hobbist where did we all go

[thc116]

hobbist where did we all go ..i cant find any thing any more and i know that nuts and volts is good but they gear more to robotics than any thing ealse and i like a little of every thing ie audio projects and video...ect ant i just cant beleav there is no other pubs out there...i wish that nuts and volt would start a general intrest section so i could re subscrib...

[Chris Smith]

Some say the PIC will replace it all, even the wheel?

I hear you can make a candle out of one, "part one and two", if you douse it in gas and light it?

[Robert Reed]

I to would like to see more down to earth projects and articles. This thing about Pics, microcontrollers and six pages of software just to make a few LEDs blink on and off, somehow does not hold my interest.

[Chris Smith]

Thank you Robert.

Reinventing the wheel, using 20 parts also isn’t the way of our future.

Great for kindergarten, but hardly a task for the serious hobbyist.

I would like to see the next space launch PIC controller, or the next heart defibulator using the Pic, or even a chemical poison gas analisis machine based on the pic.

This is IQ at work.

[god help us if there is no one home on this score]

If I were a PIC, I would be insulted by the modern usages of such a complext product like this to preform such simple tasks like “pic-ing” my nose.

[dr_when]

hobbist where did we all go

HOBBIST??? OH, I bet you meant HOBBITS. Go ask Golem.

[jollyrgr]

I think electronics as a hobby has been replaced with a number of other interests. Ham radio with IRC and IM, electronic projects with PC Case mods, discrete circuits with PICs.

For instance the cover story in the latest issue was for a sound trigger for a strobe photo flash. While this circuit appears to work, I did the same thing 25 years ago with fewer parts and a much simpler design. A simple PUSH PULL bipolar transistor amp, a diode, and an SCR will do the same thing.

I've never built a PIC circuit. Probably I should but as Mr. Reed says why the trouble to watch an LED blink? I believe one article used a BASIC stamp to simulate a candle with LEDs.

The sad thing is the programming must be DL from this web site. As a kid I built projects based on articles written before I was born. All the information was in the article. Ten or twenty years from now this site will likely have been replaced with something completely different. The programming won't exist, and anyone wanting to duplicate the projects will not be able to.

<small>[ February 15, 2006, 08:13 AM: Message edited by: Jolly Roger ]</small>

[jwax]

Spellchecker is handy.

[dacflyer]

HERE HERE ! i am too still a hobbiest
( see all my posts )
i cannot get into the PIC scene yet..not alone anyway..
i still like using descreet parts. with a pic,it seems that somehting is always missing,
(not many parts)
working on a LED thermometer project right now.
have to find a transistor array to drive
2" tall 7-segment LED display.
stay tuned {:>P

[Michael J]

There is a re-marketed PIC chip product.
They call them a PICAXE.

They made these simple enough for 12 year old
students to program.

It's still a Pic Micro, but it has a different
interpreter actually loaded into the chip itself.
They have written a new programming language that
children can understand and it uses a simple 3
wire interface.

It doesn't matter how long in the tooth you are,
how young or how inexperienced, these things are
the easiest way to get started, well worth a look. www.picaxe.co.uk

The valve generation probably said the same thing
about transistors, some are probably still
whining, move on,,!

[jwax]

Try Make magazine- http://www.makezine.com/

[ecerfoglio]

The valve generation probably said the same thing
about transistors,...

When my father (he is 73 years old) learned his electronics there where only vales, then he learned "solid state" (transistors), analog IC's (like op amps), digital IC's (TTL and CMOS)...And he now uses microprocessors in his designs.

I’m 43 and, as a kid, also tinkered with some valve-powered appliances my father had around the house (radios, TV’s, etc), and then I followed the same route through transistors, IC’s and microprocessors. And now I work in software dessign.

It’s the same with other things: As a kid I did drawings with a T square and pencils, wrote letters on a mechanical typewriter…(I just missed the slide rule, but used logarithm and trigonometric function tables at high school) Have you seen one of these lately?

Still, “there is no tool like the right tool”. I’d like somebody to design a power audio amplifier with a microprocessor (as its output stage, not to control other functions)... Perhaps with PWM, but they still will have to use a power stage.

Digital signal processing is OK, but if you want a simple filter or “tone control” it’s better to use an analog design.