Geekspace for Women

Posted by ubergeeke on August 17th, 2008 in blogpost, how-to

For those of you who occasionally find yourself - like I do - unable to figure out why a circuit isn’t working, either in theory or in practice, I’d like to share a few resources I’ve found.

If my problem is a general, thematic one - how do Zener diodes work? when do I apply a Thevenin equivalent? - then I usually go to the hardback section of my personal library and grab Horowitz & Hill’s “The Art of Electronics”. This tome is textbook thorough, and presents highly technical information as clearly and as concisely as possible. Since I purchased it on a friend’s recommendation, I find that it’s *never* far from my workbench.

If my problem is a specific board or circuit, or is more of a “how to” question than a “why”, I hit the following sites on the web:

• The “All About Circuits” Forums. Tons of other folks are working on the same things I am, and this is one place to get in touch with some of them.
• The Physics Forums. This site has been helpful not just with the science of circuits, but also the associated mathematics. I highly recommend it.

For an even finer level of granularity, I’ve hit a couple of Yahoo Groups. This might seem to some like a waste of time - one must wade through a lot of irrelevant data to find the information one needs -  but I’ve found them very helpful. For example, I’m a member of the groups that discuss the LTSpice software package (for circuit simulation) and the NXP LPC development boards. More than once, I’ve found that other folks were having problems similar to mine, and could make a few suggestions for a fix.

Additional resources:

• When I was having trouble with my soldering irons and crappy solder joints, I made sure to check out this site which offered more than a few tips.
• I’m combing LadyAda’s Forums looking for a first-timer’s Arduino project. Sure, I’m still considering the magnetic strip decoder, but I’m weighing other options, and this site provides plenty of pointers on some of the projects you can purchase from Adafruit Industries.

The best part about all of these resources is that I’m not alone in solving my problem!

How about you? When you’re troubleshooting circuits and small development projects, where do you go for answers?