So, I discovered more than one soldering technique, and also that there are some irons that work better than others. I did touch the tip to the solder, I must say, it got a good gob going and then I spread it around the joints. By the 4th or 5th try I was an expert, at least until tomorrow when I forget everything (muscle memory in me is malaise).
That part took all my limbs and then some helping hands, so no good photos here. But then I prepared the breadboard with power and ground from the DC power and again from the voltage regulator. I tested the presence of power in the board with an LED on the other side, with ground and 220 ohm resistor and.... voila! It lit up.
I tested the regulator for 5 volts and discovered that the multimeters in the shop also possess varying levels of reliability. But I got one finally to read what I wanted.
So, for my 1st LED circuit. It was like following a recipe once and then realizing there are subtle variations you can adjust according to taste, or in this case, location on the board. As long as positive flowed to negative and the resistance was in place, I was good to go.
Once this worked out, trying 2 LEDs in series was not so bad. I even checked the voltage and got around half the desired total on each LED. Life was good.
Life got a little trickier when I moved to 3 LEDs in parallel. Sure, they worked, and the lights went dimmer as guessed, but somehow there was no reading for current on the multimeter. One resident suggested the meter itself wasn't working, but it happened on a couple of them.
The most fun part of the lab was getting the pot involved. Here one could conjure immediate applicable ramifications for such a device, most obviously, light dimmers. Not sure if that is really in the domain of resistors or switches, but there you go nonetheless. In one day I became a convert to electronics hobbyism. One year down the road and I may even become handy around the house, much to my wife's pleasure.
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