The Big Challenge: Designing a Tesla Coil Circuit

As a maker on YouTube and in the field of electronics, I can confidently say that designing a proper Tesla coil circuit is one of the biggest challenges I've faced. My video about Tesla coils was a three-part series, and it was both fun to make and challenging to get right.

Time was also a problem, as I had to condense my ideas into a coherent video within a certain timeframe. The end result was worth it, but it was definitely a challenge. I'm happy with how it turned out, but I wouldn't say it was easy.

In fact, designing a Tesla coil circuit is so complex that even seasoned engineers may struggle. There are many factors to consider, including the primary and secondary windings, capacitors, and transformers.

One of the most significant challenges in designing a Tesla coil circuit is determining the correct secondary winding configuration. This can be done using various methods, such as measuring the resistance and inductance of the individual windings or creating a truth table for all possible combinations.

I've tried both approaches, but I think creating a truth table might be more effective. By systematically testing each combination of wires and recording the results, you can determine the correct secondary winding configuration with greater accuracy.

Another challenge in designing a Tesla coil circuit is ensuring that the primary and secondary windings are properly connected. This requires careful attention to detail and a good understanding of electrical principles.

I've used a resistor in series on the primary side to help stabilize the voltage, which has been helpful in making it easier to measure the secondary winding configuration. I've also used a function generator to apply sinusoidal voltage to the primary side, allowing me to measure the secondary windings with greater accuracy.

Measuring the resistance and inductance of individual windings is an option, but I'm not convinced that this would be effective. While it might seem like a good idea at first glance, I think creating a truth table or using my other methods would be more reliable.

In terms of troubleshooting, one strategy is to use a multimeter to measure the resistance and inductance of individual windings. This can help you identify any issues with the circuit configuration.

I've used this approach before and found it to be effective. By systematically testing each combination of wires and recording the results, I was able to determine the correct secondary winding configuration for my Tesla coil circuit.

In conclusion, designing a Tesla coil circuit is a challenging task that requires careful attention to detail and a good understanding of electrical principles. By using methods such as creating a truth table or measuring resistance and inductance, you can increase your chances of success and create an effective Tesla coil circuit.

Determining the Secondary of an Unmarked Transformer

I've had questions from viewers about how to determine the secondary winding configuration of an unmarked transformer. One approach is to use a resistor in series on the primary side and apply sinusoidal voltage using a function generator. Then, measure the secondary windings and record the results.

This method has worked for me, but I understand that it might not be the most efficient or reliable way to do so. Another approach is to measure the resistance and inductance of individual windings, but I'm not convinced this would work well.

Creating a Truth Table

One way to determine the correct secondary winding configuration is by creating a truth table for all possible combinations of wires. This involves systematically testing each combination of wires and recording the results.

I think this approach might be more effective than other methods, such as measuring resistance and inductance. By creating a systematic record of the test results, you can identify any issues with the circuit configuration and adjust it accordingly.

Using Online Resources

Another option is to use online resources, such as forums or communities dedicated to electronics and Tesla coils. These websites often have threads or discussions where people share their experiences and advice on designing Tesla coil circuits.

I've found these resources to be incredibly helpful in troubleshooting my Tesla coil circuit and improving its performance. By sharing knowledge and expertise with others, we can all learn from each other's successes and failures.

Creating a Website

One idea I've been considering is creating a website where I share my projects, tutorials, and advice on designing Tesla coil circuits. This would allow viewers to easily access the information they need and provide a centralized resource for everyone in the community.

I think this is an excellent idea, as it would make it easier for people to find what they're looking for and connect with others who share similar interests. I'm planning to explore this option further in 2019 and see if it's feasible to create a website that meets my needs.

Giveaway Time

As promised, the time has come for our giveaway! We have three amazing prizes up for grabs, including a sick lands giveaway, a multimeter, and another prize.

To enter, simply visit my Patreon page and follow the guidelines. You'll need to comment on the post with your name and any feedback or suggestions you might have. The winner will be chosen randomly, and I'll announce the results in the coming weeks.

Thank you for participating, and good luck!

