Wow, you made me feel better. I am self-learning guy who is limited in some ways, just like you back then (no easy access to parts, thus scavenging what I can) + recently finally afforded an 10MHz 1 channel CRO (worth me 30$). Practically nobody gives a damn about my hobby (parents just think "at least it's better than seeing him getting drunk on parties, etc", slightly proud when I fixed something (TV, CFL, whatever)), when I building something they do not understand (power supply, than another power supply, ESR meter) they telling me - just go do something good around a house. But I keep doing it. I built an audio amp - friend said - "Price?", I sayed - "Just around 30$", he said "You can buy one for this money", my answer to him is - "Screw you, you don't understand, that's ME who made it". Even if the price will be the same or little higher. I will be an electronics geek 'til I die
@@mrjohhhnnnyyy5797 Im also a self-learning 17yr old in Philippines. I wont be pursuing for a course (I have something to pursue). Even if I get into a job world of non-electronics stuff, I will set fund and time for collection and building electronics I kinda cannot rely on products, they dont always go along with your preferences that you have to build it yourself (and the pleasure of playing with them, discovering) and if something breaks you dont just go buy a whole set just because a single component gave up 💀
Hi Dave, I'm that guy from Keycorp! (14:10) :) I remember that day when I first met you and was very impressed with how much you knew about electronics. I've been following you for the last few years and it's great to see you sharing all that knowledge! Thanks for taking us down the memory lane, my start in electronics was almost identical to yours, and I still have the same magazines you show, and even had the 200-in-one. I got started with the 160-in-one in the wooden box.
haha the universal start to electronics. We all did it! My parents bought me the 200in1 electronics kit from Radio Shack but I took that apart too haha.
Gosh mid 70s nostalgia - I had the 160 in one in a wooden box. My father was an EE and bought me components back from work to add to it, remember learning about npn vs. pnp transistors as a 7 year old! I became a geophysicist rather than an EE, but still like playing & tinkering as a 50 year as I did back then ..
Your history sounds so much like mine. I started 10 years old. I had digital multimeter and a Trio Oscilloscope when I was 14. Radioham when I was 16. I have been an electronics enginner for 27 years now. Never regretted a minute
This so reminds me of myself when I was a kid (8-9-year-old)! My uncle had a monthly subscription of "Electronics for you" magazine. I spent countless hours trying to understand all the schematics published in the circuit ideas section. And this indeed helped me during my engineering days. I still remember, when my analog electronics professor asked our class if anyone of us were familiar with a Super-heterodyne receiver, I not only explained in terms of block diagrams, but I actually drew all cascaded IF stages, mixer, detector schematic on the board. I could feel the class going nuts! :D
In 1968, I fondly remember my Dad writing the check for twenty one dollars and change (a huge sum of money to me at 11 years old) and sending off for the 50in1 kit. It was awesome! I built every single project and many more. Good times!
You probably had a good dose of Space Race enthusiasm powering you, besides that irresistible curiosity and urge to take things apart. Yes, very good times!
Dave, how wonderful to watch this and be able to pass this on to my boy. I feel so connected to this being 45 and experienced so similar during my boy hood and career, thank you for sharing. It's so comforting finding someone so far away (I'm UK) having so similar background. My boy is into RC modelling (I brought him up with) and want to encourage a further development into uCs and the practicalities of Electronics design and hope he can experience the satisfaction and accomplishment I did. Cheers
Thanks Dave, you got me back to my childhood, I have almost the same memories with electronics. My country was even worse with finding parts and information. This video is like I was listening to my self... thumb up my friend...
Dave, you nailed it for so many of us with this commentary. Growing up in the 70's I started ripping things apart at an early age to satisfy my curiosity on how things worked. A electronics magazine subscription meant I could have the excitement of Christmas morning 12 times a year. I managed to build a good stockpile of parts from things I'd take apart and I built most of all my test gear and lots of projects. I'm surprised you didn't mention "Heathkit". I still have all of their test gear on my bench and in working condition. I was fortunate to have a surplus store close enough I could bus to. They sold all kinds of obscure military and telecom gear and most of it ended up coming home with me. Never lucky enough to have the formal education you did Dave but I did spend 30 or so years repairing electronics for friends and family and building things.
This video put the biggest smile on my face as it brought back so many memories. I think I am a year older than you but followed pretty much exactly the same path. 1st electric shock at aged 4 while messing around with a lamp stand. Got the 150 in 1 kit, making a cats whisker wireless set with dad. Doing the Radio Amateur exam within a week of being old enough. My school project was too advanced and the teacher didn't understand it. Working part time after school at a transformer factory. Onto college at 15 to do my ONC... Worked as a TV and Video service engineer which died with the advent of surface mount... Moved over to computer programming and my career in computers took off. Now at the ripe old age of 45 I am getting back into electronics with Arduinos and Arm chips. I can't believe how much of that early stuff pre-college is coming back so easily. A passion for the subject is far more important than a formal education in my opinion. I am just so grateful to have had both and to be able to come back to the hobby almost 25 years later and find it has all changed but still exactly the same. I found your channel by accident while trying to refresh my memory on Mosfets and Op Amps. Absolutely love your videos and can't get enough. Thank you :)
Fantastic video and so true too, I started off with a Tandy/Radio Shack 20 in 1 kit, it was blocks if I remember right, each block had a component on and wires and little metal strips to join them together....that was 1978,,,,,And that's how I got serious about electronics....Watching your video bought back so many memories to me......Cheers for that dude...Keep up with the great vids...
im 22 and in Ee. I found the 50 n 1 board in my basement when i was about 5. played with it growing up and I still have it. So its not just the past generations it got me in it too!
It was great to hear your stories of growing up with electronics! I really like your channel and enjoy everything from the mailbag (love that knife) to your how to's and in depth explanations. I too spent many an hour taking apart everything in sight as a kid. I really got into it when I got my best Christmas gift ever in 1963. It was on the cover of Allied Electronics catalog #220 in 1963. It was the Knight Kit 100 in 1 Electronics Lab. I got it for Christmas in 1963/1964 when I was 8 years old and it was the greatest and most memorable Christmas gift that I can recall. Spent all day long Christmas day putting it together and eventually built every project. My favorite project was the AM radio broadcast station. I was my own DJ and broadcast a whole block in every direction with my 100 foot antenna strung from the house to the garage. It was awesome! It is still complete and in a box in the attic! Great memories! Keep up the good work!
Thanks for sharing your story Dave. Mine was pretty similar. First a crystal radio, thereafter I received a 10 in 1 Tandy electronics kit at the age of 13 (1973/74) - much later I received a 100 in 1 in a beautiful wooden box and the rest is history.
Very cool this video. Living in Brazil, I was born in 78. Fantastic as I experienced the same trajectory, and share the same feelings about electronics in the last years. Thank you Dave.
Dave, that is amazing. I am probably same generation as you are. In those days all kinds of mechanical/electrical/electronical sets like this one in your video were manufactured. There was also very popular HAM radio and all sorts of groups and clubs related to electronics and other similar stuff. Those were great times for growing up. I joined ham radio at the age of 13, built my first detector receiver at the age of 11. Takes me back, thanks, mate !
