Adam Savage s Guide to Cosplay and Prop Electronics

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the video you're about to watch  has been made possible by kiwico   which is an awesome company i will tell you  about later but for right now let's get into   the wiring hey everybody adam savage here in my  cave with a tool tip hoping to demystify wiring   i don't know about you but when i first started  making stuff leds were a mystery to me this   is an led a light emitting diode it uses quantum  mechanics to generate light and they keep us awake   all over the world sticking out of our vcrs and  our electronics but i found these a mystery you   can get them to operate at different brightnesses  by adding resistors and i know there's a formula   and i know it's just math but i have never learned  it and i think i'm pretty common i think i think   the way i used to think about electronics was  oh it's this big black box and you got to learn   how to solder and you got to learn how to do a  bunch of math about resistor codes etc and it's   sure the answer is yeah being able to wire  something up does include all of those things   however over the years i have cobbled together my  own sort of very simple straightforward work a day   approach to wiring things and it works really  darn well and i'd like to walk you through it   and i'm not going to use any solder in this build  i am going to introduce you to my non-soldering   techniques that i like um i frequently now  don't solder until a build is almost done   like i'll work out all the wiring problems  using the methods i'm about to use and once   i have it all solved then i will make a wiring  harness and solder and use heat shrink tubing   etc but i don't do that usually until  the very end um so let's talk about   electronics and wiring function into your costume  because that's how that's how i'm framing this   uh as my base i'm gonna use a a bill duran   foam helmet and we have this blank and i'm going  to use this as the blank for my build i'm going to   i'm going to put a spinning light on  top of it because that makes me smile   i am going to put a fan on the side of it  because a fan is a really important part of   a lot of costumes um i don't know what this fan  is doing it's blowing smoke away from you it's   unimportant what it's doing what's important  is that it's going to come up and then   i'm going to put a bunch of these amber leds  around here what i want to tell you is yes   electronics can potentially include a lot of math  but you can also buy a lot of stuff that's all set   for the same voltage and only use that voltage  for instance leds can now be bought super bright   with the resistor already wired in so it has  these two leads and all you need to do is hook   it up to 12 volts or i think the other kind is 5  volts which is what standard comes out of a usb   and this is how i do most of my operations  i buy pre-wired leds because it saves me   time and energy uh and i don't have to i  don't have to think about it um so we have   so these leds i'm going to put across the front  here and that means i have three different   that means i have three different systems uh  three different pieces of electrical what do you   call it this way i have three different electrical  items i want to power uh and i'm gonna use three   switches to do that and i thought it would be  reasonable to start up front demystifying switches   just a little bit because switches are a whole  world into and of themselves for instance you have   um you have things like push button switches  which are also called momentary switches and   both of their names describe precisely what's  happening a momentary electrical connection   it is a push button um there are push button  switches that are not momentary they're called   latching push button switches and just as  this one it stays in when it's connected   and it comes out when it's not any switch with a  lever like this is often called a toggle switch   this switch is called a rocker switch you  see their names are all very descriptive   but what about the leads coming out of the bottom  of these why does this one only have two leads   and this one have six why does why does  this one have three i'm about to tell you   um different switches do different things  the simplest switch is called a single pole   single throw single throw means it only moves  from one position to another and single pole means   moving it from one position to another changes  only one thing that is these two leads get   connected when the switch is down here and they  get disconnected when it's up here that's it   the three leads on the bottom of this switch  make it a single pole sorry a single throw   double pole so it still only moves from one  position to another but instead of just two leads   coming out there's three and that means that i  can have one thing on when the switch is like this   or i can have a second or different thing on when  the switch is like that the way you'd wire this   up is that i believe your ground would go to  the middle and your two hot leads would go to   the outside edge single pole double throw  this means it can do two