Your first electronics "Thrill"?

[UTMonkey]

Hi All,

Just finished another little project I2C+RTC and I am really pleased with my progress.

I love the challenge of writing code to do a "job" but also the buzz of it (finally) working.

So the question is:-
when was your first electronics buzz?

do you still get it?

I look forward to your responses...

Mark

 

[HS3]

It is always thrilling when something you designed works. I have done so many things that I could not remember them all but by coincidence I just posted .

 

[blueroomelectronics]

It never gets old, my first big thrill was building a COSMAC ELF1802 computer in 1976.
**broken link removed**

 

[shaneshane1]

mine was using a 555 timer with a variable resistor to operate a servo motor, which a lot of people on this forum helped me with!!!

 

[audioguru]

I made a voice scrambler for the wireless boardroom telephone conference system tor a major bank's new head office by using single sideband suppressed carrier. It inverted the audio frequencies and was completely unintelligible but was perfect when descrambled. Then they wanted a second transmitter which I made.

The two tranmitters were not sync'd so the sound increased and decreased in level like a rotating Leslie speaker.

I modified them to operate with AM modulation then it was fine.

The bank soon went bankrupt because they cheated customers and got caught.

 

[rjvh]

for me and it still is a thrill the design and make it work, swich panels and more lately control units for industrial machines

but an other kind of thrill was repairing TV,s or other electrical equipment

Robert-Jan

 

[Pommie]

Listening to the moon landing on a crystal radio that I had built. I was 10 at the time and built it from a book.

Mike.

 

[blueroomelectronics]

I almost forgot my first crystal radio, big long wire out the window and the search for a cold water pipe

 

[Gayan Soyza]

This is my first.

https://www.electro-tech-online.com/threads/flashing-a-led-with-mouse.28122/

 

[HS3]

I made a voice scrambler for the wireless boardroom telephone conference system tor a major bank's new head office by using single sideband suppressed carrier. It inverted the audio frequencies and was completely unintelligible but was perfect when descrambled. Then they wanted a second transmitter which I made.

That's not really a scrambler although that system *was* used to try to conceal communications but it was trivial though and does not even come close in difficulty to anything which today is not considered secure. If 30 years ago you were faced with having to intercept a spread spectrum communication you'd find it impossible. Today you can add all the digital processing you want.

I remember working on a project which had the same system of inverting the band frequency. A non-tech boss asked us how it worked and my colleague, pointing at the block diagram, says "well, here at the input you say 'yeeeeeeeessssssssss' and here at the output comes out 'noooooooooo'" and we all held our smiles for a second while the guy tried to think about it.

 

[crust]

Mine was the LM3909 flasher thing that could run for like years on a C battery. The next project was a device for my stereo / phone. When the phone picked up / rang it would automatically mute. I can't remember what magazine I had seen that circuit in.

 

[Marks256]

Mine was taring apart things. Good times.

 

[mneary]

Mine was taking something apart and making something different with the pieces. I salvaged some transistors from a logic circuit and substituted them into an amplifier from Popular Electronics. I etched my own PC board; I still have it, wrote the date 1966 into the etch.

 

[killivolt]

I hired an engineer to develop a (Detection Device) for water and lint. It was to be used on common appliances like (Lint) detection - Refrigerators, Dryers, Furnace. For (Water) Washers, Dishwashers Etc.

This device could power a 15amp motor to suck out water or to drive relay's buzzers or shut off the appliance and alert the customer to the problem.

Lint accumulation can become a fire hazard in a Dryer. But Refrigeration it shortens the life of the system (Keeps it from running cool on the condenser side of things.) The same unit detected both.

Playing around with that thing and watching it work was the coolest thing ever.

 

[shokjok]

My first working project was an Archer kit, a telephone amplifier with a suction cup on the handset ( remember those?) I bought three more Archer kits, and never got them to work properly.

 

[picbits]

When I made my first amplified radio around 30 years ago.

I just managed to get it working when my dad stormed out of his room and slapped my arse as I'd woken him up with the noise lmao

 

[HiTech]

My first serious electronic project was a real test to my attentiveness and assembly skills. It took considerable perseverance on my part to stick with it, and to troubleshoot a few minor issues before I could actually use it!
Heathkit HW-101 180watt amateur radio transceiver

**broken link removed**

 

[Andy1845c]

Mine was the good ole two transistor astable multivibrator. I salvaged all the parts from an old cassette tape deck and made it flash 2 red LEDs. I was amazed that it actually worked like it was supposed to on the first try.

Listening to the moon landing on a crystal radio that I had built. I was 10 at the time and built it from a book.

Mike.

That is cool!

 

[Hero999]

Mine was when I was about five, when my dad introduced me to wireing up a bulb to a battery.

 

[davidbball13]

mine was about 6 months ago i made a big 555 circuit with about 7 555s to make a very slick noise maker with like 4 LDRs and 3 pots. it was so cool.that day i also found out what ska was........man that was a great day. then it was a simple 3916 bargraph.