Taking things apart is one of my favorite until now. I really enjoyed it, even i have no idea how that thing works and the best part is when you try to assemble it again (you'll get extra screw after you finish, trust me!). when i was 14 years old i try to open my family's CRT TV and feel nice shock from high voltage capacitor.. what a day! haha
Wow!! That brought back memories! I started with vacuum tubes building linear amplifiers for CB radios as a kid. Old televisions were a great source of components. Wiring was point to point back then. Thanks for the memories.
Haha. First thing I took apart was the hoover when I was about 4!! My parents bought me a very simple electronics kit with a light bulb, a buzzer and terminal posts for the connections. Later I got a kit that could build 7 different types of radios including a crystal radio. :) You had to wind the coil yourself!! The 200 in one came when I was about 9 or 10. Happy days. Thanks for reminding us Dave. :)
I'm so glad we got this new surge of EE- and programming-interested kids nowadays thanks to devices like the Arduino and Raspberry Pi. There was a huge gap between those science kits and current options, and now we're stuck with a big shortage of EE's and programmers because a whole generation was just enjoying USING computers instead of UNDERSTANDING them.
Ben Heck said your name in a video and I thought he was making a corny reference to the Monkeys! I just now discovered your channel and am binge watching on 2X speed. This was a fun video. I was born in 72 and had very similar experiences growing up, but was a software guy versus hardware. Unfortunately, I went into Chemical Engineering for some crazy reason, but due to the Maker movement, I've gone crazy into EE now. Thanks for inspiring the rest of us and bestowing what you've learned over the years. It's put a "spark" into life.
I'm sure that being held back a bit can be a good thing! It worked for me, I had a similar background and started with valves in the 70's, mainly because they made bloody good transmitters! My local ham radio club did a great job though, now I run my own little design and manufacturing company! Great channel!!
I was born in 1996. My freind and I got into electronics around the same time, and his parents bought him a Radio Shack spring board just like that around 6 years ago. We have built hundreds of projects on that board. Radios, transmitters, micro controller proof or concept circuits. Those spring boards are still valuable to the young electric enthusiast.
I'm a 90s kid from India and still I had the same journey towards the field of electronics.... Fell in love with electronics bcs how gadgets work fascinated me I used to take electronic things apart, save pocket money-gift money to buy my first soldering Iron at an age of 9yrs and multimeter at 10 My parents always encouraged me , bought me electronics magazines... And that passion drew me electronics till date I graduated with Electronics degree , I did masters in electronics and communication .... All with gold medals because for me electronics came naturally.. And now working as a government engineer officer in field of electronics..... And I still take out time to do my own projects.... Thanks Dave for sharing your story...
Great. Indeed the insight and knowledge from playing with electronics and experimenting is impossible to value. Remember my first soldering iron as well, still have it. :-)
I never had that Tandy/RS thing, but it's similar to what Heathkit offered in the 1960s/70s. It was a kit, so you had to put it together yourself, learning what a 'capacitor' or 'diode' looked like, while following instructions and marking checklists. One of the most important things I had in my youth!
I have the exact same story. Great minds. I wish I still had my radio shack/ Tandy stuff. A house fire robbed me of mine. I use to read the encyclopedias volumes A-Z. I loved learning how everything works but I have always strayed towards electronics. And I would memorize everything from cover to cover. I have several books not online that are indispensable. When I took drafting and design we did everything with paper and pencil. No computers available back then. I have a article published in the Bentley BMW repair manual. I was extremely proud and still am for that publication. I have never been to school for mechanics or electronics but I make a good living doing it and am one of the best around my area. I have a 2 year business degree but I did that to pass the time. I learned my trade from reading and tinkering. I walked my brother n law through electrical engineering school. He used to call me every night to ask me how things worked and I would explain how they function to him. When I was 5 I was helping wire houses. At 16 he couldn’t install a car stereo. Just a head unit that I can do in about 10 minuets. He still discusses work all the time. I wonder how much of my stuff he has turned into his employer. I don’t know why he got into that field he has no feel for electronics. I guess some people are great bullshitters. Awesome Dave. Love the story.
I hope you realize that you, today, and your EEVBlog are the modern updated version of the hobbyist magazines of the past. With everything from product reviews, project ideas, and general industry chit chat to actual circuit theory and tutorials. You are an invaluable resource for my generation (1990s kids) to learn and grow in elctronics engineering. You go Dave!
This video is SO GOOD! Re-watching it after 8 years, and Dave, your energy and enthusiasm here is still so damn infectious and inspiring... especially your closing comments at 20:36.
It makes me feel beter listening to you! I also started at about 12 years old making my own electronic toys from broken electronic devices. Was taking apart motors, wires, switches, gears etc.... from trash deposits and made my own schematics that nobody could understand only myself. Some of them worked and some didn't but it was a good way of practice. Now I Design most Circuits from my own, don't like to use others. And at school I was ahead of others because of that just like you....... thanks Dave!
I believe the Australian Education department needs to recruit this creator to encourage math /Engineering teachers. The enthusiasm maybe contagious. Thank you for continuing to contribute to community.
I had one of those, I loved it. I used to raid the TV repair shop bins for bits, and my first soldering iron was DIY made out of a big resistor from telly, unwound and wrapped around a pice of brass bar I found on a tip. Great fun was had and the only time I got interested in math was to do with electronics, I used to spend hours in the library and even dicked off school to read electronics books
This was how I got started tinkering with electronics. This is like watching my life history. Saving money to buy a nice meter to replace the last one that got the smoke let out, spending hours at a time in radio shack. I'm 10 years older than Dave, so in the late 70s, I was bitten by the computer big. Having a commodore Pet or TRS-80 was absolutely out of the question, but my parents did get me a Cosmac Elf kit to put together. Still have it. It's something I will never part with. Also have a wooden boxed 150 in 1 science fair kit too, with the book. Still have old magazines, Forest Mims books and some old data books. Waiting for the next issue of electronics magazines was painful.
I like your story. I am only 23, born 1992. I did the same thing I want to figure out how electronics work and took apart everything I got. Lucky for me my grandfather whom I lived with was a engineer for Motorola. I got to experience computers right from the get go of a Intel 16bit Hewlett Packard. I built my first self designed cirucit at 11 years old, it was a basic two transistor audio amp. I learned C++ in high school. Been working on my degree as a computer and electrical engineer.
I can remember I take apart a cassette player that plays at too high speed and want to slow it down. I fixed it with a wooden stick that slows down the motor, didn't know there was a potentiometer inside the motor :-D My parents didn't understand electronics, they bought some led games like pinball, pretty boring. Finally, did some electronics study but left it because it was very technical and theoretical and didn't know how to practice at home, too expensive at that time. Start programming with less requirements, bought my first 386SX kit/parts and build my first computer myself and it worked! The same computer we had at school but just a fraction of the price (about $1500 for all stuf including Amstrad monochrome monitor). Nowerdays, since two years, I picked up electronics again thanks to the internet, so much info available, a huge library available at your fingertips, we didn't have in the past. It is so easy to get information now. It is fun to program microcontrollers, really love it. I am afraid it is too late to switch career. When it was possible to do over again, In this era, I definitely choose/take another career route.
