Basement Laboratory... needs more space...
The purpose of this page is to highlight the electronic projects I’m working on. I've been spending a lot of time at “You-Do-It” Electronics Center picking up all my tools and kits to build. It’s in Needham, Ma. and it’s got a lot for the local hobbyist.
My E-mail If you want to contact me directly.
Most of the equipment you see in these pictures is stuff I've picked up for free. On the desk, I have an Indigo iMac running OS X and a Powerbook 1400 running OS 8.6. Both units were "inherited" (inherited means saved for the trash heap). About the only thing on the desk that I purchased was the usb hub and the usb zip drive. Even the Iomega CD-Rom burner was a gift. On the table there is a Lime iMac which sometimes runs OS 10 but mostly runs OS 9.2. There is also a PowerMac 6500. The iMac was one of the only computers I actually purchased. It's been upgraded about as much as it can. The 6500 is currently the fastest non-G3 computer I'm using. I got it off a guy that posted a free listing on Cragslist. It's running OS 8.6 right now and is being utilized as a bridge between my ethernet an LocalTalk networks. I'm using a program called LocalTalk Bridge to communicate with the LocalTalk devices (the Apple Personal LaserWriter 320 and the PowerBook 1400) and the Mac computers on the ethernet. There's also a couple of scanners. One is a scsi device connected to the 6500 and the other is a parallel device connected to one of my Windows computers. I also have several Windows systems that I use mostly for my Microsoft training.
Click Here for a closer look
This is the first bit of electronic assembly I’ve done in a while. This transistor radio has 9 transistors, and 1 IC. It receives both AM and FM radio transmissions and took me about 3 hours to build. The kit was produced by Elenco Electronics, Inc. All you need to complete the kit is a soldering iron, small screwdriver and a pair of wire cutters. It even comes with a stand for display purposes. I found if handy to have a pair of needle nose pliers, a sponge to clean the soldering iron tip, a de-soldering tool, and a voltmeter.
The assembly instructions are very straight-forward. Each section of the radio is handled separately and there is a brief discussion about the theory behind each section. There are also test steps that will help insure proper assembly of each stage.
Velleman Kit - MK147
Two super bright white LEDs have an adjustable flash rate from less than once per second to more that 60 times per second. Actually, at the max range on the potentiometer, the LEDs appear to be constant on. This runs on a 9V battery has a power switch and a High/Low speed switch. Assembly time was approximately 30 minutes.
Velleman Kit - MK109
Dice role slows to a stop when the push button is released. Be careful of the diodes in this project. It has 8 diodes and 1 zener diode and it’s difficult to tell them apart. You’ll need a pretty powerful magnifying glass to read the markings. There is no off switch, so you have to unplug the 9 volt battery when you are finished playing with it. Assembly time was approximately 45 minutes.
Velleman Kit - K8009/M8009
This clock does it all. It displays the Time and Date, of course, but it also displays the
temperature, has a count down to a specific date timer, a chronograph display, a score card display, random number display, double dice display and a counter display, all controlled through a key
ring remote control. You can set an alarm for the count down timer, the time of day or a set temperature.
The remote control can be set up either as a hardwired control or as an RF transmitter. The clock also includes a relay for controlling an external circuit. The display is made up of 132 LEDs that have to be individually soldered to the PCB. Standoffs are supplied with the kit to help set the height of the LEDs so that they are not sitting on the PCB. There are also a large number of resistors and transistors. A 9 volt battery clip is supplied for memory backup but the 12 Volt, 300mA DC Adapter and the 12 volt DC remote battery are not included nor is the project case. The Remote case is supplied.
This is a level 5 kit, the highest rating Velleman gives their kits. Assembly time, about 5 hours.
This is a nice little kit. It rates a skill level 5 from Velleman, which is the highest level they give for their kits. The generator is computer controlled through the parallel printer port on your pc. The parallel cable and the 12VDC adapter are not supplied. There is no calibration except for an offset adjustment. All the waveform and frequency adjustment are controlled via the computer interface. Software is supplied on floppy disk.
The assembly was very straight forward. All the diodes and resistors were strung together in the order they are called out in the assembly manual. There are a lot of components so you need to watch the call-outs on the pc board. Of course, watch your polarity and double check all the soldering connections. I missed a terminal on one of the IC socket, but caught it before I finished. I also managed to put one of the ICs in the wrong socket. All the ICs are mounted on sockets so the made it easy to switch it. The project took me about 10 hours to complete. Now if I could only find an oscilloscope to test it with.
Front view.
I like to call this “Tubes and Transformers”. I found this by the road side waiting to get picked up by the trash men. This thing weighs a ton. There are 23 tubes in this set. After testing all the tubes I found that one of the 12AX7A tubes was defective. The inside of the unit was very clean and free from dust. The feet are mostly gone and there’s evidence of manhandling around the metal frame of the face plate. I have to construct some speakers for it. It can take 4, 8, or 16 ohm speakers. It has phono, tape, tape monitor and auxiliary inputs all switch selectable from the front panel. I haven’t been able to find anything on the internet about this yet.
