Electronics seems like magic!

[Omega Supreme]

It’s amazing that with just a handful of electronic components (eg. the basic elements are just the resistor, inductor, and capacitor) you can build really complex devices.

It’s equally astounding that with a handful of logic gates (ie. you really only need the NAND gate) you have the basis for all of computing.

A couple of professors have said this in the electrical engineering classes I took in school.

I think they were exaggerating.

 

[AnalogKid]

Nope. Dead on.

If you are both focused and crazy, a billion-transistor microprocessor can be built with nothing but a lot (!!!) of NAND gates.

ak

 

[Delta Prime]

https://www.allaboutcircuits.com/textbook/digital/chpt-7/demorgans-theorems/

 

[Omega Supreme]

Moore's Law is the observation that the number of transistors on a microchip roughly doubles every two years. It was first made by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore in 1965. It is not a physical law, but an observation of a long-term trend in semiconductor technology that has driven progress in computing power.

The same professor said that eventually this would lead to sentience.

At the time though he said forget about consciousness, they couldn’t even do image processing.

They could take all of the most powerful computers in the world and put them together, and it still would not be able to do what a fly or an ant does. Yet, a fly or an ant does it.

This was long before the recent explosion of AI (Artificial Intelligence) so I doubt what he said is still true today. Back then he seemed to be saying we were very far away, not even close.

 

[Omega Supreme]

I don’t really ever recall being taught to actually design electronics in school.

They did not mention things you would find in an electronics cookbook like Current Mirrors, Darlington Pairs, Colpitts Oscillators, etc.

They definitely did not mention the 555 Timer.

Some people just seem to have a knack for electronics while others don’t.

I went through Navy Electronics school and when I got on a ship, I didn’t know how to fix anything or troubleshoot effectively.

My Navy Electronics instructor said that those kinds of things come from your brain, not a book.

My Electronics Technician shipmates would quiz me on electronics to figure out what was wrong with me, and I was able to answer their questions correctly which baffled them.

Then one of them pointed out that I knew my stuff. It was applying it that was my problem.

I seem to lack the common sense to apply electronics knowledge.

 

[Delta Prime]

My Electronics Technician shipmates would quiz me on electronics to figure out what was wrong with me, and I was able to answer their questions correctly which baffled them

Garbage in garbage out!

 

[Omega Supreme]

My mom all of a sudden lost all her off-air channels a couple of months ago. They just dropped off one day, seemingly off the face of the earth. They just disappeared———poof.

We tried rescanning her TV and it no longer finds any ATSC off-air broadcast Antenna TV channels.

Now I know that broadcast stations could make adjustments from time to time to their transmitters. Maybe they changed the signal in such a way that her zip code was effected (ie. excluded).

In that case, there’s nothing I can do about that.

So I’m going to assume for the moment that there is something else going on, something in her immediate environment that has changed and that is interfering with or blocking Antenna TV broadcast signals from reaching into her apartment.

I make this supposition because she has been getting and watching off-air tv channels for 3 years since she moved into that unit.

And it was only 2 months ago that all her off-air channels all-of-a-sudden one day dropped off.

Is there a way to filter out this possible interference? I vaguely remember something about DeGaussing or using a grounding capacitor to get rid of stray signals..

Do you have any ideas on what might be going on?

 

[Harald Kapp]

Is there a way to filter out this possible interference?

Interference typically results in bad reception, but not a complete drop out on all channels.

There is a change going on with terrestrial TV changing from analog to digital (DVB-T2). Analog TV is consequently being discontinued. If this is the case here, a DVB-T2 settop box may help.

 

[Sunnysky]

Blue text are digital
Violet are analog

Enter your address in Start here. Then check you antenna direction. I am just north of Toronto and aimed towards Buffalo to miss the CN Tower which is much stronger. I get > 30 OTA channels with a good antenna, but I don't it use much anymore and use stremio.exe on PC to TV for recorded movies/series. ( no commercials)

Buy a Digital Tuner here (cheap) . I use a HDHomerun dual digital tuner for router/ PC access, which is no better and cost me a lot more.

 

[Omega Supreme]

Interference typically results in bad reception, but not a complete drop out on all channels.

There is a change going on with terrestrial TV changing from analog to digital (DVB-T2). Analog TV is consequently being discontinued. If this is the case here, a DVB-T2 settop box may help.

I think I took my Digital Converter I use at home, which picks up channels at my place, and tested it at my mom’s apartment and it also found 0 channels. And I think that’s why I’m so frustrated and baffled. But who knows maybe I’m misremembering, so I’ll pack it the next time I go over there.

