Shadowing Practice: Teaching Myself Electronics (Part One) - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
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okay here is the situation two years ago i acquired this degree right here in the hopes
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that one day would help me get a job as a software developer
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that didn't happen not even close and
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so after a million rejection emails as well as a slight existential crisis i decided you know what
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if i'm going to be suffering through a terrible terrible job market the very least let me choose a job
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that i actually want to do crazy concept i know and
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so for the past year i've been making this career path
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transition from the world of programming into the lovely world of
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engineering i enrolled into community college in order to fill in
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my educational gap i've also been doing a lot of space related engineering programs
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that are super cool but also super useful for getting my foot through the door
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if you know what i mean
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and also i got into grad school despite not actually having
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an engineering degree pat on the back for me however god must have thought
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that i've been having it too good recently and decided to deliver me a slap to my face.
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At the community college where I'm currently taking my engineering courses, they decided that this semester they were going to cancel all of my classes.
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Which sucks because not only were those classes super interesting, but I also kind of needed them for grad school.
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Yikes.
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And so I've been sitting here kind of upset, wondering how am I going to get these credits to show to my grad school that I actually know what I'm doing.
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And And what if with this YouTube channel, there was a way for me to prove that I taught myself the necessary material that I needed to know,
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without actually having the credits to show for that knowledge?
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I hope you understand where I'm getting at.
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And so in this video, I will be documenting the entire process of how I taught myself the lovely world of electronics, so that hopefully, I don't have to take these classes in the summer.
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Please, I beg of you, please, please, I really don't want to pay for those credits, please!
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so here are the list of classes that i wanted to take
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that semester i want to focus on these three classes up here you see the field of engineering
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that i want to go into is mechatronics
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which is unfortunately not in reference to megatron really missed an
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opportunity there instead it refers to someone who does mechanical electrical
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and computer engineering all together hence the classes these are the electrical engineering classes i want to take
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and these two down here are mechanical engineering classes
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that I will do on my own time because it just looks like this.
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Which is boring to watch and boring to edit.
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Also, I do have some knowledge about computers, which is why you don't see any computer engineering classes because I suffered through a good four years of learning.
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So I just need the electronics classes to be on track for my grad degree.
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I'm not actually sure how long this is going to take because this is technically a lot of material.
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So let's just see how far I can get in this video.
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Hmm, I wonder what I should start with.
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Here is a microcontroller, more specifically an Arduino.
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It is essentially a tiny not so powerful computer that can be programmed to do whatever you want, and this is actually the most important class that I wanted to take this semester,
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but no. But fear not, I have a different way of learning how to use this thing.
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You see, one year ago I bought myself a starter kit for the Arduino that comes with said Arduino, a couple of electronics components,
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and a course that teaches me exactly how to use this thing.
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I did end up being too busy to finish it at the time, but hey, at least I don't have to pay for a course now.
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Bromach.
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The specific kit that I got was from craftingtable .com and it's their 30 days lost in space kit.
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As the title suggests, the course takes place over the span of 30 days where
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you pretend you are an astronaut lost in space in a broken ship with nothing
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but an old arduino kit and a weird AI lady to help you fix your ship
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and get safely back home
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which in my opinion makes things a lot more interesting than
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just like sitting in a boring lecture okay let's begin now i don't know
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if you're watching this video because you know something about electronics
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and want to berate me in the comments when i do something wrong
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or if you're just an ordinary pleb that's looking for entertainment
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while you're eating dinner doesn't matter i will still provide you
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with the simple facts in case you don't know what the
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heck i'm doing the arduino works by connecting various electronic components to these pins here.
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These pins are labeled and can be accessed and controlled through the Arduino IDE, which is where you write code for this thing.
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Different types of microcontrollers use different software, but for the Arduino specifically, it runs on C++.
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After programming what to do with the pins, you send the code off to the board where it gets downloaded onto its personal memory
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so that it can operate even when it's not connected to a computer, which is pretty neat.
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And boom, it hopefully should do what you want it to do, if everything's wired incorrectly.