Got into electronics as a kid in a similar way. Taking things apart, then got one of those kits. Mind for me it was the early 90s! Did get to breadboarding at least, bought some extra components with pocket money, and salvaged as much as I could from random appliances around the house. Didn't end up in electronics professionally though, switched up to computer programmer around 9-10 years old and stuck with it. 20+ years on getting back into electronics now mind, and damn it's a lot more fun with a full time job to cover the cost of components and tools!
This is how it started for me! My parents bought one of those wire together kits from a garage sale and I was always taking things apart - including mains power! I wish they still made modern versions of those - kickstarter idea??
i really enjoy your videos, as i am from the 50's and was nodding to all the steps that you took to reach where you now..one thing i took from the elctronic magazines was the section on "how it works" where the explanation of how the circuit functions and what to expect from the circuit.... please keep on doing these videos brill
Thanks Dave, that was great. When I was eight years old my parents asked what I wanted for my birthday, I said, "A soldering iron". That was almost 70 years ago! Today I'm a retired electronic engineer and I still design circuits.
That's the real truth people who have experimented with electronics before studyng about it knows their way around much much better than those who hadn't. Really good video! Thank You!
Awesome summary, My first project was at about 5 years old late 60’s hooking up batteries, switches and light bulbs then pulling things appat but no supporting system that I could grow my curiosity. For that reason I probably wouldn’t want to relive that time and prefer the 80’s
Dave - I so agree. Built a crystal set from scrounged components when I was 6 (dad helped) Radionics electronic kit at 8 or 9, first breadboard and Altai multimeter at 14. Built a turtle robot controlled by ZX81 at 17. Wireless comms between ZX81s at 18 - the rest is history. Now building ARM based hardware - almost 50, Biggest regret: It's a shame no-one told me to learn C about 30 years ago - and I was too dumb to know any better. Keep up the good work
OMG i did the exact same things,, although my parents didn't buy crap for me, i had to research it all, asking people that was actually working as repairing technicians, i was always asking them silly questions, they were just having enough of me, but i never cared, because i learned, still remeber the beginner electronics books and magazines i bought,, this is just fantastic to hear about this from a guy in australia :)))
I started playing around with circuitmod a few years ago. I never understood any of it, but I loved to try anyways and I liked to look at the example circuits it came with. I wanted to start making things, but I had no clue where to start or even what parts I needed. I have little money so I didn't want to risk buying something that would be useless to me or the wrong thing. Then last October I moved and when I got into my new place I had nothing to do while my stuff was still packed away. So I began binge watching channels like EEVBlog and Big Clive and Julian Ilett etc and little by little I learned enough to know what I needed to get started. There are no local electronics shops, but there was a surplus store that sold a few things passives, switches, breadboards, battery holders but they were fairly pricy. I bought a few things and ordered some Elenco transistor, resistor and capacitor kits on Amazon, which was still relatively expensive. I started reading through allaboutcircuits.com and electronicstutorials.com (not sure if thee's a hyphen there) while making stuff in circuitmod and then trying the real thing on breadboard. I still couldn't get any ICs other than some overpriced 555s on amazon, though. I ordered 1 lm358 dual op amp on amazon for a whopping $4.50 for just the one. I was so excited about it, but it never arrived. Sites like mouser and JameCo were too much for the shipping, so they weren't feasible alternatives. Eventually I found AliExpress and was in Heaven. Finally I had an abundance of components and ICs at my disposal. I've since stocked up on just about everything I can and have absolutely fallen in love with hobby electronics. Ever since I tried Logisim a few years ago I've always wanted to make a breadboard computer. And now it seems that dream is closer than ever to reality. I've been thoroughly digesting Ben Eater's series on it along with any other material I can find. EEVBlog's IRC channel has been really great in helping me learn as well. They're all really friedly, eager to teach and best of all, non-judgemental. They have never once talked down to me or made me feel stupid for asking a question. All very rare qualities for an online community IME. I only regret not getting into electronics from a young age like Dave did. I didn't start until I was 32. Anyways thanks to anyone who bothered reading this. I know it's quite long. Cheers.
Those experimenter kits are great! My uncle, an electronics instructor at a community college, always thought one couldn't learn much electronics from building kits. Well, not so. You do learn what different parts look like, how easily wire bends, how easily it breaks if bent back and forth many times, read color code, get a feel for how a 100K resistor is way different from a 1K resistor in a light blinker circuit, etc. No, you do not master Ohm's law or transfer functions or Smith charts or Delta-Wye transforms even get a clue about temperature coefficients. Just some physical real-world basics. The mental stuff comes later, and is easier to learn after gaining solid direct finger-feel physical learning.
Wow, I would so have loved to have one of those science kit things. I also took things apart often, but outcome was pretty much that I was rebuked for it. In their opinion, taken apart was equivalent to broken and no longer usable. So that was a letdown. I did try to keep the hobby up by scavenging electronics from dumpsters, but without much understanding, things didn't really move on. Until I was 16 and went to a school that taught electronics. But by then I had already focused in programming.
Hello Dave, Just watched your video and I reminisced about though days too. Gran bought me a 26 in1 Project Kit 10 yrs old in the 70's. That changed my life too, from am to pro devotion. Still tinker with it now and then to mod or dev something I need. Red some of the other comments posted and I felt my heart warm to to see others devoted to electronics. Love the channel, will allways view. I always say, keep all your electrons flowing and don't get shorted.
Sounds like my life, except I am a bit older. In the 60's we were into tubes and terminal strips. I still built my own oscilloscope when I was 13 or 14 with plans from EICO that we found in the factory's dumpster in Brooklyn! In the 60s and 70s it was easy getting parts in NYC. We had Canal St. and W. Broadway with tons of surplus electronics. There were also a lot of manufacturers in the outer boroughs, like Brooklyn, where I lived.
You´re so right Dave. I just revieved my old hobby in electronics, and it´s just escalated and escalated over the past year. It´s just SO easy these days! Microcontrollers, breadboards, Dupond wires, free software and datasheets, and not to forget the internet side of things. ...I mean... In my fathers days they must have been so cripled. I look up so much on the internet, and I order what I need when I need it. It´s just so freakin´ easy. Thanks for the inspiration Dave. Keep up the good work!
I started at an age of 6-7years, when my mom got me a kit called Electro Pioneer. It was essentially a teaching tool for tech class in the 9-10th grade. It didn't have the fancy transistors and other silicon elements, but what it did have was motors, buzzers, switches, batteries, potentiometers, coils,... I loved it so much. : )
Funny - began in exactly the same way! Taking things apart, spring connector electronic kits, simple radios, collecting anything electrical including as many data books and RS data sheets as possible. Yes, and I bought a Tandy (Radio Shack) DVM with my pocket money and it still works! I got into valve electronics as a kid in the early 80s which was seriously not cool then! Still have my massive collection of thermionic valves (tubes)!
Made me feel a bit old. I was out of high school - soldering, wire-wrapping, testing & installing data acquisition one-off's for science at Princeton in the early 80's. Glad to be here.
