Oscilloscopes, Dave Jones and young passion

[THORs_Hand]

Hello Everyone! My name is Alex
I started learning electronics since i was 10 by dissassembling toys and small electrical stuff, it wasn't until 12 when i really started to do learn it, i started off with a local facebook group, asking questions wich i didn't really got an answer for, there i found a friend who gave me books and talked with me on the phone for hours about electronics, i read some old books and at the age of 13 (yes, 13) i asked my grandmother to buy me a soldering iron <3 so i got my first soldering iron (good thing i like psychology also) and my very first bit of solder, tested it on some wires i was terribile but i insisted at her so she can buy me my first IC (a TDA2005) and dot matrix board... ahh dose days i spent 12hrs to build a TDA2005 amp... and because of the best soldering ever ) i failed horribly, i got really dissapointed and decided that i have to learn more, so reading i go by mistake i got to one of Dave's Videos it was the moment that i opened my eyes  the first video i've seen it was about how to solder (the complete guide) it was so awesome, i tried again soldering (a 555 based boost converter) i succeeded although i has some issues and quite a bad soldering, during practice i improved    because of my dad i had to move to bucharest to make my step from elementary school to high school (he made me enter a highschool that made me a chef although i don't want to hear about cooking) and somehow i combined that horribile high school and electronics (and Russian, Serbian, Engish and some spanish lessons i took by myself via the WWW) all my life since 12 was a continous personal and professional development and here i am, wathcing EEVBlog, GreatScott, mike's electric stuff daily as much as i can, almost finished my highschool (i have tomorrow math graduation exam and friday psichology one and i am done) and i turned 18 by now <3 i got as many tools and parts as i could over time (i remember because i was grown in country by my grandmother i was going to nieghbours to ask for broken electronics ) ) and i design an build circuits i repair electronics and i make schemes off the internet, my first designed circuit was actually another 555 timer-based boost converter, it had an eff of ~89% at voltages higher then 12V and a max of 10% eff at voltages around 4-5V
I heard about the EEV forum long time ago, didn't consider that i could say Hello! to Dave and he'll read it but no i take my chances
Hello Dave! Thank YOU for doing all of this work on YT to teach people electronics, i really like your videos ( i watched ~800 and yes i like mailbag as well, i preffer the teardowns though, especially vintage gear, those were really the days ) Keep up the good work, with LoL, Alex

[mdszy]

The sheer wall of text and amount of emoticons nearly gave me eye-cancer...

What's the point of this post? Just an introduction? If so, pretty sure there's an introduction thread.

Or are you begging for a free scope? In which case, this isn't the place for that.

[THORs_Hand]

It's just an introduction, i don't beg for a scope 
it's my experience with them so far

[kosacid]

ill have a free scope please lol 

[chriswebb]

Hey man, welcome to the EEVBlog forums.

If this is your first experience posting to a forum of any kind, there are going to be a couple of things that might be helpful for you to learn while browsing around. Namely knowing which sub-forum to post your content to, as well the proper etiquette when writing posts. 

What is really important is to never underestimate the value of lurking before speaking.  There are so many topics that are so interesting to learn here, but patience isn't infinite, especially when you're talking to professionals in varying levels of their career.   I might suggest you cruise the stickied topics in most of the forums to help you understand what is OK and not OK to post.  Especially reading them before you decide to ask a question. Also if you have a basic question, the search tools of forums can save yourself a lot of heartache from people who grow tired of repeating the answers to questions.

With that being said, welcome!!, and please don't take my post as any sort of discouragement!  I too am a beginner in electronics, although my age is probably double yours, and this forum has been one of the best resources I've found.


Also helpful tip for the scope problem- Take a look at the Buy and Sell forum to see if there are any oscilloscopes available near you for a price you can more afford.  Buying new, retail electronics can get very expensive, very quickly, and it is important that you gather your equipment at the pace at which you will actually be able to make use and learn the equipment well.   You don't necessarily need keysight or some flashy scope at the moment.  You probably also don't need tons of bandwidth.  And if the projects you are intending to work on do require flashy gear, then you might want to scale back and wait for college when you will have access to a real lab.

