General > General Technical Chat
What was your first circuit? Do you still remember it?
KL27x:
I was probably 4 when I made my first circuit. Staple in the wall outlet.
georges80:
Crystal set for sure was #1 in primary school.
#2 was a 2n3055, a battery, a CDS cell, a bulb and a battery in 1st yr HS. Was fascinated that I could turn on/off the bulb via the CDS cell.
All downhill after that as I headed along the path to choose EE as a career :)
This all 45+ years ago... Been a hoot of a trip so far.
cheers,
george.
Alex Eisenhut:
Like "designed", or from a book? I don't know exactly which one was first, but I have several firsts.
1) I borrowed a book from the library about lasers. I was maybe 12. I read the thing, understood it at a 12 year old level. This was a 1970s book. The circuit shown for driving LED lasers was kind of complicated, I guess 1970s laser LEDs needed a big kick to start. I used a regular red LED. I turned on the circuit and the LED exploded and the top flew at the ceiling. It smelled pretty bad.
2) I also had a bunch of 1950s kid encyclopedias with tube-based circuits. I was only able to get tubes from salvaged TVs. I didn't understand the part numbers and had no real way to find out. I tried different ways to build the promised radio, instead I ended up cracking the tubes in my Dad's vise to peel apart the insides. I'm amazed I didn't eat it...
3) A success was a RAM expansion for the VIC-20. By this time I was maybe 14 and much better, I worked a lot to scrape together the 40$ I needed for two 8Kx8 chips. I wired it up from an article in 73 Magazine, for hams. This worked great and made the VIC more useful until I got a 64.
4) I tried electrolysis of water. This book said to take apart carbon zinc batteries for the carbon electrodes. I built a nice big cell and ignited the hydrogen. That's a circuit, right?
I built a lot of circuits from Radio Electronics (1980s).
My first self-designed stuff must have been a 555 based timer for model rocketry, to stage motors. Black powder engines stage themselves, but I was looking forward to composite engines. I made a test with Estes black powder engines but my stager was so heavy that the rocket only made it 40 feet up until it ignited the second stage. It was sketchy but it worked.
I quite stupidly put a bunch of N NiCd batteries IN the rocket to power the igniter.
Mr.B:
I was 6 years old.
It was Christmas.
My uncle who was an EE gave me the following:
A 12v minature ES lamp.
A minature lamp holder with screw terminals.
A SPST switch with screw terminals.
Four alligator clips with screw terminals.
Two 6v lantern batteries.
A couple of metres of insulated wire, red and black.
A small, old screw driver with a turned wooden handle.
A schematic diagram.
It all started then and there.
More than 40 years later, I still have the screwdriver.
floobydust:
The cartoons made the difference, as a kid I could not understand the little parts.
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