NerdKits - Very happy indeed. (Customer Testimonials)

You are not logged in. [log in]

NEW: Learning electronics? Ask your questions on the new Electronics Questions & Answers site hosted by CircuitLab.

Customer Testimonials » Very happy indeed.

NerdKits » Forums » Customer Testimonials » Very happy indeed. (2 posts)

December 13, 2010 by auto_turret	I've been interested in learning about uC's ever since I took an electronics course 2 years ago. After much experimenting and thinking about it, I finally decided on purchasing a kit to play with. I googled around for a microcontroller kit and decided on this one. I haven't tried any other ones but I think this is the absolute best one around. Not because of the parts it came with, but because of the course included and the incredible support I got. The course was extremely well put together and I can tell alot of thought has been put into it. I did screw up however. When I plugged in the temperature sensor LM-34, I must have hooked it in backwards or one of the pins to the wrong spot, which caused the magic smoke to escape. Electronic components will not work without their magic smoke! I shot an e-mail to the NK fellas, and asked about replacement parts. Not only do they have replacement parts at a great price, but they wrote me a nice long e-mail back with lots of tips on how to troubleshoot the rest of the kit's parts in case they were in fact still ok so I wouldn't have to buy anything I didn't need! Very detailed and helpful! I almost expected one of those "rtfm" type responses, but he really went out of his way to support the product from every angle. I respect that, you just can't find that kind of help these days! Learning with the NK isn't about the destination, it's all about the journey baby! Thank you guys times a million! PS. I'm not sure about this, and it's probably a dumb question, but on page 27 of the NK PDF file, it says "We're using it here as a "bypass capacitor," to help smooth out the power supply voltage to the microcontroller." Maybe I'm wrong, but I thought that a capacitor used in that way to smooth out ripples in voltage was called a "filter capacitor," and a capacitor used as a "bypass capacitor" meant that it was used in a circuit to allow AC to pass and block DC. Was there a reason that term was used instead or are these interchangeable?
December 13, 2010 by mongo	It bypasses the AC component to ground. Same thing I suppose.

December 13, 2010
by auto_turret
auto_turret's Avatar

I've been interested in learning about uC's ever since I took an electronics course 2 years ago. After much experimenting and thinking about it, I finally decided on purchasing a kit to play with. I googled around for a microcontroller kit and decided on this one. I haven't tried any other ones but I think this is the absolute best one around. Not because of the parts it came with, but because of the course included and the incredible support I got.

The course was extremely well put together and I can tell alot of thought has been put into it.

I did screw up however. When I plugged in the temperature sensor LM-34, I must have hooked it in backwards or one of the pins to the wrong spot, which caused the magic smoke to escape. Electronic components will not work without their magic smoke!

I shot an e-mail to the NK fellas, and asked about replacement parts. Not only do they have replacement parts at a great price, but they wrote me a nice long e-mail back with lots of tips on how to troubleshoot the rest of the kit's parts in case they were in fact still ok so I wouldn't have to buy anything I didn't need! Very detailed and helpful! I almost expected one of those "rtfm" type responses, but he really went out of his way to support the product from every angle. I respect that, you just can't find that kind of help these days!

Learning with the NK isn't about the destination, it's all about the journey baby! Thank you guys times a million!

PS. I'm not sure about this, and it's probably a dumb question, but on page 27 of the NK PDF file, it says "We're using it here as a "bypass capacitor," to help smooth out the power supply voltage to the microcontroller." Maybe I'm wrong, but I thought that a capacitor used in that way to smooth out ripples in voltage was called a "filter capacitor," and a capacitor used as a "bypass capacitor" meant that it was used in a circuit to allow AC to pass and block DC. Was there a reason that term was used instead or are these interchangeable?

December 13, 2010
by mongo

It bypasses the AC component to ground. Same thing I suppose.

Post a Reply

Please log in to post a reply.