Your enthusiasm is clear. My path was software development. I bought my own 8088 based PC and installed a 5 Megabyte hard drive so I could cut down on compile time. I learned coding from magazines that had articles with Assembly and Basic, and eventually Turbo Pascal - I was very interested in ISR's for some reason back then. By the time I got to University level, I couldn't believe that I was so lucky that I could take classes to learn more about things that I already spent all my time trying to learn. I didn't realize I would know more than most of my teachers, but I also didn't care - any new information was worth the hours of going over things I knew inside out. And the newish, more formal things like Data Structures, Symbolic Languages (AI), Database (with access to Oracle on a mainframe) - I was in heaven. Every outstanding brilliant software developer I have known is the same, they are self taught with the edges smoothed by formal education. They own multiple system at home, and build system to play around on because even though they work building code for a living, it's still also a hobby. And honestly, with fantastic new things coming out at faster and faster rates, every year is holiday all year long.
Flashbacks!!! Making your own circuit boards with tape and trays of chemicals that could kill you. Endless hours poring over data books and catalogs to find just the right part. Working late into the night probing circuits with oscilloscope probes and DVMs to find the faults. Drafting schematics on grid paper with a mechanical pencil and ruler. Magic smoke before it was known as such.
dAMN DAVE, I've got to give it to you. I've enjoyed your videos for the last several months here, all the great reviews advice and humor seems to have made me a regular viewer. But what struck me so about this video was that you put into words what I've always believed. I had the same 200:1 board! I took apart my toys never could get enough. Electronics never sunk in like the mechanics. I'm a professional machinist and can build anything. I just bought my first digital o scope last week cheers!
Dave is on the money here. My desire to listen to pop music on the radio inspired me to learn how radios can be built from scrap TVs, to bring in long distance stations, and reproduce with improved fidelity. Without that motivation, I might not have moved on from 200-in-one kits as readily as I did. Having a practical application for the hobby helps. Oh, and popularity with my school mates when I would bring things that make strange noises or go bang. There would be laws against the things I used to bring to school...
I remember playing with those whatever-in-one kits, it was amazing back in those days building and disassembling circuits and learning about electronics with them (even if I didn't fully understand it). I learned a lot of things from books too, but now I'm so glad the internet exists to give me the helpful info when I need it. Thanks to the internet, circuit simulators and videos on CZcams I have learned more about electronics in 1 year than I ever did before Internet existed.
brings back so many memories. my story has so many parallels to yours, down to the exact same 200 in 1 kit! but for me, when i was 12 yrs old, we got a tandy color computer 3 and thats when I strayed from electronics and became a computer geek, which is what i ended up studying in college. but your blogs has gotten me back into it again! love all your vids and thanks for the trip down memory lane
Dude, you are Awesome! i've seen a couple of your videos, and they where hilarious! - I literately cried, and i'm now a proud subscriber! - I'm from Denmark, and i'm i no way into electronics. Just like you, i was an 8 year old kid, who got his first computer, the 8 bit ZX Spectrum, and guess what, today i'm a 41 year old Geek! :o)
As yeah! The Tandy Engineers notebook, the blue treasure trough! Loooved that book, Read and used IT to bits! Still got it and in fact have lately been perusing it agsin for ideas, and referencing my old knowledge for the synth I'm building now. That brought back a lot of memories, lots of helpful penciled in scribbles in there from way back when
I became interested in electronics when I was 14, in 1966. Those were the days! I remember that every magazine stand carried numerous electronics magazines. These included "Popular Electronics," "Electronics Illustrated," "Elementary Electronics," "Radio-Electronics," "Electronics," "Electronics Today," "Radio-TV Experimenter," and "Electronics World." There were also the ham magazines, eg, "QST," "CQ," "73," and "Ham Radio." Bear in mind that most of these could be found in drug stores and grocery stores! Also, in the 60s, there was still floating around a fair amount of surplus equipment from WWII. You could get things like "Arc 5" transmitters & receivers for a couple of bucks, BC-348 receivers, BC-221 heterodyne frequency meters, etc.
So many great magazines! Those shaped my mind and life, along with science books my dad, a junior high science teacher, pilfered from the school. Many issues of those magazines are available as PDFs online. They had some top-notch explainers.
I watched this and loved it I was in VOtec 11th grade really into electronics before and after that was over 30 years ago back when microprocessor were in there infancy I worked in the field until I became disabled I even was a electronic tech in the NAVY on submarines for 6 years oh those were the days. Simson meters were the best back then. Keep up the great videos!!!
I remember MulLard OC71 PnP red spot transistors ,they were a glass case with a rsd spot denoting the collector and if you scraped the black paint off you got a phototransistor and the OA91 diode ... scrape the paint and wow a photodiode great days .
7 people disliked but they were ferrel children.. I had the RS science fair but you are 13 years older than I am! the front bezel was slightly different but the book was exactly the same! Even with mr flip flip! I love your videos and this made my day because I went through exactly the same process! Awesome!
Wow what a real blast from the past, that's exactly what I would do with all my electronics toys and anything else i could get my hands on and it drove my parents mad and they went out and got me the exact same electronics project kit.
Guys, You had so much luck to have things like that. When i was Young, in my reach, there was nothing like that. All i had were some parts i've hacked out of old electronics. I've started with simple motors, lightbulbs etc. then i've started to read some books and went straight into amplifiers and stuff. And then i've got hold on 555 timer... everyting changed for me after that :)
Wow, you made me feel better. I am self-learning guy who is limited in some ways, just like you back then (no easy access to parts, thus scavenging what I can) + recently finally afforded an 10MHz 1 channel CRO (worth me 30$). Practically nobody gives a damn about my hobby (parents just think "at least it's better than seeing him getting drunk on parties, etc", slightly proud when I fixed something (TV, CFL, whatever)), when I building something they do not understand (power supply, than another power supply, ESR meter) they telling me - just go do something good around a house. But I keep doing it. I built an audio amp - friend said - "Price?", I sayed - "Just around 30$", he said "You can buy one for this money", my answer to him is - "Screw you, you don't understand, that's ME who made it". Even if the price will be the same or little higher. I will be an electronics geek 'til I die
You have to realize the majority of the populace are people of mediocre intelligence, and very little drive. We are a vast minimum.
Go comrade, its the same for me when I am around my classmates
Electronics is such a devotion, origin of the gadgets equipment we are using today
@@lynxian-6097 Yes, plus most of the time you'll get more satisfaction from building the device than using it. Depends what you've built 😉
@@mrjohhhnnnyyy5797 Im also a self-learning 17yr old in Philippines. I wont be pursuing for a course (I have something to pursue). Even if I get into a job world of non-electronics stuff, I will set fund and time for collection and building electronics
I kinda cannot rely on products, they dont always go along with your preferences that you have to build it yourself (and the pleasure of playing with them, discovering) and if something breaks you dont just go buy a whole set just because a single component gave up 💀
Anyway kinda surprised an account from 7 years ago is still alive and you have some geek videos cool
It's awesome to watch a grown man feeling the same passion and awe when he was a child...
Hi Dave, I'm that guy from Keycorp! (14:10) :) I remember that day when I first met you and was very impressed with how much you knew about electronics. I've been following you for the last few years and it's great to see you sharing all that knowledge! Thanks for taking us down the memory lane, my start in electronics was almost identical to yours, and I still have the same magazines you show, and even had the 200-in-one. I got started with the 160-in-one in the wooden box.
