SUMMER CLASS 2025

Basic Electronics - Presented by Bill Werzner Mondays at 2:00PM

We are scheduling four Monday classes that will be held starting July 7 and continuing on July 14, 21, and 28 at Electronic Parts Outlet (EPO), 3753 Fondren Road, Houston, TX 77063. Classes are from 2PM to 5PM. We have held classes like these at EPO in previous years and are being brought back by popular demand. Cost is $15/student for the four class series of Basic electronics. All of this classes are progressive and build on the previous classes. We welcome attendees 12 years old and up!

• CLASS 1 - July 7 @ 2:00PM, Basic Electricity and Electronics.
  

This class will be directed toward those who wish to learn the fundamentals, or refresh their knowledge, of electricity, electronics, and how things work.  This course is directed toward both young and old, but recommended for those who have at least completed middle school and can understand basic math calculations. The successive classes will be optional to enroll in should you decide to continue on in our summer program.  Bring writing materials, a simple voltmeter if you choose,  and feel free to record presented audio and visual material. There will be hands on demos and take home material for study and review. Many of us have taken Defensive Driving Classes even though we have been driving for years, I have taken three or four in my lifetime, and each time I learned a little something new or something pretty basic that I had forgotten. This class could be looked upon as a refresher course, similar to Defensive Driving, as you read the topics that will be covered. Some of them could even be life savers so here we go!

 

[ 1 ] Basic electrical safety – Home wiring, grounded and ungrounded electrical outlets, 120 and 240 AC single, double, and triple phase. Short circuits, overloads, wiring mishaps, safety fuses, GFI, and circuit breakers, dealing with electrical fires and how to control them, fire extinguishers, smoke alarms, etc.

[ 2 ] Electrical loads understanding AC and DC voltage, current, power, watts, kilowatts, series / parallel, kilowatt hours. Primary and secondary DC storage batteries, carbon zinc, lead acid, and lithium cells.

[ 3 ] Basic electrical circuit testing, outlet testing with basic AC voltmeter or circuit tester, testing continuity with a simple ohmmeter, simple math calculations for volts, current (amps, milliamps). Incandescent lights and LED lights and how to test them. Electrical wire sizes (gauges) for appropriate current and voltage requirements. Stranded and solid wiring, aluminum wiring problems too!

[ 4 ]  Transformers – step up and step down, how to test them with an ohmmeter, AC to DC converters how they function and how to test them. Transformers in electronic circuits will be dealt with in the second class should you decide to continue. That class will deal with voltage multipliers and dividers.

[ 5 ]  Resistors, coils, and capacitors – just the basics!  What they are, how to identify them, and how the basically function.   This topic will be covered in more detail in classes #2 and #3.

• CLASS 2 - July 14 @ 2:00PM, Basic Electronics and Introduction to Instruments Used in Trouble shooting.
  

Class 2 will focus on the application and use of necessary equipment used in diagnosing problems in electronic equipment. The equipment used for this purpose will be simple and easy to understand and operate so no advanced engineering degree or training will be necessary. If you have ever been befuddled with an audio amplifier, power supply, etc. that despite your efforts either malfunctioned mysteriously or failed to work at all; "welcome to earth, third rock from the sun", as the old country western song goes. I have been down that road more times than I can count during the seven plus decades I have been doing electronic repairs. Yes, I learned allot over all those many years and here is my chance to share some of my knowledge with you all. Many problems we encounter in newer electronic equipment can be readily diagnosed and corrected as a minor problem, the key to this is knowing what to look for and having the knowledge to make the necessary repairs. Often these simple repairs can be done with minimal experience and having the right tools to worth with. Bring along a volt ohmmeter, writing material, cell phone to record if you desire. Hands on items will be provided and take home handouts will be included.  Older electronic equipment can present safety hazards not only from wear and tear, but sometimes from the older equipment's basic design as well. One group of vintage radios and amplifiers bear the distinctive name among repair persons as, "widow makers" a name well deserved. Don't take this warning lightly – people have lost their lives trying to repair some of these, so here you will learn essential safety precautions from this guy who himself, learned the hard way! Fortunately I was only knocked to the garage floor! So, plan on attending class #2 to learn, and review more basic trouble shooting procedures!

[ 1 ] Basic electrical safety – Review from class #1. Equipment identity (What is it, and what is it supposed to do?)  Sources for information including Sams, Riders, on line etc. Understanding basic electronic symbols in reading schematic diagrams. Sources for replacement parts – where to go and what to look for. Recommended reading material for those interested in pursuing repairs out of curiosity, as a hobby, or as a possible future business venture. 0

[ 2 ] Electronic circuit introduction: Vacuum tube and solid state equipment. How to test vacuum tubes with emission type tube tester and mutual conductance tester – how are they alike and different. How to interpret tube tester results. Transistor testing using a basic volt ohmmeter for PNP and NPN types. How to save some rare and expensive vacuum tubes that otherwise test defective – a procedure I developed myself. Testing and remounting output power transistors in audio amplifiers. Testing solid state rectifiers full and half wave.  More on full and half wave rectifiers, voltage multiplier circuits too.

[ 3 ] Identifying and testing power and output transformers, choke coils, switches, rheostats, potentiometers ( cleaning and testing volume controls that are noisy or intermittent ). Identifying under chassis components from a schematic diagram i.e. capacitors, resistors, etc. Soldering and de-soldering techniques and what solder to use when and where.