I love the underside picture. Reminds me of high school when I used to build and repair circuits that looked like this. No printed circuit boards in this unit. Just wires and solder terminals. Looks pretty neat, doesn’t it?
| Tube Number |
Type | Symbol | Quantity | Tube Number |
Type | Symbol | Quantity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6AL5 | TWIN DIODE |  |
1 | 6AU6-A | PENTODE |  |
2 |
| 6AE8 | TRIODE-PENTODE |  |
1 | 6BA6 | PENTODE |  |
4 |
| 6BE6 | HEPTODE |  |
1 | 6CG7 | TWIN TRIODE |  |
1 |
| 6CL8-A | TRIODE-TETRODE |  |
1 | 6DS4 | HIGH-MU TRIODE |  |
1 |
| 6973 | BEAM POWER TUBE |  |
4 | 7025 | TWIN TRIODE |  |
2 |
| 7199 | MEDIUM-MU TRIODE SHARP-CUTOFF PENTODE |
 |
2 | 12AX7-A | TWIN TRIODE |  |
3 |
HP Kayak XU Dual 550Mhx PIII XEON
Here's my latest trash liberation. It's actually in worse shape than the RCA radio I rescued. It's a Hewlett Packard Kayak XU series computer with Dual 550Mhz PIII XEON processors. There weren't any drives installed when I found it, not even a floppy. It's interesting the there is only one IDE channel. There is a Ultra Wide SCSI channel for the hard disks. It also has an AGP port and built-in sound. It does have 512Mb of memory installed which appears to be functioning properly.
Unfortunately that's about all I've been able to get working as yet. It looks like the unit may have been caught in a flood as there is some corrosion around the base. It looks like it's suffering from a burned out power supply but as I don't have anything compatible, I won't be able to test the motherboard until I get another one.
On scale with the other computers I've picked out of the trash, this one has the potential of being a pretty nice system. Of course I have to make sure the I load a multiprocessor operating system on it. Now if I could only find a power supply for it...
Eikonix was the first company that I worked for after completing my Air Force tour of duty. It was a relatively small company that produced what was, at that time, high-end Graphic Arts image editing workstations. These systems where so specialized that we only built 30 units a year. My role was Final Testing and calibration. After the manufacturing department assembled the units, I would be responsible for working out the manufacturing defects and aligning all the optics and running it through it's qualification tests. The workstation was based on a Dec PDP 11 system. These systems were considered cutting edge during the time I was there (1984-1990). But they seem really out of date now. The scanners I built were the size on a Washer/Dryer pair and were pretty temperamental.
Designmaster Reflective Camera. This baby uses really bright lights.
Designmaster Reflective Camera. Our customers loved this because they could scan large format images and objects that weren't necessarily flat.
Designmaster 8701 Digitizer. This flat bed scanner could handle images up to 11 inches wide but was limited to scanning images one at a time.
Designmaster Computer system. Dec PDP/11, Tape drive, Graphics Processor, Hard drives and Removable Platter disks. Tons of cables too.
I worked for eMed Technologies for 5 years as a software tester. eMed produces sophisticated computers systems for storing, viewing, and transmitting medical images for Radiology labs and Hospitals. The systems I tested were based on Windows 2000 with SQL 2000 and Unix and used various transmission protocols to get the images were they could be viewed by radiologists and doctors. Webs servers and HIS/RIS systems were also integrated with the product to allow for all around patient management.
As a software tester, I was responsible for writing test procedures, manufacturing procedures, upgrade procedures and configuring and maintaining our testing laboratory equipment. Which involved installing all the software and drivers needed on each system being tested, setting up network connections and loading test data into the systems.
Here’s some books that I’ve picked up from the Library to help me remember what I learned 24 years ago.
Basic Electronic Theory With Projects and Experiments - Delton T. Horn
Some reviews I’ve read on this book complain about typographical errors, which can be confusing. Still it covers a lot of the basic electronic components.
Basic Electronics - Bernard Grob
This book has a lot more detail. I have the 4th edition and there is an 8th edition. Looks like I’ll be buying this one soon.
Hobby Projects a resource for Hobbyist, Engineers, Students, R&D Persons & Consultants, Electronic projects, Circuits, Electronic Tutorials, Microcontroller Based Projects, Diagrams, moving displays, transmitters, receivers, robotic arm, engineering projects, Science Projects, wide range or electronic materials and solutions are available here
Science Lobby is a useful collection of Electronic Circuits, Schematics, Electronic Tutorials, Projects, Computer Interface, Diagrams, Science Projects Fair to find quick solution for electronic design problems for electronic for beginners, hobbyists, engineers, inventors and consultants.
