Hi there!

[Jim-The-Dinosaur]

My name is Jim, but you can call me Jimbo.

I haven't been on a forum since Dutchforce went dark in '15, but I kind of miss the world.

I can hold my own on a breadboard, but I certainly don't know near everything, and often have 101 questions. I let the magic smoke out occasionally, but that's all part of the fun.

Not here for a pecker contest, just to make friends, help when I can, and beg for a bone when I'm arsed.

I know Google is my friend .. or at least was before the internet broke .. but I prefer the conversation, and like myself .. others may have various and unique solutions to a certain problem.

As the world has progressed, I've found myself quite obsolete to industry, but still have valuable old school insights on how to get certain jobs done elegantly.

Skill level? Hard to say. Just finished my shop, haven't burned 37/63 rosin core in 18 months until yesterday - just repaired a Singer MF-5 spectrum analyzer, and Tek 214 storage scope. Getting there with Arduino and C, can rock 74xx TTL Woz style, weak on analog, never seen an FPGA. My last project over a bit of bourbon was a 567 PLL , johnson counter, and relays to decode the five sequential tones of "Close Encounters" to open a lock, and a Nixie tachometer for my old truck using a 2917 frequency to voltage converter, and ICL7135 A/D converter. So I'm not totally new, but I'm always new. The bench fun is the journey .. or rather the journey is the fun.

Hope to fit in here, and find answers to my dumba** questions.

 

[bertus]

Hello and welcome,

For searching the web i often use yahoo advanced search:

Yahoo Advanced Web Search

search.yahoo.com

This way you will not be bothered by the google sponsored links.

There are no dumb questions.
I always say:
You don't have to know everything,
if you know where to find it.
When you do ask questions, you may look stupid.
When you do NOT ask questions, you will STAY stupid.

Bertus

 

[Delta Prime]

Not here for a pecker contest, just to make friends, help when I can, and beg for a bone when I'm arsed.

Welcome to misfit Island…

 

[Martaine2005]

Welcome aboard Jimbo.
It appears that you are already way ahead of me but I love the challenge. I can’t design but I can trace a circuit and sometimes repair. It’s all part of the fun.

 

[Jim-The-Dinosaur]

Hello and welcome,

For searching the web i often use yahoo advanced search:

Yahoo Advanced Web Search

search.yahoo.com

This way you will not be bothered by the google sponsored links.

There are no dumb questions.
I always say:
You don't have to know everything,
if you know where to find it.
When you do ask questions, you may look stupid.
When you do NOT ask questions, you will STAY stupid.

Bertus

"When you do ask questions, you may look stupid.
When you do NOT ask questions, you will STAY stupid."

I like that! I build US Navy force protection boats and fire boats. I always tell the new guys, ask me anything, I will never think you're stupid for doing so. I believe in kindness and fostering for those open to it. I'm going to plagiarize that quote on the shop floor.

 

[Jim-The-Dinosaur]

Welcome aboard Jimbo.
It appears that you are already way ahead of me but I love the challenge. I can’t design but I can trace a circuit and sometimes repair. It’s all part of the fun.

No way ahead or behind! Just lovin' the pixies doin' the pixie thang .. and the odd whoops, that just blowed up and sent a transistor into low earth orbit. To hell with OSHA, we still straighten our solder with our lips old school. anyone who loves the craft .. we're all electronic folks. Engineers, tinkerers .. all the same, just less perhaps of a silicon body count. Thanks for the welcome matey.

 

[davenn]

hi ya Jim, welcome aboard

 

[hevans1944]

Hope to fit in here, and find answers to my dumba** questions.

From one "old timer" to another, I think you will fit in just fine here. Your contributions might even encourage others to return to this forum now that it has morphed from MakerPro (whatever that means) to Electronics-lab (and we know what that means). It sounds like you earned a lot of your chops with TTL (Totally Transistorized Logic). Me too.

My "favorite" TTL project was to design and construct a breadboard implementation of an NTSC sync generator, using discrete TTL logic without MSI or LSI components. Took several of those plastic DIP breadboards and a month or so of part-time, off-the-books, effort but I finally got everything to work properly. Then, a month or so later, I discovered that NTSC sync generators are available as COTS (commercial off-the-shelf) integrated circuits. <sigh> A few years later (or so it seems) NTSC vanishes in favor of high-definition digital television.

It is never too late to learn analog. Just make sure you refresh what you learned in circuit theory about Laplace transforms. Burr-Brown used to be my "go to" source for analog and hybrid analog/digital electronics as well as "free" information on how to use their productrs. I think they are now under the broad wings of Texas Instruments, but that's just history. Analog is now firmly embedded in Microchip PIC processors as well as in other semiconductor manufacturer's microprocessor products, including my beloved Texas Instruments.

I offer this free advice (take it for whatever it is worth): Always look forward: technology advances at an exponentially increasing rate. Use it to help you keep up. Most important: have FUN!