Here’s an experiment that should never have been necessary. I’ll describe it last today, but if you look at my apparatus, you’ll see it’s an easy breadboard, and a bunch of test gear. In the end, what I really tested was the nonsense that confronts the beginner in this field. It turns out very last textbook I’ve read on this matter in 30 years was either wrong or failed to make the correct point. Why are electronics “experts” so clueless? I was testing the "voltage drop" theory. The drop happens AFTER the resistance but many texts give directions like it was the opposite. See my results below.
The local animal society is advertising for a “rocking country band” to do a fundraiser at the beach. In layman’s terms, that probably means they want a drummer and picker on stage. I’d like to take that gig, but we aren’t ready. As far as country goes, we definitely rock, by which I mean the music is very highly danceable. Every time I get a duo together, the lead players start streaming down the mountainside. Last evening saw another productive practice, chalk that up as a milestone. We are proceeding and have established goal congruency. That goes to show there is no substitute for working with professionals, the good work habits spill over into everything else. If these were lessons, I’d say Trent just did a year’s advancement in three weeks. I’m still waffling on the Fishman due to a former entanglement that has resurfaced and could cost me if I don’t watch out.
Blog rules that I report anything unusual, and yes, I had the opportunity to read the life profile of an acquaintance from the past. I must say, she has certainly reorganized the facts in a most positive light. More positive than I could have managed, that is for sure. Nonetheless, they are facts as long as you can accept her being two places at once. And while you are at it, please overlook that aggravating characteristic of rich pretty women to honestly believe they made it on their own.
I finally got an answer from Dekka and will be chatting with the owner on Monday. It transpires that I’ve been missing their business hours by a few minutes every time, and that they do stay open on evenings when they have special events. Just not tonight. Events include a variety of local music acts. It is primarily a women’s clothing boutique, but also a café and I patronize good coffee and friendly staff. Another plus, it is walking distance. For me. I have to carefully read every word when I’m learning. I wanted to examine the various methods whereby scientists determine the age of fossils, rocks, stars, and crystals. I find carbon dating is now just one of a dozen increasingly accurate atomic methods. I have really fallen out of touch in my own area of interest.
[Author’s note: learning for me is a little more complicated than average. I have to be in the right frame of mind, and that frame is random. To the casual observer, it seems I need plenty of what they would call “leisure” time to be in the “mood”. I laugh at those terms. That very lack of leisure-mood is why it took me 26 years to learn to sing. I have no talent, I learned the skill but never had the correct time to do it before.
And that’s also why outwardly appears when I have a day job, my learning rate drops to a miserable crawl. It took me six years once to get a two year college degree because of shift work. For the record, I have been medically misdiagnosed twice over this condition. So don’t call me dumb just because somebody hasn’t invented a term like “dyscalculia” for it yet. My IQ is the same as it has always been, exactly 100.]
I’m impressed. Richard Gere has, in his old age, learned to act. In “Runaway Bride” he shows almost three different emotions and the effect is more profound because he’s next to Julia “Botox” Roberts. I really enjoyed that movie, but give me an Arnold Schwarzenegger epic any day.
Ah yes, the experiment. Every entry level text tells the newcomer that there is a voltage drop over each component in a circuit. LEDs will fry if not protected by a resistor, so the books tell you to test them in combination. But I knew something was wrong, they were omitting something important. I found it. Take a look at these two graphs.
The only difference was the order of the components. Aha, the voltage drops in two completely different manners. None the self-styled authorities mention this. I measured the drops they described, but went further to measure between the LEDs and resistors to discover the big drop is not through the resistor as we are led to believe. It is across the LED.
That’s why I have a beef with those turkeys. While there may be texts that clarify this topic, I speak from experience they are not the sort of books easily available to the beginner. And that’s where so many no-mind authors infest the ranks. They should take extra care to clarify these things to beginners. From now on, I will reverse the order of my current-limiting resistors.
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