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One thing I will note is
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that i pretty quickly abandoned the arduino brand ide for vs code instead
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because i was getting so tired of manually typing out every single variable
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and function resistance but i also wanted to write down the code actually instead of copying
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and pasting it from the thing so i could learn what i was doing
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because that's like you know the whole point of the video
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oh yeah the code what do i mean by the code
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you see every day in the course you're provided with a video lesson
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and the lessons consist of three parts the first is
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which taught by the ai lady explaining to you the basics
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of the components you're using as well as some coding stuff she doesn't really go into detail
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because the second part of the lesson is a breakdown of the code
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and the last part is more about the hardware how to plug the things into the board
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and what it's supposed to look like below the video
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that provide you with a schematic of how to plug in the board as well as the code for the project itself.
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So yeah, I could just copy and paste the code and get it over with, but that's not the point in this video.
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I said I wanted to learn how to use this board, which means I'm going to sit there and manually type out the entire code until I understand it in my sleep.
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Anyway, after making that change, I was able to start working through the first couple of lessons because as it turns out, they're not really that long.
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So you can honestly do a couple of lessons in one
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day instead of breaking it up into separate days lucky for
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me i am off of work i have no friends
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and there's currently a blizzard outside which means that i can't go anywhere
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so i have plenty of time to burn during this first
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day i learned how to wire things into a breadboard how to control inputs
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and outputs and realized that i would need glasses sometime soon from the strain of making sure
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that my wires were going into the right pin the first
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project of course is to make this blinking led circuit
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which is not a challenge at all and this is where i have to point out the attitude of the Well, well, Explorer, you've managed to make a tiny light blink.
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How terribly impressive.
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The interstellar community is no doubt holding its breath in awe.
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But please, let's not forget the minor detail that you are sitting in abysmal darkness,
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60 meters under an alien sea while your rapidly dwindling oxygen supply bubbles away.
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Rest assured, every passing second I'm not working on saving your life,
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I'll be processing how we might avoid a similar fate the next time your curiosity gets the better of you.
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No pressure.
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It's only your invaluable life that is at stake.
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Is it just me or is she not being very nice?
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Either way, after making the light go blink, the next few lessons center around learning how to add new electrical components into the circuit, as well as learning some new code to get familiar with the Arduino.
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This course assumes that you know nothing about programming, which I would say was the only downside for me.
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Because again, I kind of know how to program stuff already How many times am I going to reuse this clip?
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Following the story, I play around with the switch
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and learn how to use an
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if statement Amazing before landing on creativity day number one
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Which is just do whatever you want day
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And I will be skimming through them as I am more interested in finishing the course
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So that I can just do creativity days Um, every day And with that, I was able to finish about five lessons on the first day Before deciding to go to bed You see,
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I've been trying to do this thing called sleeping early.
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I don't know, it's apparently like good for you or something.
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I think I'm doing it right.
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The next day, I woke up bright and early because I totally got eight hours of sleep that night.
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And started working from where I left off.
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Once again, I plugged in the board to the computer, opened up VS Code, and started working on getting the components wired up for the next project.
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Since I completed on this day, it started to get slightly more challenging, And I even encountered my first major issue when I was trying to make this photo sensor, um, photo sense.
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It was not.
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Hello?
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Why doesn't it work?
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I kept looking over the code thinking that I must have made an error somewhere there.
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The photo sensor is supposed to be sending a signal back to me, but it's only reading the same number over and over again.
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So something is wrong.
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I also realized you can't really see the serial monitor
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that I'm talking about because my head is blocking the view
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but it should look something like this except the numbers aren't changing
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and then i realized wait uh did i plug my wires
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incorrectly the orange wire was actually plugged into the wrong hole
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wasn't reading anything from the sensor of course i didn't let's
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just say i was very happy to get this lesson over
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with oh my god it's working it's charging it's going so slowly here eat Eat, my love, eat.
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Oh, beautiful.
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Beautiful!
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Why was that so annoying?
