[sdiy] Starting Point?

[Michael E Caloroso]

I got my start on my dad's model train layout.  He taught me
electronics at an early age.  I knew enough about current and voltage
that a neighbor called asking for Dad's help wiring his son's toy
train set, and Mom sent me in Dad's absence.  I got the train running
and my neighbor was quite delighted until it dawned on him that a four
year old boy was showing a grown adult how to wire a train set.

Model trains are a good starting foundation for learning electronics.

MC

On 10/10/20, Benjamin Tremblay via Synth-diy <synth-diy at synth-diy.org> wrote:
> I recall a roommate would occasionally pull an oscilloscope out of the
> trash, or maybe an unlocked office, an bring it home and ask me to do “the
> thing”: Wire the left and right signals from the stereo into X and Y.
> Space out.
>
> Benjamin Tremblay
>
>> On Oct 10, 2020, at 5:44 PM, Roman Sowa <modular at go2.pl> wrote:
>>
>> 
>> David, I wasn't refering to your scope. Agree old scopes are cool (or not,
>> they are really hot energy eaters). I'd love to have a bunch of them, but
>> only to look at them and maybe show some unimportant waveforms so they
>> look nice. Unfortunately I don't have so much space for storage. And USB
>> scope is not my thing, I haven't used it in years.
>>
>> Roman
>>
>> W dniu 2020-10-10 o 22:47, David G Dixon pisze:
>>> 
>>> Roman, you're probably right about digital vs analog scopes, but the old
>>> Tektronix scope is cool, and it was free.
>>>
>>> I also have a Picoscope, which is a little USB probe that plugs into a
>>> computer and runs off of software.  That is also very useful, as it has
>>> spectrum analysis -- I use it when calibrating sines to minimize THD, and
>>> also when calibrating multipliers to minimize carrier bleed.  That was
>>> also free -- Danjel van Tijn gave it to me as a birthday present many
>>> moons ago.
>>>
>>> From: Synth-diy [mailto:synth-diy-bounces at synth-diy.org] On Behalf Of
>>> Roman Sowa
>>> Sent: Friday, October 09, 2020 11:23 PM
>>> To: synth-diy at synth-diy.org
>>> Subject: Re: [sdiy] Starting Point?
>>>
>>> [CAUTION: Non-UBC Email]
>>> Totally agree.
>>>
>>> What may not seem so obvious, there's a catch - when you can afford all
>>> the fancy tools you dream of, then suddenly your creativity drops down
>>> the floor. With crappy tools you have to be more creative and think,
>>> imagine, explore, experiment. For example soldering - you have to learn
>>> how to solder anyhow, and cheap soldering iron is not forgiving, so it
>>> will force you to think what you're doing and be totally aware of what to
>>> do in certain situations. I have bought my first temperature controlled
>>> station about 20 years after I started soldering. Only because of that I
>>> could appreciate it. In case you wonder, yest it's possible to
>>> succesfully solder SMD with transformer soldering gun.
>>>
>>> The scope is essential, I think even more than multimeter, but today you
>>> can buy small toy scopes for below $100. And frankly they are better than
>>> big 50kg scopes I had in school. I have quite a few of those toy scopes,
>>> this is my small addiction, so if you want to ask about specific model, I
>>> probably have that. Don't buy "best scope you can afford", or "scope
>>> planned for the future". Those times are over. Now there's new scope
>>> coming every year, cheaper and better than others. After 2-3 years you'll
>>> know what to look for, and it will be more GAS hitting than real
>>> measurement needs.
>>>
>>> It is very unpopular point of view here, but I think modern digital
>>> scopes are much better that vintage analog Tek.
>>>
>>> Roman
>>>
>>> W dniu 2020-10-10 o 01:49, Peter Pearson pisze:
>>>> While I agree that spending $1k will definitely get you set up, we
>>>> aren't all so lucky.  Especially when we're spending money made mowing
>>>> lawns or working minimum wage as a youngster.  What I meant was that a
>>>> quality iron will really make the biggest improvement.  That plus an "it
>>>> works fine" multimeter and a working 20MHz oscilloscope used is almost
>>>> all you need (less parts but that's subjective) to do some damage.  Take
>>>> the price point down from $1k to something more like $200-$300 or less
>>>> and that's attainable for a lot of people.
>>>>
>>>> Something like this:
>>>>
>>>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HicV3Z6XLFA
>>>>
>>>> BUY USED!
>>>>
>>>> You can work up to a $10k oscilloscope or whatever once you need one.
>>>>
>>>> On Fri, Oct 9, 2020 at 7:36 PM Benjamin Tremblay via Synth-diy
>>>> <synth-diy at synth-diy.org> wrote:
>>>>> I learned this stuff as a kid through trial, error, burned fingers, and
>>>>> Radio Shack.  I never had more than ten or so dollars on hand, so no
>>>>> voltmeter, no breadboard, no spools of wire. I remember building the
>>>>> basic 556 “Atari punk console” circuit and just thinking it made
>>>>> horrible noises nobody would ever want to hear.
>>>>> After building light-controlled oscillators for a year, I started
>>>>> checking out books at Colorado State University. The ancient books were
>>>>> the best: Musique Concrète and this book written in Spanish from the
>>>>> 1940s showing how a film loop generating optical pulses going into a
>>>>> modulator circuit could be what we call a drum machine. My mother told
>>>>> me about the Telharmonium in Worcester MA she read about in Yankee
>>>>> Magazine. I built a Theremin using an oscillator and an AM radio, and
>>>>> realized it would be easier to master the violin than to get a melody
>>>>> out of a Theremin. Then I found the 1970s books from UCLA on what we
>>>>> now call West Coast Synthesis. When I got to the log tables in the
>>>>> middle of the book I knew I couldn’t follow it; if music was math,
>>>>> music was not for me.
>>>>> It took a couple of years of futility to realize I had to try again.
>>>>> Paia was so inspirational, yet at the same time I felt the kits were
>>>>> full of design compromises that left me in the dark about best
>>>>> practices. (I remember testing the Gnome after my brother put it
>>>>> together and we both thought it was broken; but it was just the T
>>>>> filter doing its crappy T filter thing.)
>>>>> Then I was gifted a broken Paia Proteus when I was a junior in high
>>>>> school. Fixing that beautiful machine gave me a new appreciation for
>>>>> Paia.
>>>>>
>>>>> Paia turned me onto Don Lancaster and Craig Anderton (as editor of
>>>>> Electronic Musician).
>>>>> After I got my hands on the books by Bryce Ward and Barry Klein, I
>>>>> really wanted to do this stuff, but I had no way to earn a living, and
>>>>> neither the math nor the music.
>>>>>
>>>>> How long does one have to live before you just start doing what you
>>>>> love?
>>>>>
>>>>> Benjamin Tremblay
>>>>>
>>>>> > On Oct 9, 2020, at 6:53 PM, Benjamin Tremblay via Synth-diy
>>>>> > <Synth-diy at synth-diy.org> wrote:
>>>>> >
>>>>> > 
>>>>>
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>>>>
>>>>
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