Table of contents
Preface
During the past years, since i got some sort of fame with my first DIY project, which increased especially with my YouTube videos, i got lots of questions from all over the world.For sure, i enjoy the feeling that someone is interested in what i'm doing and that i could help someone, but on the other side, most of the questions i got were just a waste of time for me.
As in recent times, those questions ate up so much of my spare time that not only my own projects didn't go forward, but i also increasingly felt bad with this, i want to give you some examples of what kind of questions i don't want to get any more, and why i made it more and more difficult to enable people to ask me questions. Although it's still very simple, which i will tell you later when it comes to using your own brain.
For sure, all this should get a constructive character, i don't want to see every amateurish question as being evil, but i want to show why i didn't like the question and why i think it wasn't necessary to be asked.
Best-of annoying questions
The questions mentioned here are not necessarily given in their original text, instead i changed or enhanced them a bit to enable them giving sense without the context where they appeared, like YouTube video comments or asked in reference to a video.Know-how problems
I'm quite happy if i'm able to give enthusiastic growing DIYers an inspiration with my works, but i'm really not able to teach all the world the basic knowledge of electronics. For this, there are schools, and there also are lots of web sites describing the topics in good depth. There is no such thing as a direct way to developing synthesizers, the whole topic of electronics requires a thorough basic knowledge.I even go so far to say that i don't have a massive knowledge about all the stuff i had in my fingers, but i just used my basic knowledge about electronics, building on this depending on the (mostly self-defined) goal to reach, putting the parts of the puzzle together. In my eyes, everyone can get a specialist for any piece of gear by just starting to apply logical thinking and available knowlege. The positive side effect is getting able to handle all pieces of gear by just looking at the schematics and understanding the inner workings by applying the basic knowledge. Then, getting a specialist for something is just a matter of experience. This doesn't apply just to electronics, it is even the base for my business life - solving IT problems fast and efficiently, just based on the knowledge, how the computer works internally and building on what the software does, often derived from the thinking how i would implement a solution for a problem.
I don't have any knowledge about electronics, is there a simpler version of your project?
Wonderful question. So the asking person doesn't know about electronics and for this wants a simpler version of my project. What's wrong with this?- I don't have any knowledge about electronics - fine. This is okay. Lots of people don't have this knowledge. But they have knowledge about other topics. In fact, i don't have any knowledge about heart transplantations. The difference is - i wouldn't try a heart transplantation, and even if i would have the strong desire to do so, i wouldn't annoy people i don't know but instead use the usual information sources like internet search engines. Maybe the example is a bit over-dramatized, but maybe this helps understanding the problem.
- Is there a simpler version - if there is one, you can find it by checking the documentation for the project. Sure, you need electronics knowledge to decide what you can leave away. But without electronics knowledge, even a simpler version might be a too big challenge, because the problem to understand, what you're doing, still exists.
Can i use component XY for my purpose AB?
The IT guys say RTFM (read-the-fucking-manual) here. Same applies to electronics. The datasheet for component XY usually contains all the information you need to decide if the component is suitable for your purpose AB. If the information isn't enough, it might be a problem with the basic knowledge. If you aren't able to understand the minimum operating frequency of a DAC (applies to sigma-delta converters) to decide if this is suitable to provide static control voltages (DC, 0Hz), i really don't want to waste time on discussing this. Please start using your brain and think. Besides this, i feel a bit strange with people expecting me to read datasheets i'm not interested in, just to advise them. Everyone who does hardware engineering should be able to read and understand datasheets without asking me.If i know the component because i used it myself, i don't mind giving some hints about it, if i see the question doesn't come from someone not knowing what he's doing. Otherwise, a reference to this page or no response will follow :)
How can i build an oscillator with multiple waveforms from a NE555?