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At the end of day two, I decided that it would be a good idea to plug in my microphone to my camera
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and provide some amazing commentary about my progress so far.
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You know, because I'm like trying to be a YouTuber.
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But after re -watching the footage, I realized I should never do that ever again.
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why did i decide to learn how to do the arduino is it
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because i want neck pain for the rest of my life
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i'm going insane okay okay first off can you can you
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get into the no it's not long enough god damn it do i have to make these noises i might It might.
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Technologia.
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I hope you guys are enjoying.
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This amazing commentary I'm getting.
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I swear!
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Am I looking very attractive right now?
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Am I giving off feminine energy?
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I have connected wires to board time to give birth.
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What's happening?
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Okay, I'm gonna stop right there before I embarrass myself any further.
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Day three was like any other day.
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I sat down in front of my computer, powered up the Arduino, hunched my back in an odd angle, and got to work on starting the next lessons.
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I particularly enjoyed this day because it was much more code heavy than the others
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which if you remember is my specialty however it does mean
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that most of the time in my footage i am just silently staring at my screen analyzing code
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which is not really entertaining to watch
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so let me just list a few bullet points of what
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happened during this day i wrote some code i plugged in
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some wires i learned how to use this keypad i spent
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30 minutes debugging a problem i learned how to store passwords
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on the keypad i spent another 30 minutes debugging a problem
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googled a bunch of questions oh yeah also had a quick dance break
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you know what i'm not even going to provide any context for
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that did even more debugging late into the night
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and then finally decided to go to sleep early this time
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i actually decided to not go on my phone the next day was unfortunately uneventful
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because after completing about two lessons i decided to stop
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and celebrate valentine's day not with like a guy
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but by eating cake
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and watching michael reese's new video alone in my room now
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despite how this looks like i was actually pretty content
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but just in case applications to date me are open
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and there is just one small requirement on the last day
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the lessons focused around learning how to use various different components
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that were a little bit more complicated than just a tiny little light
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or a photo sensor we're doing more work with this keypad we have this 4x4 display the buzzer
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which you've seen before or rather heard an rgb light
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and this itty bitty little display previously i've been using each component individually
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but these last few lessons have them all combined together there
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was also a whole thing about like bitmaps for two lessons
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and that went in one ear
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and out the other this is the only time i'm going to be copying pasting code
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because i i just cannot be bothered
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and after just spending four days on this course i was finally at the last lesson
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and before you say anything no i was not rushing i
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actually did sit for hours each day lurking through the courses
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and understanding the material so don't you dare say
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that i sped through this the last task at hand was
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to assemble a control system for guiding the imaginary space lander
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that you're stuck in space with
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because you know there's there's stuck in space lost in space
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whatever you take this imaginary space lander to the safety of
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an imaginary mothership as the grand finale however things weren't going too well
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because something kept resetting the arduino and or shutting off the screen
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when i tried to do anything again i definitely think god
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has a vendetta against me you see the button in the corner can reset the board
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if anything were to happen but like i wasn't pressing it, and it definitely wasn't being pressed by itself, so I was just confused as to what was happening.
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And then I realized it.
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The problem I suspect is from these old wires
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that have been sitting in the corner of my room for a year at this point.
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In fact, some of these have been sitting for probably over five years
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because I just found them while I was rummaging in the garage.
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Now, I could fix this issue by finding better wires,
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but I was lazy, and instead opted for the super awesome technique of don't touch any wire or make any sudden movements.
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It did take a few attempts, but after a
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while, the board ended up working long enough for me to
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simulate the landing of the lander into the le - let me try that again.
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The board worked long enough for me to simulate the landing of the lander into the mothership
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and officially finishing the entire
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course topic one complete don't worry this is not the last
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time you will see the arduino i still have much more to learn
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and i have some fun projects planned for future videos But for now, I will push this thing to the side
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because something just arrived in the mail a moment ago
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Which leads us to the next thing that I want to learn in this video
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Now during the last part you might have been thinking, wow, that is a hot mess of wires Is there no easier way to do that Maria?
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And first off screw you I worked really hard and second off.