different things   and it can't do them simultaneously you can only  do one or the other then we end up with oh six   leads at the bottom of this uh and the switch has  three positions so that is a double throw i think   triple pole um basically what this  switch is most likely wired to be   is that the two leads in the middle are two  separate ground leads and it can just like   the three positions the three pull switch it can  light one thing over here or one thing over here   but not both at the same time however because  it's got two sets of leads i can run two separate   types of power through this i can run five volts  through this side and 12 volts through this side   holy hell when i discovered this it changed my  life i'm using 5 volts and 12 volts repeatedly   throughout this video because it's a usb power and  12 volts is standard automotive and those are the   two voltages at which they're the most common  and widest array of things for you to wire to   frequently when you buy a switch like this  it comes with a descriptive diagram of a   of exactly which leads are latching as you move  the switch and again lots of switches are single   poles this rocker single pole single throw this  one is a single pole single throw except it's got   an extra lead to light up the tip i kind of really  like that one i bought a whole bunch of them   surplus a few years ago and i'm still using them  oh one other kind of switch you should know about   is this this is called a micro switch it uses  this uh long arm to latch your refrigerator uses   something like this to stay closed um these are  weirdly useful i found these on ebay they're uh   they're made on they're made in the great country  of china uh which means they're fairly inexpensive   what i love about micro switches like this is that  i can actually bend this arm so i can make it a   door close and i can adjust this arm to fit the  space it needs to in order to do the latching that   i want it to do micro switches are fantastic for  door opening activations um and they make these   specifically this is called a microswitch they  make them so tiny it would make your head spin   i have some really really small ones they tend  to be very expensive if you find a bunch in a   bin at a garage sale you should just buy them  um that is how i began building my collection   of micro switches okay that is a little bit of  demystification of switches let's talk about   wiring up one two three four five six seven eight  leds plus a spinny light plus a fan through three   different switches it begins with a piece of paper  so every wiring job i do begins with a diagram   and so should yours a diagram i have basically  look i've built my whole life holding complicated   arrangements in my head and wiring is the limit  of my intellectual ability i have to write it down   and i have to keep referring to what i've written  down and when i write it down and i have a diagram   i'm working on a project right now this is the  wiring diagram as i wired in each thing i colored   it in red it worked on the first try i couldn't  believe it i'm as surprised as you are so let's   make a wiring diagram for our fan leds and spinny  light um let's see the first thing i always draw   is the battery and i label it bat and i give it  a positive lead and i give it a negative leap   then let's say i do my led lights uh so i'm going  to start in pencil because i might make mistakes   um so let's do one two three four five  six seven eight and we do two leads coming   out of each of these these are the leds uh  fan plus minus plus is always on the right   uh plus it's not always on the right i'm  saying for my drawing it's always on the right   um so there's the fan there's the leds oh spinning  light uh and again i just usually draw versions of   what i have and it makes it really easy here's  a positive lead and here's a negative lead okay   oh right and then there's yeah i just  want one switch for each one actually   actually no i want yeah i want  a master power switch uh okay so   switches have a specific uh uh way  to draw them and i draw them in my that's a that's a switch i think it's pretty  close to how an electrician would draw a switch   um so i'm gonna have four switches  on this one so i'll draw two three   and four uh and i will label these master  that's the yeah master power switch uh leds fan   spinny light yeah let me uh i can draw this  into now uh yep and all right now what do i do   now i just start adding wires where i know they  go from the battery i know that the power i'm   going to be interrupting is the positive lead  so i know my battery the first thing it does is   it comes over and goes to my master power switch  the master power switch then bridges to the leds   but it has a secondary connection to the fan  and a tertiary collection to the spinning lights   so what this means now is i've got a hot lead that  comes here and this switch controls that hot lead   totally then that hot lead gets fed out of that to  the leds but it also gets bridged off to the fan   and to the spinny lights okay now with the leds  this should be pretty straightforward i move this   up i take this lead from