Wow, that is simply amazing. Turns out the people from two of my most favorite channels have such an interesting past full of coincidences.
@@FairfaceCZ Exactly! What a coincidence!
A really mindblowing coincidence
haha the universal start to electronics. We all did it! My parents bought me the 200in1 electronics kit from Radio Shack but I took that apart too haha.
You killed me! hahaha..
+Warndog I never got a kit like that when i was young, but no appliance that left for the trash ever left in one piece haha.
I had the 130 kit. Fried half the components in a year. I also would take everything apart.
Gosh mid 70s nostalgia - I had the 160 in one in a wooden box. My father was an EE and bought me components back from work to add to it, remember learning about npn vs. pnp transistors as a 7 year old! I became a geophysicist rather than an EE, but still like playing & tinkering as a 50 year as I did back then ..
Same thing here mate!!! Hahaha!
I still have my original Forrest Mims books on top of my book shelves, almost like a shrine. I still look through them fondly.
Your history sounds so much like mine. I started 10 years old. I had digital multimeter and a Trio Oscilloscope when I was 14. Radioham when I was 16. I have been an electronics enginner for 27 years now. Never regretted a minute
This so reminds me of myself when I was a kid (8-9-year-old)! My uncle had a monthly subscription of "Electronics for you" magazine. I spent countless hours trying to understand all the schematics published in the circuit ideas section. And this indeed helped me during my engineering days. I still remember, when my analog electronics professor asked our class if anyone of us were familiar with a Super-heterodyne receiver, I not only explained in terms of block diagrams, but I actually drew all cascaded IF stages, mixer, detector schematic on the board. I could feel the class going nuts! :D
In 1968, I fondly remember my Dad writing the check for twenty one dollars and change (a huge sum of money to me at 11 years old) and sending off for the 50in1 kit. It was awesome! I built every single project and many more. Good times!
You probably had a good dose of Space Race enthusiasm powering you, besides that irresistible curiosity and urge to take things apart. Yes, very good times!
Dave, how wonderful to watch this and be able to pass this on to my boy. I feel so connected to this being 45 and experienced so similar during my boy hood and career, thank you for sharing. It's so comforting finding someone so far away (I'm UK) having so similar background.
My boy is into RC modelling (I brought him up with) and want to encourage a further development into uCs and the practicalities of Electronics design and hope he can experience the satisfaction and accomplishment I did.
Cheers
Thanks Dave, you got me back to my childhood, I have almost the same memories with electronics. My country was even worse with finding parts and information. This video is like I was listening to my self... thumb up my friend...
Dave, you nailed it for so many of us with this commentary. Growing up in the 70's I started ripping things apart at an early age to satisfy my curiosity on how things worked. A electronics magazine subscription meant I could have the excitement of Christmas morning 12 times a year. I managed to build a good stockpile of parts from things I'd take apart and I built most of all my test gear and lots of projects. I'm surprised you didn't mention "Heathkit". I still have all of their test gear on my bench and in working condition. I was fortunate to have a surplus store close enough I could bus to. They sold all kinds of obscure military and telecom gear and most of it ended up coming home with me.
Never lucky enough to have the formal education you did Dave but I did spend 30 or so years repairing electronics for friends and family and building things.
Nothing is changed - Dave still takes things apart ))
This video put the biggest smile on my face as it brought back so many memories. I think I am a year older than you but followed pretty much exactly the same path. 1st electric shock at aged 4 while messing around with a lamp stand. Got the 150 in 1 kit, making a cats whisker wireless set with dad. Doing the Radio Amateur exam within a week of being old enough. My school project was too advanced and the teacher didn't understand it. Working part time after school at a transformer factory. Onto college at 15 to do my ONC... Worked as a TV and Video service engineer which died with the advent of surface mount... Moved over to computer programming and my career in computers took off. Now at the ripe old age of 45 I am getting back into electronics with Arduinos and Arm chips. I can't believe how much of that early stuff pre-college is coming back so easily.
A passion for the subject is far more important than a formal education in my opinion. I am just so grateful to have had both and to be able to come back to the hobby almost 25 years later and find it has all changed but still exactly the same.
I found your channel by accident while trying to refresh my memory on Mosfets and Op Amps. Absolutely love your videos and can't get enough. Thank you :)
Fantastic video and so true too, I started off with a Tandy/Radio Shack 20 in 1 kit, it was blocks if I remember right, each block had a component on and wires and little metal strips to join them together....that was 1978,,,,,And that's how I got serious about electronics....Watching your video bought back so many memories to me......Cheers for that dude...Keep up with the great vids...
im 22 and in Ee. I found the 50 n 1 board in my basement when i was about 5. played with it growing up and I still have it. So its not just the past generations it got me in it too!
It was great to hear your stories of growing up with electronics! I really like your channel and enjoy everything from the mailbag (love that knife) to your how to's and in depth explanations. I too spent many an hour taking apart everything in sight as a kid. I really got into it when I got my best Christmas gift ever in 1963. It was on the cover of Allied Electronics catalog #220 in 1963. It was the Knight Kit 100 in 1 Electronics Lab. I got it for Christmas in 1963/1964 when I was 8 years old and it was the greatest and most memorable Christmas gift that I can recall. Spent all day long Christmas day putting it together and eventually built every project. My favorite project was the AM radio broadcast station. I was my own DJ and broadcast a whole block in every direction with my 100 foot antenna strung from the house to the garage. It was awesome! It is still complete and in a box in the attic! Great memories! Keep up the good work!
Back in the late 50s and early 60s I was building Allied-Knight kits and projects in the electronic magazines in the US.
That springboard thing was the same thing that I started with in the late 90's.
Great stuff. I'd take that over a gameboy any day!
you bet!
Thanks for sharing your story Dave. Mine was pretty similar. First a crystal radio, thereafter I received a 10 in 1 Tandy electronics kit at the age of 13 (1973/74) - much later I received a 100 in 1 in a beautiful wooden box and the rest is history.
Very cool this video.
Living in Brazil, I was born in 78.
Fantastic as I experienced the same trajectory, and share the same feelings about electronics in the last years.
Thank you Dave.
Dave, that is amazing. I am probably same generation as you are. In those days all kinds of mechanical/electrical/electronical sets like this one in your video were manufactured. There was also very popular HAM radio and all sorts of groups and clubs related to electronics and other similar stuff. Those were great times for growing up. I joined ham radio at the age of 13, built my first detector receiver at the age of 11. Takes me back, thanks, mate !
Taking things apart is one of my favorite until now. I really enjoyed it, even i have no idea how that thing works and the best part is when you try to assemble it again (you'll get extra screw after you finish, trust me!).
when i was 14 years old i try to open my family's CRT TV and feel nice shock from high voltage capacitor.. what a day! haha
Wow!! That brought back memories! I started with vacuum tubes building linear amplifiers for CB radios as a kid. Old televisions were a great source of components. Wiring was point to point back then. Thanks for the memories.
Haha. First thing I took apart was the hoover when I was about 4!! My parents bought me a very simple electronics kit with a light bulb, a buzzer and terminal posts for the connections. Later I got a kit that could build 7 different types of radios including a crystal radio. :) You had to wind the coil yourself!! The 200 in one came when I was about 9 or 10. Happy days. Thanks for reminding us Dave. :)
One of my favorite video here. well put. started electronics at 9 took my moms brand new cordless phone apart and put it back together .