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Yes, there is an easier way to do that It's called soldering things together on a little board.
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This looks like a wand Knowing how to solder is extremely important when studying electric circuits,
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so I'm going to consider this a part of my topic number two study.
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Technically, that topic also encompasses things like electrical diagrams and just generally how electricity works, but I have a plan for that that I'm going to keep for the end of the video,
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so let's just focus mostly on soldering for this part
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which brings us back to the package i received i went on amazon
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and looked for the cheapest solder it yourself project i could get my hands on why
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because i don't have a lot of money right now actually it's
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because i wanted to practice soldering things together on something
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that i didn't really care about messing up these prototype boards allow you to do whatever you want
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but i figured a custom pcb which is the same as this thing
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but wires are built in and there's like a specific circuit being built
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but you know that's whatever i figured working on a custom
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pcb would be a much better experience plus it looks just so much more cooler
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this is gonna be
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so much fun the cheapest thing i could find online was
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this line following robot it didn't look like a complicated project
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and i honestly didn't even care
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if it ended up working i just wanted to solder things together
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but then i realized something i've only ever soldered something a few times before
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and not at all any time recently okay i think i'm
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going to have to review a little bit of YouTube in order to remember how to do this thing.
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God.
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Okay, yeah, let's go to YouTube.
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So I went to YouTube and clicked on the first video that popped up about soldering.
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Okay, change of game plan.
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I'm actually going to take one of these prototyping boards right here
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and practice doing this a little bit because i'm
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so afraid even though it is 10 bucks i'm
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so cheap i don't want to buy another one of these things i'm just going to try my
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and you know make a little circuit on this little prototyping board
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so scratch that we're actually going to do
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that first oh i'm gonna have to put all this away
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damn it swapping the pcb for a prototype board i just
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started playing around i really tried utilizing some of their techniques
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especially the one where you put some solder on the tip
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and then you clean it off before actually doing the process
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i also try to heat up the joints before applying the solder
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but i still feel like it only obtained good results
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when i put the solder directly on the iron and melt it
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that way so please give me tips on how to not do
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that anymore but once again i realized something
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and this time it was bad you see this metal i'm
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holding is a soft metal alloy of some kind i would love to be more specific
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but after googling around a little bit i was unable to determine exactly what it was made out of.
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I don't know what this is. Which is not good.
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These wires usually have two different types of metal in them.
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The most common metal is tin and the other is lead.
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Yes, lead.
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And I'm burning it, which is causing fumes, which I am breathing in.
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Okay, it's not the prettiest looking thing
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and I definitely just kind of like put these on here so that I can test that with the battery, but interesting.
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In that case, I think this is where I'll stop for today
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and then and I'm gonna try and get a fume extractor that's a thingamajiggy, cause I'm breathing in too much stuff.
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Thanks to the beauty of Amazon Next Day Delivery, I acquired my fume extractor pretty quickly.
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Okay, we're back in business.
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Now that my lungs were adequately protected, I decided to play a little bit more with the prototype board before saying, well, I guess we're gonna move on to the PCB now.
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Okay, I'm so sorry, but you're gonna have to come off of this thing, because i'm gonna need all the help i can get get it because they're called helping hands
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i really need to rethink being a youtuber
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and there we go i turned on my soldering iron
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and was too lazy to get to the sink so
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that i could soak the sponge
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so i did the unthinkable delicious lead water cautiously i assembled
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the pcb piece by piece at first i had a fear
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that the instructions would be written in poor english
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because i suspected it was a chinese -made school project and it was like $10.
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I expect nothing more from that.
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But surprisingly, it was competent.
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I mean, I did rely on a lot of pictures, but I was able to follow along well enough.
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Also, yes, I know I could have bent the legs of the components and that would have kept them in place, but I, you know, I'm learning.
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I didn't know that.
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I also recall I was breathing in fumes the day prior, so my brain is not working 100 % at its capacity.
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So untype that comment right now.
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Instead, can you write a comment telling me if this is correct?
