Re: Paia Electronic Kits etc.

[glenn <glenn234@pacbell.net>]

For general familiarity with circuits and components I recommend "Getting
started in electronics" by Forest Simms III from any radio shack for about
4-5 bucks cash, explains basic electronics from little smiley face 
electrons
to helping you build your own effects. Very cool book to have. Plus all the
other advice in Bret's email and you should be good. Practicing on junk
boards is a great idea. break pieces of 60/40 solder off the spool in 
couple
of foot long pieces so the flux doesn't get drained out of the spool. Clean
the tip of the soldering iron a bunch, especially if you don't have a
temperature regulated iron, as it will help cool it down a bit. anytime you
need to de-solder make sure you put extra solder on first, so the vacuum
pump(about 10 bucks) with be able to get it out well. Practice was the best
advice. The main thing you don't want is for the pads to lift off the board
from too much heat(though sometimes you can rework it) and not to heat up
the components too much.

p.s. try not to breath the smoke from the soldering, and if you drop the
iron, don't try to catch it-found out first hand what the phrase"smells 
like
chicken" meant" plus got the brand name of the iron branded into my hand
that way by accident!:)

on 7/13/01 12:25 AM, Bret at echoplex@yahoo.com wrote:

>> Will this be impossible for me?
> Not if you learn the proper skills, and can follow written directions.
> You will need to learn to identify resistors, capacitors, inductors,
> transistors, etc.  Pictures with identification are typically in the
> instructions.
> 
> If you need to debug a problem (which is inevitable), you should learn
> to read schematics and learn the basic circuit operation principles
> like 'How does it work?', 'What does each part do?' or conversly 'Where
> are the parts that do this particular function?'