What's the minimum electrical theory i have to know to do electronics repair...

what's the minimum electrical theory i have to know to do electronics repair? i'm a maths major but i've always wanted to be handy with electronics. any book recommendations for the most basic electrical theory and electronics? i don't want to be dealing with surface integrals or anything just to learn how to fix a motherboard

>just to learn how to fix a motherboard

See dem capacitors? One of them is bad and you need to desolder and resolder each of them to find the bad one.

If you ask me, the usual shops that do electronics repair know very little about the theory and they just study the in depth manuals that are made for literally any piece of technology.

Seriously, typical errors are usually documented by the manufacturer and all you need to know is what you need to replace to make it work again.

Practical Electronics for Inventors by Scherz and Monk

don't know what a capacitor is
but i should know how to read the manuals, right? they have schematics and terms that i don't understand
thanks

You need to know how to work a multimeter, how to solder and how to detect a big black burn mark where they fried the charging resistor from using the wrong charger.

Seriously, our test for new hires in repair doesn't even include this section. You just need to take a device apart and pit it back together again. And I've seen new hires fail that and get in.

>what's the minimum electrical theory
You have to be able to find the off button.

wait, cant you use like an oscilloscope and a waveform generator to check which one's broken,
alternatively cant you just use a multimeter? Soldering and removing each one seems like a suboptimal approach

You need a deeper understanding to make competitive circuitry, not repair them.

Just like any piece of shit can be a sufficient low voltage technician for something like fire alarm or communications.

I was about to call you out but you are right. I'm an inside wireman -- installing a fire alarm system complete with sensors, dampeners, emergency lighting, etc. takes a bit of technical and electrical knowledge most people don't possess. But just about anyone can troubleshoot and repair an existing system.

I'm kind of upset now.

Oscope could help, multimeter usually faster.

Most caps I've seen fail have visible deformation (electrolytics blow their back out).
Its usually a resistor though.

Honestly? Not much. I could build/repair simple electronics as far back as 2nd grade, and that was just from being obsessed with Thomas Edison and having a Discovery-Channel-tier knowledge of science.

Really, if you've got a garage, google, and a soldering iron, you're set.

I have a NICET level 2, im going to get level 3 so i can stamp drawings and do some side work drafting and stamping prints. I know that too many of these companies hire trained monkeys who can just barely use a voltmeter and pull some wire.

hehe

this..

The art of electronics by h&h.

Try to get an older version of it. One of 2 books I kept from undergrad

whats the other

Don't the electrolytic capacitors also stink when you blow them, one of my TAs was complaining about first years wiring them backwards...

Ohms law, Kirchoffs voltage and current laws.
basic components like resistors, diodes, capacitors, inductors.
without these things you're probing around in the dark or4 changing components at random.
broken components will be charred and smell bad only if you are lucky.

also release toxic gasses
we were NOT ALLOWED to blow them up in school, could get expelled for that kind of shit

that looks very shitty. is it actually good?