Now you would figure i would hate electronics after that, but nope. I went on to fool with different electrical devices and so on and so forth.

With two different fingers, I hope.

 

With two different fingers, I hope.

Hi,

Ha ha yeah. But that healed up well, no after effects. What didnt heal up perfectly (although you can hardly tell anyway) is when i crushed my finger between a tree trunk and swing set support pole when i was around 10 years old. That was completely nasty. Can hardly tell now though.

 

I remember as a child the times I tried to plug something in and my fingers slipped down onto the blades of the plug. I also remember in elementary school plugs that were on the floor with - I forget what they call it but you add a circuit and you run a conduit type tube from outlet to outlet. This was on the floor. One of the students had a paperclip and stuck it inadvertently in the live line while touching the metal conduit. She got a quick buzz and jumped back. We were sitting on the floor. After that incident maintenance took out those plugs.

 

Music.

I was a teen in the mid nineties and music was the most important thing for me. I was never very good at it or very ambitious, but I bought a used 4-track cassette recorder & the guy who sold it to me threw in a couple books on how to record audio. Between those books & whatever other material I found on the recording industry, I got interested in the technology side of it. Something I read somewhere as a teenager paraphrased a delay effect as “a string of capacitors” or something similar. So I strung a bunch of salvaged electrolytic capacitors together and hooked them up to the output of a small PA amp I had (I don’t remember how) and proceeded to blow them up. In my junior or senior year of high school I took an electronics class but it didn’t really stick with me.

In 1997 I went to ‘college’ for audio production, which promptly took me nowhere. Also had an electronics class at that school which still didn’t catch on. Eventually I simply didn’t have the personality for the music business. At this point I don’t remember how I found it, but I came across The Art of Electronics at the public library and it interested me greatly. I latched on to the idea that if I could repair equipment it might be an asset to recording studios & maybe I could get a job at one that way. I didn’t realize at the time that I was pinning my career hopes on an industry that was severely contracting in size.

It took several years & a move to another city before I was able to starting school for electronics. After a couple years of full time school at night & full time work in the day I burned out & took 2.5 years off from school. Eventually I finished, getting a degree in EET three years ago at the age of 37, about 8 years after I started. I was on unemployment at the time of my graduation & took the first (and to date, only) electronics job I got an interview for, a test technician at a contract manufacturer.

I’m still going nowhere, but at least I know enough now to design audio equipment. At some point I gave up on the dream of being a recording engineer & decided I wanted to make audio gear. In my spare time I’ve been working mostly on modular synth ideas.

I don’t know if I never heard, or if I just didn’t remember, but it wasn’t until I was in school for electronics that my dad told me he did electronics in the Navy before I was born. He always had zero interest in technology.

 

Curiosity, DIY science kits, Knight Kit radios, Heath Kits, and Ham Radio... Now that I am retired I can actually spend some time learning it and can afford to. Now that the house is paid for and 4 kids raised.

 

When I was around 15 yo My folks got me and my bro a 25 n 1 Radio Shack kit, In was already interested in electricity, The sealed my interest for life. Hooked my younger bro too, he was around 10 or so.

 

Cleaning out a room a few days before July 29, 2018 cause that's when I joined here.
Brzrkr

 

The U.S. Navy got me into electronics and I've been loving it ever since.
Electronics Technician, Communications Petty Officer Third Class 1969-1975

After the navy I was an avionics technician while going to school nights to earn an Associate of Electronics Engineering Technology. It has really paid off over the decades since. Besides, electronics is more fun than anything else. (well maybe not everything)

 

Another +1 for military electronics! Back when I was fresh out of music school and trying to get a job, I called all the electronics shops they asked if I had school or experience... I was flabbergasted and asked "how can I get experience if you don't hire me?"... a guy suggested I go to school or military ... luckily I tested right into electronics school for the Marines.

Many of us were introduced to electronics from Radio Shack and Heath Kits as well. Although I regret the brick and mortar stores disappearing there are so many awesome things happening now for the new generation:

Arduino - open source - tons of online resources - easy to get datasheets - online components small quantity friendly - amazing PCB services - free software - inexpensive tools... list goes on and on. Wow I almost wish I was young and starting over.

 

@Wolframore and @CharlesWMcDonald
God bless and thank you for your service.