Some other questions like "how can i fill up my appartment with furniture using a knitting needle?" or "how can i bake a cake using a candle?" makes about the same sense. For sure, it's not impossible, but just the fact that this question is asked tells me that you have a massive lack of electronics knowledge. The most efficient way for me would be completely designing the necessary circuit - a service you get for several $1000 at an engineering office. So why should i do this for free?Besides this, i really don't like using unsuitable resources to solve a problem - a NE555 for sure is okay for some funny gadgets, it even could deliver the clock for a digital oscillator, but at least controlling musically usable frequencies from a source like a MIDI input would create a lot of overhead compared to the more usual oscillator circuits. And it's nearly impossible to derive other waveforms from the square a 555 creates. A sawtooth core is much more usable for this, and the pins with the RC combination on the 555 doesn't provide a real sawtooth.
Prepared solutions
Sometimes, i get questions about solutions for problems that look not so difficult on the first sight, but with the time, the discussion leads to a point that the primary problem is something completely different. I don't have an example handy, but i had the situation several times, that someone started thinking about a solution for a problem - which in fact is a very good idea - and then somewhere get stuck, asking me for a solution for the place where he got stuck.So, it makes sense to describe the primary goal and tell me the big picture when asking such questions, so i have a chance to find out if the topic already has gone to an unsuitable direction and maybe propose different ways to solve the problem, which might be simpler to implement and more efficient.
Can you fix the device XY for me?
Simple answer - no. Not because i don't have the abilitity to do so, you might have seen that i did this more than once, but if i would charge a realistic amount of money for the work, it would not only get quite expensive, i would also get into trouble with the german tax laws. I would need to register a company for this, add VAT onto the prices, and the administration overhead of the compary registration also needs to be added to the costs, which would make it even more expensive. If i do it the way "fix my ARP 2600 and you get my meter bridge for the DM-24", while most of the 40 hours of time invested go into the category "curiosity and the satisfaction having restored an ARP 2600", then my frustration would increase because such monster projects don't leave time for my own projects or something like relaxation. Exactly this is the reason why i meanwhile don't do such repairs at all - besides this, all the gear of the friend is okay now and he can work with it :)Having a quick look at something for sure is no problem - but in this case more in a way like "come over, i'll have a look at it". Small stuff, some support, no full service. And no efforts of shipping the unit around.
Can you help me fixing the device XY?
Now it gets really complicated. I had various types of experience with this, which i want to tell you.You know device XY quite good, something doesn't work, what can i do to fix it? (Spontaneous help version)
Often, i don't get more details. So, please, add as much details as possible. What has been checked, what was the base for the analysis, what knowledge and tools are available?Everybody should be aware that such a question usually doesn't give an answer like "replace IC5 and everything is okay again". An error analysis usually makes it necessary to perform several measurements, most often with an oscilloscope, the need to define the right spots for the measurements, the capability to read schematic diagrams and to use an oscilloscope. Exactly this is why i assume all those things as granted. Tools need to be available, service documents need to ne there, know-how is necessary. And having a closer look at those prerequisites leads to the question being unnecessary as with all this you could do it all on your own.
My answer to those questions will be short, telling you in which areas of the overall circuit you should check the signal flow, and maybe, if i have the experience on this, what is a common fault in this area.
I'm stuck with an error, can you help me? (Extreme debugging version)
I recently had someone trying to repair a Trident Mk1. Nearly no knowledge about electronics, but at least an oscilloscope at home. He tried randomly replacing ICs for months, without any success. No i came into the boat. All this took about 2 weeks, spending nearly every evening to systematically debug and repair the machine using internet chat, but finally, it led to success and the voluntary compensation for this was also nice for me. All in all, this was an interesting experience. The remote repair of the CR-78 via video chat, which came before, also was really interesting, there exists a YouTube video about this. It included teaching some electronics basics, usage of the tools, and for sure the success and a happy owner. Here, i also got a nice surprise as thanks for my efforts. I also repaired a Roland System 700 via phone and had some other small experiences like this.But all in all, although i had really positive experiences with this, i don't want to do this more often. I know, it can work guiding a rookie through the procedure, but it can be a lot of work to get the discipline for a structured debugging established. Maybe the Trident was a perfect example for inefficiency - it took about 40 hours for a task i could have completed in maybe 2 hours if i had the unit here on my workbench. For sure, the owner learned a lot from this, but on the other side, this is only something for phases of enough boredom on my side - which rarely occurs.