Dude, your such an inspiration for electrical engineers man! I need to go build some more circuits now!
I'm so glad we got this new surge of EE- and programming-interested kids nowadays thanks to devices like the Arduino and Raspberry Pi. There was a huge gap between those science kits and current options, and now we're stuck with a big shortage of EE's and programmers because a whole generation was just enjoying USING computers instead of UNDERSTANDING them.
Ben Heck said your name in a video and I thought he was making a corny reference to the Monkeys! I just now discovered your channel and am binge watching on 2X speed. This was a fun video. I was born in 72 and had very similar experiences growing up, but was a software guy versus hardware. Unfortunately, I went into Chemical Engineering for some crazy reason, but due to the Maker movement, I've gone crazy into EE now. Thanks for inspiring the rest of us and bestowing what you've learned over the years. It's put a "spark" into life.
Which episode was that?
I'm sure that being held back a bit can be a good thing! It worked for me, I had a similar background and started with valves in the 70's, mainly because they made bloody good transmitters! My local ham radio club did a great job though, now I run my own little design and manufacturing company! Great channel!!
I was born in 1996. My freind and I got into electronics around the same time, and his parents bought him a Radio Shack spring board just like that around 6 years ago. We have built hundreds of projects on that board. Radios, transmitters, micro controller proof or concept circuits. Those spring boards are still valuable to the young electric enthusiast.
I'm a 90s kid from India and still I had the same journey towards the field of electronics....
Fell in love with electronics bcs how gadgets work fascinated me
I used to take electronic things apart, save pocket money-gift money to buy my first soldering Iron at an age of 9yrs and multimeter at 10
My parents always encouraged me , bought me electronics magazines...
And that passion drew me electronics till date
I graduated with Electronics degree , I did masters in electronics and communication ....
All with gold medals because for me electronics came naturally..
And now working as a government engineer officer in field of electronics.....
And I still take out time to do my own projects....
Thanks Dave for sharing your story...
Great. Indeed the insight and knowledge from playing with electronics and experimenting is impossible to value. Remember my first soldering iron as well, still have it. :-)
I never had that Tandy/RS thing, but it's similar to what Heathkit offered in the 1960s/70s. It was a kit, so you had to put it together yourself, learning what a 'capacitor' or 'diode' looked like, while following instructions and marking checklists. One of the most important things I had in my youth!
my 1st oscilloscope was converted from an RCA television, that I made at the time from plans in a paper rag at the time!
I have the exact same story. Great minds. I wish I still had my radio shack/ Tandy stuff. A house fire robbed me of mine. I use to read the encyclopedias volumes A-Z. I loved learning how everything works but I have always strayed towards electronics. And I would memorize everything from cover to cover. I have several books not online that are indispensable.
When I took drafting and design we did everything with paper and pencil. No computers available back then. I have a article published in the Bentley BMW repair manual. I was extremely proud and still am for that publication. I have never been to school for mechanics or electronics but I make a good living doing it and am one of the best around my area. I have a 2 year business degree but I did that to pass the time. I learned my trade from reading and tinkering. I walked my brother n law through electrical engineering school. He used to call me every night to ask me how things worked and I would explain how they function to him. When I was 5 I was helping wire houses. At 16 he couldn’t install a car stereo. Just a head unit that I can do in about 10 minuets. He still discusses work all the time. I wonder how much of my stuff he has turned into his employer. I don’t know why he got into that field he has no feel for electronics. I guess some people are great bullshitters.
Awesome Dave. Love the story.
This guy is amazing, he self taught everything he knows about electronics to himself. His shows are very informative.
Fantastic video, very inspiring too. Your enthusiasm definitely rubs off!
You are awesome.! Love to watch you, a hobbyist passionate towards electronics
I hope you realize that you, today, and your EEVBlog are the modern updated version of the hobbyist magazines of the past. With everything from product reviews, project ideas, and general industry chit chat to actual circuit theory and tutorials.
You are an invaluable resource for my generation (1990s kids) to learn and grow in elctronics engineering. You go Dave!
This video is SO GOOD! Re-watching it after 8 years, and Dave, your energy and enthusiasm here is still so damn infectious and inspiring... especially your closing comments at 20:36.
It makes me feel beter listening to you! I also started at about 12 years old making my own electronic toys from broken electronic devices. Was taking apart motors, wires, switches, gears etc.... from trash deposits and made my own schematics that nobody could understand only myself. Some of them worked and some didn't but it was a good way of practice. Now I Design most Circuits from my own, don't like to use others. And at school I was ahead of others because of that just like you....... thanks Dave!
Awesome to hear, keep it up!
I believe the Australian Education department needs to recruit this creator to encourage math /Engineering teachers. The enthusiasm maybe contagious. Thank you for continuing to contribute to community.
I had one of those, I loved it. I used to raid the TV repair shop bins for bits, and my first soldering iron was DIY made out of a big resistor from telly, unwound and wrapped around a pice of brass bar I found on a tip. Great fun was had and the only time I got interested in math was to do with electronics, I used to spend hours in the library and even dicked off school to read electronics books
This was how I got started tinkering with electronics. This is like watching my life history. Saving money to buy a nice meter to replace the last one that got the smoke let out, spending hours at a time in radio shack. I'm 10 years older than Dave, so in the late 70s, I was bitten by the computer big. Having a commodore Pet or TRS-80 was absolutely out of the question, but my parents did get me a Cosmac Elf kit to put together. Still have it. It's something I will never part with. Also have a wooden boxed 150 in 1 science fair kit too, with the book. Still have old magazines, Forest Mims books and some old data books. Waiting for the next issue of electronics magazines was painful.
I like your story. I am only 23, born 1992. I did the same thing I want to figure out how electronics work and took apart everything I got. Lucky for me my grandfather whom I lived with was a engineer for Motorola. I got to experience computers right from the get go of a Intel 16bit Hewlett Packard. I built my first self designed cirucit at 11 years old, it was a basic two transistor audio amp. I learned C++ in high school. Been working on my degree as a computer and electrical engineer.
Dave's history of passion!
I can remember I take apart a cassette player that plays at too high speed and want to slow it down. I fixed it with a wooden stick that slows down the motor, didn't know there was a potentiometer inside the motor :-D My parents didn't understand electronics, they bought some led games like pinball, pretty boring.
Finally, did some electronics study but left it because it was very technical and theoretical and didn't know how to practice at home, too expensive at that time. Start programming with less requirements, bought my first 386SX kit/parts and build my first computer myself and it worked! The same computer we had at school but just a fraction of the price (about $1500 for all stuf including Amstrad monochrome monitor).
Nowerdays, since two years, I picked up electronics again thanks to the internet, so much info available, a huge library available at your fingertips, we didn't have in the past. It is so easy to get information now. It is fun to program microcontrollers, really love it. I am afraid it is too late to switch career. When it was possible to do over again, In this era, I definitely choose/take another career route.