Brzrkr

 

Arduino - open source - tons of online resources - easy to get datasheets - online components small quantity friendly - amazing PCB services - free software - inexpensive tools... list goes on and on. Wow I almost wish I was young and starting over.

I'm only 69, why not keep going. I may have another 20 years of this stuff!

 

I broke things and took things apart - usually for good... didn't figure out how to fix and put things back til later..

My parents were OK (just barely) with this, until I started taking apart my sister's toys.

it probably all started with my model train

I got bored with my electric train, so I put a wire (enameled copper, not sure where I got it) across the transformer and slowly turned it up. First it smoked as the enamel burned off, then turned red, then bright red and fractured. I was hooked.

It was Popular Electronics and Radio Electronics

When I finally got my driver's license, I was able to avoid going to church by sleeping late and telling my parents I would drive myself to a later mass. Instead I went to the library and read "Popular Electronics" cover to cover. Served my better than church ever did.

Bob

 

My parents were OK (just barely) with this, until I started taking apart my sister's toys.


I got bored with my electric train, so I put a wire (enameled copper, not sure where I got it) across the transformer and slowly turned it up. First it smoked as the enamel burned off, then turned red, then bright red and fractured. I was hooked.


When I finally got my driver's license, I was able to avoid going to church by sleeping late and telling my parents I would drive myself to a later mass. Instead I went to the library and read "Popular Electronics" cover to cover. Served my better than church ever did.

Bob

My room was filled with pictures of the universe, I loved math, my mind was filled with the inner workings of all things, if it was already broken I would ask if I could take it apart. I understood these things mechanical, Electrical was limited, electronics not at all. 9 year old me took the Vacuum tubes to Skaggs to test in the Tube Tester. I took my first hand held radio apart to see Transistors, my eyes bugged out at the first transistors I could see standing off the board, as I rolled the dial back and forth I thought to myself one day I will learn about this, in the mean time at 13 working in my uncles Auto shop, I slowly began the process of earning money from my Hobbies, each time I did, it took the fun out of it. Now that I'm ready to retire, I think I'll surrender my thoughts about electronics, I'm planning to give away all my books and stuff collected, I thought ten years ago I would deepen my knowledge about programming etc. unfortunately I don't care anymore, sad to say it but I'm way more interested in history now, as well as physics.


I'll still be around because your the only crowed that gets stuff, deep stuff, other people I can't talk with, because all they see is airplanes flying over their heads while I speak.


kv

 

These are how I taught myself to read -- even before I could talk:



Volume 8, "How Things Work", was my favorite.

 

I've been fascinated by electronics since before I could walk. I've got high-functioning autism and a lot of people on the spectrum have special interests (basically obsessions), and mine is technology. I only really got into proper circuit design and such when I was 13 or so.

 

Somewhere in the dawn of time the wall plates were removed and the fingers poked. Then my best buddy and I strung a wire between our houses and learning the code started along with that Galena crystal radio. About the third or fourth grade I think. Then Christmas and the "Boy Electrician" What a cool book. Throw in a chemistry set and the alcohol lamp, and add in the burned hand. I guess I was a curious little bugger and things just went from there. I'm now a retired Electrical Engineer and spend my time with Raspberry Pis' and designing junk for myself. What fun.

 

Nothing special. But my main purpose is to learn about electronics.

Just as good as any other answer!

 

I enjoy reading all your comments. It reminds me of similarities that drew us all to electronics... popular electronics... radio shack... heath kits... and just the sheer cost of electronics back in the day... Much of it was dangerous running high plate voltage to tubes... all those warnings only encouraged those of us with more curiosity than sense. Calculators (remember those cool displays fluorescent, LED numbers)... man on the moon... what a time it was with new ideas and solid state... sci-fi become a Saturday morning genre.

It affected every facet of our lives... TV's, appliances, cars, radio, everywhere you looked it was coming...

Today - it's here... it's everywhere... so much data and RF everywhere... smallest toys having embedded processing. Still so many things are really behind - do they need embedded - maybe not, but can you, yes.... does it improve things... in many cases yes...

I am learning a new program to program and compile Cortex M4 because the radio I got is open source and it is able to pair with just about any protocol out there... freedom! With great power comes more learning... did old radios work yes... is this better 1,000 X yes...

But software would be nowhere without the electronics behind it..

and still so many mysteries left to explore...