Technology..

[slowmotion]

For audio maybe, but not RF. You need pretty serious performance for RF design. You can get quite cheap adaptors to turn your laptop into a scope off Amazon, but the specification is pretty poor compared to professional stuff.

Sorry. RF stuff is one of the many vast areas about which I know absolutely nothing!

 

[ColinJ]

Nowadays making electronics stuff at home is more educational than practical. Anything that's useful enough to be worth making will already be mass produced cheaper, smaller and better than anything you can make. The first thing I ever made was a rain detector, you can even buy those now.

I was given a Philips electronic engineering kit as a child; I think it was one of THESE. What a brilliant present!

These days, kids would probably get a PlayStation or an XBox - a lot of fun, but not very educational.

If I had a child, I would probably give him/her a Raspberry Pi-based kit for a birthday or Christmas present.

Sorry. RF stuff is one of the many vast areas about which I know absolutely nothing!

I did a course on transmission lines and waveguides, but have forgotten nearly all of it now! If you fancy finding out more on the subject, take a look HERE!

I found it very interesting but had 2 reactions:

1. Fascinating stuff, but I'm not going to do that for a living!
2. Wow - some brilliant minds worked all this out - Faraday, Maxwell and so on. To quote the late singer Ian Dury - "There ain't half been some clever bastards"!

 

[slowmotion]

I was given a Philips electronic engineering kit as a child; I think it was one of THESE. What a brilliant present!

These days, kids would probably get a PlayStation or an XBox - a lot of fun, but not very educational.

If I had a child, I would probably give him/her a Raspberry Pi-based kit for a birthday or Christmas present.


I did a course on transmission lines and waveguides, but have forgotten nearly all of it now! If you fancy finding out more on the subject, take a look HERE!

I found it very interesting but had 2 reactions:

1. Fascinating stuff, but I'm not going to do that for a living!
2. Wow - some brilliant minds worked all this out - Faraday, Maxwell and so on. To quote the late singer Ian Dury - "There ain't half been some clever bastards"!

I've read a little bit about laying out pcbs for RF circuits. That really is one of the Black Arts!

 

[winjim]

I was given a Philips electronic engineering kit as a child; I think it was one of THESE. What a brilliant present!

These days, kids would probably get a PlayStation or an XBox - a lot of fun, but not very educational.

If I had a child, I would probably give him/her a Raspberry Pi-based kit for a birthday or Christmas present.


I did a course on transmission lines and waveguides, but have forgotten nearly all of it now! If you fancy finding out more on the subject, take a look HERE!

I found it very interesting but had 2 reactions:

1. Fascinating stuff, but I'm not going to do that for a living!
2. Wow - some brilliant minds worked all this out - Faraday, Maxwell and so on. To quote the late singer Ian Dury - "There ain't half been some clever bastards"!

I had this one. Great fun.

 

[ColinJ]

I've read a little bit about laying out pcbs for RF circuits. That really is one of the Black Arts!

I was okay with audio on single-layer PCBs. I became used to double-sided PCBs for slowish digital circuitry, but when I saw people designing multi-layer PCBs for higher frequency signals my mind was boggled! Some of the boards had 10+ layers...

 

[newfhouse]

Fascinating stuff, but I'm not going to do that for a living!

Good advice. You'll never be super rich. DAMHIKT.

 

[ColinJ]

Good advice. You'll never be super rich. DAMHIKT.

Mind you, I didn't get even slightly rich by NOT doing it for a living either!

 

[Mike_P]

Found a box full of electronic items I had made years ago in the loft, briefly considered how much it all must have totalled up to and how I must have contributed to Maplins profits back when they made a profit, sighed and threw the lot in the appropriate container (I think) at the recycling site.

 

[Mart44]

I've still got my dual-beam oscilloscope. I got offered £100 for it when I stopped work. I thought I might have a use for it, so turned the money down. I was wrong and should have taken up the offer. The scope had no other future than sitting in the loft forever.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

I've still got my dual-beam oscilloscope. I got offered £100 for it when I stopped work. I thought I might have a use for it, so turned the money down. I was wrong and should have taken up the offer. The scope had no other future than sitting in the loft forever.

There must be scope for some use?

 

[Mart44]

There must be scope for some use?

Yes, there might be. Possibly as a door-stop.

 

[Fab Foodie]

View attachment 502181

Now that’s technology I understand....

 

[Fab Foodie]

For geeks and non-geeks, recommend the Documentary film ‘General Magic’....amazing people and times....

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Yes, there might be. Possibly as a door-stop.

Connect a high gain aerial to it and see what radio waves it picks up from local WiFi.

 

[ColinJ]

Speaking of geeks and technology...

A friend just rang to say that her Kindle Fire had forgotten what time and date it is, wouldn't let her correct them, and wouldn't let her onto the Guardian website either.

I have had similar site access problems in the past when website certificate(s) appear to be invalid due to my device thinking the date was something outside the validity of the certificate(s). In my case, it was due to the real time clock battery failing on my PC motherboard. I don't know why the Kindle lost track of time, but while we were talking I Googled the problem and found that a reboot would let the Kindle pick up the correct time and date off the web. I told her to press and hold the power button for 20 seconds, then release it. Soon all was well again.