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I don't think it is, but I don't really know how else to get the flux out of the container.
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You know what?
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I think I know the answer.
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It's definitely wrong.
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As much as I would love to comment over all of this footage that I have of me soldering, there really isn't much to say.
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I did change my shirt so don't confuse this by thinking it's another day.
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This all happened on the same day because I was so invested in completing this project.
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Even though this is a relatively simple task given that I didn't even come up with a circuit design myself, I still had a lot of fun doing this build.
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I really like this shot of me working on it because I think I look really cool in this one.
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I don't know, I just - I'm just someone who likes to build things on my own and
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so this is just the epitome of everything i like to
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do i really can't wait to do more projects like this
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anyway after an hour of work i finished putting everything in place all
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that was left was some mechanical pieces to be assembled but
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and i am serious god always has a way of testing me i really struggled with assembling the wheels really struggled.
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My fingers are too thick.
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God damn it, okay.
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It's like surgery.
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God, this is so...
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It reminds me of Legos.
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My fingies are hurting.
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Oh, that hurts so bad.
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How do I get...
314
How do I...
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I'm leaving marks on my finger.
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I'm hurting myself.
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Ow.
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Go in.
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Zen.
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I must practice Zen when I'm done with this because I swear to God.
321
Go. In. To.
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I'm actually gonna crash out.
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I'm gonna crash the fuck out.
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This is a problem.
325
Where'd it go?
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I'm gonna take this soldering iron and absolutely burn my eyes out because - I'm going in.
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I'm just going in!
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I'm about to break something.
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My spirit.
330
It's already broken.
331
God damn it.
332
Yeah, they're both moving.
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Good.
334
Wow, in moments like these, I really take after my dad.
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According to the video timestamp, it took me about 15 minutes to finally get this little stopper on, but once I did, I was finally finished with the robot.
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All that was left now is to test it and see
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if I messed up anywhere and at this point even though again I did say
338
that I don't care if this works or not I did kind of care
339
because it meant that at least I put all the components together You know, let me just roll the clip so afraid Okay, let's not hold anything important.
340
Okay.
341
Okay.
342
Let me just do a double check.
343
Oh, wait, no I see a problem thing happening right here.
344
Okay, turn on this.
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Double check in, double check in.
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I need to prepare my line.
347
Oh, also I feel like you should see this too.
348
It's alive.
349
Stop up.
350
Ha.
351
I feel like I should do this on my floor.
352
I'm kind of scared.
353
Okay.
354
Okay.
355
Okay.
356
Why is it not moving?
357
Okay.
358
So there's definitely something happening, but why is it not functioning?
359
One of the motors isn't working and I'm trying to figure it out.
360
Why?
361
I don't see any issues here.
362
Actually, it turns out nothing was wrong.
363
Because I don't know how to read electrical diagrams, I didn't really know how the circuit was functioning, and turns out these potentiometers just needed to be a little bit adjusted so that both motors were receiving signals.
364
But unfortunately, I didn't know that at the time, and as I was trying to re -solder some of the connections, I accidentally burned the plastic of the wheel.
365
So it works, but, uh, it doesn't work.
366
God, I don't understand why it's not working, and it's so frustrating.
367
And I wish I could understand why it doesn't want to work, because it looks like everything is fine.
368
I guess that means I gotta learn how to read diagrams now, these electrical diagrams as you see here.
369
Oh, it's gonna take so long.
370
All right, thank you so much for watching part one of this series.
371
I intend to have more videos where I go through the list of classes
372
that I want to take and other topics that I'm interested in studying.
373
If you are interested in getting earlier access to videos as well as bonus content, I did make a Patreon, so please support me on there if you want to.
374
No one's forcing you to do this, I'm just letting you know that it will really help me out a lot if you do so.
375
I'm already in the process of making a new video and so it's gonna come out at at some point, hopefully this year.
376
No, it's not gonna, it's gonna come out this year.
377
I just don't know how long it's gonna take me to edit that video.