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhi there and welcome to 2018 and Happy New Year and what does the New Year mean for me it means being lazy and as you can see there isn't a big project or electronics video for this week this week is an unscripted Q&A video which you might be familiar with I already did I already did three versions of it three installments of it so you can watch those and this will be the fourth one it's not what I originally planned as the first video for this year and I actually wanted to do a small review of my old videos from 2018 watching a couple of those and giving some interesting insights but I asked my patreon supporters would what they would like to see and they said no thanks we would love to have another Q&A video which I will do right now but someone on patreon had a great idea the he said the Q&A videos feel more personal and interactive thank you the recap videos are getting old fast it would be needs to incorporate two or three of your top achievements but not be the main focus of the video Happy New Year and happy New Year to you as well Christopher Bassett I will do just as you suggested I will show my top three videos of 2018 and then we will do the usual Q&A stuff but before doing any of that I got this year um sick lens once again helped me with a giveaway this is the siglent SDM 305 digital multimeter here it is can you see it yes you can it's an awesome tool it can do five and a half digits the usual stuff DC voltage AC voltage DC current AC current capacity frequency continuity testing and really important for me because none of my other multimeters can do that is the four wire resistance measurements which it can do I got it now for two months I think I've used it quite a bit you can get more information about this tool on their website which I will put on the screen right now so you can visit it there's a link in the description and have a look at it it's an awesome tool for an awesome price and at the end of the video you can win one of those I got four to give away three will be for my patreon supporters one for my YouTube viewers and at the end I will tell you what you have to do to enter this giveaway and yeah that's it for the giveaway part I will talk about it at the end of the video for now let's continue with a fun fact before the top three video and usually I have something interesting in the background of the video like my using matrix or something like that but this time I actually found this little circuit here you should see a closer image of it right now it is a magnetic levitation circuit which works quite well you can get it commercially I got it for a video production at the beginning of 2018 it was about the magnetic levitation circuit as you might have already guessed and this is a commercial solution I wanted to rebuild for DIY or buy episodes so if that sounds interesting to you then feel free to write it in the comments and so I can see that I should produce it and by the way this whole video will this all unscripted Q&A stuff is all about getting feedback from you new ideas from you which I can incorporate in the video production which I can incorporate in the video production of 2019 so feel free to write as much and anything you want in the comments I will read all the comments and hopefully a 2019 will be an awesome year for my video production and hopefully it will be interesting that's always my main focus and you will learn something hopefully that's my other main focus okay now we got the giveaway out of the way you got the magnetic levitation circuit in the background which you can look at if you're too bored with me I don't even think it's in focus so you have to concentrate really hard and now let's continue with the top three videos of mine from 2018 so as you might have already guessed it I looked through the list what I produced in 2018 one video every week means quite a lot of videos and I am not even quite sure if I skip to week in 2018 it was really busy here I would say so let's just start with the number three year which I determined beforehand of course the number three video is actually pretty recent it is the solar battery charger lipo lithium-ion DIY or by I started this project three months or two months before its release and the release wasn't December the 9th I think so I started in said temporary thing yeah September October somewhere along those lines and I started with it because I wanted to do another MPPT video for solar panels and I thought okay how can I incorporate a bit of MPPT and a bit of solar fun into a project and then I realized that maybe it would be a good idea to create a circuit a small circuit that you can use with practically any solar cell to charge up a battery for me it wasn't clear what kind of battery I knew I didn't want it in our 12 volt LED acid one I wanted something more modern like a lipo we'll look am I on so you can use it for small portable solar projects and that's just how it all starts then the gears started rotating in my head and one thing led to another and in the end I got this idea with these I see which I found I designed a custom circuit for that and all of that good stuff you actually saw the final version of the circuit in the video but I think I did one or two versions of it which didn't work out that well now this one works great as you might have seen it seen in the video yeah and I think it's a versatile project it's really useful there there are a couple of boards which can do that on the market but I think this one really combines all the important features which you want to have for small solar projects so I hope people will like like it rebuild it and yeah that's why it's the number three year top video for me in 2018 and fun fact I'm just watching the number right now it's at 144,000 views which i think is ok my goal is always to be above the 100 thousand boost and I'm like ok the video turned out good it doesn't need to be good to reach that number but viewers liked it I would say like that and the 144,000 is ok but I would have liked more because this project took a lot of work I thought it was very interesting but then but then again it's YouTube the video before that was not well viewed from viewers it was the and it was the true reactive apparent power video which only got 55,000 views and I actually think that was one of my best basics videos but then again viewers were not that interested in the subject so it didn't get a lot of views so the following video did not get recommended to viewers that much because of the YouTube algorithm and all that crazy stuff so not that happy with the number because lots of effort a lot of work but then again it's YouTube lots of work doesn't mean anything but yeah that letter was just small facts about the video let's just move on to the number two which is the peristaltic pump DIY or by episode for me it was the perfect combination of electronics and mechanical engineering however you want to call that and also 3d printing so for me it was really fun to just get the original 3d models from I'm not I'm not sure what the name of the Creator was but modifying his model getting to know how to interact with bits and printing it's doing a couple of test prints then getting everything to fits combining it with a stepper motor and then driving that motor it was very complex subjects which then turned into a really good projects because I think the DIY pump was even cheaper than the buy version so in this episode gia why did win which is quite rare and that is why for me I think it deserved the number two spots of the best videos in 2018 and of course that also means it's my favorite DIY or buy episode by now ok that was the number 2 so let's move on to the number 1 which is the testing elcbs lithium chemic batteries video a very very interesting video for me to produce the company palladium actually came to me and said hey we got this cool new battery technology we want you to check it out you can have it you can do own tests we do not restrict you in any way so there wasn't a script from them to promote the batteries at all I did also not get paid to do this video it was not sponsored in any way it was just me being interested in the technology and sharing my experiences movements and many viewers seem to have liked that it got six hundred and twenty three thousand views which is not bad and for me it was just very interesting to see that you can actually cut a battery and hammer a nail in it and it still works it's an awesome concept when you think about it of course it's not positive completely it also got some problems disadvantages like the low output capability current output capabilities but other than that it's a promising technology for the future and I hope colloquium comes to me once again maybe this year and say it says we got another battery technology we want you to check out I would love to do that basically anything new on the electronics market I would love to check out recently with the ePaper module which is not that new but it's new for me I would say I haven't worked with it so anything new that pops up there's always a chance that I can do a small video about it those ten minute nutshell videos I would I would call them or introduction videos to a technology or module or something like that okay that was my top one number one video of 2018 small recap my top videos of 2018 number three was the solar lipo lithium ion charger circuits number two was the peristaltic pump DIY or by episode and number one was the testing elcbs lithium chromic batteries video I hope there will be more exciting productions into 19 I'm sure of it if I put work into it I will get some awesome results I hope we will see for now let's stop the video review and let's get over to the patreon questions and I got a few of them 13 to be exact I think there should be so let's start with Anton which says hey Scott my question would be if by any chance you would take a look at K and X / e ib in the next year funny thing is I I never said those words in English but in German and familiar with those its conics or i'p I I will continue the question now I I know that this topic is quite popular in Germany yes for home automation personally I would be very interested in the process of designing a custom KNX device to interface with an Arduino etc there are some projects out there which have achieved already quite a lot but your 10-minute nutshell video would be a great petition greetings Anton Anton a very good question suggestion however you want to call that like I already said all my friends are electricians I hope I hear KNX conics I've quite a bit when they