the leds when that switch  is latched this becomes hot and this comes over to   the right side of my first led sorry the left side  of my first led let's say that's the positive side   um how do i light up all of these well  ah i have a choice i can wire them   in either what's called parallel or series  please also uh refer to other people's videos   about uh specific wiring questions you might  have i am a dilettante sharing my dilettante's   level of knowledge in hopes that the weird way  i've figured out how to parse this will help you   but don't consider this like any  kind of canon advice so you can wire   multiple things in what's called series or  parallel and those terms are perfectly descriptive   in series i'd wire them up like i would wire  them up like this uh hot lead goes into the led   negative comes out hot comes from that goes there  so i'm basically daisy chaining them together with   each successive hot lead on the negative lead  output of the other the issue with this is i   get a voltage drop across all of them so they're  all drawing they'll all be a little bit dimmer if   i want them all to get the full brightness out  of 12 volts i wire all of their leads together   and that's called parallel and frankly i can't  remember the last time i wired something up in   series your christmas lights are wired up in  series that's how those little tiny bulbs can   take house power and light up um parallel  is way more the way i do things around here   uh so that's what i'm gonna do with these guys i  am going to take the left leads of each one and simply basically this is my way of drawing that  they all connect up to the hot leg but where does   their negative leg go you know what let me get a  blue pen and show you that this is a messy this is   a messy wiring diagram i'm sorry that it's messy  there are more elegant ways to draw this and i'll   tell you the truth um this was the third drawing  i made to get this right this was the first one   i often my first drawing is just to wrap my head  around the problem of illustrating it and then   when i want to be really clear about it like i  would probably draw my leds in a different way   then i make sense of that so uh these negative  leads come and they go right to the negative   lead of the battery uh when you want to cross  in a drawing one wire over another you give it   a little half step you give it this little like  uh half circle step and uh i'm basically going   to do that here i know this is really messy and  i recognize that it could be neater but that is   not going to be the drawing i do today and yep i  drew the wrong wire on that one i i agree i see   what i did so then these all chained together just  like these did and come out to the negative lead   so there's the leds lit that there's two switches  that have to be turned on to turn on the leds the   master and the led switch okay now we move on  to the fan and i think you can see that this is   going to be a lot simpler out of the fan lead  i come up and over to the hot lead of the fan   out of the fan i simply come all the way across  to the negative lead same thing with the spinny   light i come all the way across and i can  connect right there i can connect this to   any part of the chain that's heading back to the  ground uh and for the spinny light there we go that's my wiring diagram i i can't tell you how  useful this is just to have this and frankly if i   was doing this as a project i would sit right down  and redraw this so it was a little bit clearer   for me um but just having this means that when  one of these things doesn't work i can actually   refer to the diagram oh i got something wrong or  i can trace it using the diagram seriously this   is like this is both a map of how to get there  and a map of where you went at the same time um   so now that i have my wiring diagram let's wire  up some lights as i said in the beginning this   video was brought to you by kiwi co kiwico is a  company that hopes to change the future of play by   making it engaging enriching educational and also  seriously fun they make building kits for kids of   all ages that introduce them to the concepts of  steam science technology engineering arts and math   and they have eight different subscription lines  that each cater to different age groups and topics   one of my favorite things about kiwi co kits is  that they contain everything you need in the box   to build what the box needs to build there's no  hunting around your house for a piece of scotch   tape or paper cup or a rubber ball if it's in  the kit it's in the kit i have built several of   kiwi coast kits and i have consistently found  the experience super rewarding easy simple to   understand kid-friendly instructions even on the  complex builds and the final thing you end up with   is genuinely fun to play with plus if you sign  up for kiwi code through tested you can get 50   off your first crate on any subscription by  signing in through kiwico dot com slash tested   okay there's something i've been doing in this  video so far that i'm sure you have done too   and that is to hold up the leads of my power and  to actually hold it to the leads of the