Soldering to a PC board can be tricky: Too much heat can make the copper trace lift right off the board substrate. Use a soldering pencil rated at 15-25 watts, no more. (Watch the video; story ...

Through-hole assembly means bending leads on components and putting the leads through holes in the circuit board, then soldering them in place, and trimming the wires. That took up too much space and ...

Surface mount components have been a game changer for the electronics hobbyist, but doing reflow soldering right requires some way to evenly heat the board. You might need to buy a commercial reflow ...

Capacitors fail. It’s what they do. Aluminum electrolytics caused my monitor power supply to fail. A failed capacitor took down Paul Rako’s air conditioner. This is a story of how two burned ...