are talking about what they're doing for me it's something new I haven't worked with it but I'm definitely interested so I'm putting it on my to-do list and hopefully I will get to it in 2019 okay next question from Joe hi Scott I'm always looking to improve my bench test gear in particular da Q with Picea MS win or oh s X interfaces monitoring and recording voltage current and temp and offering a clean operator panel on the PC you would be the goal cost is the challenge even for yours you skier the next option would be why but good performance is mandatory I would appreciate it if you could consider something along those lines regards Joe thanks for the question Joe and DA Q is data acquisition I would say yeah data acquisition for me something new I would say I always do my measurements with test gear which is standalone like the oscilloscope or a multimeter something like that da q I think there are PC or Scylla scopes and logic analyzers and spectrum analyzers and all those things so I will consider it I'm not quite sure how much of a video I can do with this it sounds like more like a review for me again I will have to look into its more carefully but it's a possibility I will definitely put it on my to-do list next question David's W de villiers since I have tagged out my Ultron table I have been wondering about phono preamps to kids I would love to make one that has good audio performance and its own power supplying anything like this would be great welcome to 2019 oh happy New Year to you as well the phone or preempted circuits as far as I know those are used to amplify the output of a turntable and to get it to voltage levels which are on pair with ordinary audio devices like your mp3 player or your phone so they are used for amplifying I'm not quite sure whether they are used for modifying the audio waveform I will have to look into that but it sounds interesting maybe I will get a turntable talk a bit about it about the amplification and then do a small DIY preamp circuit maybe definitely possible I put it on my to-do list castas not Kostas cava Nazis asks hi Scots I would like to ask in a Q&A if we have used any tools like power fix Parkside etc and what's your opinion about a tool if not is there any chance for reviews about that cheap tools on in 2019 thanks in advance cost us good question I have not used such tools if you're not familiar with power fix or Parkside me neither but I know that there are low-cost brands for something like an angle grinder angle grinder or something like that but when it comes to power tools my choice is always something like Makita or t-bolt or something like that not the cheap stuff I think I'm too happy with my good power tools I don't want to try something like that hours and reviews for that also no sorry no but still no because mmm it's not that much button it is about electronic power tools are also electronics in in a way but I don't think it's interesting I'm not a fan of such reviews and I always like to produce something which I'm interested in because that's the point when I think others would be interested in it as well and power tools is just not my subject so sorry about that I think there are other channels who do that so look out for them Benjamin as a longtime subscriber I definitely like Q&A I know all your videos pretty well so a rewind would just be redundant okay not a question but thanks for the feedback and yes I'm doing the Q&A next question Alex hair Scott's I've been wondering for a while now how to build my own lithium battery discharge test on and your video about it was really informative but I want to test the output of lipo cells up to 6s the problem with that is that I need something to dissipate the insane amount of current up to 500 ms 500 mg oh okay that's a lot of current I was planning on using a high power MOSFET to that but they are rare and expensive so instead I want to use a single high power MOSFET or an array of them to drop that power into resistance wire and then measure the input power to determine the voltage and current I think it sounds fun I think it sounds fun as well but 500 amps it's that's quite a lot that's I hope that's not the nominal current of your battery and it sounds more like a surge current but if you're in for that sure you can do that with the MOSFETs what I would recommend is putting a couple of high power resistors may be in serious would be MOSFETs so you can spread out the heats more evenly between the MOSFETs and the resistance but then again with only MOSFETs you would have a much lower voltage drop like maybe zero point something volts and this way you can draw much more current with the resistors though you always cuts and ohm or 2 ohms and that then equals voltage drop which is much higher than the MOSFET so you can draw less current so it's a push and pull you have to see what you want to get for values and what you have to use but what I would recommend is definitely checking out my constant load project which I did a couple of weeks or months I think ago it also got the basic principle with the MOSFETs I'm not sure if I put resistors and serious because I was not dissipating that much heat with the MOSFET so it was okay but have a look at that use that maybe as a blueprint as a starting point and then adds more precise measurements for the input power the output power and track tee time so you can calculate the capacity of the battery and I think that would be my advice look for the project and then improve it in a way that it suits your needs okay um okay neon Manship hi something quite simple for an unscripted video I don't do unscripted videos those cue nays are the only ones which are unscripted because for me I always try to produce the content I would like to see more often on YouTube and scripted stuff is something I love to see so i produce it as well and the fact for that is that if i would do something like that i'm not sure what you want to say but i will know it in a second unscripted wise it would take around 30 minutes to do something simple but if I would do a scrip for it I could dance me pack that and maybe three or five minutes and you would get the same results but I was not wasting more time that much and I was getting and I was entertaining you in a more professional way I would say so no unscripted videos for me for me it not it was what's the intention of what I just said in a nutshell no unscripted videos from here okay let's see now I'd like to power up a 12 volt LED strip with a single 18 650 lithium-ion battery what I've found so far is not practical for strips longer than one meter as typical 5 watt per meter gets close to the cells max current offering can you explore affordable solution or completely rule out such a setup with the set up you mean with the single 18 650 if your battery cannot handle it from its datasheet would be current output and voltage output then there's really nothing you can do about it you cannot add an electronic circuit to fix that so in this case you would have to rule out such a setup worked a single cell and the easiest solution in this case would be just evil putting a couple of them and serious adding a BMS circuits to charge them up balanced and going that route or using brand new cells and putting a couple of those in parallel but I think I would go with the serious connection with the BMS and then just stepping down the voltage and I think you can even get battery packs for that commercially ones which are already assembled and have all the protection and charging features included so I think that would be the easiest solution which should be affordable so look into that next question from Christopher Bassett how do you really decide what processor to use what are your overall plans for the channel in 2019 any particular focus or new series good question that question will take a bit longer than the other ones because a couple got a couple of things ideas I want to share with you and get your feedback on so yes but let's start with how do you really site what processor to use with processor you probably mean my controller if it's a small simple project I always use the Arduino the Arduino is popular it's well supported and accessible the easiest to access so of course for electronics channel who wants to have viewers which are not all engineers it's important to be accessible and that's why I choose chose choice and chose the Arduino most of the time but other than that it depends on what you want to do if I wanted to do an electronics on IOT projects I use the ESPE 32 or the esp8266 or the WHMIS or something like that but I was not in this situation so far that I needed another microcontroller than those two options like it's either the Arduino or the ESP that's it most of the time but then again there are tons of my controllers which I might check out in this year maybe very soon not trying to spoil it too much but we will see okay so what are your overall plans for the channel 2019 any particular focus on your series I will continue what I was doing last year that's definitely important right now I got one project which will definitely come out in January I got another DIY or buy episode which I'm working on I got another small video about a new technology which I would love to share and I got another bigger project for the 1 million subscriber milestone which I will show you right now because I would love to hear your feedback on it so this is what I've been working on it's a bit dusty it's been sitting in the shelf for four bits so it's a quadcopter or drone however you want to call it this one was a request from lots of us for four years now and it's not a complete DIY solution as you can see the frame is bought a lot of parts are 3d printers so I would consider that DIY because I designed them as well and yeah it's not gonna be a DIY project I would say it's more like a beginners guides project so when I started finding arts for the drone quadcopter however you want to call it and it was quite complicated because the market is overflowing with components with tons of things you can get there are different connectors there are different protocols it's quite confusing so what I will try to do with the video is just giving a beginner's guide like look you want to build a drone on your own a quadcopter whatever you want to call it and here is how you can do that like you need those parts you can assemble them this way those parts work with those parts you can use this transmitter with this receiver because it works in that way but not this one with this one this is the kind of video I want to make for the quadcopter for the drone and then of course incorporate