I was considering taking a bioinformatics class at a local university. It would be at the undergraduate level. I have all the statistics, 2 years calculus, and linear algebra, but I lack knowledge of genetics. The course summary has low level biology classes, but to fully understand what the math represents I know a class in genetics is essential. I have no background in biology: the labs. I have read in Make magazine of building a home-brew bio lab. These are miniature labs that use existing technology that is available relatively inexpensive. Do you think it is worthwhile to build a bio-lab? I want to expand my knowledge of amateur radio and electronics. Electronics is also rather ready available and cheap. But I think building an amateur bio-lab and electronics both is too time intensive and I’d learn both but never master either.

 

I also found a computational mathematics course online. It is a computer science concentration. I figure that is what I do now for fun: crunching numbers. I want to transition or just quit trying to factor semiPrimes. I have read much cryptography, but I thought the computational mathematics would cover AI.

 

But you need to look at my latest math post after reading my latest status update. There is a link in the Status Update to a secure link to the Mathematica Notebooks. There is nothing to download you can see them in any web browser.

 

PNP the N of the equation, is the unsolved RSA-260 number, so it will be fun to check it for yourself.

I though about taking an online degree but it is just too expensive. I read “Maverick Scientist” by Forest Mims and he suggests to “just do science” and spend the tuition money on equipment. The book is very encouraging for amateur scientists.

Does anyone here have an electronics or bio-lab at home? We probably all have some kind of man cave.

Restated the question is you are building a home brew lab what do you put in it?

It could be any theme: electronics, biology, mathematics, computer programming, cars, 3d printing, chemistry, etc.

What goes in the home lab.

11 hours ago, Trurl said:

Restated the question is you are building a home brew lab what do you put in it?

It could be any theme: electronics, biology, mathematics, computer programming, cars, 3d printing, chemistry, etc.

What goes in the home lab.

That list would ne very wide and very expensive

I suggest trying to narrow it down a bit.

You could try to get hold of

The Book of Experiments

The Second Book of Experiments

By De Vries

I particularly like the list of equipment in one experiment

You will require

I thunderstorm.

...

More modern books with good experiments

From Calculus to Chaos - Acheson

The Mathematical Mechanic - Levi

12 hours ago, Trurl said:

It could be any theme: electronics,

An electronics technician needs: a multimeter, a soldering iron (preferably with adjustable temperature, but these are more expensive), a solder sucker, a set of screwdrivers of various types, miniature tweezers (such as those used for plucking nose hair), and an antistatic mat may also be useful. If you intend to repair phones, there are special mats with designated places to put screws, which will prevent them from getting lost. e.g.:

Their prices are so low that if I were you, I would immediately order one for repairing phones and one normal large one.

A cell phone repair kit would also be useful—they are very cheap. Around $5 for Android and $5 for iPhone.

If you also have a 3D printer or a more expensive soldering iron with a built-in hot tip, then you have everything you need to repair a damaged phone screen.

(The filament 3D printer has an adjustable printing surface temperature. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fused_filament_fabrication

The cheapest FFF/FDM 3d printer from Creality Ender-3 costs 250-300 USD)

That's probably everything that's cheap and for everyone.

More expensive items include adjustable power supplies, both voltage and current, which prevent exceeding the range. These devices can be purchased for between $50 and $200.

Even more expensive items include microscopes for electronics engineers (although there are some imitation models available for less than $25—I have one, and it works fine, but it is slow rate at 640x480).

An IR camera is very useful for checking which component is heating up the most, i.e., is likely to be damaged because unlimited current and/or excessive voltage is flowing through

The cheapest IR cameras cost around $300-400 and connect to cell phones via USB. I've seen some junk for less than $100, but they have a resolution of around 32 pixels or something like that, so it's better to go for higher resolution.

An oscilloscope is a useful but expensive tool. $100-$500. However, it can be simulated using Arduino and a voltage divider and/or an opto element that will buffer between the circuit and Arduino.

An oscilloscope will allow you to see what current and/or voltage is flowing through a given circuit over time. This way, you can find out whether the computer is booting and at which stage it fails.

More expensive laboratory power supplies have their own current/voltage consumption graph on a time chart.

The repair procedure for any electronic device is as follows: connect a laboratory power supply to the device, point an IR camera at it, and start increasing the voltage and current from 0V/0A (remember to zero it prior connecting!), watching which components heat up. You reach the voltage that it gets from the power supply at the factory (search the net/read etiquette). You see if it draws current, and you adjust it along with the voltage. If it's a simple fault, the damaged component usually lights up on the IR camera. Then you start analyzing whether it exceeds its parameters and why this may be happening. A typical component that breaks down is an electrolytic capacitor that has worn out and whose parameters have changed, causing it to no longer meet the basic design specifications.

Sometimes you can even see which components have burned out and literally exploded. This often happens with capacitors, for example, and sometimes with resistors and chips (they then have a hole in their casing).

If the CPU or another chip is damaged, you will still have a problem finding a replacement. Often, you have to buy other devices, the same model, and transplant them, cannibalize them.