thing   i want to power in order to test operation  first of all you can only do this with low   dc voltages you should never do this with  house power obviously and if you're yeah uh don't do that i mean sure of course we're  all going to do that because it's efficient   but what i really want to tell you is you  want some of these alligator clip leads   um you almost can't have too many in  your shop i have a couple of dozen   and i use them constantly so what these do is  they give me the ability to connect that to that   and this to that and now i don't have to sit there  and hold it with my dumb fingers uh and here comes   the negative lead and i can connect it up to the  negative lead and now i've got the item powered   and i can actually look at it and i'm not sitting  there with both of my hands out of operation   get yourself some clip leads the first step  to quality wiring and if you have a couple of   dozen i've mocked up entire circuits just using  clip leads before i started soldering things   before we start to wiring this up i would like  to discuss where the power comes from because well over the past period of time  there's a lot more of these power banks   on the market and we'll include  a link to one of these in the   in the comments below this is the one i bought for  my usb powered soldering iron when i first got it   um but it's also become sort of my general purpose  shop 12 volt supply i keep it charged uh and this   thing lasts forever i can run a costume on this  for hours this one in particular is only uh   12 amp hours uh 12 000 milliamp hours i  don't mean it'll run one amp for a solid hour   which means if you're running a lot less than  that you can multiply that that's part of the   electronics math um just suffice to say that these  fat pack lithium ion battery packs that have a usb   out and a 12 volt out are a godsend for my shop  and i've got about a dozen of them at any given   moment um what i usually purchase are the 12  volt leads uh that you can buy the these uh this   standard 12 volt connector and yeah i think we can  include a link in the comments below um so i plug   it in and this becomes my main output for testing  my circuit uh there's a second thing that you can   do which is to get a power supply and i had one i  had this one which for some reason isn't working   so i'm going to use my really old one that does  work and this is one that was built by this is a   this is this part of the video where i'm taking  a tangent to show you something really remarkable   which is um this beautiful object that is one of  the camera department's balanced power supplies   from industrial light magic's model shop uh when  we would have lights on a miniature set they would   often be of many different voltages uh and we  would connect them up 4 volts 6 volts 12 volts   24 volts and then we'd light up a set and we'd  take it out to the sound stage and we'd light   up the set on the sound stage well they're filming  on that set sometimes in stop motion animation or   motion control shots that might last for days so  every night they go home they turn the lights off   when they turn them on in the morning they have  to be exactly where they were not close they   have to be exactly where they were or the shot  is ruined so ilm's camera department built a   whole bunch of these balanced power supplies so  you could set their voltage with this dial here   and then you'd basically put tape and say don't  touch this damn thing and every morning you come   in and turn on the main light supply and all  your lights would go to the same brightness   look at this magnificently beautiful thing it is  anodized aluminum hand machined i i i was able to   purchase this when a disney production called  the cinder biters shut down they had bought   much of ilms old model shop and i bought a  few of these power supplies from them okay   so this is the other way in which i iterate uh  using using a power supply so i will just hook up   into this power supply a couple of banana  plug leads and then i get to i get to use   alligator clips built right into the  alligator leads for powering up my belt   so that's what i'm going to do here before i  start adding the wiring i do the install or i   do the temporary install um simply because that  helps me know how long wires should be etc uh so and this one yep that's the other one just gonna throw a little bit of a nut on there so spinny lights are in with the  uh with their leads coming up now   i'm gonna make some holes for leds one two  three i'm gonna do six because i'm already tired   four five and i guess i can do the  other one at the same time go okay   there's my six leds it's not pretty uh and  here comes the fan the fan will sit here   another thing that is an invaluable  tool for wiring is a wire stripper tool   there are many ways to do wire stripping  the most common is this way and i'm sure   you've seen something like this you put this  around the wire first of all you cut and then   you put it on one of the settings and you  peel off the insulation and that's great   these work great the thing i don't like about them  is when i have a space that is confined