[ 4 ] Understanding resistance circuits – series and parallel configurations, resistor color codes, ceramic and carbon resistors, testing parameters and tolerances, estimating and calculating replacement resistor wattage requirements. Pitfalls in testing resistance circuits and how to avoid them. Introduction to capacitors polarized and non polarized, how to test them and replacement techniques. This section will continue into class #3. Involving more capacitor functions.

• CLASS 3 - July 21 @ 2:00PM, Basic Electronics and Introduction to Instruments Used in Trouble shooting.
  

This Class will also be somewhat an extension of class #2 in that it will review the functions and methods of testing resistors, capacitors, coils, diodes, transformers, etc. A portion of this class will also offer a chance for answering questions that you may have involving identifying and testing components you will encounter in moving forward into the next step in trouble shooting electronic equipment. There will be schematic diagrams of both tube and solid state audio amplifiers to study alongside the actual amplifier circuits themselves. This will serve as an opportunity for you to experience basic hands on troubleshooting so bring along a volt ohmmeter, writing material, cell phone to record if you desire. Essential hands on items will be provided and take home handouts will be included. This will be the last of the three scheduled classes and will be a step up, in that it will include the use of a signal generator to locate problems in electronic circuitry. One or more signal generators will be demonstrated during these diagnostic procedures.  A more advanced class #4, may be planned for those who wish to advance into radio / AM & FM receiver troubleshooting so stay tuned and we will inform you if enough interest is developed to warrant a fourth class this summer.

 [ 1 ]  Review of basic electronic components including resistor replacements, calculating series and parallel values for installations,  resistor wattage determination, mounting techniques, pi filtering networks, etc. Capacitor replacements, polar and non polar replacement, Replacing multi section defective filter capacitors, cathode bypass capacitors, understanding and rating capacitor sizes, mica, ceramic, polymer, axial and radial types, etc.

[ 2 ]  Voltage multiplier circuits using basic  doubler and trippler circuits when replacing power supply components when an exact power transformer cannot be located. How to construct a grid bias circuit in rebuilding a power audio output amplifier stage. Understanding tube and solid state curves from graphs in reference manuals.

[ 3 ]  Speaker testing & hookups – series & parallel matching impedance and power values, speaker phasing  and crossover networks including testing, maintaining networks, bass and treble networks including "cheap bass" methods sometimes encountered. PM and electrodynamic speakers, substituting electrodynamic speaker with permanent magnet (PM) speaker. What is a 70.7 volt speaker network, when and how is it used?

[ 4 ] Hands on basic trouble shooting audio circuitry using actual amplifier circuits with signal generator (provided) along with an oscilloscope to demonstrate sine and square wave patterns. Signal deviations to be shown on oscilloscope showing effects of bass and treble variations as a diagnostic tool.

• CLASS 4 - July 28 @ 2:00PM

To be determined.

 

Link to Purchase the 2025 Summer Classes

 

Using Oscilloscope - Presented by Tom Taylor Mondays at 10:00AM

In these classes (Same days that the Basic Electronics Class) you will learn basic use and controls of Oscilloscope.   Basic application of Oscilloscopes looking at Audio Signals, Logic and Pulse for PWM controls. We have a classroom set of scopes for participants to use. Class is $15/person for the series of Oscilloscope classes.  No additional purchases necessary for this class. All of this classes are progressive and build on the previous classes. We welcome attendees of all ages!

• CLASS 1 - July 7 @ 10:00AM
  

• CLASS 2 - July 14 @ 10:00AM
  

• CLASS 3 - July 21 @ 10:00AM
  

• CLASS 4 - July 28 @ 10:00AM

 

Link to Purchase the 2025 Summer Classes

 

Mechanical Class - Presented by Jack Going Wednesdays at 10:00AM

• CLASS 1 - July 9 @ 10:00AM
  

• CLASS 2 - July 16 @ 10:00AM
  

• CLASS 3 - July 23 @ 10:00AM

We are scheduling three Wednesdays classes that will be held starting July 9 and continuing on July 16 and 23 at Electronic Parts Outlet (EPO), 3753 Fondren Road, Houston, TX 77063. Classes are from 10AM to 1PM. Cost is $15/student for the three class series of Mechanical Class. There may be in-store purchases for materials as well. The instructor will direct you as to which parts he wants you to buy for the class.  He will keep costs as low as possible. Parts purchased are yours to keep after the class.

In these classes they will build a Robot using Tomiya Components. They will learn about basic drive train and basic gearing. Don't miss out!  We welcome attendees 12 years old and up!

 

Link to Purchase the 2025 Summer Classes

 

Arduino Classes - Presented by Caz Bowyer Fridays at 10:00AM

All the Arduino Uno micro-controller classes will require a *Windows laptop or a Mac* so participants can code (C++) their arduino. All of this classes are progressive and build on the previous classes.

IMPORTANT:

We will be using the arduino IDE Software which you can download prior to the class here: https://www.arduino.cc/en/main/software.

The arduino classes are going to be presented in the morning, The cost is $15/person for the whole series of classes.

There may be in-store purchases for materials as well. The instructor will direct you as to which parts she wants you to buy for the class.  She will keep costs as low as possible.   Parts should cost less than $80 for all.  Parts purchased are yours to keep after the class. All of this classes are progressive and build on the previous classes. We welcome elementary school attendees to retired!

• CLASS 1 - July 11 @ 10:00AM
  

• CLASS 2 - July 18 @ 10:00AM
  

• CLASS 3 - July 25 @ 10:00AM

*This class requires a *Windows laptop* (you may bring an Apple Laptop with program already setup, but instructor may not be able to help you do the software setup).  This class is $15 per person. If you have a group you wish to bring in, please contact Chris for group pricing and details.

 

Link to Purchase the 2025 Summer Classes