What is the most important lesson that you have learned during your electronics journey? Anything from practical lessons like 'don't leave your soldering iron next to your isopropyl alcohol' to profound lessons like 'practice, practice, practice'. This has probably been done before but I know how we all love to philosophise. One of the most valuable lessons I've learned is when troubleshooting, always rule out the simplest explanations first as it can save days of headache. Sometimes people rush to the most complex reasons first as to why their mod or project isn't working, when it's as simple as a duff cable. Discuss.
Never ever rush anything. The second I learned to not try and do 10 things at once things wouldn't go wrong as much.
Not really electronics, but a good lesson when it comes to refurbishing consoles, always try the product on a similar surface before and when working on the console itself, try first on a smaller area. This is necessary to avoid unwanted results that make things worse than they were in the first place. Sounds like common sense yeah but when I look the at the stuff I refurbished/restored years ago I wonder what was going on in my mind when I did it haha Oh and by the way, make proper research when it comes to products, some product work for certain surfaces and vice versa... Also be careful with Youtube tutorial videos (advice given can at times be TERRIBLE), for example brasso is a bad product to clean contacts because it is too abrasive and leaves a small residue layer.
Keep a work log for each project. I am still doing ten projects at once, but for the most part that's because the parts from China take forever to arrive, so when I can finally continue on a project half of the knowledge is gone. This obviously also helps when you unexpectedly have to go back to a (supposedly) finished project a few months or even years down the line. Keep your workspace clean. Make sure to have good lighting. Also, an oldie but a goldie: "Are all the necessary cables plugged in correctly?".
Times when you are happy and all is going well should be times you prepare for eventual bad times. Complacency is your worst enemy.
I use to solder/component level repair work for a living... When soldering large gauge wires or something requiring a lot of heat. wet fingers first. The water will keep your fingers cool long enough to finish the job or sizzle when it gets too hot to hold. When working with something that's plugged in. 1 hand is the only thing to be touching anything. Place the other hand behind your back. 2 hands = shock across the heart = dead. Always assume the iron is on. Clean tip + flux + wet sponge, Or don't bother attempting. If you can't figure something out in 30-45min come back later. Your more likely to do something stupid the longer you work on it at one time. It may already be broken, but you can still break it more.
Never cut corners. I was fiddling with an Xbox, I was so lazy I didn't screw in the PSU board. So I 'held' it, on the ac plug port. As soon as the plug went in, I got a massive shock all the way up my arm and just collapsed on my bed with my heart beating so quickly. Was home alone too. What saved me was the PSU being faulty, otherwise I would've had a whole 240v to my heart.
Test your project out as many times as you can as it's being assembled, rather than testing for the 1st time when it's "completed". Lot easier to find what you did wrong when you test pieces while it's being assembled than having to go back through the entire project to find one simple error.
Best advice that I can offer is double check everything before you start soldering. My worst case scenario was soldering four flash chips the wrong way, spent hours testing continuity, etc only to find out I soldered it the wrong way :/
