No more electronics for me.

[TriodeTiger]

If I don't put it in words I'll just procrastinate.

Had somewhat interest as a child with 100-in-one kit. Got interested a year ago with a textbook I found on electronics.

Bought $100 of parts from futurlec and an arduino, built some fun things. Was so excited learning along and building things, for months.

Endless learning of how transistors work and all of that. But I love it too much, learn how things work on the quantum level, how resistors are made, its interest involves so much from me I lose quality of life trying to learn it all when most of it is useless to electronics.

In the end: I am not smart enough, I have not the mental capacity to learn any of it. I'm not from the US, and so I'll have to pour money in to a credit card and shipping just to get a $0.01 resistor without waiting 4 weeks. PCBs are expensive.

After devoting hundreds (no, thousands, many hours a day) of man hours over the year learning I cannot explain anything to a beginner as others can. Took MITx 6.002 course and while I am intelligent enough to do it, I can't sit through the lectures without losing focus, not able to hold all this information in.

New extech 210 multimeter arrived to replace an old radioshack one. Excited, now I am just going to turn it back. I don't want to sink $400 to get an oscilloscope when all I will use it for is looking at USB or capacitors discharging and "learning" when I can't get any parts anyway.

Can't get along with anyone on electronics.SE or here, nothing to say, know lots of pieces but nothing of interest or can reply to whatever people ask (which is never really the stuff I have learned)

I think I'll just give my notice of departure: Goodbye electronics. I'll focus on it when I have my own place and can actually afford to spend money to do simple things. I'll watch the EEVblog and listen to the amp hour still on runs, but I am just not as "smart" nor have the capacity to go any further without damaging my life.

[TriodeTiger]

In other words - I was born and started too late for this, too many people knowing everything, no possibility I can be better than someone else at a job or have a site worthy of viewing. Time to finish school and live first.

[Mechatrommer]

duh! i thought i'm the unluckiest one. i'm 35yo and counting...

[TriodeTiger]

If I had my iron will ten years ago, I'm sure I'd make a brilliant hobbyist/electrician career and have a website that is nice. Just nothing to write about that no one else has. Can't afford the equipment and parts to write something that is just "me opening xxx" or "my xxx project" to get hits.

I think I turned an interest in to a gross obsession. My fault. Listening to amp hour on walks made me not lonely, feel better physically, at least that came good of it. I can explain a lot to someone random (if they ask, 1/1000 chance)

[olsenn]

Don't lose faith; I damn near went insane in university, and I still haven't fully recovered, but I know a lot more now than I did 5 years ago. The best advice I can give you is to admit to yourself that you don't know much and will NEVER know everything. Once you come to peace with this fact, you will know something. Keep playing with your Arduino and make many little hobby projects (if this is something you find fun), but don't waste time in quantum theory if that's not a path you will specialize in... remember, you will never know everything, accept that and only bother trying to learn things that do belong to the path you ultimately wish to travel.

As far as affording components go, don't ever just buy one $0.01 resister at a time, that is wasteful. Buy 500 of each E12 value of resistor from futurlec, and a bunch of capacitor packs (electrolytic, ceramic, and mylar), a bunch of diodes (1N4004, 1N4148, and maybe some Schottky's and Zener's), a transistor pack, and a voltage reference pack. All together, this will probably cost you between $100 - $200 and will be the best use for your money. If you have a job, once you get some money saved up, buy a Rigol DSO and a SFG-1003 function generator. Eventually you will need a current limiting PSU. You don't need to get all this at once!

The third and most important thing to keep you sane, is to go easy on yourself. Don't stress yourself out trying to everything (you will never succeed if this is your goal) all at once. You don't need to know how to manufacture transistors and what width to seperate the two plates from a dielectric to achieve a specified capacitance... just play around with electronics for fun and you'll find before long you will have a library of knowledge banked up in your mind.

[AntiProtonBoy]

I don't subscribe to the notion that you are too old to learn anything. The primary motivator here is actually enjoying what you are doing and not trying to bite off more than you can chew. Failure is just part of learning, and you always walk away with something valuable from that experience. The key thing is, don't frustrate yourself, it just aggravates the situation.

I think one of the best ways of learning anything is to educate yourself on a need to know basis. If you are stuck on something, or encounter something new, look it up. Personally, I never found university courses that effective in making me retain information. I mean, they cover A LOT of fundamental concepts, which is important, but I can't remember 40% ~ 50% of the stuff even if my life depended on it. However, if I'm doing something practical, and need to solve a problem, then I have a much better chance of remembering the solution I researched for it, because I was immersed in the project and I enjoyed doing it. Also, some of the academic material will come back when you look up a particular solution, because it looks familiar. And you know, there is nothing wrong with building a bunch of kits that someone has already designed for you. Learning by example is not a bad thing.