In the future, i will either schedule such tasks far away or completely decline them. It depends on what know-how and tools are available on the other side, leading to an estimate how much time i have to invest in this.
I purchased a wonderful, but broken thing. Can you help me?
Totally wrong approach. If you buy something of which you know you are not able to handle it and then annoy others to get it done, you're doing something completely wrong. I will block such cases completely in the future. Asking before getting such a problem child would help. If someone gets stuff involving ressources to help, which are not informed before, he needs to learn from this being left alone with his problems.Maybe if the task is small enough and i'm in a good mood, i'll help anyway :)
Schematics and other documentation
As i think it's way too much work to check all the copyrights of documents, i don't offer any 3rd party stuff on my site. The material i have either comes from the usual sources in the web, which can be found using a search engine, or has been purchased by me, also from sources that can be found in the web. I think i don't need to describe my interest to publish the documents i paid for free on my own risk of a copyright violation. So i will ignore any questions about 3rd party documents, or maybe, if i'm in the mood, respond with the link to this page. Maybe this sounds egoistic, as i also use free sources in the web to get my documents, but i tried to provide some stuff i had to exactly those sources and never got a response, so i stopped trying. There might be exceptions, but if i don't know you at all and you just come asking me for a documentation, you will have no success.Closing words
Some of you might find the above words arrogant. To be honest, i don't have a problem with this. Often, the people with the most stupid questions are those, that quickly get aggressive if they don't immediately get free help. I even had a situation, where i helped as good as i was able to, but the other side often told crap and said that i said this, because he didn't get it right. I tried to tell him that he got this wrong several times, but it just escalated to a situation where he attacked me in a really evil way. Since then, i never was around in a forum and actively tried to help someone posting a question.It is quite usual that people silently terminate the communication after getting their help, without any thanks or so, i got used to this. It's really a rare thing that people are able to say thank you, giving a good feeling for both sides. This is the reason why i'm no longer interested helping everyone having a question.
Please also see my time. I work 8 hours each day, 1 hour lunch break, currently spending 2-3 hours each day on the road, so spending 11-12 hours each day just for the job. I also should have some sleep, and it would be nice to be able to relax a bit after work. The remaining 3-4 hours each day went into answering questions from all over the world or discussing about totally irrelevant topics.
I really think that everyone can get his problems solved by using the own brain. The internet provides a massive amount of knowledge on your fingertips, and my knowlegde about synthesizers and their inner workings also comes completely from the internet. The base for this just was an electronics education, which i did just to have a paper about this, as i started playing around with electricity when i was 6 - that time not being too successful.
The rest was simple learning-by-doing.
Besides the positive effect of being instructional, the internet also has a bad side - it seems to lead some people to completely stop using the own brain. It's not just simple to get information those days (some decades ago you needed to go to a library or so), but also to annoy completely unknown people and burden them some work. And as you are so anonymous, it's so easy to attack the victim if he doesn't want to be your slave and help you.
For sure, it's a bit overdosed to do a full electronics education to just repair one single synthesizer, so i recommend everyone having this as their goal to just give the unit into the hands of an experienced tech. And i recommend everyone having the motivation to get a DIYer to build up the basic knowledge with an education and using the internet and lots of experiments to get the deeper know-how.
The most important thing - there is nothing you can't do. You just need to force yourself to carefully think about a problem and don't get frustrated too much by a failure. You learn from failures, and if you don't just concentrate on a transistor but also have a look at the surroundings, the big picture, it's quite easier to come forward.
If you still want to ask me a question, you really should have no problem finding a comfortable way to contact me - by just using your brain. Keyword internet, i'm not so unknown there :)
Page last modified on Wednesday 30 of September, 2009 21:45:39 CET
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