basic electronic toolkit? preferrably nontoxic?

[Alphaville]

i might need to repair some electronic stuff (broken headphones, electric kettles, that sort of thing) in the near future (months horizon) and was wondering about what tools some of you might recommend for me to keep around.

many years ago i used to have a multimeter that got fried some way i can't remember* and a solder iron with some solder wire of death, apparently. it was all from radio shack and cheap quality. i no longer have it.

so i'm looking to gather some basic tools (nothing like @sclass's wizardry which is several levels above my intended target) and was wondering about what you'd recommend.

i already have tools for opening up iphones, etc, looking for more "classic" electronic repair of household appliances. and yes preferrably without toxic fumes (small apartment).

anyway while i used to solve long-forgotten equations "about" electricity in physics classes ages ago (all on paper, where anything can happen), and i have some working knowledge of a/v equipment operation, i could also use a practical electronics primer if you could suggest any--preferrably available online.

thanks in advance!

*maybe similar to this? https://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?t=48336

[J_]

I use electronics for dummies. It repeats the long forgotten "equatations" as you call them. It shows the workings of resistors and so on. How to work with a multimeter. How to solder iron properly and which solder iron. And how to apply electronic components.

[Alphaville]

"equatations" as you call them.

huh?

anyway, thanks, i'll check it out!

[Gilberto de Piento]

Some ideas:
A soldering iron, solder, and flux. There are lots of articles online discussing the specifics of what to buy. A 25 watt Weller iron has been good enough for me. You might also want a solder sucker tool. There are lots of other tools to make it easier or work on particular situations but the basics will allow you repair connections and replace many components.

Harbor Freight sells a multimeter that is "good enough" for most things for $7. Sometimes they give it away with a coupon. The downsides of it for me are that the leads are very short, not flexible, don't have alligator clamp attachments, and generally just don't work as well as good ones. It also has a low limit for amperage compared to more expensive meters.

An assortment of sizes of shrink tube and/or electrical tape are helpful if you repairing wires. Cheap electrical tape is often not as flexible or as sticky. 3M is good. I don't like the cheap stuff from harbor freight.

As you work on electronics be aware that some components can store a dangerous charge, like old TV tubes.

[Sclass]

Not much to add to the above posts. That’s a great start. A soldering iron, meter, a pair of wire cutters, tape, shrink wrap and some wire. What the folks already said.

Learn how to see electrons with a voltmeter. Get a Harbor Freight digital model for nearly free. Watch YouTube to learn how to use it and interpret the unseen electrons. It is like having eyes for the invisible. All you need to learn is how to measure a lightbulb hooked to a battery. Ohms, volts and amps. Know what they mean and how they are related to the light bulb not turning on. No volts? No amps? Too many ohms?

70% of broken electronics is bad connections. Bad solder, bad wires and bad plugs. The other 30% come from engineering mistakes. Underrated components and such. If your device has those issues it may not be worth fixing since a bad engineer can leave numerous flaws in a design. So if you can troubleshoot a bad connection and solder it together you are at 70%. That’s pretty good.

Do not worry about solder toxicity. Learn basic safety and it becomes harmless. Like any great tool it can be dangerous if you’re dumb. Like chainsaws! Lead poisoning happens through your mouth. So don’t touch your face when soldering or handling solder wire. Wash your hands when done. Store your roll of solder in a ziplock bag to keep it from oxidizing and shedding oxide all over. It’s that simple. Common sense and you get to use one of the greatest material science inventions (eutectic alloy) from Rome. It is a precious tool and a big money saver.

Ok have fun and don’t touch your face...unless you wash your hands.

[Alphaville]

ah kk, no touching, gotcha.

yeah i know what amps and volts and ohms are but not in any kind of tinkering way, i.e. just bookworm stuff, lol. "concepts". hollow theory. abstractions.

alright guys thanks for the pointers on the hands-on aspect. i need to expand my repertoire.

first project might be to reconnect a loose wire on a pair of heaphones currently held by tape (one channel goes out). since it still works with the tape there's no rush, i assume a loose connection. by the time the tape ceases to function i should be ready to crack it open an resolder.

i also got an electric kettle that died and i got a warranty replacement. but when the replacement eventually dies out of warranty too i hope to be ready to fix that one.

i assume from that i should be able to expand a bit.

ok! thanks.

[Gilberto de Piento]

I think there is lead free solder but I've never looked into it.

I thought of another suggestion: wire strippers. There are various types you can research.