Yes it is an expensive hobby. But you know what? You don't have to engage in your hobby in the same way as other people do. You don't need to get your boards expertly fabbed. There are many ways to wire up a circuit. You don't need to buy a lot of components either... when I was younger I was very poor. I could only afford an iron and a cheap multimeter. I practically never bought components. Most of the stuff in my possession were recycled stuff from other appliances and made simple stuff, like FM bugs, etc. Depends what you want to do, of course.

[amspire]

After devoting hundreds (no, thousands, many hours a day) of man hours over the year learning I cannot explain anything to a beginner as others can. Took MITx 6.002 course and while I am intelligent enough to do it, I can't sit through the lectures without losing focus, not able to hold all this information in.

Sounds like you are setting a high standard for yourself. If you are capable of doing the MIYx course, you must actually know a fair bit.

Losing focus and not able to hold the information - this sounds like a a typical course to me. It is pretty rare to do a course and then understand it all. It usually takes a lot of crash and burns on the lab bench before it finally makes sense.

What I am hearing from you is the same as I see when teaching lots of adults on how to use a computer for the first time. Adults think they have to understand everything perfectly or they panic in their head. They are scared to make mistakes. They are scared to try things. Kids often do not have this problem - they don't feel they have to understand anything - they just start playing and while they are playing they discover things. If it works great. If something stupid happens, that is even more fun.

I learned electronics the same way to. Had lots of great ideas at the start and probably 95% didn't work, but I thought it was fun turning on the power and seeing what happens next. Will I have a working amplifier, an unintended oscillator, or will something explode or burn? Sometimes a circuit fails in a peculiar way and I think "That is brilliant - I couldn't design a circuit to do what that failed circuit is doing". There are some successful commercial designs that had their origins from failed designs on the bench.

If you decide to give electronics a rest for now, you will find you can return later when you mind is in a more relaxed state about it.

Richard.

[Psi]

I don't subscribe to the notion that you are too old to learn anything. The primary motivator here is actually enjoying what you are doing and not trying to bite off more than you can chew. Failure is just part of learning, and you always walk away with something valuable from that experience. The key thing is, don't frustrate yourself, it just aggravates the situation.

I think one of the best ways of learning anything is to educate yourself on a need to know basis. If you are stuck on something, or encounter something new, look it up. Personally, I never found university courses that effective in making me retain information. I mean, they cover A LOT of fundamental concepts, which is important, but I can't remember 40% ~ 50% of the stuff even if my life depended on it. However, if I'm doing something practical, and need to solve a problem, then I have a much better chance of remembering the solution I researched for it, because I was immersed in the project and I enjoyed doing it. Also, some of the academic material will come back when you look up a particular solution, because it looks familiar. And you know, there is nothing wrong with building a bunch of kits that someone has already designed for you. Learning by example is not a bad thing.

Yes it is an expensive hobby. But you know what? You don't have to engage in your hobby in the same way as other people do. You don't need to get your boards expertly fabbed. There are many ways to wire up a circuit. You don't need to buy a lot of components either... when I was younger I was very poor. I could only afford an iron and a cheap multimeter. I practically never bought components. Most of the stuff in my possession were recycled stuff from other appliances and made simple stuff, like FM bugs, etc. Depends what you want to do, of course.

Totally agree with all that 100%.

Recycling components from old junk electronics was my main way of getting stuff when i was starting out.
Also check around your area for any surplus electronics stores. They often have lots of super cheap components and boxes of junk circuit boards that you can sort through until you find one with the component you need.

Another source for electronics i used when i was young was the inorganic rubbish collection. Every year each city or suburb would have a special rubbish collection for stuff that couldn't be put out in the regular rubbish collection. Things like TV's, fridges, etc. People would pile their junk up on the grass verge outside their house for collection. In the week before the collection occurred there would be numerous people out scavenging for interesting stuff.