software aspects like you have to use this software you can balance it out this way so it will be a big tutorial which will talk about all the different components of such a drone and how they work on a simple level not that detail like the GPS the ESC the Bill DC motors what they can lift how you can calculate that what kind of battery you have to use and all those in combination will be the tutorial in the end of course it didn't fly yet I didn't get to that I hope it will otherwise I will have a big problem but yeah that's a beginner's guide to drones 2 quad copters will be the 1 million subscriber special I hope that's fine with you so many people asked for it I hope I'm not disappointing too much by going with a bit more commercial routes because if you want to do a DIY quadcopter there's the big question where do you draw the line of DIY like do I have to do the EC's completely on my own to do a DIY drone the motors do have to DIY them the only thing which I would say makes to DIY in such cases actually just the frame the rest is just too complicated to just DIY a proper solution and that's why I went with this route in the end I hope it's it's fine with most of the viewers I hope I just described it in a way that it makes sense what I try to get across with this video when it's done it will take some time I'm not even sure if it's gonna be a one video or two part video series or maybe three parts I'm not that much into the production process but another thing that I can share which is quite interesting is that those EEOC's are very special ones because those use the FOC principle the FIDE orient control principle which i did a video about a couple of weeks ago months ago I'm not sure those are very efficient and I will talk about them in the video because they also use a special communication protocol which is USB can I think can can boost maybe that can also be the focus of the video I'm not quite sure yet I'm figuring things out I will see how it turn out but I hope I got you a bit excited for the 1 million milestone video and also because I will have to we'll fill this drone while it's in the air I got a second drone this one though is commercial I got it a while ago it was actually a presence from jl sia PCB if you're familiar with them because they visit me in germany and as a presence they brought me a drone which i was actually i didn't know that it was just at the time while we're searching for drawing by myself so I could film this in self pose one and yeah it's a DJI medic error I've flown it a couple of times works great it will do the job just fine and it's not the most expensive Joan you can get so there are better ones but I think for me who will just use it for this video and maybe try to incorporate a bit more your own footage in other videos it'll be just fine but then again have you tried getting it getting the drone in Germany is not a problem the regulations for the drone is in same it's Germany all over again with all their stuff they would like to regulate it's ridiculous because if you build a drone on your own in Germany and want to get it off the ground and in the air it's hell there are so many regulations you have I think you have to do something like a driver license for drones if you want to drive your home at once and for those commercial ones which are not that heavy it's easier but there's so many regulations it's look for it google it you will have good laughs it's ridiculous but then again let's not talk about that anymore other than that there are three or four videos already in production one will come out with definitely in January now you might be wondering hey why only one video in January I set it on patreon I said it on Twitter or Facebook currently I want to take a small break creatively I would say because it's people who just watch the videos and are like oh ten minute video that takes and now to produce no it doesn't take an hour to videos it takes 40 to 60 hours something along those lines sometimes more sometimes less but the last months has been pretty stressful so I don't want to push myself too much anymore and producing one video per week week it's still my goal I know people are waiting for it I know the YouTube algorithm is waiting for me to mess up to put my channel as low as possible getting me as less views as possible and that's why also something like patreon is very important for me because it caps gives me creative freedom that I have more time to put into projects so that I don't have to stress myself out don't put that many mistakes in videos because I think in the last two videos there were some not big mistakes but small mistakes which I was very upset about of having them in there I don't know what was wrong with me to put them in the video maybe it was stress maybe the lack of time and I would love to invest more time in videos and not stress me out so much is what I'm basically trying to say and I'm not sure if I can do this weekly schedule all the time anymore I will see how things work out but I will not force it anymore let's let's say it that way so for me it would be great if you consider supporting me on patreon so that I can actually afford this lifestyle of not forcing myself to create one video per week per week like I said it before a dozen of times $1 donation per month on patreon makes a huge difference for me if just 1% of my subscribers would do something like that for me I would have no problem financing my videos and maybe getting assistance to put a bit of work load from here because lots of people still don't realize that I see that in the emails and Facebook messages and all that I'm still a one-man production I'm this guy me that's all the work all the research all the projects all the soldering all the editing all the voiceovers all the everything and yeah that takes time so I'm gonna stop now what I want to say is maybe there will be one video every two weeks but most of the time I will still try to do this one video per week thing yes and the last thing about the production DIY or by I know lots of people love this series I will definitely continue it it's not that hard to do actually because there are a lot of commercial things which you can DIY and of course finding out whether those DIYs are worth it it's definitely interesting so this series will continue electronics basics I'm not that sure because the it was there was a time when lots of people enjoyed those videos there were getting lots of use lots of attention but right now with the more advanced topics I'm trying to bring to the viewers many people are not that interested and I think just is the name electronic basics now sounds in the ear of the viewer like oh it's only gonna be theory or boring I'll wait for the next video and that's not something I want I think so I'm not sure about how I will continue the basic series maybe I will just not name them name them basics videos maybe just giving them a catchy title like while you're drawing too much power from the power grid even though your load doesn't need it the secret of reactive power or something like that because just such a catchy title always makes a bit of difference of course I don't want to get in the clickbait territory that's something I definitely do not want but I will have to see how the basics videos will continue other than that there will be the usual kinds of videos projects most importantly new technology exploring videos whenever I get something interesting maybe even fix-it videos I recently got one case where I thought okay might be a good idea of not sure yet we will see but it will always be about electronics and having fun with it and building stuff creative stuff okay and one last thing about the projects which I wanted to ask not sure if it's an interesting subject yes those are books and I know it's not interesting don't click away right away those are actually old books I got from a friend of mine whose relative was an electrician they are German books for example am a far bigger mess hi Tom - Tom stall - you may file I'm so much stuck in the English right now Mayer far bigger mess hall - min - stockholm technic translators multicarts measuring schematics of the high current technology and those books are pretty old this one is from 1952 and I thought it would be interesting to just have a look at a couple of those schematic diagrams and see how old electronics solve problems or measured things and how modern electronics do such things maybe it would be interesting as a kind of versus serious like old versus new measuring things or schematics which were used back in the days and modern equivalents let me know if that is something which sounds interesting because I have a couple of those books I'm not sure if there's a very good example in those which is perfect for such type of videos but I would just love to know if the basic ideas sounds interesting here we got some multicolored sharp multicolored schematics as well if you want to see if you want to have an example here is electrician video stunts brem zoom let's see if we can get it in focus yeah I hope you can see that and that is an example of the pictures of these schematics in this book there are tons of those there is a ton of those it looks interesting from the start and then you gots maybe towers and tips for in amateur electronica a thousand tips for the amateur electronic electrician amateur electrician yeah and this one is from 1969 it also looks very interesting yeah you've got some really nicely drawn schematics in here and then we got volume 2 of this book serious if that sounds interesting to you let me know if not let me know ok and with that being said let's move on to the next question johan graph casts asks do you see any drawback to using a more advanced processor like vemos d1 for projects that don't immediately need that sort of power slash network connectivity yes the drawback is support for example if you use Arduino you can Google pretty much any question with what we know what the problem you're having and you will probably find an answer with them we must be bond I think it's much harder to find an answer for such ok it's based on the ESP the ESP is also pretty well supported and there are lots of people who use it but yeah that's the own thing I would come up with as a drawback with the support other than that you should be fine with the we mas Scott Cashman I really enjoyed the DIY or buy and the electronics basics videos they are great for quick revision question do you plan on making more of these types of videos this year and I already said it DIY or buy definitely there will be lots more if you got good ideas let me know