With the wire cutters be aware this is a place where cost pays for something. If you get the cheapest harbor freight ones they may be OK on thin copper wire but won't cut heavier stuff or stronger materials. Klein and similar will stay sharp much longer and cut better. Either one works depending on what you are trying to do.

[Alphaville]

ah, i got a pair of klein wire cutters i used for electrical work! worked for 12-14ga and even for coaxial cable as i recall. not sure how it will handle very small gauges but i'll find out once i retrieve it... used to wire my cabin and other projects so it's there...

[Alphaville]

btw i should note that i don't have a problem with basic electricity, eg for house or auto or video lights.

what trips me up are transistors, resistors, diodes, capacitors, that sort of thing. e.g. i used to assemble my own computers from purchased parts, but replacing a leaky capacitor on a motherboard... i unfortunately never ventured there.

[plantingtheseed]

This might be a good book to try, there might be an e-book floating on the web somewhere:
https://www.amazon.com/Make-Electronics ... 1680450263

Another: https://www.amazon.com/Getting-Started- ... 0945053282
Also might be an e-book floating on the web somewhere.

A decent basics overview: https://www.amazon.com/Practical-Electr ... 1259587541
might be an e-book floating on the web somewhere.

For simulation, there is a student program for PSPICE, free but needs a school e-mail, which one can probably get by enrolling in a junior college or something similar. https://www.orcad.com/orcad-academic-program

There are free alternatives, for example for linux:
https://github.com/drahnr/oregano

More serious (free):
http://geda-project.org/
https://kicad.org/

[Alphaville]

these are some amazing resources, thank you so much! (please don't delete them in the future )

i had seen that book in my searches, but i appreciate the recommendation

[plantingtheseed]

Forgot to add - forums!

There used to be a users groups for this kind of thing sci.electronics.repair, now under google groups:
archive (of sorts): https://www.repairfaq.org/
Example TOC: https://www.repairfaq.org/sam/tshoot.htm
https://groups.google.com/g/sci.electronics.repair

enthusiast forum: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/index.php

lol. you got it!

[Sclass]

@planting- SPICE is a great suggestion. My favorite and most easy to use version is the free LT SPICE.

On a simpler more easier to approach level I’d try Tinkercad. Designed for kids. I’ve never used the circuit sim but it looks like a great learning tool. Check out some of the YouTube vids on Learning electronics with Tinkercad. It looks really easy and educational and you don’t have to get dirty. That was one of the op’s criteria.

Great suggestion to try simulation. I totally forgot. The beauty of this is you don’t get your hands dirty which is what the op wanted. And, you can ratchet up the complexity by getting a more advanced simulation sw.

I stopped by Microchip.com this week and noticed they have their MPLAB X IDE and compilers available for free using a web based interface. If you don’t want to purchase an eval board or emulation hardware they offer you the option of a virtual board. So no software to buy and install, no hardware to buy and install. Just dive in and start coding firmware. Pretty cool idea.

Have fun.

[Sclass]

I think there is lead free solder but I've never looked into it.

There is. The whole ROHAS thing went down a decade ago. It was hell for engineers. It’s just effing wrong on so many levels. (Rant removed). http://www.sigcon.com/Pubs/news/10_01.htm

Some things to note. Safe lead free is really expensive because it uses silver. Good lead free solder costs double or more leaded. If you go cheap and buy cheap lead free they get the eutectic by adding antimony which is probably worse than lead.

On top of that lead free requires higher temps. It’s hard to work with and produces a lower quality joint that has longevity issues.

The flux (in the solder core) that smokes and gets in your nose is toxic. It is very different than the rosin based leaded flux. This is 95% of what you inhale when soldering.

All the phone and repair guys on YouTube repair with low temp lead solder. Lead free just makes everything harder and less reliable. Doesn’t flow, stick, or melt as well. Wash your hands and use common sense.

[Alphaville]

i was looking for ipad apps after the things you guys linked and found this highly rated one:

app:
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/electroni ... d339158729

manual:
http://go-to.me/etb-manual

i didn't even know stuff like this existed!

the guy's website: https://electronic-toolbox.com/

[plantingtheseed]

It appears to be well liked and seems to be a good find. While I do not know much about this app, the value-added of any tool is if the tool gets used enough. Therefore, if you find that it is being used often, then it is a valuable tool.

In general, it is recommended using a tool that has a lot of existing community support. Just makes life a bit easier.
..