[rbola35618]

Learning electronic is a life time commiment. Nobody knows everthing about electronics. I have over 38 years of learning experience and I still feel that I don't know enough. That is why we have blogs such as this one to learn from one another. Be patient and learn at your pace. The most important skill to learn is learning how to learn. How to figure things out for youself. And if you can't figure it out, it is OK to ask somebody.  I grew up in the age where the internet and computers did not exist. If I wanted to learned about electronics, I had to get in the bus and go to the city library. Today, whe have the internet with an unlimited amount of information at your disposal. I suggest you a find friends with similar interest in electronic and just burn up resistor or what ever parts you may have. It is just plain fun connecting parts and making circuits. Not all circuit will work, but if you can make it work, you will get a rush from the excitement of accomplishiment. If playing with electronics makes you happy, then keep on doing and have a passion for it.

Hope this help you.   Sincerely  Robert Bolanos from San Antonio Texas. Go Vandals!

[david77]

I can understand that you're frustrated. Watching videos on the Internet and reading forum posts can lead you to believe that you actually need all the fancy measuring gear, the professionally produced PCB's and the newest and latest chips. This forum and Dave's videos are certainly also guilty of that.

There are few things you really need to get on with electronics as a hobby. All the beginner really needs is a cheap multimeter and a half way decent soldering iron. A 20 bucks meter and a 20 bucks soldering iron is the basic stuff you need. Forget all those super accurate meters people go on about all the time. For 90% of stuff you do you don't need that. Who cares if your Arduino runs on 5,0000 or 5,1205V?
Do you really need a DSO? I say not necessarily for the low end stuff most hobbyists do. A used analogue will do for a lot of things. And a scope is not even strictly necessary in the beginning, it is a very useful tool, though.
Most of the test & measurement gear I have I bought very cheap or got for free. All one needs is patience. I can't just go and spend hundreds on a scope either, but still I've got two decent scopes that cost me next to nothing.

PCB's are another thing. For a hobbyist who needs one or two boards for a project the costs are just way to high to have them made. Make them yourself or simply use stripboard. That stuff's relatively cheap and works just fine for hobby use. In case of stripboard you have to try and do without SMD parts, admittedly that is a drawback but you can find creative ways to get around that.

Don't say you're not clever enough, reading your post I can't believe that. The main thing is that you're interested in electronics. You don't need to know all the theory behind semiconductors. Just pick the knowledge up as you go along and don't pressure yourself. Ask if you don't understand something, that's the beauty of the Internet and forums like this. Lots of experts around who will happily share their knowledge. I can remember a time before everybody had computers and Internet access and even then I learned things. Mostly by trial and error and by taking stuff to pieces and from books from the library.

I've had a look at some of the vids of that MIT course and I really got lost as soon as the maths stuff started, I was terribly bad at maths in school and have no knowledge of calculus and have not studied anything. But you know what? Even U=RI gets you a hell of a long way.
Find a subject that interests you most and try to expand your knowledge on that instead of trying to become the jack of all trades. More often than not you will find yourself drifting into other areas of electronics while you work on a project and learn a bit about that.

[rbola35618]

David77 is correct, you don't need fancy equipment when you first start out. Just a meter and a soldering iron. This reminds me when I was 12 and got the electronic bug. I did not have a soldering iron. We were very poor and my parents could not afford to buy a soldering iron. So what I did at the age of 12, I got a wire hanger (hanger used to hang cloth in closet) and straighten it out and stuck it in the kictchen stove until it got red hot. Once it got hot, I would use it as a soldering iron to unsolder parts such as resistors and capacitors. Remember that we were very poor and did not have money to buy parts. So I used this methode to savange parts. A few years later, an uncle of mine gave me an iron for christmas. Needless to say, that was the best christmas ever.

                             

[EEVblog]

If it's any consolation, electronics has been my life for well over 30 years, and I still only know a fraction of what there is no know, and learn something new every day.
You don't need money to enjoy and learn electronics, just some time and enthusiasm. I hope you stick with it.

Dave.

[TriodeTiger]

(changed name back from lostthespark, a little silly)
When I move out I fear that I may find the money I spend on a soldering iron and parts may be the money I need to pay for bills or food. I am certain I can make more than enough to support myself, but I am not there yet, and I am afraid to spend what I have saved.

I look at Dave's videos like a kid picking up a new game for the first time, almost every time. I see all these projects on the web and what such simple electronics can do and it engages me like nothing else. I'd die just to make a simple blinker out of logic ICs and draw a schematic for it. I've designed a full schematic for a dual polarity variable power supply with current limiting, based on a computer PSU, and I believe it is quite sound. I have even considered doing it, but I am not too sure of my abilities (right now), and a $100 premade power supply with current limiting will just take a huge notch in to my wallet that I am not comfortable with again..

