Who are you?

Hi, I'm Nick from Edinburgh, Scotland. However, I'm not Scottish!
By profession, I WAS an Electronic Engineer, with 17 years with Ferranti, until we were taken over by GEC then made redundant for no good reason! I then spent my remaining working life in a hospital repairing Electronic medical gear (monitors, NIBPs, infusion pumps, syringe drivers - basically, machines that go "PING". I hated it!
Now that I've retired, I'd doing my own thing in electronics, nearly all in the music instrument field, like reverb, phasing/flanging, echo - that kind of thing.
Other interests include Bridge (the card game), Railways, Buses, Rock Music (especially if it includes that wonderful instrument called the Mellotron) and Cricket.
Any questions?
 

MrChips

Joined Oct 2, 2009
30,821
Hi, I'm Nick from Edinburgh, Scotland. However, I'm not Scottish!
By profession, I WAS an Electronic Engineer, with 17 years with Ferranti, until we were taken over by GEC then made redundant for no good reason! I then spent my remaining working life in a hospital repairing Electronic medical gear (monitors, NIBPs, infusion pumps, syringe drivers - basically, machines that go "PING". I hated it!
Now that I've retired, I'd doing my own thing in electronics, nearly all in the music instrument field, like reverb, phasing/flanging, echo - that kind of thing.
Other interests include Bridge (the card game), Railways, Buses, Rock Music (especially if it includes that wonderful instrument called the Mellotron) and Cricket.
Any questions?
Welcome to AAC!

I trust that you will enjoy a long lasting and enjoyable stay with us.
How are you managing and enjoying retirement life now?
You will discover that many of the regular contributors on AAC are at that productive stage in life now.
 

DickCappels

Joined Aug 21, 2008
10,187
Welcome. No problem with anybody being Scottishne of my neighbors and one of of my closest friends are Scottish (true). Of course we had to chat at least 15 minutes before I tuned in to their accents (and amazingly one was an English teacher in Bangkok). I hear you: its never better than when working on your own stuff. It is more fulfilling than jobs presented already spec'd out and the pressure to succeed is very high. Welcome to the land of joy and contentment.
 
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Milo-D

Joined Jan 28, 2020
9
Hey,

My name is David, 21 years old, and I am a Student, studying Computer Science in germany.

I started programming when I was 16 years old, mainly in C/C++. I like working on low level stuff with C and Assembly. Also I enjoy writing tools and small drivers for unix-based operating systems.

I am interested in: Mathematics, Algorithms, Embedded Systems, Computer Architecture.

So far I have worked with AVRs and ARM Cortex Series.
 

MrChips

Joined Oct 2, 2009
30,821
Hey,

My name is David, 21 years old, and I am a Student, studying Computer Science in germany.

I started programming when I was 16 years old, mainly in C/C++. I like working on low level stuff with C and Assembly. Also I enjoy writing tools and small drivers for unix-based operating systems.

I am interested in: Mathematics, Algorithms, Embedded Systems, Computer Architecture.

So far I have worked with AVRs and ARM Cortex Series.
Herzlich willkommen!

Hope you have a long a rewarding journey here on AAC.
 

bignobody

Joined Jan 21, 2020
97
Hello! I am a middle aged artist and a computer programmer by trade. I've been programming since I was a boy (I adore my C64!) and it's what I do to pay the bills.

Last year my work had an electronics club that introduced me to the subject and got me breadboarding some simple circuits. The club ended when the guy leading it left the company but I've been continuing to experiment on my own, because as you already know this is a lot of fun.

My interests are primarily in making noise and flashing LEDs. Modular synth is a very long term goal. For now I am content to experiment with my first simple oscillators and simple noise makers. I need to get the basics down first or I'm not going to get far.

I am in the process of setting up a home lab. I have a place to work and an initial collection of components. My most recent purchase was a decent soldering station. I am currently saving for benchtop power supply and an oscilloscope (this hobby is expensive!).

I joined because although I am always willing to RTFM (and RTFDS seems to go around here!), sometimes it's nice to just ask questions about what's confusing me to some real humans. I was really pleased with the responses I got to my first post and this seems like a great community.

Cheers from Canada!
 

dl324

Joined Mar 30, 2015
16,940
Welcome!
My interests are primarily in making noise and flashing LEDs.
You'll probably want to get an Arduino Uno or similar. Real easy to make tunes and flash LEDs with them.

Something like Raspberry Pi to make arrays of flashing LEDs (like cubes or scrolling signs) will make use of your programming skills.
 

bignobody

Joined Jan 21, 2020
97
Welcome!
You'll probably want to get an Arduino Uno or similar. Real easy to make tunes and flash LEDs with them.

Something like Raspberry Pi to make arrays of flashing LEDs (like cubes or scrolling signs) will make use of your programming skills.
Thank you! I have both an Arduino Uno and a Raspberry Pi-Zero hanging around to be put to good use one day, but haven't done too much with them yet. I imagine once I get better at working with different ICs it will extend what I am able to do with them.

I will also keep an eye on the programming sections of this forum in case there are questions that I can answer!
 

dl324

Joined Mar 30, 2015
16,940
I have both an Arduino Uno and a Raspberry Pi-Zero
With some resistors, LEDs, and a speaker, you can flash LEDs and make noise. Arduino outputs will source 20mA so they can power LEDs. With the addition of a transistor, capacitor, and a resistor, you can make sounds with a speaker.
 
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