Our area switched to Digital Broadcast signals years ago. My mom’s HDTV is the LG TV model 32lv2400-ua series so it has the Digital TV tuner inside of it.

I’m going to try to connect a whole bunch of coaxial cables together so I can extend the Antenna into another room, on the other side of a wall which I think is blocking the signal. Unfortunately there are a lot of tall trees and tall skyscrapers around where she lives which I know are interfering.

Because she was only picking up around ten off-air channels to begin with and now she’s not even getting that.

I will try taking over my DTV converter box just in case I forgot to check that. I have such a bad memory so I can’t be sure if I did or not. Thanks.

 

[Omega Supreme]

Blue text are digital
Violet are analog
View attachment 69447
Enter your address in Start here. Then check you antenna direction. I am just north of Toronto and aimed towards Buffalo to miss the CN Tower which is much stronger. I get > 30 OTA channels with a good antenna, but I don't it use much anymore and use stremio.exe on PC to TV for recorded movies/series. ( no commercials)

Buy a Digital Tuner here (cheap) . I use a HDHomerun dual digital tuner for router/ PC access, which is no better and cost me a lot more.
View attachment 69446

Thanks!

Yeah, I checked those websites like ChannelMaster and AntennaDirect and they didn’t show anything indicating that there was a change in the Digital Broadcast signal channels for my mom’s zip code in the past few months.

I really liked that HDHomerun digital tuner so much that I bought it and took it over to my mom’s to see if it would pick up more channels. But my mom didn’t like having the clutter of an extra box and preferred using the Digital TV tuner already inside her LG HDTV. I tried it out and there wasn’t much of a difference in the number of channels found by her TV compared to the HDHomerun, so I put it away somewhere in a closet or drawer and now I can’t find it.

The problem is that my mom watches specific foreign channels that she cannot get for free online over the internet, without paying an arm and a leg, and satellite companies are no better. You have to buy a package or pay expensive a-la-carte prices for those foreign channels.

So getting them off-air for free is the only realistic option.

 

[Sunnysky]

There are some USB fire sticks with internet TV channels. usually low fee.
Many countries

 

[AnalogKid]

My Navy Electronics instructor said that those kinds of things come from your brain, not a book.
I seem to lack the common sense to apply electronics knowledge.

First, a correction > the sense you speak of is not at all common.

Imagine a meeting of artists. 10 artists, each with an easel, canvas, a palette. Sitting on a chair is a model. Now expand the group to 1000. Now expand the group to 1 million. Only one of them is going to paint the Mona Lisa. That's not to say that all the other images are crap, but, better or worse, they absolutely will be different.

The vast majority of design engineering is using parts created by someone else, maybe decades ago, to do something new. We all have the same parts catalogs, access to datasheets, test equipment, etc. And yet, some see a circuit with 100 components, some see the same functionality with only 20 components, and some don't see at all. The same applies to seeing someone else's design / device / system / whatever, and understanding how it works, or how it should work if it weren't busted.

Engineering isn't science, it is the art of science.

ak

 

[ahsrabrifat]

It’s amazing that with just a handful of electronic components (eg. the basic elements are just the resistor, inductor, and capacitor) you can build really complex devices.

It’s equally astounding that with a handful of logic gates (ie. you really only need the NAND gate) you have the basis for all of computing.

A couple of professors have said this in the electrical engineering classes I took in school.

I think they were exaggerating.

It’s not really an exaggeration . With just a few basic components, you can build almost anything in electronics. In analog circuits, the resistor, inductor, and capacitor form the foundation. By combining these, you can create filters, oscillators, and amplifiers — and when you add active components like transistors or op-amps, you can realize virtually any analog function.


In digital logic, the same simplicity applies. Everything in computing can be built from logic gates, and the NAND gate alone is enough. It’s functionally complete, meaning you can form all other gates (AND, OR, NOT, XOR) using only NANDs. Modern CPUs and digital systems are essentially vast networks of these gates. Here’s a related project showing practical logic gate design:

https://www.pcbway.com/project/shareproject/Logic_Gates_f5d0cca7.html


It might sound unbelievable given the complexity of modern electronics, but that’s the beauty of engineering. Immense complexity emerging from elegant simplicity. From a few fundamental building blocks, we construct the entire technological world.

 

[AveryMonroe]

There are some USB fire sticks with internet TV channels. usually low fee.
Many countries

Yeah, electronics can feel like magic until you dive deeper into how circuits and microcontrollers actually interact. The STM32F103C8T6TR is a great example of how advanced yet accessible modern chips have become for DIY and embedded projects.