I just look at "how" I can do it (ISP programmer for an ATMEGA, soldering iron, veroboard from ebay with long shipping, prepaid credit card for digikey parts) it starts to cloud my interests and I get worried when I don't know how much I "can" spend.

It is a good a time as ever to start my break from all of this, including MITx, a trial program certificate is not going to be my saving grace and justification. My goals shouldn't be to be able to answer every question on such a forum. They shouldn't be to make "interesting projects" for the sake of putting them on to a website, they should be for me.

I will bookmark this thread to read when I am down for a reason, I am so thankful all of your support, I hate it when there is just no one there who understands.

Alexander.

[quantumfall]

I just read your last reply, I'm going to post what I composed to say as Its been said already but just to let you know you are not alone in your feelings I have been there. here it is.

I think its good you have let us know how you feel about your electronics,  I can only compare to my own journey with the subject, I have left a few times and know the frustration of getting equipment and components.

I have felt my understanding quiet basic when reading some of the depth of knowledge and understanding that is here on EEVBlog and the world in general. You can learn and I personally find it great to watch Dave and the forum members explain through their eyes and some times I go Ah thats cool, that makes sense I get it, and its enjoyable.

I have had some great enjoyment when I have experimented with stuff and built relatively simple op-amp circuits using a signal diode as a temperature sensor to make a thermometer and I got it to work, nothing more than a multimeter and few components simple DC, but fun.

Its taken me, a long time to get the basics and I'm happy to play with simple stuff now , I'm lucky to have a bit of space now at home and am getting a new work area together. Not like Daves lab, but he has been doing this for a long time.

Go slow you don't need to do it all at once is what I'm saying, I do sympathize, I know that feeling and I know when you buy components for a project they do cost a lot, it's all the little bits and bobs, I've been buying a 500 gram of solder expensive but it will last me a long time, I started out with little coils as a boy that was very expensive.

Stick to simple analog or basic digital circuits and experiment, put simple "Building blocks" together there is a lot of satisfaction to it when you get it to work and understand the circuit you have glued together,  they have all been made before you learn from the people before.

The MIT course I would have liked in principle, but they have a very mathematical analytic approach that is not going to suit my level of mathematics or my way of seeing electronics.

Its not that you could not do it, you are not cleaver enough, but its a lot of work to get the  familiarity and real understanding of what the math is showing to get the quickness and depth to be intuitive with the maths.  Its not the only way to enjoy electronics I'm not building critical safety systems with legal responsibility to get it perfect.

Its no good for me I'm lazy with math I look at basic AC theory formulas and can get an idea what happens  if this gets bigger, that gets smaller  with time etc, I enjoy more the this switches that which pulls that high and starts this capacitor charging up, no math needed, not to much anyway !

I always seem to comeback to this "Electronics", I enjoy what I learn, i do not worry about what I do not know, personally I will never be anywhere near as refined as some of the pros on here, but thats fine, I enjoy what I do learn and play with.

You can enjoy simple circuits, they can be very tricky and interesting, look at the soft power switch circuit Dave is experimenting with, lots to think about there, not expensive to build , thats the sort of things you can get some fun learning with.

You are not alone with the costs and frustration of a workspace, its is hard to do practical work if you do not have a space to work.  You can do a fair bit with a box of bits and a bread board but it is frustrating, I had a bench at the end of my bed but it used to frighten women away !, and my wife said not if you live with me, I have been there.
you can still enjoy Daves projects and all the fun here.I know some of  what you are feeling, I have left and come back very recently myself.

It might not help how you are feeling now, but you can have fun without having a full lab and there are many levels to this game you do not need to understand the mathematics of quantum theory to picture an electron magically appearing on the other side of an insulator in a tunnel diode its still fascinating to read about and picture in your mind.

I think you know most of what I say already, you are just pissed of with all the restrictions you have at the moment I understand that, you are not on your own with that.

[touchh]

You aren't alone in your feelings Alexander, I can't tell you how many times I get frustrated because while I know quite a bit, nearly every project I start ends up in me getting bored, angry and uninterested for absolutely no reason that I've figured out yet. I have more parts than I know what to do with, but can't seem to find the concentration to start something and learn more.

I don't have much to add to this post, I think a lot of what I feel has been said, but I wish you and everyone else the best of luck!

[RCMR]

When it comes to parts -- get yourself a hot-air gun, a piece of thin plywood and plenty of old PCBs with surface-mount components (any old mobile phones or PC motherboards will do just fine).