[Alphaville]

70% of broken electronics is bad connections. Bad solder, bad wires and bad plugs. The other 30% come from engineering mistakes. Underrated components and such. If your device has those issues it may not be worth fixing since a bad engineer can leave numerous flaws in a design. So if you can troubleshoot a bad connection and solder it together you are at 70%. That’s pretty good.

so the left channel of the pricey marshall headphones finally died this weekend and i opened them up and killed them completely to where they even don't turn on again

this made me realize i paid a bunch of money for some cheap plastic crapola wrapped in fake leather

i really need to learn this stuff because seems to me the markup is ridiculous. i said to my wife: "this is the same kind of scam as going to a restaurant and paying a week's worth of groceries for what one can easily make at home"

this little exploration has been eye-opening.

I mention this because the field of micro-electronics is very crowded and is often a fraction of penny-pinching business. Repair is usually not practical (unless one wants to do it for fun - which could also become costly*) vs. a simple card replacement.

i realized this yesterday opening up that mess of wires. getting the tools would cost me more than a new pair of (cheaper) headphones. so i just rigged a non-headphone solution.

but some day... i might know what went wrong and how to fix it. just not today.

The thing people take for granted, which they get very upset when interrupted, is power. People often need a lit light bulb and a way to charge their iphones more than they need a 555-timer.

yeah... maybe i could start with a little supplemental solar for my devices... always wanted to have one for emergencies. cooking one from scratch instead of paying "the electronics restaurant" through the nose could be highly rewarding/motivating.

---

ah, so much to learn hahaha. your posts are much appreciated.

[plantingtheseed]

For learning, absolutely. There should be courses at a local junior college or even at home depot for little cost. You're motivated, and that's everything.

https://pr.santarosa.edu/srjc-launches- ... ic-program

https://www.homedepot.com/c/alp/diy-workshops/sdki/2

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08B8Z663B/re ... NrPXRydWU=

https://www.amazon.com/Renogy-Solar-Pan ... WL6M8&th=1

[CDR]

Just wondering @Alphaville, when you opened up the headphones to see the mess of wires, is it possible you were seeing the ground? If it was a like a weave of copper wires, this would definitely be the ground. It's the left most one in this picture https://www.circuitbasics.com/wp-conten ... 24x539.png.

Based on my limited experience with this issue, I have had headphones fail at the jack, because of strain on the wire over time. If you snip and wire up a replacement jack it tends to work again. This of course, makes the wire shorter, so there is a limited number of times you can do this

Also, thank you for asking this question and for everyone's responses. I have started learning how to solder and etc by repairing, but was wringing my hands over how I was going to get practice with the basics of electronics and things like logic gates, without creating a bunch of useless projects that will sit in a drawer somewhere after I am finished with them. Tinkercad has been the answer to that problem! At least to start.

I have been using this book to learn about repair specifically: https://www.amazon.ca/How-Diagnose-Ever ... oks&sr=1-1 and have found it useful.

[Alphaville]

Just wondering @Alphaville, when you opened up the headphones to see the mess of wires, is it possible you were seeing the ground? If it was a like a weave of copper wires, this would definitely be the ground. It's the left most one in this picture https://www.circuitbasics.com/wp-conten ... 24x539.png.

thanks for the reply! yeah, it's not the ground, it was more complicated because it's a bluetooth rechargeable headset, so there were lots more parts than speaker and wire.

the left channel was dead, on either wired or wireless mode, so infigured it was a channel problem, but the left speaker shared spaced with the battery and some control cards too and... i am all thumbs.

plus there were other controls on the right (the bluetooth control, the jack, the microphone, etc) that communicate via a single wire.

this is the model, you can see the guy opening it up at the timecode:

https://youtu.be/LEACMPCV-qE?t=180
(he's doing the right one, left looks similar but with a tiny square battery and different cards)

problem is i broke a red wire soldering that connected to a card (there were red yellow green and blue i think?) while opening up to explore... so i compounded the original (still undiagnosed) problem

there were some tiny tiny fine wires connecting to a card attached to the control button at the left that does the volume and other functions.., it's like a mini joystick. so, joystick wires?

i've ordered some trusty sony headphones to replace this thing (cheaper, and sony has never failed me) so this i will keep as a "someday maybe" diagnostic and soldering exam for my studies.

i really want to learn to repair this sort of stuff. i've been looking into arduino kits too just wondering if i could learn something valuable (answer: probably)