Old style electronics books

[Llamarama]

Thanks for the replies everyone, i managed to get a few goodies from a car boot sale for 5p per book! They are quite dated, but from the late 70's early 80's. This one line shows just how dated they are tought! "The prototype has been fitted to a Mk. 2 Ford Zephyr for about 3000 miles and proved completely reliable." That was for a Capacitor Discharge Ignition System, specifically for 12v negative earth vehicles!

I do like modern electronics books like the Evil Genius series, but I also like the older style where it was transistors or nothing too!

Thanks for all your replies too!

 

[dr peppers]

I'm going to be really sad now, but I think I have that book, is it red with the car in mention on the front, with a picture of the circuit on the bonnet.
Mine is called auto projects collection, maybe its a collection of automotive articles from that period.
I never built the cd ignition system, but I built the alternator regulator, in fact 2 of them one for my 70's goldwing and the other for my canal boat, both worked perfectly.

 

[Llamarama]

I think this must be a reprint then as its from "Electronic novelties for the motorist" By B.B. Babani from 1973. Your book sounds quite interesting, I like vintage automotive projects that don't use microcontrollers (Mainly because i'm bitter about being unable to program )

 

[duffy]

unable to program

Programming's not as hard as you might think, and it can save you boards and boards full of components, as well as tweaking, re-wiring and other associated problems. Try an Arduino or something.

 

[Llamarama]

Can it be programmed with a flowchart style program? I've used one of them in the past and found it much easier than typing in conventional lines of code.

 

[dr peppers]

I've never seen a micro that has a graphical programming software, I've only seen that on industrial control gear.
You'll probably either have to learn C or assembler, I did the latter, its not that hard, that said I've spent hours staring at the screen looking for a silly bug thats just a , missing or the like, but thats replaced by the same thing with discrete circuitry, you get all kinds of issues with that too.
If you want to keep up with the pace then you'd better learn micro, personally I'm not inot the arduino, I like my projects to be platform free.

 

[Llamarama]

I've head of Flowcode and used PIC Logicator a few times. I've generally stuck to logic so I can get components from a local supplier rather than ordering stuff off the internet.

How difficult is assembler to learn for someone who has literally never done any programming apart from LOGO about 15 years ago?

 

[duffy]

never done any programming apart from LOGO about 15 years ago?

If you got the turtle to draw, you can get the Arduino to process.

And the Picaxe will do flowchart programming -

 

[dr peppers]

Siemens logo a veritable plc, theres still a couple of machines here with one or 2 in.
I've never heard of logicator.
That graphical picaxe looks simple enough to get you going, I wouldnt be surprised if the arduino does a similar thing.
If assembler scares you then stick to graphical systems, at least till you get used to binary, hex and simple mathematical stuff.
Some will tell you assembly is dead easy, and it is untill you've got your first project on the bench it isnt working and theres noone about to help you.
C seems to be the way to go these days, its everywhere even some mobile fone op systems are using it.

 

[cr0sh]

How difficult is assembler to learn for someone who has literally never done any programming apart from LOGO about 15 years ago?

You are asking (nearly) the equivalent of "How difficult is it to design a car from scratch for someone who has only purchased vehicles from a dealer?"...

 

[colin55]

The only way to learn assembler is to "cut and paste" from other programs.
You can then add a few lines of your own.

 

[dr peppers]

Theres nothing wrong with the cut and paste method, doing that means that you take on some of the styles of the original programmer.
I wrote all my own code from the start, which might not have been a good thing, every time I look at someone elses code it does my head in, I can only really follow my own.
When you start first off, the code probably isnt gonna be your major difficulty, I found that initialising the chip and other setup and assembler issues were the problem, not a lack of code skills, learning the 'system' for me anyway was the hardest part.
Speaking of style, every programmer has is own, if you have experience of ladder logic, then some of that will show in your code.

 

[duffy]

The way to learn assembler is to start by blinking a light. This is the assembler equivalent of the "Hello World" program.

 

[Llamarama]

Ahh! Hello World! I've spent many hours wasting time plugging those 3 lines into BASIC... I'll have a look at the cut and paste method , sounds interesting, and I like the looks of the PICAXE! Thanks everyone!