Thanks for sharing it. Very useful as i'm from Mauritius island and many apps were unavailable . Now it's perfect only one issue i didn't get the live tab. Any recomendation about the live tab ?

 

[Omega Supreme]

I think getting off-air channels using an antenna to capture the broadcast waves is better because it’s a much purer signal than the highly processed one you get on the internet.

And, it’s free. The off-air channels that you get online, someone is paying for. If not you, then the website or service you’re using. Somehow it’s being monetized, either through advertisements or direct payment.

I wish somehow the government would mandate relaying and beaming down the broadcast channels for free via satellite, so that everyone can get them.

 

[AnalogKid]

1. Not sure what you mean by "purer". Over-the-air broadcasts can have several different resolutions, although there is a lower limit that internet videos often are way below.

2. Broadcast is no more or less free than internet. Both are supported by advertising, and the cost of that advertising is a component of the purchase price of what is being advertised.

3. "The government" has direct jurisdiction over the (broadcast) airwaves. This is why all cable companies are *mandated* to carry the local TV stations as part of the basic service. It has less control of satellite-only and cable-only content because cable does not use the airwaves. Also, such services are considered to be at least partly self-regulating and / or self-protecting. The idea is that if you have to do more than just buy a TV and plug it in, the extra effort and cost to get other content is seen as implicit consent to view it. IOW, no one's child can accidentally watch a porn channel. In paying for access content, you accept responsibility for monitoring who sees it.

ak

 

[Omega Supreme]

In most cases, an over-the-air (OTA) broadcast signal delivered by an antenna is purer than an internet-streamed signal
. The primary difference is how the signal is compressed before it reaches your TV.
Signal purity comparison

Feature	Over-the-air (OTA) broadcast via antenna	Internet streaming
Compression	OTA signals are sent from the broadcaster with much less compression than streaming services use. The original HD broadcast is delivered almost entirely intact, resulting in a higher-quality, richer picture.	To manage bandwidth, streaming services heavily compress the source video. This can result in a loss of fine detail and is often noticeable as "pixelation" or "banding" in certain scenes, particularly in dark or complex images.
Delivery	The signal is transmitted from a broadcast tower and received directly by your antenna. There is minimal to no delay.	The signal travels over the internet, and your streaming device must buffer the data to prevent interruptions. This introduces a slight delay compared to live broadcast TV.
Reliability	An OTA signal is not dependent on your internet connection. As long as you have a strong signal from the broadcast tower, your viewing is uninterrupted.	The quality of your stream is directly dependent on your internet speed and the demands on the streaming service's servers. A weaker connection can lead to lower-quality video and buffering issues.
Resolution	The current ATSC 1.0 standard allows for high-definition broadcasts, typically up to 1080i or 720p, for the major networks. Some newer broadcasts using the ATSC 3.0 standard (NextGen TV) are moving toward 1080p and even 4K resolution, though adoption is still growing.	Internet streaming can offer a wider variety of resolutions, including 4K. However, the streaming service's compression means that even a 4K stream may have less data per second than a less-compressed broadcast signal.

The bottom line

• For the best local picture quality, a well-placed antenna receiving a strong OTA signal will almost always provide a purer and more detailed image than a live stream of the same content. This is especially true for live events, such as sports, where over-processing by a streaming service can lead to noticeable imperfections.
• For convenience and breadth of content, internet streaming offers a much larger library of on-demand content and access to shows not available over the air. Streaming quality is often "good enough" for most viewers and offers the benefit of watching content when you choose.

For many people, the ideal solution is to use an antenna for crystal-clear local network broadcasts while supplementing with streaming services for cable channels and on-demand programming.

 

[Omega Supreme]

Electricity is invisible, which makes it seem magical.

Aristotle argued:

"the soul never thinks without a mental image"

in which case you see need be able to visualize something physical in order to understand what’s going on in electronics.

I don’t have that. I want to be able to form concrete visualizations of electronics. Right now I really don’t see anything except abstract words like resistance, inductance, capacitance, circuits, signals, amplification, etc.

I think that may be part of why I can’t anything with it.

Is anyone using a physical system to model electronics in their heads, like visualizing electricity as water, or a circuit as water pipes, resistance as friction, capacitance as a spring, and inductance as inertia?

What are you actually seeing in your heads when dealing with electronics, because I really don’t see anything concrete, just electrical terms, words and formulas?

 

[bertus]

Funny booklet