in the comment section and I'm actually producing a DIY or buy episode at the moment so there will be one soon and like I already said it before the basics videos it's a tough question people don't seem to enjoy them at the moment as much as I would like them to enjoy it as they used to enjoy it and that is why I'm not sure how the future of those look like maybe I will fuse them with more practical examples and not call them basics videos anymore because I would still love to teach people those basics but then again I would love to reach as many people as possible so I have to make it attractive and that's maybe why I should part with the name of the sonic basics series but I'm not sure let me know your comments pret has asked please tell us about the most complex challenge you faced and being a maker on YouTube and in your field of electronics I'd really love to know what you learned from the challenge thank you in the field of being a mech on YouTube biggest challenge is time management definitely it's not even about finding a subject I have tons of subjects to choose from it's really just how you manage your time how you get videoed video out every week and staying relevant I would say is the big challenge so that's definitely for being a maker on YouTube and in the field of electronics the biggest challenge was probably designing a proper Tesla coil circuit my video about Tesla coils it was a three part video series it was fun to make but it also was very challenging to make so this was I think the biggest challenge once again time was also a problem because I had to get it done in some way and turned out the way it ended up was good I was happy about it but it was definitely a challenge so those were the two biggest challenges last question from Pete Kelly I'd like to hear about a way to determine the secondary of an unmarked transformer I hope the primary up to my variac 20 volts to 30 volts and measure every combination of wires and create a truth table for the secondary there has to be a better way is there a better way and because I'm doing it in a similar way if I have a transformer I use a resistor in serious to the primary side and then I would use my function generator to apply sinusoidal voltage and then I would measure the secondary side and thus determine the windings to one another so I would do it the same way you could also think about measuring the resistance and the inductance but I think the reason that would not work out I think I would have to think about it a bit more but from my first impression I think measuring the resistance and inductance is not a proper way to do that so I would definitely go with the way you just described maybe not the very act but other than that should work okay and those where the questions I think one last question which just came in from goose fun and back maybe you should think of making a website and category your project so we can easily find what we are looking for keep the good book up very good idea not a new idea I would say I fought about creating my own website one or two years ago I think and the reason you which the idea you just described about cataract categorizing my projects was actually one of the main reasons I actually wanted to create website the only problem is I don't have time to create a website with weekly videos know that I'm taking a bit things a bit more slowly I might have that time I will see but definitely coded but definitely a good idea maybe even incorporate a forum so you got your projects and then you got maybe even suggestions that's what I would love to see suggestions from viewers or other engineers who are like he didn't like that but maybe you want to change that value and tweak those things so you'll get better results because I'm not perfect no one is that can always be improvement for everything and yeah that would definitely be nice but I cannot promise anything I will have to see whether I can get the website done in 2019 we will see and with that being said thanks for the questions I hope you enjoyed the video I hope it wasn't too boring and last but not least let's get back to the giveaway to these sick lands giveaway I already described all the amazing features of this gadget at the beginning of the video now you might ask how you can enter pretty simple the supporters on patreon now how it works they're supposed on patreon and you have to follow the guidelines all the good stuff you're familiar with that and three of those multimeters will be for those patreon supporters and one will be for all my YouTube viewers and the way this works is you go over to the community tab on my youtube channel and there will be a small post not sure what will be written there may be something like comment here to enter the giveaway and all you have to do is comment there and you enter the giveaway and in a week I will then choose randomly a winner there's no big question this time once again just put your name on there maybe write something nice maybe even feedback for this video maybe an idea and everyone who commented there will be in the giveaway with that being said I hope 2019 will be an awesome year for my video production I hope there will be lots of interesting projects videos which you will hopefully like and yeah that's it now there's only one thing left to say stay creative and I will see you next timehi there and welcome to 2018 and Happy New Year and what does the New Year mean for me it means being lazy and as you can see there isn't a big project or electronics video for this week this week is an unscripted Q&A video which you might be familiar with I already did I already did three versions of it three installments of it so you can watch those and this will be the fourth one it's not what I originally planned as the first video for this year and I actually wanted to do a small review of my old videos from 2018 watching a couple of those and giving some interesting insights but I asked my patreon supporters would what they would like to see and they said no thanks we would love to have another Q&A video which I will do right now but someone on patreon had a great idea the he said the Q&A videos feel more personal and interactive thank you the recap videos are getting old fast it would be needs to incorporate two or three of your top achievements but not be the main focus of the video Happy New Year and happy New Year to you as well Christopher Bassett I will do just as you suggested I will show my top three videos of 2018 and then we will do the usual Q&A stuff but before doing any of that I got this year um sick lens once again helped me with a giveaway this is the siglent SDM 305 digital multimeter here it is can you see it yes you can it's an awesome tool it can do five and a half digits the usual stuff DC voltage AC voltage DC current AC current capacity frequency continuity testing and really important for me because none of my other multimeters can do that is the four wire resistance measurements which it can do I got it now for two months I think I've used it quite a bit you can get more information about this tool on their website which I will put on the screen right now so you can visit it there's a link in the description and have a look at it it's an awesome tool for an awesome price and at the end of the video you can win one of those I got four to give away three will be for my patreon supporters one for my YouTube viewers and at the end I will tell you what you have to do to enter this giveaway and yeah that's it for the giveaway part I will talk about it at the end of the video for now let's continue with a fun fact before the top three video and usually I have something interesting in the background of the video like my using matrix or something like that but this time I actually found this little circuit here you should see a closer image of it right now it is a magnetic levitation circuit which works quite well you can get it commercially I got it for a video production at the beginning of 2018 it was about the magnetic levitation circuit as you might have already guessed and this is a commercial solution I wanted to rebuild for DIY or buy episodes so if that sounds interesting to you then feel free to write it in the comments and so I can see that I should produce it and by the way this whole video will this all unscripted Q&A stuff is all about getting feedback from you new ideas from you which I can incorporate in the video production which I can incorporate in the video production of 2019 so feel free to write as much and anything you want in the comments I will read all the comments and hopefully a 2019 will be an awesome year for my video production and hopefully it will be interesting that's always my main focus and you will learn something hopefully that's my other main focus okay now we got the giveaway out of the way you got the magnetic levitation circuit in the background which you can look at if you're too bored with me I don't even think it's in focus so you have to concentrate really hard and now let's continue with the top three videos of mine from 2018 so as you might have already guessed it I looked through the list what I produced in 2018 one video every week means quite a lot of videos and I am not even quite sure if I skip to week in 2018 it was really busy here I would say so let's just start with the number three year which I determined beforehand of course the number three video is actually pretty recent it is the solar battery charger lipo lithium-ion DIY or by I started this project three months or two months before its release and the release wasn't December the 9th I think so I started in said temporary thing yeah September October somewhere along those lines and I started with it because I wanted to do another MPPT video for solar panels and I thought okay how can I incorporate a bit of MPPT and a bit of solar fun into a project and then I realized that maybe it would be a good idea to create a circuit a small circuit that you can use with practically any solar cell to charge up a battery for me it wasn't clear what kind of battery I knew I didn't want it in our 12 volt LED acid one I wanted something more modern like a lipo we'll look am I on so you can use it for small portable solar projects and that's just how it all starts then the gears started rotating in my head and one thing led to another and in the end I got this idea with these I see which I found I designed a custom circuit for that and all of that good stuff you actually saw the final version of the circuit in the video but I think I did one or two versions of it which didn't work out that well now this one works great as you might