When did you start electronics

[skillz21]

(not late, since I can't really imagine a kid younger than 7 or 8 years old playing with batteries and motors)

Ok... I take that back.

[skillz21]

I have my 3 year old playing with croc-clip jumpers, batteries, LEDs and resistors. He said to me the other night, "Daddy when it's christmas time I'm getting my *own* soldering iron". Umm, no he's *not*. I had to wait until I was 6, he can wait until he's 6.

wow

[tooki]

I was about 4. Started with some old Email quicklag breakers, 3V MES lamps, D cell battery holders and croc-clip jumpers. For my 5th birthday mum and dad made me a component board where they mounted a heap of switches, lamp holders, a buzzer and a battery holder to an old cupboard door. Each device had terminals made from a 3/16" bolt that I could connect together with croc-clips or wind wire around. I'm positive about 30 seconds after giving it to me they regretted putting an old electromechanical buzzer on there.

I was probably 4 or 5. By age 7, I know I had at least one book on the matter, by age 9 I'd burned myself with a soldering iron , and by 11 the local radio shack manager was telling me he'd hire me if I were older. :p

Like many people here, I began by taking things apart. At first, I took them apart and they stayed disassembled. Later I began to be able to reassemble them, and later still, I was able to take broken things apart and fix them.

That said, I didn't have anyone to mentor me (I'm the only science and tech nerd in the family, and my non-techie parents simply had no idea where to go to find me a mentor, though I did make friends with two nerds in elementary school, who to this day are my only friends from that era), so I didn't really learn a lot of basic concepts properly. Around age 12, we moved abroad and I kind of got out of electronics and into computers instead (we'd never had one before that). I mostly ignored electronics until I became unemployed at age 34, and took the time off to regroup, and I rediscovered electronics and started getting into it in a much more proper style (EEVblog was instrumentally important in this!). A few years and a lot of ebay shopping later, I've got myself a proper little lab that's threatening to take over my bedroom, and am now close to being able to actually complete a bunch of projects!

[BradC]

Like many people here, I began by taking things apart. At first, I took them apart and they stayed disassembled. Later I began to be able to reassemble them, and later still, I was able to take broken things apart and fix them.

My old man says I was a walking destruction unit up until about the age of 12. He kept a pile of all the things I'd pulled apart over the years and about 12-13 I learned how to put them back together again.
I have a philosophy that has served me well though. "If you pull it apart until you find the broken bit, fix/replace that and then put it back together in the reverse order, it *has* to work". That applies to everything I've ever touched from tape recorders, test equipment, washing machines, motorbikes, cars, marine diesel engines... I've been blessed with a memory that means I can dismantle something down to its elements, put it all in a bucket and then 6 months later put it back together again from memory. I'm sure that'll fade as I get older so I've taken to making notes and taking photos now.

My father is an electrical engineer (which explains the quicklag breakers that I used as switches) and he knew (that sounds like he no longer knows, but he still does) enough about electricity and the laws of physics to get me started. The rest I kinda picked up from books and pulling things to bits. I'm lucky in that my parents went out of their way to encourage my curiosity and (within their means) feed my habit. I'm trying to do the same thing with my kids.

Funny you mention Radio Shack. They were Tandy over here, and I used to go in like clockwork once a month for the "battery of the month" club. I also got a 200 in 1 kit for my 7th birthday which taught me unquantifiable amounts of practice and theory. Tandy also sold the worlds most expensive 1/4W 5% carbon resistors, but they had what you needed when you needed it.

Out of interest @skillz21, whereabouts in Aus are you? You'll probably find someone close by willing to lend you advice/parts if you ask around. There are a lot of us slightly older people with the desire to help the new generation.

[TomS_]

Im kind of surprised Im still alive really.

I started with electronics early, I dont remember what age, but it was the early 90's, so I was under 10. Mostly it started with pulling old appliances apart to see what was in them. I built a few kits that sometimes worked, and did a bit of soldering, too.

As for still being alive, as part of my curiosity I did all kinds of silly things with mains voltage. I stuck knives in toasters while they were on (and got shocked), tried to cut through cables with metal scissors (and got shocked), used screwdrivers on live wires (and got shocked). I think about the only thing I didnt do was use a hair drier in the bathtub.

But I lived on a farm (in Australia) and access to materials beyond the odd appliance from the "local" repair shop to pull to bits, datasheets, and people who knew about all of this stuff to help me understand it properly were few and far between or difficult to get.

When I started high school I was introduced to QBASIC by a new friend, and since I had a computer with QBASIC at home, that kind of became my new hobby. Some time in the early 2000's my interests shifted to telecommunications and I started working as a network engineer.

Now I live in the UK, and with Internet access as ready as it is in general, and electronics suppliers in no short supply, I am getting back in to electronics and really enjoying it. Ive learned so much over the past year just practicing and playing, breaking things, making things etc. Im in my mid 30's now, so theres been a good 20 year gap between when I played around with it all as a kid and when it has become a real consume-all-of-my-spare-time hobby. Its great, and I love it. Sometimes I wonder if I could turn it in to my day job, but maybe I should keep this one purely as a hobby.

[IanMacdonald]

Was interested in electrics from a very early age. My father was an EE. Became interested in electronics around about 10.

As I've worked in professional A-V I'm well aware of those evil glowing things the yanks call 'toobz' but we call 'valves.'  Kinda hazardous to work with, but much simpler circuitry and stand a lot more abuse than transistor amplification.

[pelule]

I become interested in (analog) electronics in the age of 13 and ask a friend of my father, to give me a short start introduction (R, C, transistors). One year later my first circuit was operating (transistor based audio mixing circuit for the music at our parties).
/PeLuLe

[sairfan1]

Its interesting to see most of us started with old radio.  My story is almost same, I started at age 8/9, when i wanted to explore radio, what's inside and how it works.  I setup my first lab when i was 12, i fixed and distroyed lots of electronic equipments.  Then suddenly my interest increased in computer programming and i totally shifted towards it.  After completing my BS in software eng. i did lots of work in my field, after about 10 years working as developer i started electronics again, i satup my lab, started reading books, my strong knowledge of software side helped me a lot to put different approch in writing c code.