Heat that board up until the solder starts to melt, then scrape all the components off with your piece of plywood.

Now, in a kind of molten ball, you have a huge array of parts you can clean up, measure stick into little trays and re-use.

Older "through hole" boards can also be a treasure-trove of useful parts that you can use to build all manner of things -- and don't be put off by the need for a PCB -- you don't actually need one.  Just "birdsnest" your projects and the'll not only be functional but also "funky".

Once it works, pour on some hot-glue to keep everything stable.

Learning doesn't require every project to be a perfect example of high-quality construction and parts don't have to be brand-new.

[FreeThinker]

Just enjoy the electronics at the standard you are at. Comparing what you know with what someone who has being doing it for thirty years is doomed to failure. And that is the Key failure and fault finding. Chill out inhale the magic smoke and make every failure a learning experience. Take a working circuit and do a 'What if' if it results in magic smoke why? If it works Great you've learned something. DON'T get bogged down in the physics and math its largely useless to you in practical terms. Try to find a specific field of interest , audio, light, robotics, radio etc and concentrate on that, the whole field is just too big otherwise. I started out with a sinclair zx80 and built numerous projects to bolt on to it.Maybe you could find something similar? Good luck and keep the faith.

[siliconmix]

age doesn't matter.it's  what you  need as you get older.if i where you i'd specialise on something you enjoy.it doesn't matter how far you get .everyone is one their own learning curve.i think electronics should be hands on .get dirty mate.

[Blofeld]

...

I think I'll just give my notice of departure: Goodbye electronics. I'll focus on it when I have my own place and can actually afford to spend money to do simple things. I'll watch the EEVblog and listen to the amp hour still on runs, but I am just not as "smart" nor have the capacity to go any further without damaging my life.

As a "spectator sport", electronics is not much fun. You don't have to spend a single cent to continue with electronics - there are free SPICE versions like LTSpice that you can download for free. Sure, doing experiments with simulated circuits is not the real thing, but it is much better than just watching videos.

[Psi]

It's important to understand that everyone (even the most experienced engineer) will come across issues where the solution is beyond their current knowledge (usually leading to stress).  This is an important aspect of electronics as you use your enthusiasm for the project to push through the issue and you learn something new in the process.

The key is picking your projects carefully and knowing when a project is a too advanced to attempt.
The stress and learning curve on some projects will be so high that, while you could do it, it would destroy your enthusiasm for the project, and that will kill any project dead.
Enthusiasm really is the key.


Also, some personality types like to set themselves deadlines for getting stuff done. This is almost impossible for electronics as there's no way to know how long something will take. Setting a deadline only serves to stress you out trying to meet it. (try not to procrastinate though)

[TriodeTiger]

age doesn't matter.[...]

By starting too late I had meant that there are an incredible amount of people who already know what I am struggling to learn. If I write about something, it's just one of many types of articles or tutorials or guides, and the only thing unique about it is that I had written it. I would have wished I was old enough in the 90's to learn all of this, and been able to help bring knowledge out than just be another one of those 20 guys always on every forum who knows how an LDR works when somebody asks (and I take too long to answer on every one of those, so it is much harder). I know I am dooming myself by thinking like that, and setting myself up for failure with such high expectations, I just can't help but see that every time I make a post somewhere or put an entry on a website.

As a "spectator sport", electronics is not much fun. You don't have to spend a single cent to continue with electronics - there are free SPICE versions like LTSpice that you can download for free. Sure, doing experiments with simulated circuits is not the real thing, but it is much better than just watching videos.

I *love* LTSpice. I had ripped up Falstad simulator from top to bottom coming up with bugs I am sure no one has even seen before. I loved building things and these simulators had helped me learn visually when numbers were getting harder. I am starting to want to actually build what I simulate, simulating something is very fun and rewarding, but it misses out on the physical and tactile reward of having something done (where cost and time becomes an issue at this moment.)

Try to find a specific field of interest , audio, light, robotics, radio etc and concentrate on that, the whole field is just too big otherwise. I started out with a sinclair zx80 and built numerous projects to bolt on to it.Maybe you could find something similar? Good luck and keep the faith.

I agree with everything you say, I'd love to work with a specific field and that is likely what I will do when I have the assets. I can be-rid with what I can do now (just endless studying) and actually do these things and I will find them very rewarding. The time I *can* do this is so far in the future, so I am struggling at the moment.

