Christina Mann (age 4), with some help from Daddy in the writeup of this text
A basic tutorial on electrical engineering
Christina Mann (age 4)
Learning how to fix computers
Fixing computers is not difficult. They have standard parts that are
usually cheap to replace:
Learning how things work
Breadboards
Solderless breadboards are a good way to wire up things for quick
fun or testing:
Alligators
Another option for solderless connections is alligator clips:
Alligators, crocodiles, burmese pythons, and anacondas!
Banana connectors and binding posts
Another form of solderless connector is the banana connector.
You just plug it in. Alternatively you can use a binding post
to connect to raw wire.
My favorite kind of connector is the banana binding post.
It combines the functionality of the binding post with that of the
banana connector.
It can be used as a banana connector (a banana plug can plug
into the center) or as a solderless binding post that can
either screw tight on a wire inserted into the center-hole of the post,
or on a wire or lug or spade connector around the center post.
A banana binding post can be installed in 3 easy steps:
Drill a hole (see note, below, regarding safety glasses);
Insert banana binding post;
Put a nut on the other side and tighten it. This is easiest to do with
a deep-socket nut driver, but you can use pliers or a wrench or just
work it on finger tight and use the binding post itself to tighten it
further.
tightening the banana connectors with a nut driver:
With binding posts, I can tinker with a wide variety of different
kinds of sensors without having to solder wires to each one.
Safety first!
Always wear safety glasses when drilling:
(drilling some holes to mount banana sockets in a plastic toy keyboard)
Often you will want to hold the drill firmly with both hands:
When drilling particularly large holes (e.g. for big huge pushbuttons)
with a hole saw, hold the drill with both hands, as shown.
Keyers and arrays of holes
Drilling an array of uniformly spaced holes is not really too difficult
if you know how to use a ruler, and how to count.
Measure twice and drill once, especially if it's your baby sister's toy
exersaucer and you want to get it right the first time!
With careful measurement a nice row of holes results.
These can be fitted with colour-coordinated pushbuttons, giving a
result that looks like it came from the factory that way:
Proper soldering technique
Demonstrating proper soldering technique: Hold the iron on one side of the work and the solder on the other,
to make sure the work itself gets hot enough to melt the solder,
otherwise (if you just drip hot solder on the joint) it won't make good
electrical contact.
Here's a nice close-up view demonstrating proper technique:
As you can see, there is only a small wisp of smoke, because only a small
amount of flux is being consumed. (If you incorrectly touch the solder
right to the iron, you get lots of smoke.)
Funits
"Funits" is a new word my Daddy made up by combining "fun"
with "units". In units of fun (if there were a meter that could
measure the amount of fun something was), all of this would give a
pretty high reading...
Electrical engineering is fun....
(Live performance at the Power Plant,
Canada's foremost modern art venue, using direct brain-machine interface)
tightening the banana connectors with a nut driver:
