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  • Author Author: spannerspencer
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Father's Day Badge-a-Thon: Quality Time King

spannerspencer

Adaptability is the cornerstone of fatherhood. Well, it probably should be. Whether it is or not, I'll leave for mothers and partners to decide upon!image

 

But, in an effort to embrace this notion, today's Father's Day badge has taken a twist. I've adjusted it in accord with some excellent suggestions you guys about creating projects with the kids.

 

"Did anyone else see the title and expect that it'd be "what toys have you made for your boys (or girls)". That's what being a dad's really all about," astutely pointed out, which agreed with.

 

"Perhaps one of the future days will cover Projects on the Dads To Do List," he says. "Cool things like Retro Arcade System, Club house, Doll house and of course expanding the body disposal area for when your girls reach the teen years and you need to get rid of "problems" ;-)"

 

So, other than undetectable methods of dissolving the tormented remains of your daughter's boyfriend in industrial chemicals, tell us about any projects, games, kits or other activities your parents made with you (all those long years ago) that got you into electronics, so we can take some inspiration for enthusing future generations.

 

  • Tell us all about them in the comments below, and maybe include a few photos to really help us set that nostalgic mood!
  • @mention another element14 member in your comment, and nominate them to post their parental project story.

 

And remember you'll need to already have the previous Father's Day badges in order to be crowned a Quality Time King.

Top Comments

Parents

  • All of my kids like video games, even my daughter, who once had a job testing PSP games. I am in the process of collecting components to build a PiCade3: (inspired by the Pi3 retro arcade)

    image

     

    I don't think my path to be an electronics engineer follows many others. I had to decide whether to get an education of become a professional golfer. I chose education and wanted to be a mechanical engineer, but once in university, I quickly realized electronics was going to be a much lower cost hobby.

    I would like to know stories about which of the members' jobs were the most technically interesting - maybe top members like , have some interesting stories.

    However, my tendency to be a builder/maker/hacker/hobbiest probably comes from my Dad, who made us some phenomenal toys. One of my favourites was a two-seater (front & back seating) fighter jet, suspended by 2 chains, one in front of each seat. There was a steering wheel on each chain that allowed the plane to be pumped in a trapezoidal swing motion. The suspension points were at the center of gravity, so the plane could be have roll, pitch and yaw as it swung, controlled by the steering wheels and body position. There were rocket launchers under the wings, fired by the pilot at targets in front of the plane.  There were bomb bay doors in the fuselage - controlled by the co-pilot, to drop bombs on targets below the plane. There were buttons and lights and communication systems. We had to learn all the communication protocols. ("Pilot to Bombadier, prepare to open the bomb bay doors") We even had Morse code signal lights to communicate with the ground crew. It had retractable landing gear to stabilize the plane while boarding and deplaning. The 2 foot missiles launched with such dangerous velocity, they would be unthinkable in a commercial toy. Imagine a crossbow mechanism powered by slingshot elastics. It took hours of practice to be able to hit targets. He had us help build flotillas of naval vessels to shoot at. Actually the ships were for a different game, but they just "happened" to make good targets.

    So hats off to Dads of Dads, who got us all started on this path.

Comment

  • All of my kids like video games, even my daughter, who once had a job testing PSP games. I am in the process of collecting components to build a PiCade3: (inspired by the Pi3 retro arcade)

    image

     

    I don't think my path to be an electronics engineer follows many others. I had to decide whether to get an education of become a professional golfer. I chose education and wanted to be a mechanical engineer, but once in university, I quickly realized electronics was going to be a much lower cost hobby.

    I would like to know stories about which of the members' jobs were the most technically interesting - maybe top members like , have some interesting stories.

    However, my tendency to be a builder/maker/hacker/hobbiest probably comes from my Dad, who made us some phenomenal toys. One of my favourites was a two-seater (front & back seating) fighter jet, suspended by 2 chains, one in front of each seat. There was a steering wheel on each chain that allowed the plane to be pumped in a trapezoidal swing motion. The suspension points were at the center of gravity, so the plane could be have roll, pitch and yaw as it swung, controlled by the steering wheels and body position. There were rocket launchers under the wings, fired by the pilot at targets in front of the plane.  There were bomb bay doors in the fuselage - controlled by the co-pilot, to drop bombs on targets below the plane. There were buttons and lights and communication systems. We had to learn all the communication protocols. ("Pilot to Bombadier, prepare to open the bomb bay doors") We even had Morse code signal lights to communicate with the ground crew. It had retractable landing gear to stabilize the plane while boarding and deplaning. The 2 foot missiles launched with such dangerous velocity, they would be unthinkable in a commercial toy. Imagine a crossbow mechanism powered by slingshot elastics. It took hours of practice to be able to hit targets. He had us help build flotillas of naval vessels to shoot at. Actually the ships were for a different game, but they just "happened" to make good targets.

    So hats off to Dads of Dads, who got us all started on this path.

Children