Many of you know that I am an electronics hobbyist and maker. My work touches on electronics, and knowledge of Mechatronics is extremely valuable to understand that world. Much of knowledge appropriate to a small business owner is understanding what is possible. You can always, and often do, hire people who are experts in a variety of fields. That might be interesting, however, being interested in Electronics has introduced me to a world of passionate and dedicated individuals all over the world who share this experience. Through the wonders of Facebook, YouTube and other tools I’ve interacted with, shared and learned from people who live in extremely different conditions. While reading a condescending and ignorant comments in response to a gentlemen asking how to fix a broken speaker, it occurred to me that I was also very ignorant at one time, about how other people live.

If you search for electronics examples, how to do something with a certain chip or device, you often find yourself watching a video on YouTube in broken English, by someone in a distant place. These videos are fascinating, these people do so much with very limited resources. Usually equipped with nothing more than a basic multi-meter, a basic lighter, a very basic soldering iron, and a bit of solder, they show incredible capability. They salvage all their components, wire, pcb boards and other components from discarded electronics. For less than perhaps 10 USD, they are building working circuits, and sharing them with people like me, half a world away. I’m fascinated and inspired by these people, who typically have knowledge of electronics that makes mine seem a bit like a grammar school math being compared to university level calculus.

Before thinking for even a moment about why someone would be tasked with say repairing a ~$5 USD speaker, some people eagerly jump to judge:

How old are you?

and

Buy a new frigging speaker!

The good news, there are also counter points of intelligent responses that explain step by step how to fix it, by people who obviously know by necessity how to fix stuff that most of us would just discard and buy new. Such as Dean:

you must remove crown from the magnet-unglue all metal parts including magnet, using cut tool skalp on the end of the cartoon paper membrane float cuting clear line in circle, then you must create new spun coil if that coil basic is crack or damage, use heat to unglue all metal parts, use universal glue to glue coil end and amm parts and laquer glue for the spull coil heat resistance minimum 125″ degree , use two components glue to gule magnet and grown again, and be careful with centred if the speaker, if you want to fix that speaker

and Ernest:

U can rewind it by identifying d swg nd number of turns

These people also inspire me, being selfless with their time to once again share their knowledge with others and provide the questioner with answers. It’s hard for me to not look at this entire situation and feel an incredible level of appreciation for the person asking, and those providing real answers. I know trolls are everywhere on the Internet, but those people aren’t worth our time. The real leader’s are people who do a lot with very little and still have time to share. Yep, you all are the ones that keep this maker interested and informed. Kudos to you all and much respect from El Dorado Hills, California, USA.