Nostalgia: *** Smith Electronics Fun Way into Electronics

Hi Gough, This looks like it was a great way to start into the electronics adventure. For me it was Heath Kits and Knight Kits. Later on we had Forrest Mims and his series of project books that were marketed by Radio Shack. I don't remember seeing *** Smith's books or kits here in the States but back then the world wasn't so wide open and available. I live in Wisconsin USA and it blows my mind but the Chinese have found a way to put an order into my hands quicker than I can get one from California. I think a site like E-14 helps take up some of the slack left by the loss of *** Smith, Heath Kits and Knight Kits in that it provides a way for all of us to learn and grow learning and making cool things.

John

A slightly different time, being the young kid that I am - I've always heard a lot about Heathkit stuff but it wasn't something I was exposed to even in my youth. I suppose that across the pond, things were very different - we had Tandy here for a while, which worked as an agent stocking only limited lines from Radioshack. I believe I did end up having an electronics notebook by Forrest Mims somewhere, which was definitely a good reference to have, and the name has often come up in nostalgic discussions.

Aside from the *** Smith stuff, I also spent a lot of time roaming around sound.westhost.com (Rod Elliot, of Elliot Sound Products) pages, where there are a lot of analog schematics and electronics theory, reading through the Sams FAQ documents at http://repairfaq.com amongst other sites.

I suppose everyone has their own story - it's always nice to share and hear about them

Gough

Now you're starting to show your age.....

These were interesting books when the internet wasn't available, and *** Smith was a large parts retailer (as opposed to the retail chain now).

Mark

I had Vol 1 and 2 of these books many years ago. I remember going to the *** Smith store, looking at all the components and wishing someone would buy me more of the kits.

mcb1 - always good to have some time to reminisce and wallow in warm nostalgic thoughts. Showing my age? More likely, lack thereof! Hah!

tekmeister - very much the same idea here. I never got to build all of any of the series, but at least having the book let me "dream" of them and understand the theory even if I didn't get to build it myself. It was great that most of the kits didn't cost much more than pocket change, which really helped, but Funway 2 did have many separate kits to buy.

Talking of fast delivery from china I regularly order from there and get 4 ish day delivery sometimes even 2. Customs adds a day.

It's crazy how fast they are you've got to appreciate the efforts they go to get things out the door.

On  that note I was talking to Shabaz and the PCB house he used in China had shipped his prototypes two days after receiving the Gerbers isn't that good!

It's sad to say that the retailers have just become Tech toy stores (Especially now at Christmas) and the magazine  content is now very poor.

Fortunately the small scale engineer now has easy access to global parts resources and the internet to find information. In many ways the  situation is much better than before.

One thing I think has gone down hill is access to parts and ideas to the young and interested since they normally do not know what they need and have the money to access the global market.

What ever we think of the noise floor in the Arduino and Pi community they do provide an excellent starting point for the interested beginner

Sorry, to be on topic I've only heard of *** Smith by reputation. I was more Familiar with Mims' books  and "Fun wth electronics" etc

My real introduction to things tech was the HP2000E mini my HS district bought. I go back to paper tape and Hollerith cards!  E- was industrial, mostly, in the beginning.  Segments of the NW 'burbs had a fairly intensive e- industry, 'till they all fled to Mexico after they had figured out SMT and had their ears bent by the N-sigma guy, during the JIT fad.

One thing I think has gone down hill is access to parts

We are lucky over here that Jaycar (an Australian competitor to *** Smith) still does components and parts in both countries, and at reasonable prices.

They also have 'gadgets' as well, but have avoided being polluted by computers and phones.

Mark