Once upon a time, many years ago, I took classes on electronics and electrical engineering. In those classes we learned many things about solid state electronics, transistors, and microchips. The instructors talked about things such as source, drain, junctions, silicon, germanium, doping, gates, p-n junctions, silicon wafers, dies, and much more… They went into a great amount of detail of the science of modern electronics.

After years of practical experience, direct observation and performing precise measurements, I have come to the conclusion all of what I learned was incorrect.  It has taken me a while to come to terms with the fact that the college professors had no idea what they was talking about.

Through no fault of my own (wink, wink, nudge, nudge), usually while prototyping a circuit on a bread board, I have inadvertently destroyed several chips. Through this process it was easy to determine what actually makes the chips work.

The secret is the magic smoke that is inside all microelectronics.

You see, every time I did something bad, the casing of the chip would break open and the magic smoke would be let out. After you let the magic smoke out of the chip, it does not work anymore.

I am a software engineer who works with electronics. I am not an electrical engineer who works with software. This means that I have release my share of the magic smoke.

There are several morals to this story:

1. Do not take yourself to seriously and have fun!

2. Do not draw 1 Amp (A) from component that is rated for 50 milliAmps (mA)

3. It is best to do the math before the magic smoke is released, not after

4. Have a fire extinguisher near by to chase away the magic smoke

5. Did I already say, have fun!!!