and i've   got to get myself in there and i'm doing this kind  of work like this and then i'm doing this like   this like pulling like right right there i  have destroyed so many props over the years   just by that just by that action of like and  then i accidentally yank something over here   what is the solution the solution is this  automatic wire strippers and we did a video   about these a while back there's a link  in the comments um here's what these do change your life yeah that's maybe one  of my favorite tools in the whole shop uh   so i've got the fan i've got the  led lights okay so now i want to uh uh make the switch bank so i've  got here a piece of aluminum   with some holes in it and i'm just  going to install some switches into those holes switches often have two  hex nuts on them and those are meant for   being able to set the depth of the switch to where  you want it to be with the goal of the ideal depth   is kind of flush with your control panel i rarely  worry about that i usually just use these as is   and tighten them down with my hands there you go  so i'm gonna put three of these in here uh i once   bought a whole bunch of super cheap switches from  ebay and the part about them that was super cheap   was the hex nuts on the shaft tightening those  even a little bit would cause them to split   oh my goodness this is one i discovered that  you can buy on amazon really nice hex nuts for   switches and i bought a hundred and i haven't had  that problem since um okay so i've got my switch   bank i've got my i've got my uh my helmet with all  the stuff that i need on it and i've got all my   exposed wires how am i going to start connecting  all this stuff together well that's where the   wiring diagram comes in uh first up i want to wire  these guys in in parallel and i'll show you like   the most basic if you really wanted to do this  right what you would do is you would actually   expose a wire and run a jumper across all of these  right in situ that's absolutely the lowest profile   way to do that the um cheap and fast way to do it  is simply to expose a bunch of the wires expose   the ends of the wires and connect all the reds  together and connect all the blacks together   and that is what i'm going to do now on this video  um yeah yep okay so now we're going to strip these   one two eight nine oh 10 and 11 and 12 are all  done great so and again this is not to show you   how to professionally wire your costume this is  to show you how to do it like i learned how to do   it just by catch as catch can and to demystify  the process so that you can try it and learn   more about it that's how this whole thing works  you build up your courage to try something you   weren't really comfortable with and it works and  then you do something more complicated that's how   i've kind of built my entire skill base uh over  the years so now let's get into red wires together   six so i have all these leads together how do  i join them well sure you can solder them all   but what if you're lazy and impatient or time is  of the essence and you've got to get them together   quickly i'm going to show you how to get them  together with a thing called a wire nut that's   what this is called and it is literally a nut for  screwing wires together it has a little tapered   spring a conical spring inside and so as i twist  it the wires start to get caught up in that spring   and as i twist it down it crushes them together  creating a kind of its own thread out of the   copper in the wires and i forgot one of the reds  hold on that's the other thing that's great about   wire nuts is that you can undo them to add more  pieces to them they come in many different sizes   you are going if you're going to get some  you should get a bunch um the smallest ones   which are the ones i use most often are these  bad boys and this is i'll use this for several of   these connections these little tiny gray ones are  the smallest ones okay so i need one more wire nut for any system i might have to take apart  i love wire nuts i use them way more than   most people i know so it's definitely a  personal choice of mine okay now i've got   my switchbank and my wire nuts wired up now  it's time to bring in some of my extra wire   i love this red and black speaker wire  i buy it in different grades on amazon   nothing i'm powering here is too power  intensive so this wire which is just um no i don't think this is this wire i think  this is like a 20 gauge it's not a 22   yeah it's probably a 20 gauge wire and i like the  red and black because it helps me and i maintain   fidelity to the red and black to hot and cold  so what i'm going to do now is i'm going to run   leads from each of these three pieces the spinning  light the fan and the leds using three different   wires so uh i'm gonna cut these i'm gonna cut  three lengths uh and let's just uh clear some   wires off of there so this is i do a lot of  this just prepping wire that i'm about to use   if i want to shorten it later i do that's one  i'm giving you exactly my first attempt at   wiring at everything that i'm working on that's  electronic here in the shop this is absolutely   how i like test little