have seen it seen in the video yeah and I think it's a versatile project it's really useful there there are a couple of boards which can do that on the market but I think this one really combines all the important features which you want to have for small solar projects so I hope people will like like it rebuild it and yeah that's why it's the number three year top video for me in 2018 and fun fact I'm just watching the number right now it's at 144,000 views which i think is ok my goal is always to be above the 100 thousand boost and I'm like ok the video turned out good it doesn't need to be good to reach that number but viewers liked it I would say like that and the 144,000 is ok but I would have liked more because this project took a lot of work I thought it was very interesting but then but then again it's YouTube the video before that was not well viewed from viewers it was the and it was the true reactive apparent power video which only got 55,000 views and I actually think that was one of my best basics videos but then again viewers were not that interested in the subject so it didn't get a lot of views so the following video did not get recommended to viewers that much because of the YouTube algorithm and all that crazy stuff so not that happy with the number because lots of effort a lot of work but then again it's YouTube lots of work doesn't mean anything but yeah that letter was just small facts about the video let's just move on to the number two which is the peristaltic pump DIY or by episode for me it was the perfect combination of electronics and mechanical engineering however you want to call that and also 3d printing so for me it was really fun to just get the original 3d models from I'm not I'm not sure what the name of the Creator was but modifying his model getting to know how to interact with bits and printing it's doing a couple of test prints then getting everything to fits combining it with a stepper motor and then driving that motor it was very complex subjects which then turned into a really good projects because I think the DIY pump was even cheaper than the buy version so in this episode gia why did win which is quite rare and that is why for me I think it deserved the number two spots of the best videos in 2018 and of course that also means it's my favorite DIY or buy episode by now ok that was the number 2 so let's move on to the number 1 which is the testing elcbs lithium chemic batteries video a very very interesting video for me to produce the company palladium actually came to me and said hey we got this cool new battery technology we want you to check it out you can have it you can do own tests we do not restrict you in any way so there wasn't a script from them to promote the batteries at all I did also not get paid to do this video it was not sponsored in any way it was just me being interested in the technology and sharing my experiences movements and many viewers seem to have liked that it got six hundred and twenty three thousand views which is not bad and for me it was just very interesting to see that you can actually cut a battery and hammer a nail in it and it still works it's an awesome concept when you think about it of course it's not positive completely it also got some problems disadvantages like the low output capability current output capabilities but other than that it's a promising technology for the future and I hope colloquium comes to me once again maybe this year and say it says we got another battery technology we want you to check out I would love to do that basically anything new on the electronics market I would love to check out recently with the ePaper module which is not that new but it's new for me I would say I haven't worked with it so anything new that pops up there's always a chance that I can do a small video about it those ten minute nutshell videos I would I would call them or introduction videos to a technology or module or something like that okay that was my top one number one video of 2018 small recap my top videos of 2018 number three was the solar lipo lithium ion charger circuits number two was the peristaltic pump DIY or by episode and number one was the testing elcbs lithium chromic batteries video I hope there will be more exciting productions into 19 I'm sure of it if I put work into it I will get some awesome results I hope we will see for now let's stop the video review and let's get over to the patreon questions and I got a few of them 13 to be exact I think there should be so let's start with Anton which says hey Scott my question would be if by any chance you would take a look at K and X / e ib in the next year funny thing is I I never said those words in English but in German and familiar with those its conics or i'p I I will continue the question now I I know that this topic is quite popular in Germany yes for home automation personally I would be very interested in the process of designing a custom KNX device to interface with an Arduino etc there are some projects out there which have achieved already quite a lot but your 10-minute nutshell video would be a great petition greetings Anton Anton a very good question suggestion however you want to call that like I already said all my friends are electricians I hope I hear KNX conics I've quite a bit when they are talking about what they're doing for me it's something new I haven't worked with it but I'm definitely interested so I'm putting it on my to-do list and hopefully I will get to it in 2019 okay next question from Joe hi Scott I'm always looking to improve my bench test gear in particular da Q with Picea MS win or oh s X interfaces monitoring and recording voltage current and temp and offering a clean operator panel on the PC you would be the goal cost is the challenge even for yours you skier the next option would be why but good performance is mandatory I would appreciate it if you could consider something along those lines regards Joe thanks for the question Joe and DA Q is data acquisition I would say yeah data acquisition for me something new I would say I always do my measurements with test gear which is standalone like the oscilloscope or a multimeter something like that da q I think there are PC or Scylla scopes and logic analyzers and spectrum analyzers and all those things so I will consider it I'm not quite sure how much of a video I can do with this it sounds like more like a review for me again I will have to look into its more carefully but it's a possibility I will definitely put it on my to-do list next question David's W de villiers since I have tagged out my Ultron table I have been wondering about phono preamps to kids I would love to make one that has good audio performance and its own power supplying anything like this would be great welcome to 2019 oh happy New Year to you as well the phone or preempted circuits as far as I know those are used to amplify the output of a turntable and to get it to voltage levels which are on pair with ordinary audio devices like your mp3 player or your phone so they are used for amplifying I'm not quite sure whether they are used for modifying the audio waveform I will have to look into that but it sounds interesting maybe I will get a turntable talk a bit about it about the amplification and then do a small DIY preamp circuit maybe definitely possible I put it on my to-do list castas not Kostas cava Nazis asks hi Scots I would like to ask in a Q&A if we have used any tools like power fix Parkside etc and what's your opinion about a tool if not is there any chance for reviews about that cheap tools on in 2019 thanks in advance cost us good question I have not used such tools if you're not familiar with power fix or Parkside me neither but I know that there are low-cost brands for something like an angle grinder angle grinder or something like that but when it comes to power tools my choice is always something like Makita or t-bolt or something like that not the cheap stuff I think I'm too happy with my good power tools I don't want to try something like that hours and reviews for that also no sorry no but still no because mmm it's not that much button it is about electronic power tools are also electronics in in a way but I don't think it's interesting I'm not a fan of such reviews and I always like to produce something which I'm interested in because that's the point when I think others would be interested in it as well and power tools is just not my subject so sorry about that I think there are other channels who do that so look out for them Benjamin as a longtime subscriber I definitely like Q&A I know all your videos pretty well so a rewind would just be redundant okay not a question but thanks for the feedback and yes I'm doing the Q&A next question Alex hair Scott's I've been wondering for a while now how to build my own lithium battery discharge test on and your video about it was really informative but I want to test the output of lipo cells up to 6s the problem with that is that I need something to dissipate the insane amount of current up to 500 ms 500 mg oh okay that's a lot of current I was planning on using a high power MOSFET to that but they are rare and expensive so instead I want to use a single high power MOSFET or an array of them to drop that power into resistance wire and then measure the input power to determine the voltage and current I think it sounds fun I think it sounds fun as well but 500 amps it's that's quite a lot that's I hope that's not the nominal current of your battery and it sounds more like a surge current but if you're in for that sure you can do that with the MOSFETs what I would recommend is putting a couple of high power resistors may be in serious would be MOSFETs so you can spread out the heats more evenly between the MOSFETs and the resistance but then again with only MOSFETs you would have a much lower voltage drop like maybe zero point something volts and this way you can draw much more current with the resistors though you always cuts and ohm or 2 ohms and that then equals voltage drop which is much higher than the MOSFET so you can draw less current so it's a push and pull you have to see what you want to get for values and what you have to use but what I would recommend is definitely checking out my constant load project which I did a couple of weeks or months I think ago it also got the basic principle with the MOSFETs I'm not sure if I put resistors and serious because I was not dissipating that much heat with the MOSFET so it was okay but have a look at that use that maybe as a blueprint as a starting point and then adds more precise measurements for the input power the output power and track