Got into electronics as a kid in a similar way. Taking things apart, then got one of those kits. Mind for me it was the early 90s! Did get to breadboarding at least, bought some extra components with pocket money, and salvaged as much as I could from random appliances around the house. Didn't end up in electronics professionally though, switched up to computer programmer around 9-10 years old and stuck with it. 20+ years on getting back into electronics now mind, and damn it's a lot more fun with a full time job to cover the cost of components and tools!
In the mid-70's, I used to put together the Tandy kits, that had the red thru hole boards!
This is how it started for me! My parents bought one of those wire together kits from a garage sale and I was always taking things apart - including mains power! I wish they still made modern versions of those - kickstarter idea??
i really enjoy your videos, as i am from the 50's and was nodding to all the steps that you took to reach where you now..one thing i took from the elctronic magazines was the section on "how it works" where the explanation of how the circuit functions and what to expect from the circuit.... please keep on doing these videos brill
You sir, are the most inspiring person I've watched on youtube, I can't help but smile from ear to ear the whole time I watch your videos!
Thanks Dave, that was great. When I was eight years old my parents asked what I wanted for my birthday, I said, "A soldering iron". That was almost 70 years ago! Today I'm a retired electronic engineer and I still design circuits.
Just love your enthusiasm. My first big project was a Heathkit stereo amplifier. Great learning experience.
amen to that, Dave ;-)
memory lane back to how I started my electronics!
That's the real truth people who have experimented with electronics before studyng about it knows their way around much much better than those who hadn't.
Really good video! Thank You!
Awesome summary, My first project was at about 5 years old late 60’s hooking up batteries, switches and light bulbs then pulling things appat but no supporting system that I could grow my curiosity. For that reason I probably wouldn’t want to relive that time and prefer the 80’s
Dave - I so agree. Built a crystal set from scrounged components when I was 6 (dad helped) Radionics electronic kit at 8 or 9, first breadboard and Altai multimeter at 14. Built a turtle robot controlled by ZX81 at 17. Wireless comms between ZX81s at 18 - the rest is history. Now building ARM based hardware - almost 50, Biggest regret: It's a shame no-one told me to learn C about 30 years ago - and I was too dumb to know any better. Keep up the good work
OMG i did the exact same things,, although my parents didn't buy crap for me, i had to research it all, asking people that was actually working as repairing technicians, i was always asking them silly questions, they were just having enough of me, but i never cared, because i learned, still remeber the beginner electronics books and magazines i bought,, this is just fantastic to hear about this from a guy in australia :)))
i had to go though the same thing
I started playing around with circuitmod a few years ago. I never understood any of it, but I loved to try anyways and I liked to look at the example circuits it came with. I wanted to start making things, but I had no clue where to start or even what parts I needed. I have little money so I didn't want to risk buying something that would be useless to me or the wrong thing. Then last October I moved and when I got into my new place I had nothing to do while my stuff was still packed away. So I began binge watching channels like EEVBlog and Big Clive and Julian Ilett etc and little by little I learned enough to know what I needed to get started. There are no local electronics shops, but there was a surplus store that sold a few things passives, switches, breadboards, battery holders but they were fairly pricy. I bought a few things and ordered some Elenco transistor, resistor and capacitor kits on Amazon, which was still relatively expensive. I started reading through allaboutcircuits.com and electronicstutorials.com (not sure if thee's a hyphen there) while making stuff in circuitmod and then trying the real thing on breadboard. I still couldn't get any ICs other than some overpriced 555s on amazon, though. I ordered 1 lm358 dual op amp on amazon for a whopping $4.50 for just the one. I was so excited about it, but it never arrived. Sites like mouser and JameCo were too much for the shipping, so they weren't feasible alternatives. Eventually I found AliExpress and was in Heaven. Finally I had an abundance of components and ICs at my disposal. I've since stocked up on just about everything I can and have absolutely fallen in love with hobby electronics. Ever since I tried Logisim a few years ago I've always wanted to make a breadboard computer. And now it seems that dream is closer than ever to reality. I've been thoroughly digesting Ben Eater's series on it along with any other material I can find. EEVBlog's IRC channel has been really great in helping me learn as well. They're all really friedly, eager to teach and best of all, non-judgemental. They have never once talked down to me or made me feel stupid for asking a question. All very rare qualities for an online community IME. I only regret not getting into electronics from a young age like Dave did. I didn't start until I was 32. Anyways thanks to anyone who bothered reading this. I know it's quite long. Cheers.
so true.. u brought tears in my eyes..dave..
Those experimenter kits are great! My uncle, an electronics instructor at a community college, always thought one couldn't learn much electronics from building kits. Well, not so. You do learn what different parts look like, how easily wire bends, how easily it breaks if bent back and forth many times, read color code, get a feel for how a 100K resistor is way different from a 1K resistor in a light blinker circuit, etc. No, you do not master Ohm's law or transfer functions or Smith charts or Delta-Wye transforms even get a clue about temperature coefficients. Just some physical real-world basics. The mental stuff comes later, and is easier to learn after gaining solid direct finger-feel physical learning.
I had a 555 timer 101 projects kit when I was around 9. Loved it! Definitely helped me learn a lot.
Wow, I would so have loved to have one of those science kit things. I also took things apart often, but outcome was pretty much that I was rebuked for it. In their opinion, taken apart was equivalent to broken and no longer usable. So that was a letdown. I did try to keep the hobby up by scavenging electronics from dumpsters, but without much understanding, things didn't really move on. Until I was 16 and went to a school that taught electronics. But by then I had already focused in programming.
Wow, you really remind me or a much more enthusiastic version of my professor in EE. I wish I had such a hobby when I was younger.
Emma Yann Zhang It is never too late with electronics....
Sounds like my own childhood ;-)
Hello Dave,
Just watched your video and I reminisced about though days too.
Gran bought me a 26 in1 Project Kit 10 yrs old in the 70's. That
changed my life too, from am to pro devotion. Still tinker with it
now and then to mod or dev something I need. Red some of the
other comments posted and I felt my heart warm to to see others
devoted to electronics. Love the channel, will allways view.
I always say, keep all your electrons flowing and don't get shorted.
Sounds like my life, except I am a bit older. In the 60's we were into tubes and terminal strips. I still built my own oscilloscope when I was 13 or 14 with plans from EICO that we found in the factory's dumpster in Brooklyn!
In the 60s and 70s it was easy getting parts in NYC. We had Canal St. and W. Broadway with tons of surplus electronics. There were also a lot of manufacturers in the outer boroughs, like Brooklyn, where I lived.
You´re so right Dave. I just revieved my old hobby in electronics, and it´s just escalated and escalated over the past year. It´s just SO easy these days! Microcontrollers, breadboards, Dupond wires, free software and datasheets, and not to forget the internet side of things. ...I mean... In my fathers days they must have been so cripled. I look up so much on the internet, and I order what I need when I need it. It´s just so freakin´ easy. Thanks for the inspiration Dave. Keep up the good work!
I started at an age of 6-7years, when my mom got me a kit called Electro Pioneer. It was essentially a teaching tool for tech class in the 9-10th grade.
It didn't have the fancy transistors and other silicon elements, but what it did have was motors, buzzers, switches, batteries, potentiometers, coils,...