systems and try stuff out  this is how i prototype with electronics in here   um no i have not yet dipped in myself to  arduino or raspberry pi although i have   used them in builds it's usually been under the  tutelage of someone else okay how do i connect   up this to these well actually on that front i  would clear a little more wire from the end of   the lead and i would bring each one of these up  two into the arrangement with the big wire nut   now again there are all sorts of different ways  to do this you can connect these all up like   i said to a bus bar uh this is just one quick  and dirty technique for getting this job done   there we go i put the wire there and i just  put the wire nut back on and twist it and it's   gathering it all together now there is one thing  i'm going to do here which i regularly do in the   shop which is now i've got this arrangement i  don't want that to fall apart so i'm going to   add a zip tie i'm going to add a zip tie here  for a little bit of strain relief and that just   makes sure that the wire nuts aren't doing all  of the work and holding this thing together   so now i have all the leds together and  their leads are coming out here hey let's   do a systems check and make sure that they all  light up and here's hoping that they do 12 volts   if i've gotten this right these will all  light up and they all light up success   excellent okay so that system's working let's  double check and make sure that the spinny light   system works black lead red lead and let's do  the same on the fan just before i clip and clip excellent oh right i said i was gonna have four  switches not three so let's let's do that let's   put in this one this is the master power switch  okay we're now in the final stage of wiring and   i'm going to put away my power supply in favor  of my battery the hot lead remember the hot   lead goes right to the master switch how does  it do that ooh with another technology that i   love that uses no solder and that is wire lugs  um these are wire lugs they this is a wire lug   that's specifically a spade connector that  can connect to the end of a switch like that and the way you attach it to wire there  are multiple versions but the most common   is that you would put it into the  hole and use a crimping tool like this to put a crimp in the end and that holds the wire  in and that is now a hot lead with a uh a spade   connecting female spade connector right that's  the male that's the female i don't think i need   to get more descriptive than that um and then this  guy stays out out in the breeze okay so uh power   yep so here's the interesting thing about ground  the interesting thing about ground is that   while the power gets distributed out to each  of these switches in turn by master power the oh right yeah actually i messed that  up i still need to do this jumper i'm   going to refer to the diagram it goes to the  master switch and comes out the other side   right and then bridges to one end of the lead  of all three of these switches right so yes   i need to make a little set of bridge wires  that go here and i'm gonna do that using   four of these lugs two three four i'm going  to cut four little lengths of wire and   this is going to be really neat i'm going to  use the red wire only because this is a hot lead   so first one is that long second one is that long  third one is yep the same come on and one last one   great so i will clear away some wire on these guys  one see i was getting my brain in a muddle trying   to figure out how to wire this and i just looked  at the diagram and it becomes really clear because   i've already drawn it out that's how quickly  like the complexity of wiring bends my noggin   okay so let's say there are many ways there are  many crimpers this is a fairly expensive crimper   and i like it uh i've been using them long enough  so this goes right there's only one on this one that's great so that's one then on the second  one i put two jumpers because i'm jumping from   one to the next one so i'm twisting  those leads together putting them inside i'm gonna do the same thing on the next  one i'm so sure there are all these ways   in which i'm doing this in a dumb way uh and  your comments in the are greatly appreciated   but um you know i'm just doing it the way  i figured it out now i connect right that's yeah so power comes in there and comes out here and goes switch number one  switch number two switch number three   there we go so power's coming in and  going to all these three switches   now what comes out of these three switches  well coming out of one here comes the leds   i think that should be our first one so  that's this one i put on another wire lug yup and bingo there's the led's hot lead is hooked  up all right now it's the fan where's my fan and put that there i have no power hooked up  to this yet the battery is not connected so i'm   not in danger of shorting anything uh and then the  third one is this mini light which is this guy and   i'm gonna need an extension on that so i'm gonna  make one i'm gonna make one using this little wire   nut and i'm gonna put a lug at the other end  and wire lug sets are really cheap on