Chips can be non-programmable or programmable. To repair a programmable chip, you not only have to re-solder it, but also copy and extract data from the old broken one. Various readers are used for this purpose. That's a different story and a different level of difficulty.

To properly replace such a chip or CPU on a computer or laptop motherboard, a so-called preheater is useful.

If you intend to solder a lot of cables, you may also consider purchasing a soldering pot. Their prices vary depending on their tin capacity and power.

If you don't intend to repair but design electronic circuits, you will need breadboards and cables for them (male-male, male-female, and female-female), as well as quick connectors for breadboards. Cheap. $5 for a large breadboard. A set of cables for them probably costs $5-10. Arduino is a must-have. Raspberry Pi optional. You don't need starter-kit - it is a waste of money. You don't need original - clone is good and cheap too. $10 for Arduino-clone is fine price.

I hope this is enough to get you started on your adventure with repairing and/or building electronics.

13 hours ago, Trurl said:

What goes in the home lab.

Your wallet is your limit.. ;)

Edited December 7Dec 7 by Sensei

To desolder and repair, you will also need items such as 1L of IPA, distilled water (to clean dirt and/or flooded laptops) - it must be evaporated well - use IPA + hot air for this, ear sticks. But these are negligible costs.

A desoldering hot air gun can be stand-alone or built into a soldering iron. The cheapest stand-alone model I've seen costs 8 USD (when it is good device you can control temperature with potentiometer and LED screen)

If you don't intend to repair electronics professionally, there's no point in overpaying for fancy soldering stations. You'll use it once in a blue moon (i.e., never).

Electronic boards may have internal tracks that are hidden. multi-layer boards. Such boards are extremely difficult and/or impossible to repair, and in most cases, it ends up being a waste of time. How can the internal layers be damaged? Water from flooding, warping of the board due to uneven heating (because you don't have a preheater, which is quite expensive equipment (entire computer/laptop mobo must fit in it), and you used a regular hot air gun from a soldering iron or a stand-alone device), or an electronic component explosion and charring underneath it due to high temperature (caused by high current flow and/or excessive voltage). Charring allows current to pass with high resistance in random places that are completely unintended for this, what damages other elements.

As a beginner, you are unlikely to encounter such hardcore problems, and if you see such a hole in the board, you will probably just throw it on the pile of potential components to be used in other repairs.

To perform CPU/GPU repairs, you must have a BGA resoldering kit with balls and nets, various sizes of balls and nets. They are sold in sets containing, for example, 25,000 balls, so once you buy them, you probably won't use them up in your lifetime.

But these are already “serious repairs”..

This requires a microscope and a hot air to melt these balls. If you make a mistake and they stick together, or if one is missing, the CPU will burn out.

Processors are not resistant to hot air that has no temperature control.

The simplest project on Arduino is simply turning the built-in LED on and off. If you connect a digital pin to a 120/240V relay, you can control a serious electrical device such as a light bulb or motor. If you buy a slightly more expensive Arduino clone that has built-in WiFi (I see them for $7 here), in the fraction of time I spent writing this post, you can make your own HTTP server on that WiFi. There is a library for this. A few lines of code are enough. You can access such a server via your cell phone and remotely control lights and/or motors and/or TV and/or refrigerator, etc.

Here is a simple example of flashing a light bulb with Arduino:

To complete this project, you do not need 95% of the items I mentioned above; just an Arduino, a relay, and male-female quick connectors will suffice. You don't even need a soldering iron here.

To control the motor speed, instead of using a digital pin, you can use an analog pin and a transistor and a separate power from the external power supply (devices up to 5W can be connected directly to the Arduino). Arduino has a power supply input. However, it only accepts 5V. 12V+ is not recommended. This may not be enough for the motors. Or you would have to tinker with some step-up/boost-up modules to convert 5V to 12V or 24V which will be enough for a more powerful motor.

Edited December 7Dec 7 by Sensei

Since you mention biology, you might be interested in a water pump and/or solenoid valve for turning on watering. You can also combine this with a water moisture detection module so that your Arduino project waters the plants on its own.

Soldering , preheater, hot air gun, all with temperature control in one piece:

Cost $250

(preheater small size, so not good for mobos except mobile)

I’d like thank you guys for the above and beyond replies. I have been going through this post and will respond again as I go through it.

I really have to stop the SemiPrime project. I don’t know if there are Prime numbers in circuits. Maybe you could use the digital graphs of a voltage wave to act as a key in a crypto scheme. 🤪Just kidding no Primes in the circuit is the rule I must follow.

But I did wonder what are the patterns in genetics. But again no genetics in circuits is a rule I must follow. Because everything has a pattern because a pattern is just how we understand it. I don’t know if true randomness exists. I think if you wanted to prove that God cannot exist you’d have to prove randomness exists. I don’t mean that in a religious way, but a scientific way. That is what interests me with Primes. If a pattern exists can’t be proven.

But the advantage of this new approach to science is that it has a hands on approach. Circuits and experiments are tangible. And it is easier to see what you accomplished other than a journal or scratch work.

I will finish with 1 last Prime post. I would build a server to crunch Primes but that breaks the no Primes in circuits rule.