I loved it so much. : )
You're really inspiring Dave ! Keep up the great work. I've even overlooked your Aussie accent. I'm a Kiwi you see. Cheers from accross the ditch.
Funny - began in exactly the same way! Taking things apart, spring connector electronic kits, simple radios, collecting anything electrical including as many data books and RS data sheets as possible. Yes, and I bought a Tandy (Radio Shack) DVM with my pocket money and it still works! I got into valve electronics as a kid in the early 80s which was seriously not cool then! Still have my massive collection of thermionic valves (tubes)!
Made me feel a bit old. I was out of high school - soldering, wire-wrapping, testing & installing data acquisition one-off's for science at Princeton in the early 80's. Glad to be here.
Back in my day, I'm like 6 years shy of Dave, I just went to CZcams and watched the EEVBlog. :-)
Your enthusiasm is clear. My path was software development. I bought my own 8088 based PC and installed a 5 Megabyte hard drive so I could cut down on compile time. I learned coding from magazines that had articles with Assembly and Basic, and eventually Turbo Pascal - I was very interested in ISR's for some reason back then. By the time I got to University level, I couldn't believe that I was so lucky that I could take classes to learn more about things that I already spent all my time trying to learn. I didn't realize I would know more than most of my teachers, but I also didn't care - any new information was worth the hours of going over things I knew inside out. And the newish, more formal things like Data Structures, Symbolic Languages (AI), Database (with access to Oracle on a mainframe) - I was in heaven. Every outstanding brilliant software developer I have known is the same, they are self taught with the edges smoothed by formal education. They own multiple system at home, and build system to play around on because even though they work building code for a living, it's still also a hobby. And honestly, with fantastic new things coming out at faster and faster rates, every year is holiday all year long.
Flashbacks!!! Making your own circuit boards with tape and trays of chemicals that could kill you. Endless hours poring over data books and catalogs to find just the right part. Working late into the night probing circuits with oscilloscope probes and DVMs to find the faults. Drafting schematics on grid paper with a mechanical pencil and ruler. Magic smoke before it was known as such.
NTE catalog, data books, make PCB with chart tape, pen resist, stickers, sunshine and FeCl
I was, into electronics as a kid as well. But nothing like you damn you were born for this.
Omg this video made me so nostalgic lol. Good I miss my bookcase that took up the spare room
dAMN DAVE, I've got to give it to you. I've enjoyed your videos for the last several months here, all the great reviews advice and humor seems to have made me a regular viewer. But what struck me so about this video was that you put into words what I've always believed. I had the same 200:1 board! I took apart my toys never could get enough. Electronics never sunk in like the mechanics. I'm a professional machinist and can build anything. I just bought my first digital o scope last week cheers!
I wish I had this back then lol.
I agree on the formal education part, it's all about doing it in real enviroment and not giving up after failures.
I'd be interested in hearing about formal EE education at age 15...vlog on that?
Dave is on the money here. My desire to listen to pop music on the radio inspired me to learn how radios can be built from scrap TVs, to bring in long distance stations, and reproduce with improved fidelity. Without that motivation, I might not have moved on from 200-in-one kits as readily as I did. Having a practical application for the hobby helps. Oh, and popularity with my school mates when I would bring things that make strange noises or go bang. There would be laws against the things I used to bring to school...
I also started electronics the same way you did but I took things apart when I was 4 years old, now I'm 12!
I remember playing with those whatever-in-one kits, it was amazing back in those days building and disassembling circuits and learning about electronics with them (even if I didn't fully understand it). I learned a lot of things from books too, but now I'm so glad the internet exists to give me the helpful info when I need it. Thanks to the internet, circuit simulators and videos on CZcams I have learned more about electronics in 1 year than I ever did before Internet existed.
So much changed in the last few decades... We should be really proud to witness the evolution of the Internet
I remember al this too well! The early beginning to the internet I named the Internest at the time.
This is a great great great blog!
brings back so many memories. my story has so many parallels to yours, down to the exact same 200 in 1 kit! but for me, when i was 12 yrs old, we got a tandy color computer 3 and thats when I strayed from electronics and became a computer geek, which is what i ended up studying in college. but your blogs has gotten me back into it again! love all your vids and thanks for the trip down memory lane
Dude, you are Awesome! i've seen a couple of your videos, and they where hilarious! - I literately cried, and i'm now a proud subscriber! - I'm from Denmark, and i'm i no way into electronics. Just like you, i was an 8 year old kid, who got his first computer, the 8 bit ZX Spectrum, and guess what, today i'm a 41 year old Geek! :o)
As yeah! The Tandy Engineers notebook, the blue treasure trough! Loooved that book, Read and used IT to bits! Still got it and in fact have lately been perusing it agsin for ideas, and referencing my old knowledge for the synth I'm building now. That brought back a lot of memories, lots of helpful penciled in scribbles in there from way back when
Yup. Still have that blue book full of small circuit ideas as well ! Was a treasure indeed !
wow, that radio shack 200-in1 brought back memories. thanks !!
I just heart the story of my life !
I became interested in electronics when I was 14, in 1966. Those were the days! I remember that every magazine stand carried numerous electronics magazines. These included "Popular Electronics," "Electronics Illustrated," "Elementary Electronics," "Radio-Electronics," "Electronics," "Electronics Today," "Radio-TV Experimenter," and "Electronics World." There were also the ham magazines, eg, "QST," "CQ," "73," and "Ham Radio." Bear in mind that most of these could be found in drug stores and grocery stores! Also, in the 60s, there was still floating around a fair amount of surplus equipment from WWII. You could get things like "Arc 5" transmitters & receivers for a couple of bucks, BC-348 receivers, BC-221 heterodyne frequency meters, etc.
So many great magazines! Those shaped my mind and life, along with science books my dad, a junior high science teacher, pilfered from the school. Many issues of those magazines are available as PDFs online. They had some top-notch explainers.
I watched this and loved it I was in VOtec 11th grade really into electronics before and after that was over 30 years ago back when microprocessor were in there infancy I worked in the field until I became disabled I even was a electronic tech in the NAVY on submarines for 6 years oh those were the days. Simson meters were the best back then.
Keep up the great videos!!!
Dave, your enthusiasm is infectious. You can still buy electronics kits in the UK. I've seen some in Maplin.
I remember MulLard OC71 PnP red spot transistors ,they were a glass case with a rsd spot denoting the collector and if you scraped the black paint off you got a phototransistor and the OA91 diode ... scrape the paint and wow a photodiode great days .
I got one of those electronics kits back in the 90's (1995 maybe). It was a great way to learn!
7 people disliked but they were ferrel children..
I had the RS science fair but you are 13 years older than I am! the front bezel was slightly different but the book was exactly the same! Even with mr flip flip! I love your videos and this made my day because I went through exactly the same process!
Awesome!
Wow what a real blast from the past, that's exactly what I would do with all my electronics toys and anything else i could get my hands on and it drove my parents mad and they went out and got me the exact same electronics project kit.
Guys, You had so much luck to have things like that. When i was Young, in my reach, there was nothing like that. All i had were some parts i've hacked out of old electronics. I've started with simple motors, lightbulbs etc. then i've started to read some books and went straight into amplifiers and stuff. And then i've got hold on 555 timer... everyting changed for me after that :)