amazon   uh on anywhere and i know there are probably  better brands and worse brands but i i can't tell   uh so spinning light there we go so that is  all the switches for uh the the hot leads what   happens to the negative leads if you remember the  negative lead connects right up using a wire nut to uh the negative lead on my leds for instance   uh no actually it goes to the fan  first yes it goes to the fan first no we'll just cut this here and here's the fan and those connect oh  wait and i need a another one that's going   to come out of there because i'm going  to jump that all the way over to the   to the leds yep so i'm going to join  those three wires with a wire nut and here comes the jumper out of there and when i connect that up to this one  we should have a completed wiring system   okay and i know this wait a second  wait a second what have i forgotten ah   i have forgotten to jump the last lead from the  leds to the battery so let me get one more jumper   that's the leds and we do one more jumper here  from there back to the power from the battery   and yeah i've got plenty of wire lead coming out  of there this is the moment where it's easiest   to release the mysterious blue smoke that makes  all electronics work and if you do that they'll   just stop working because it's the stuff that  makes all the electronics work um i tend not to   turn a circuit like this on right away i  clean up around it i take a look and then i   simply walk through the wiring diagram again  okay i've got my power my hot lead from power   goes to the master switch it then jumps from that  to the leds the fan and the spinning light and the   positive the other side of those switches  come out and go to the leds to the fan and   to the spinning lights and the other side of  those three leads comes off and jumps together   and connects back up to the main power okay i  feel confident that i have a reasonable wiring   system so let's try it out wait just give me  one second shall we moment of truth here we go   remember this is what's going on here and i don't  know about you but i have a much easier time   parsing and working my way through this than  this this makes my brain hurt i always have   to have one of these all right let's plug it in  all right battery is hot so uh i'm not sure what okay leds are lit hey the leds are lit  so then this should light up the fan   which it does not and then this  should light up the spinning light   which it does not it was this dumb switch  sorry this switch has this is like some   automotive switch and it's got some circuitry in  it and it it was messing me up so hold on a sec   i'm going to use one of the same switches again  i uh i really was wondering if i hadn't done some   massive brain fart and then i was thinking am i  gonna have to shoot this whole thing again because   i was really dumb on it and given that like being  dumb on camera is kind of my brand not dumb but   like you know unknowing ah am i gonna have to  show me we're drawing the wrong wiring diagram   for this whole time well we'll see uh so uh new  master switch master power is off now it's on leds   success and they're brighter than they were before  i don't know what it is with this switch but so next thing that should light up is  the fan light up you know what i mean and the last one is the spinning light oh did you hear the fan drop that's the voltage  drop from running this motor because i basically   have all of these things wired in parallel and  yeah they're all drawing a certain amount of power you can see this thing changes the speed and the master switch turns it all off and all  on right sorry there we go um that's it that's   i don't want to say it's wiring 101 it's  more like how to think about wiring 101. um   i know that there are like really specific  industry-specific ways to do all of this stuff   but i also know that we all do a lot of  self-gatekeeping i'm a i hate gatekeeping   wherever i find it but it is most pernicious  within our own heads one of the dumbest thoughts   that's ever crossed my brain pan was i was 18 and  i was looking at my friend craig's welded steel   sculpture and thinking to myself welding there's  a skill i'm never going to have time to learn   like from the vantage point of this many  years later like that is crazy that is   crazy i was doing gatekeeping against  something i didn't even know how to do   so if you think of wiring as something that like  you just can't do or you just don't know enough   to put into a costume i'm hoping this video helped  get you across the line to being willing to try it   because it's it's easier than you think and don't  let anyone tell you different thank you guys for   joining me for this tool tip i hope i hope it  was useful and as always i'll see you next time   i can't believe we didn't finish the video with  me wearing this ridiculous helmet but here i'm   going to try what could possibly go wrong putting  all these wires on my head there we go that's   the switch plate are you guys ready turn the  power on master switch on oh it's noisy in here yeah i'm sure they'd let me on a plane

2021-08-19

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