacitor technology now. they can charge them a lot quicker than they can the chemical batteries like the lithium ion technologies for example.

So yeah, don't know. But yeah, I do I haven't heard, you know I haven't seen anything that makes me think super capacitors are going to be in the future as the sole storage medium in cars. Anyway, haven't done enough research. so I'm talking about us as I always do Shawn / quit.

How am I Stoney I I Had stated that I recommend an old analog scope to start with. Other than that, what new digital scope on a 500 would I recommend if I had to choose as I said the right I'll 1,000 Zed series. It's a bit over 500 bucks and might even be 600 bucks. But jeez, that's a killer scope to get four channels with that sort of memory that's sort of analog like screen and and that memory death is just.

and the other features is just crazy. It's cure. So yeah. but know, if you only got like a mere 50 bucks, you know it's nothing wrong with starting out with a good old analog scope.

You can do a lot with an analog scope. I did. and you can do electronics hasn't changed a huge amount. Mm-hmm Stupid question from a Joe is 3 for 8 feel free to ignore and I've shown basically I've shown Sodium Sagen sie Sagen on the videos.

but there is also Mrs. Jones Yes, there is a Mrs. Jones she who must be obeyed. If so, does she watch the Eevblog art? No, she doesn't really.

unless I force her to, she doesn't watch it. Occasionally Sagen pulls up my videos on her phone. he'll call her, he knows that operate the phone. He'll call up YouTube and watch my videos and then she ends up watching them that way.

But no, generally she doesn't watch anything. Sonic Fuuka Why do some companies ground their products to the show's ease while others do not and should not attached? And when when should you attach to ground Earth? Oh geez, how long's a piece of string? Probably shouldn't have even highlighted this one cuz I can't really give you a valid answer that's due with the complete system design. other thing and sorry no. I'm skip I Ca