tee time so you can calculate the capacity of the battery and I think that would be my advice look for the project and then improve it in a way that it suits your needs okay um okay neon Manship hi something quite simple for an unscripted video I don't do unscripted videos those cue nays are the only ones which are unscripted because for me I always try to produce the content I would like to see more often on YouTube and scripted stuff is something I love to see so i produce it as well and the fact for that is that if i would do something like that i'm not sure what you want to say but i will know it in a second unscripted wise it would take around 30 minutes to do something simple but if I would do a scrip for it I could dance me pack that and maybe three or five minutes and you would get the same results but I was not wasting more time that much and I was getting and I was entertaining you in a more professional way I would say so no unscripted videos for me for me it not it was what's the intention of what I just said in a nutshell no unscripted videos from here okay let's see now I'd like to power up a 12 volt LED strip with a single 18 650 lithium-ion battery what I've found so far is not practical for strips longer than one meter as typical 5 watt per meter gets close to the cells max current offering can you explore affordable solution or completely rule out such a setup with the set up you mean with the single 18 650 if your battery cannot handle it from its datasheet would be current output and voltage output then there's really nothing you can do about it you cannot add an electronic circuit to fix that so in this case you would have to rule out such a setup worked a single cell and the easiest solution in this case would be just evil putting a couple of them and serious adding a BMS circuits to charge them up balanced and going that route or using brand new cells and putting a couple of those in parallel but I think I would go with the serious connection with the BMS and then just stepping down the voltage and I think you can even get battery packs for that commercially ones which are already assembled and have all the protection and charging features included so I think that would be the easiest solution which should be affordable so look into that next question from Christopher Bassett how do you really decide what processor to use what are your overall plans for the channel in 2019 any particular focus or new series good question that question will take a bit longer than the other ones because a couple got a couple of things ideas I want to share with you and get your feedback on so yes but let's start with how do you really site what processor to use with processor you probably mean my controller if it's a small simple project I always use the Arduino the Arduino is popular it's well supported and accessible the easiest to access so of course for electronics channel who wants to have viewers which are not all engineers it's important to be accessible and that's why I choose chose choice and chose the Arduino most of the time but other than that it depends on what you want to do if I wanted to do an electronics on IOT projects I use the ESPE 32 or the esp8266 or the WHMIS or something like that but I was not in this situation so far that I needed another microcontroller than those two options like it's either the Arduino or the ESP that's it most of the time but then again there are tons of my controllers which I might check out in this year maybe very soon not trying to spoil it too much but we will see okay so what are your overall plans for the channel 2019 any particular focus on your series I will continue what I was doing last year that's definitely important right now I got one project which will definitely come out in January I got another DIY or buy episode which I'm working on I got another small video about a new technology which I would love to share and I got another bigger project for the 1 million subscriber milestone which I will show you right now because I would love to hear your feedback on it so this is what I've been working on it's a bit dusty it's been sitting in the shelf for four bits so it's a quadcopter or drone however you want to call it this one was a request from lots of us for four years now and it's not a complete DIY solution as you can see the frame is bought a lot of parts are 3d printers so I would consider that DIY because I designed them as well and yeah it's not gonna be a DIY project I would say it's more like a beginners guides project so when I started finding arts for the drone quadcopter however you want to call it and it was quite complicated because the market is overflowing with components with tons of things you can get there are different connectors there are different protocols it's quite confusing so what I will try to do with the video is just giving a beginner's guide like look you want to build a drone on your own a quadcopter whatever you want to call it and here is how you can do that like you need those parts you can assemble them this way those parts work with those parts you can use this transmitter with this receiver because it works in that way but not this one with this one this is the kind of video I want to make for the quadcopter for the drone and then of course incorporate software aspects like you have to use this software you can balance it out this way so it will be a big tutorial which will talk about all the different components of such a drone and how they work on a simple level not that detail like the GPS the ESC the Bill DC motors what they can lift how you can calculate that what kind of battery you have to use and all those in combination will be the tutorial in the end of course it didn't fly yet I didn't get to that I hope it will otherwise I will have a big problem but yeah that's a beginner's guide to drones 2 quad copters will be the 1 million subscriber special I hope that's fine with you so many people asked for it I hope I'm not disappointing too much by going with a bit more commercial routes because if you want to do a DIY quadcopter there's the big question where do you draw the line of DIY like do I have to do the EC's completely on my own to do a DIY drone the motors do have to DIY them the only thing which I would say makes to DIY in such cases actually just the frame the rest is just too complicated to just DIY a proper solution and that's why I went with this route in the end I hope it's it's fine with most of the viewers I hope I just described it in a way that it makes sense what I try to get across with this video when it's done it will take some time I'm not even sure if it's gonna be a one video or two part video series or maybe three parts I'm not that much into the production process but another thing that I can share which is quite interesting is that those EEOC's are very special ones because those use the FOC principle the FIDE orient control principle which i did a video about a couple of weeks ago months ago I'm not sure those are very efficient and I will talk about them in the video because they also use a special communication protocol which is USB can I think can can boost maybe that can also be the focus of the video I'm not quite sure yet I'm figuring things out I will see how it turn out but I hope I got you a bit excited for the 1 million milestone video and also because I will have to we'll fill this drone while it's in the air I got a second drone this one though is commercial I got it a while ago it was actually a presence from jl sia PCB if you're familiar with them because they visit me in germany and as a presence they brought me a drone which i was actually i didn't know that it was just at the time while we're searching for drawing by myself so I could film this in self pose one and yeah it's a DJI medic error I've flown it a couple of times works great it will do the job just fine and it's not the most expensive Joan you can get so there are better ones but I think for me who will just use it for this video and maybe try to incorporate a bit more your own footage in other videos it'll be just fine but then again have you tried getting it getting the drone in Germany is not a problem the regulations for the drone is in same it's Germany all over again with all their stuff they would like to regulate it's ridiculous because if you build a drone on your own in Germany and want to get it off the ground and in the air it's hell there are so many regulations you have I think you have to do something like a driver license for drones if you want to drive your home at once and for those commercial ones which are not that heavy it's easier but there's so many regulations it's look for it google it you will have good laughs it's ridiculous but then again let's not talk about that anymore other than that there are three or four videos already in production one will come out with definitely in January now you might be wondering hey why only one video in January I set it on patreon I said it on Twitter or Facebook currently I want to take a small break creatively I would say because it's people who just watch the videos and are like oh ten minute video that takes and now to produce no it doesn't take an hour to videos it takes 40 to 60 hours something along those lines sometimes more sometimes less but the last months has been pretty stressful so I don't want to push myself too much anymore and producing one video per week week it's still my goal I know people are waiting for it I know the YouTube algorithm is waiting for me to mess up to put my channel as low as possible getting me as less views as possible and that's why also something like patreon is very important for me because it caps gives me creative freedom that I have more time to put into projects so that I don't have to stress myself out don't put that many mistakes in videos because I think in the last two videos there were some not big mistakes but small mistakes which I was very upset about of having them in there I don't know what was wrong with me to put them in the video maybe it was stress maybe the lack of time and I would love to invest more time in videos and not stress me out so much is what I'm basically trying to say and I'm not sure if I can do this weekly schedule all the time anymore I will see how things work out but I will not force it anymore let's let's say it that way so for me it would be great if you consider supporting me on patreon so that I can actually afford this lifestyle of not forcing myself to create one video per week per week like I said it before a dozen of times $1 donation per month on patreon makes a huge difference for me