Chess strategy

I enjoyed this one: I wasted years losing at chess, until I learned this.

Focus on solid moves. Don’t attack, wait for opponent to blunder. Try to avoid pushing pawns unless you have to. You can develop C, D, E pawns. Open by putting a pawn in the center. Castle early.

After the castle we’re into the mid-game. Then every move we have to look for:

  • Checks
  • Captures
  • Threats

If there are no checks/captures/threats we go for Optimization. So develop any pieces still on the back rank or the C, D, E pawns.

So it’s Checks, Captures, Threats, Optimizations.

Note: just because you have a check or capture doesn’t necessarily mean you have to play it.

Bottom line: avoid blundering and wait for your opponent to blunder.

Channel News #7: Announcing ITL Wiki and Pre-Reading for LtAoE | In The Lab With Jay Jay

This post is part of my video blog and you can find more information about this video over here.

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Silly Job Title: Connector Kingpin.

In this video I tell you about the new ITL Wiki.

The notes for Learning the Art of Electronics are there: ITL Wiki § Learning the Art of Electronics.

I am running late with Lab #1 from Learning the Art of Electronics. That video was meant to come out today, but I’ve pushed it back to next Tuesday so I have time to prepare the notes and record the lab.

See you next Tuesday? :)

Thanks very much for watching! And please remember to hit like and subscribe! :)


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Interlude #16: False Start for Learning the Art of Electronics | In The Lab With Jay Jay

This post is part of my video blog and you can find more information about this video over here.

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Silly Job Title: Lightning Tamer.

This project’s homepage is here: John’s wiki § Learning the Art of Electronics.

This video is me making a false start on the Learning the Art of Electronics series which I am just about to embark on. What happened was after I got a bit more than two hours into recording the video for the first lab exercise I realized that it was taking too long with my approach. I didn’t want to make another twelve hour video! I was planning to go through the literature in painstaking detail and cover everything, but it turned out there was way too much material for that approach to be feasible.

What I am planning to do instead for the actual first video (due out next Tuesday) is do all the reading by myself in advance and then offer a brief summary and some recommended reading. I’m going to try to make the bulk of the video the actual practical experiment/circuit and leave the reading out.

But since I recorded the video for this “false start” I figured there’d be no harm in posting it by itself. Most of this video is the Appendix O material from The Art of Electronics 3ed which is a brief introduction to oscilloscopes.

In this video we mention CMOS technology, particularly MOSFETs.

We mention the Josephson effect which can cause a current to flow across superconductors in the absence of an applied voltage.

The SI size prefixes are documented on my wiki.

In this video we learn about voltage and current.

We take a close look at Appendix O in AoE which introduces the oscilloscope and mentions delay lines.

The oscilloscope appendix makes mention of Asimov’s short story from 1960, Thiotimoline and the Space Age.

We mention quantization, Planck units, and Zeno’s paradox.

I show you can illustration from Getting Started in Electronics.

If you’re planning to follow along with the series the pre-reading for the first video coming out on Tuesday is: E&M ch. 1, 2; PoEC ch. 1; AoE app. A, ch. 1; LtAoE ch. 1N, 1L.

Thanks very much for watching! And please remember to hit like and subscribe! :)


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Electronics Project #11: TJ-56-428 4-Digit Digital DIY Clock Take 2 | In The Lab With Jay Jay

This post is part of my video blog and you can find more information about this video over here.

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Silly Job Title: Wattage Warlock.

In this video we build the TJ-56-428 4-Digit Digital Clock just like we did last time.

You read that right. We made one of these before and I liked it so much that we are making one again! I get better at it this time round, I don’t make any of the mistakes I did last time.

In the introduction to this video I mention about my new Blu-ray player which I got so I could watch Colossus: The Forbin Project. Both my Blu-ray disc and my Blu-ray player are for Region B.

As I mention I have been writing for Hackaday! So that’s been keeping me busy.

The instructions for this clock are over here: TJ-56-428 4-Digit Digital DIY Clock (same as last time).

I mention about the new Learning the Art of Electronics project which we’re just about to get started with.

The microcontroller in this clock is the STC15W404AS. It comes in the kit pre-programmed and I’ve not been able to find the software anywhere. Bummer. If you know where to get the software please do let me know!

The temperature controlled resistor is a 10K NTC thermistor which seems to be used for the room temperature function (which I don’t use and didn’t calibrate).

The crystal oscillator is spec’ed as 32768 which is obviously a reference to the clock frequency. See Why do we use 32.768 kHz crystals in most circuits? We check the impedance of this device in the video using the Peak Atlas LCR45.

In the video I mention my mate Joe who helped me out last time I did this project. Thanks Joe!

We use the METCAL PS-900 Soldering Station to do our soldering.

We use the Fluke 17B+ Digital Multimeter to test the voltage on our USB power adapters.

We use the EEVblog BM2257 Digital Multimeter to check our resistors.

We use the Peak Electronic Design Atlas DCA75 Pro Semiconductor Analyzer to test the crystal (we don’t get a reading, which was expected).

We use the Peak Electronic Design Atlas LCR45 LCR Meter to test our crystal. It gives us an impedance reading at 200kHz with both real and imaginary components.

We use the Hakko CHP 3C-SA Precision Tweezers to hold our solder and poke about. At one point I drop a component lead offcut into the board and it shorted two resistors, so lucky I found it and pulled it out!

And that’s everything to know about this project!

Here’s a photo of the completed project installed next to the symbol keyboard on my desk:

Here's a photo of my clock installed on my desk next to my symbol keyboard.

Thanks very much for watching! And please remember to hit like and subscribe! :)


Following is a product I use picked at random from my collection which may appear in my videos. Clicking through on this to find and click on the green affiliate links before purchasing from eBay or AliExpress is a great way to support the channel at no cost to you. Thanks!

Yum Cha DT830B Digital MultimeterThis is an image of the product.notes

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