Kammi_tama_art: I'm actually

SO PSYCHED by this class. So psyched that I am taking two more of his classes in the Fall. How often does a teacher come into class and just say "okay, I have some stuff here...take it apart" and then just tell you where the tools are. We had to hack through the gear as cleanly was possible (mine was an old DVD player), take out all the boards or anything we wanted, throw away the excess plastic, and we're taking off components of the boards to make new things. Oh, we're also using noxious chemicals! Yayyyy!
We'll be etching our own board, drilling the holes and all of that by hand, and of course desoldering and soldering. So awesome and the FOUNDATION for all this digital electronics stuff. Everyone wants to use an Ardu!n0 and a breadboard to avoid soldering..blah blah blah etc, but the foundation is this stuff right here. If you understand these components and whatnot, you can make anything. It's also an extension of what I do at work, so it ties in nicely, and also with my c0ding classes (same kind of analytical and problem solving skills). I know what most of these components are already, but my interest is in designing them efficiently. He's also having a special class he only has once every three years, and he said he'd let us in. So I'm doing that, also.
Oh, and once again..I'm the only girl in the class. Not that that matters (so used to it!), but there was another girl in class and she got all weird when he said "take the board out" and decided she didn't feel comfortable and didn't want to try...I think she might end up dropping but oh well.

I've been noticing a lot of the female techies are kind of like that. They're the ones who enjoy the theoretical stuff, but the guys get all b@lls deep (no pun intended) and I think it is to the ladies' disadvantage when they don't try to hack and do that sort of stuff. They just don't seem to stick it out. There was one girl in my class who said she wanted to do electrical eng and she hadn't taken a single milling class, a single board or electronics class; just her pre-reqs in math and physics, etc. She gave me this attitude, too, when I asked her if she had taken any of that stuff, like she didn't need to because she "just loved math". Umm...ok. I feel badly; those guys are going to smoke her, and I hate to say it but besides calculations (which yes, is needed in some jobs), it puts a person at a significant disadvantage if they don't have the hands-on skills. Not sure why the ladies shy away from that stuff.

Anyways..here are some pics.
Hacked out these boards cleanly, including a few motors. The main board was FILLED with caps..I've never seen so many on a single board!