Actions
Forum Thread Details
  • Replies 50 replies
  • Subscribers 532 subscribers
  • Views 3510 views
  • Users 0 members are here
Related

What was your first electronics project?

dougw

What was your very first electronics project?

Why did you take it on?

I think my first successful, non school-related electronics project was an electronic doorbell that would randomly play one of a whole (fixed) suite of sound effects and melodies or jingles.

After brief use as a doorbell, it eventually got used as toy, but "someone" couldn't stand the kids playing it non-stop, so it got tossed out....Disappointed

I built the project because I thought it was such a cool chip, (I still think it was cool) but it was many years ago and I can no longer recall the chip I used or find something that seems similar.

  • I built a box that had a motor and a tiny lightbulb and two switches, one for the motor, and one for the lightbulb when i was like 10, it didn't do anything besides spin the motor or turn on the lightbulb, lol, but i had fun with it. then in highschool i built a 2 transistor oscillator to blink 2 LEDs, then a bit after that i built my first circuit with an IC, a 555 LED blinker, and it was a slippery slope after that!

    i built the motor and lightbulb box because i was sure that was going to be the first step in becoming an inventor. the blinkers, because i wanted to see if i could read schematics and have fun with lights!

  • in reply to Anthocyanina

    Impressive for a ten year old.

    I always wanted to be an inventor, but there were never any jobs for inventors...Frowning2

  • It was a crystal radio in the late ‘50s. The antenna ran from the bedroom window I shared with my brothers out to a tree. I wound the coil myself and my recollection is that I did a neat and tidy job. Tweaking the catswisker and picking up a station was close to magic. 

  • I had built several electric kits (mostly Radio Shack kits) during my elementary school years, but once I got to High School I had many projects. I think the first was a dusk to dawn light (light sensor).

  • A flashing light for the top of the cardboard-box fire engine (fire truck) we painted as a class in primary school.

    I took a flashlight bulb and base, and 4.5V battery (at the time you could purchase such things from a "radio shop" at the corner of the street from my home) and that was all I had : ( so I used kitchen foil on half of the wheel, and whenever it touched the two wires on the box, as it was pushed, then it would flash, sort-of! : )

  • in reply to dougw

    10 year old me would be at least partly disappointed as i have not invented anything after so many years! :P

  • When I was a child I did many projects with my father, especially with electromagnets, bells and cranes to pick up things, and a galena radio. My father was very fond of electricity but my grandfather made him study business administration for the family business.

    On a trip to his hometown he took me to an electronics store and bought me an FM transmitter as a kit. I still have it; it was my first contact with electronic soldering. 

    My first printed circuit board was for an electronic die with LEDs and later I made quite a few mini FM spy stations, some fit in matchboxes and some even worked inside old gondola telephones. I did those projects with classmates and we had some legal problems that led to the expulsion of some of my classmates from school. I was not so daring and I only enjoyed electronics, I didn't want to get into problems with illegal eavesdropping.

    image

    In the image my first soldering electronics kit and my first PCB for an FM transmitter. I got the microphone from an old damaged tape recorder that we used to listen to the audio messages that my priest uncle sent us from the Congo, in Africa, where he was a missionary.

    When I got to university, electronics became homework and I lost interest. I was seduced by software programming and I have managed to make a living with it.

  • I recall finding a 'light brick' in my Lego box when I was around 7 or 8 and well, the rest is history...

    Light bricks just have to be lit don't they ?

     imageimage

    I think a torch provided the batteries and some green garden wire provided the interconnects.

    A bit of research reveals that it most likely came from a 1958 Lego 'Supplementary Box 245'.

    https://images.brickset.com/sets/images/245-3.jpg

  • A group of tech guys assembled a pirated IBM PC. You could buy all the different components and the motherboard. The BIOS chip was more difficult to get but in the end I had a working clone.