It might not help how you are feeling now, but you can have fun without having a full lab and there are many levels to this game you do not need to understand the mathematics of quantum theory to picture an electron magically appearing on the other side of an insulator in a tunnel diode its still fascinating to read about and picture in your mind.

I love explaining things to people, and knowing how they all work, even if briefly. It's my nature to! And electronics unfortunately has too much of that in it, I just get caught up in it, and when time comes where someone asks somewhere online or similar, it's answered by someone more knowledgeable or written already by someone online. I get discouraged, I really should not worry about knowing such things.

In the end I cannot comfortably spend money for anything (I will work with what I have, I mean greater things) - I have nearly no room, but a shared room and small desk. I have no space, cannot just decide to do a small video on a foobar project I have - without bothering people or being bothered, I get anxious in those situations. I'm just not in the right situation for all of this, and with *anything* like this I pretend or ignore all of these issues and wonder why I fail in the end. I need to take a break from this until I am *ready* to move on.

Alexander.

[ampdoctor]

Dont sweat it, and don't try to compete on a general information level with people that have been industry professionals for 10-20 years.  you'll just get frustrated. just keep fiddling with stuff keep your interest up and you'll learn tons over the course of a few years.  And try to remember also that some people have stronger aptitudes in different areas than others.  Cut me loose on discrete analog and I'm fantastic.  Logic gates are like pulling teeth!

As far as being broke, this is a perfect time to gather parts.  Can you say dumpster dive FTW?!  Seriously, during spring cleaning people throw away tv's computers, microwaves etc.  Great for grabbing up miles of wire and cable. OpAmps, misc resistors, regulators, heat sinks, etc. the list goes on and on.  A couple days of scavenging and you'll probably score a few hundred dollars worth of recyclable 'stuff' that you can use for tons of little projects.  That and a 30 dollar meter and a solderless breadboard and you can have one serious party!

In short don't get discouraged and just try all sorts of stuff and dont be afraid to let the smoke out.  and those old Forrest Mims books from radio shack are great for learning the basics and doing practical electronics experiments.  Once you get that then its just a matter of taking more steps and start connecting the bits and pieces together to make things a bit more useful.  You'll be surprised how quickly you'll start to figure things out with just a little bit of patience.

[MikeK]

I fully expect to be on my deathbed one day and say, "OOHHHH, NOW I understand electronics."  I'm just shooting for one day sooner.

[IanJ]

Alexander,

I think what you need is some focus. So, I'd suggest you set yourself a wee electronics project......nothing fancy or complicated but something useful. I'd suggest building a tool or something you can use in the hobby.
I did this in my early days, building a power supply from scrap parts robbed from all sorts of redundant/broken gear.

For me, I've been working in electronics for nearly 30 years and I've gotten a looooong way without being heavy on the maths parts...........so what I'm saying, is that electronics is so diverse there will definitely be a side to it that fits you.......and as time progress you'll find different aspects taking focus and you build up the fun & knowledge.

Ian.

[Wartex]

If I don't put it in words I'll just procrastinate.

Had somewhat interest as a child with 100-in-one kit. Got interested a year ago with a textbook I found on electronics.

Bought $100 of parts from futurlec and an arduino, built some fun things. Was so excited learning along and building things, for months.

Endless learning of how transistors work and all of that. But I love it too much, learn how things work on the quantum level, how resistors are made, its interest involves so much from me I lose quality of life trying to learn it all when most of it is useless to electronics.

In the end: I am not smart enough, I have not the mental capacity to learn any of it. I'm not from the US, and so I'll have to pour money in to a credit card and shipping just to get a $0.01 resistor without waiting 4 weeks. PCBs are expensive.

After devoting hundreds (no, thousands, many hours a day) of man hours over the year learning I cannot explain anything to a beginner as others can. Took MITx 6.002 course and while I am intelligent enough to do it, I can't sit through the lectures without losing focus, not able to hold all this information in.

New extech 210 multimeter arrived to replace an old radioshack one. Excited, now I am just going to turn it back. I don't want to sink $400 to get an oscilloscope when all I will use it for is looking at USB or capacitors discharging and "learning" when I can't get any parts anyway.

Can't get along with anyone on electronics.SE or here, nothing to say, know lots of pieces but nothing of interest or can reply to whatever people ask (which is never really the stuff I have learned)

I think I'll just give my notice of departure: Goodbye electronics. I'll focus on it when I have my own place and can actually afford to spend money to do simple things. I'll watch the EEVblog and listen to the amp hour still on runs, but I am just not as "smart" nor have the capacity to go any further without damaging my life.

how old are you?