378
All right, see ya.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “Teaching Myself Electronics”. This video has 378 sentences and 4626 words to shadow. The speech runs for 24:04. The speaker talks fast, about 192 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 82% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| lesson noun | /ˈlɛs.ən/ | A section of learning or teaching into which a wider learning content is divided. |
| wire noun | /ˈwaɪɚ/ | Metal formed into a thin, even thread, now usually by being drawn through a hole in a steel die. |
| component noun | /kəmˈpoʊ.nənt/ | A smaller, self-contained part of a larger entity. Often refers to a manufactured object that is part of a larger device. |
| circuit noun | /ˈsɝ.kɪt/ | The act of moving or revolving around, or as in a circle or orbit; a revolution |
| plug noun | /plʌɡ/ | A pronged connecting device which fits into a mating socket, especially an electrical one. |
| electrical adjective | /ɪˈlɛktɹɪkəl/ | Related to electricity (or electronics) |
| prototype noun | /ˈpɹəʊtətaɪp/ | An original form or object which is a basis for other forms or objects (particularly manufactured items), or for its generalizations and models. |
| topic noun | /ˈtɑpɪk/ | A subject; a theme; a category or general area of interest. |
| electronics noun | /ɪˌlɛkˈtɹɑ.nɪks/ | The study and use of electrical devices that operate by controlling the flow of electrons or other electrically charged particles or by converting the flow of… |
| sensor noun | /ˈsɛn.sɚ/ | A device or organ that detects certain external stimuli and responds in a distinctive manner. |
| diagram noun | /ˈdaɪ.ə.ɡɹæm/ | A plan, drawing, sketch or outline to show the function or operation of something, or to show the relationships between the parts of a whole. |
| mechanical adjective | /məˈkænəkəl/ | Related to mechanics (the branch of physics that deals with forces acting on matter). |
| footage noun | /ˈfʊtɪd͡ʒ/ | An amount of film or tape that has been used to record something, or the content of the recording. |
| pin noun | /pɪn/ | A needle without an eye (usually) made of drawn-out steel wire with one end sharpened and the other flattened or rounded into a head, used for fastening. |
| breathe verb | /bɹiːð/ | To draw air into (inhale), and expel air from (exhale), the lungs in order to extract oxygen and excrete waste gases. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| end up verb | To bring to a conclusion. | |
| turn out verb | To end up; to result. | |
| mess up verb | To make a mess of; to untidy, disorder, soil, or muss. | |
| come out verb | /ˌkʌm ˈaʊt/ | To be discovered; to be revealed. |
| come up with verb | To manage to produce, deliver, or present (something) by inventing, creating, thinking of, or obtaining it. | |
| follow along verb | To continue behind or beside an animal, person, vehicle or other object, especially as a companion. | |
| give off verb | /ɡɪv ɒf/ | To emit; to produce and send forth; to come across in some manner. |
| go through verb | To travel from one end of something to the other. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- I hope you understand where I'm getting at.
- It's only your invaluable life that is at stake.
- Is it just me or is she not being very nice?
- Am I looking very attractive right now?
- Am I giving off feminine energy?
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect continuous have/has been + -ing — an action that started earlier and is still going on | i've been making · i've also been doing · i've been having |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | can be programmed · are labeled · was actually plugged |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | someone who does · computers, which is · IDE, which is |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | you've managed · have connected · you've seen |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 134 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, don't, gonna. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: breathe /bɹiːð/, thick /θɪk/, bother /ˈbɑðɚ/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: rush /ɹʌʃ/, transition /tɹænˈzɪʃ.ən/, essentially /ɪˈsɛnʃəli/, delicious /dɪˈlɪ.ʃəs/, garage /ɡəˈɹɑʒ/
- Long words — get the stress right: electrical /ɪˈlɛktɹɪkəl/, electronics /ɪˌlɛkˈtɹɑ.nɪks/, mechanical /məˈkænəkəl/, imaginary /ɪˈmæd͡ʒɪˌn(ɛ)ɹi/, complicated /ˈkɑm.plɪˌkeɪ.tɪd/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like lesson, wire, component.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.