[rsjsouza]

Alex, welcome to the forum. This is the beginner's section of the forum, so don't be afraid to post or ask your questions or comments at all. Over time you will get more acquainted with the details that chriswebb pointed out above and quickly find out answers to your questions - there is a heap of information around and lots of folks that want to help.

All in all, I found your story entertaining as I can relate to my own (I started a bit earlier but my dad was a great teacher on practical electronics, woodworking, etc.). Enjoy!

[ebastler]

... patience isn't infinite, especially when you're talking to professionals in varying levels of their career. ...

Which is a very polite way of saying that this forum has its share of grumpy old men!
(Who am I kidding; I'm getting there fast...)

[danadak]

If you are looking for a scope try the following -

1) Companies in your area that do electronics, write a letter to engineering, or purchasing (or both)
and describe your self briefly and ask if there is an out of date scope gathering dust. Letter should be
1 page, single sided.

2) Write to college near you, basically same approach as above.

3) Contact a semiconductor field applications engineer (FAE) and ask if they know anyone
that possibly has an old scope gathering dust.

4) Contact consultants, often they have old equipment in the basement.


Regards, Dana.

[KL27x]

Or are you begging for a free scope? In which case, this isn't the place for that.

LOL. First thing that I thought of. But really, you are not just criticizing the OP but also the giveaway rules. Which are sorta... meh. "Come brag and beg. Then whoever is most deserving will be CHOSEN."

I'm not sure if the winner is supposed to be envied or pitied. lol.

[THORs_Hand]

My goal wasn't to beg for a scope, I feel ashamed of the comments related to that. I just wanted to introduce myself to Dave, I learned a hell of a lot from him so I felt like posting on his forum after 2 years of EEVBlog videos I watched.

Sent from my SM-J510FN using Tapatalk

[THORs_Hand]

... patience isn't infinite, especially when you're talking to professionals in varying levels of their career. ...

Which is a very polite way of saying that this forum has its share of grumpy old men!
(Who am I kidding; I'm getting there fast...)

In every electronics forum there are grumpy old men, in our national forums there are a hell of a lot more then are here at least the old mans here are not as grumpy as Romanian old mens

Sent from my SM-J510FN using Tapatalk

[EEVblog]

I heard about the EEV forum long time ago, didn't consider that i could say Hello! to Dave and he'll read it but no i take my chances

The DaveBot read it 

[THORs_Hand]

I heard about the EEV forum long time ago, didn't consider that i could say Hello! to Dave and he'll read it but no i take my chances

The DaveBot read it 

Oh my God! Hello Dave!

Sent from my SM-J510FN using Tapatalk

[danadak]

Do NOT be embarrassed to ask for help getting a scope, that's exactly what you should
be doing as a starter, a youngster in school. Tools are expensive for beginners, especially
for youngsters.

The fact you are asking for help to learn is something the adults and senior people on the
forum should pay attention to, maybe they know of a scope gathering dust that needs a new
home.

Keep up the pursuit, its a great field to get involved in.


Here is a scope and sig gen and spectrum analyzer (free) that uses sound card in your PC -


https://www.zeitnitz.eu/scope_en


Protect your sound card inputs against damage -


http://www.pmillett.com/ATEST.htm


http://www.daqarta.com/dw_0all.htm


http://www.electro-tech-online.com/threads/soundcard-oscilloscope-protection.92122/


And some more sound card instruments (note the RLC meter link) -


http://www.radio.imradioha.org/PC_Based_Test_Gear.htm



Regards, Dana.


PS : When you get your real scope do some googling on how to protect it from user mistakes
that can lead to damage.I think Dave has done some video on this.