Nothing personal, but have you ever heard of google?
http://www.google.com could answer all 3 of the questions you have asked this morning.
Try it its a great resource for those willing to use it!
NO and NC switches come in many flavors including relays so the answer is "it depends".
Cheers.
TomW
The Truth is the Truth, even if no one believes it; and a lie is a lie even if everyone believes it
And just to show that I do use Google and I'm not a lazy newbie, I did use Google after reading your post and searched for +"what is" +"normally open switch". The first page of results provided nothing useful of what those switches really are.
I know what a "normally open" switch is, the circuit is open, or off. "Normally closed" is a switch that is normally on. But some switches in a catalog were labeled "no/nc" which is both. And my question was, how can a switch be both normally open and normally closed? -- [ Parent ]
John [ Parent ]
With all due respect, you have asked many, very basic questions here. The folks here love to help and to share ideas, but you need a better place to start.
Here are three bookmarks at an excellent site that will keep you busy for days, weeks or even months with very useful learning. There is much more to that site as well.
Components: http://www.kpsec.freeuk.com/compon.htm Studying electronics: http://www.kpsec.freeuk.com/study.htm Soldering: http://www.kpsec.freeuk.com/solder.htm
If your ISP has set you up with a news server, try: news://sci.electronics.basics That news group's charter description says "A forum for discussion of electronics where there is no such thing as a stupid question. Beginners questions. Discussion of electronics education. Requests for other sources of information."
Good luck and have fun!
-RatOmeter
With all due respect. I understand that this forum is becoming too busy in many people's opinion.
I think that the solution is that more questions should be put in the quarantine zone.
Or you have to build one more special zone: maybe a 'moron's zone'. I bet that zone would be the place, where the best ideas would appear.
The thing is that many things, which are very basic for some people are not so basic for others even if the same people have got a wide knowledge on some other areas.
I for example realized about 6 months ago that people, who know really a lot about electronics, generators, magnets and so on sometimes don't know even such basic things that you can use normal squirrel cage motors as effective self-sufficient generators run by combustion engines. This kind of knowledge is very very basic knowledge here, where I'm living among people, who want to do anything concerning self-made energy things. 'Everybody' knows that. But where most of you people on this forum are living that knowledge doesn't seem to be such a knowledge 'everybody' knows. Here as well 'everybody' knows about 'wood-gas' or 'producer gas', but that knowledge was almost non-existing in America still 5 years ago.
I've realized during my rather long career of teaching and doing research on education, philosophy, development issues etc. that there are no rules for such things, which 'everybody intelligent person' knows.
I know that most university professors cannot even multiply with a pen and paper three digit numbers, if they haven't got an access to any machinery. Even if it is assumed that such kind of skills are with 'everybody'. (I've got an empirical proof of that matter mentioned about the professors. I've been involved in a project of doing research on the quality of university education.)
Please find out that truth by yourself. But this thing cannot be learned from 'Google' or from the Net at all. Only time and experience will teach you that.
But please don't try limiting beforehand the questions, which are allowed to be asked here.
- Hannu
In my earlier post, I was trying to not sound condescending nor to chase people away; heck, I'm fairly new to this forum myself. I have, however, hung out at the sci.electronics.design and sci.electronics.repair newsgroups for a few years (mostly lurking). There, the regulars can get quite testy when someone pops in with a question that is easily googled or looks like a homework problem. While I realize this forum is different, the attitude in those newsgroups has probably colored my replies here.
I do try to be informative. Instead of saying "Hey, dummy, just use Google," I say "Google is your friend, I found this page http://www.ffldusoe.edu/Faculty/Denenberg/Topics/Electronics/Alex_Pounds/Section21-25.htm with this search http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&safe=off&q=%2BCONTACTS+ %2Bswitch+%2Btutorial&btnG=Google+Search, using these keywords +CONTACTS +switch +tutorial" Hopefully that will help people to understand better how to more effectively use search engines in the future.
An official FAQ is posted twice a month to the sci.electronics.repair newsgroup. I've found it to contain a wealth of information, including a lot of basics. It has a homepage at http://www.repairfaq.org.
I think it would be very helpful if we could point people to a set of Alt/Renewable Energy and Homepower FAQ's, covering electronics, solar, economy of RE, products, etc. I have a domain that's going to waste right now (MWatt.com, don't bother, nothing to see there now) and I'd be willing to compile and maintain a series of FAQs and apropos links. I think I start a thread about it in my diary here...
-RatOmeter[ Parent ]
Exactly. I hesitated to ask that a new section just like that be created, called, perhaps, "Dumb newbie zone" since I have had a few beginner questions. -- [ Parent ]
Everyone tends to view a problem in a different way, depending on personality, training, experiences etc.
So if we throw up a problem here it's going to go past lots of different folks and probably get lots of different answers.
Google and others are really great tools - but I have found it's often not so important WHAT you ask as HOW you ask it.
For example, instead of "what is" + "normally open switch" just try typing in:
normally open/normally closed switches
Don't bother with the quotation marks or the 'what is' part.
Using that I got this: http://www.coastalskills.com/PDF/MTR004-STW.pdf
as the third hit. Take a look - it's a really good switch primer.
Often if I'm stuck on a certain circuit I have had good luck typing in:
bridge rectifier circuits
rather than just bridge rectifiers. Or on your topic - LED circuits - will get you a file cabinet full of relevant info. I just tried that on Google and the first ten hits all lead directly to circuit diagrams and explanations.
They taught us in pilot school 'Learn from the mistakes of others - you won't live long enough to make them all yourself' Same principle applies with this stuff - use all the resources, but tune your "google asking" skills - it really pays off.
Fun!
Ted.[ Parent ]
Dr.DCarpe Vigor, Dr.D[ Parent ]
New ideas emerge from so called stupid question and the world evolve in simplicity when total technicity has been attained but remain unattainable. And often it is the stupid that force us the ingeniors/inventors to create more reliable and dummy proof devices that are easy to maintain. Without the uninterested user, I cant imagine the wires mess we'd have...
I so really like to see how people can bring a question into a moral/ethical debate with respect and understanding. The great minds in here are not just technical brains. And I trully respect that.
Keep up the great references. There is great wisdom is carefully selected links.
Para[ Parent ]
Whoa buddy, back up a minute here. I believe you are over reacting I have not run anyone off that I know of. I am stating an opinion [as a user] and I honestly believe I have that right.
I really don't care for the direction the board has gone lately and now you are suggesting I can't give my opinion on the matter. It is part of being an editor here to do, guess what, editing and by definition editing requires that I read pretty much everything that passes through the site. That does not mean I cannot have a personal opinion on the board. Your definition of rude is different from mine, apparently also.
I seem to recall in a previous flap during the JCP debacle that no one wanted say anything for fear of upsetting someone until one of us called a spade a spade so I finally did along with several others.
Nothing personal, Scott, but I think this whole idea of constantly babying people and trying to coddle the whole world is a load of dung.
I am speaking as a user not an editor. If it was up to me most of the stuff I consider to be stupid or redundant would never even appear but thats not my choice so I balance my personal opinions with current board policy and actually think it works pretty well. Believe me I bite my tongue more than I state my opinion. Current policy of everything goes to the front page is obviously not making the site the good resource it could be. We need to change in order to not suffocate under the load of 1000 registered users from every level of knowledge and laziness.
This comment itself is well off topic for the story so thats the end of this rant.
[ Parent ]