if just 1% of my subscribers would do something like that for me I would have no problem financing my videos and maybe getting assistance to put a bit of work load from here because lots of people still don't realize that I see that in the emails and Facebook messages and all that I'm still a one-man production I'm this guy me that's all the work all the research all the projects all the soldering all the editing all the voiceovers all the everything and yeah that takes time so I'm gonna stop now what I want to say is maybe there will be one video every two weeks but most of the time I will still try to do this one video per week thing yes and the last thing about the production DIY or by I know lots of people love this series I will definitely continue it it's not that hard to do actually because there are a lot of commercial things which you can DIY and of course finding out whether those DIYs are worth it it's definitely interesting so this series will continue electronics basics I'm not that sure because the it was there was a time when lots of people enjoyed those videos there were getting lots of use lots of attention but right now with the more advanced topics I'm trying to bring to the viewers many people are not that interested and I think just is the name electronic basics now sounds in the ear of the viewer like oh it's only gonna be theory or boring I'll wait for the next video and that's not something I want I think so I'm not sure about how I will continue the basic series maybe I will just not name them name them basics videos maybe just giving them a catchy title like while you're drawing too much power from the power grid even though your load doesn't need it the secret of reactive power or something like that because just such a catchy title always makes a bit of difference of course I don't want to get in the clickbait territory that's something I definitely do not want but I will have to see how the basics videos will continue other than that there will be the usual kinds of videos projects most importantly new technology exploring videos whenever I get something interesting maybe even fix-it videos I recently got one case where I thought okay might be a good idea of not sure yet we will see but it will always be about electronics and having fun with it and building stuff creative stuff okay and one last thing about the projects which I wanted to ask not sure if it's an interesting subject yes those are books and I know it's not interesting don't click away right away those are actually old books I got from a friend of mine whose relative was an electrician they are German books for example am a far bigger mess hi Tom - Tom stall - you may file I'm so much stuck in the English right now Mayer far bigger mess hall - min - stockholm technic translators multicarts measuring schematics of the high current technology and those books are pretty old this one is from 1952 and I thought it would be interesting to just have a look at a couple of those schematic diagrams and see how old electronics solve problems or measured things and how modern electronics do such things maybe it would be interesting as a kind of versus serious like old versus new measuring things or schematics which were used back in the days and modern equivalents let me know if that is something which sounds interesting because I have a couple of those books I'm not sure if there's a very good example in those which is perfect for such type of videos but I would just love to know if the basic ideas sounds interesting here we got some multicolored sharp multicolored schematics as well if you want to see if you want to have an example here is electrician video stunts brem zoom let's see if we can get it in focus yeah I hope you can see that and that is an example of the pictures of these schematics in this book there are tons of those there is a ton of those it looks interesting from the start and then you gots maybe towers and tips for in amateur electronica a thousand tips for the amateur electronic electrician amateur electrician yeah and this one is from 1969 it also looks very interesting yeah you've got some really nicely drawn schematics in here and then we got volume 2 of this book serious if that sounds interesting to you let me know if not let me know ok and with that being said let's move on to the next question johan graph casts asks do you see any drawback to using a more advanced processor like vemos d1 for projects that don't immediately need that sort of power slash network connectivity yes the drawback is support for example if you use Arduino you can Google pretty much any question with what we know what the problem you're having and you will probably find an answer with them we must be bond I think it's much harder to find an answer for such ok it's based on the ESP the ESP is also pretty well supported and there are lots of people who use it but yeah that's the own thing I would come up with as a drawback with the support other than that you should be fine with the we mas Scott Cashman I really enjoyed the DIY or buy and the electronics basics videos they are great for quick revision question do you plan on making more of these types of videos this year and I already said it DIY or buy definitely there will be lots more if you got good ideas let me know in the comment section and I'm actually producing a DIY or buy episode at the moment so there will be one soon and like I already said it before the basics videos it's a tough question people don't seem to enjoy them at the moment as much as I would like them to enjoy it as they used to enjoy it and that is why I'm not sure how the future of those look like maybe I will fuse them with more practical examples and not call them basics videos anymore because I would still love to teach people those basics but then again I would love to reach as many people as possible so I have to make it attractive and that's maybe why I should part with the name of the sonic basics series but I'm not sure let me know your comments pret has asked please tell us about the most complex challenge you faced and being a maker on YouTube and in your field of electronics I'd really love to know what you learned from the challenge thank you in the field of being a mech on YouTube biggest challenge is time management definitely it's not even about finding a subject I have tons of subjects to choose from it's really just how you manage your time how you get videoed video out every week and staying relevant I would say is the big challenge so that's definitely for being a maker on YouTube and in the field of electronics the biggest challenge was probably designing a proper Tesla coil circuit my video about Tesla coils it was a three part video series it was fun to make but it also was very challenging to make so this was I think the biggest challenge once again time was also a problem because I had to get it done in some way and turned out the way it ended up was good I was happy about it but it was definitely a challenge so those were the two biggest challenges last question from Pete Kelly I'd like to hear about a way to determine the secondary of an unmarked transformer I hope the primary up to my variac 20 volts to 30 volts and measure every combination of wires and create a truth table for the secondary there has to be a better way is there a better way and because I'm doing it in a similar way if I have a transformer I use a resistor in serious to the primary side and then I would use my function generator to apply sinusoidal voltage and then I would measure the secondary side and thus determine the windings to one another so I would do it the same way you could also think about measuring the resistance and the inductance but I think the reason that would not work out I think I would have to think about it a bit more but from my first impression I think measuring the resistance and inductance is not a proper way to do that so I would definitely go with the way you just described maybe not the very act but other than that should work okay and those where the questions I think one last question which just came in from goose fun and back maybe you should think of making a website and category your project so we can easily find what we are looking for keep the good book up very good idea not a new idea I would say I fought about creating my own website one or two years ago I think and the reason you which the idea you just described about cataract categorizing my projects was actually one of the main reasons I actually wanted to create website the only problem is I don't have time to create a website with weekly videos know that I'm taking a bit things a bit more slowly I might have that time I will see but definitely coded but definitely a good idea maybe even incorporate a forum so you got your projects and then you got maybe even suggestions that's what I would love to see suggestions from viewers or other engineers who are like he didn't like that but maybe you want to change that value and tweak those things so you'll get better results because I'm not perfect no one is that can always be improvement for everything and yeah that would definitely be nice but I cannot promise anything I will have to see whether I can get the website done in 2019 we will see and with that being said thanks for the questions I hope you enjoyed the video I hope it wasn't too boring and last but not least let's get back to the giveaway to these sick lands giveaway I already described all the amazing features of this gadget at the beginning of the video now you might ask how you can enter pretty simple the supporters on patreon now how it works they're supposed on patreon and you have to follow the guidelines all the good stuff you're familiar with that and three of those multimeters will be for those patreon supporters and one will be for all my YouTube viewers and the way this works is you go over to the community tab on my youtube channel and there will be a small post not sure what will be written there may be something like comment here to enter the giveaway and all you have to do is comment there and you enter the giveaway and in a week I will then choose randomly a winner there's no big question this time once again just put your name on there maybe write something nice maybe even feedback for this video maybe an idea and everyone who commented there will be in the giveaway with that being said I hope 2019 will be an awesome year for my video production I hope there will be lots of interesting projects videos which you will hopefully like and yeah that's it now there's only one thing left to say stay creative and I will see you next time