Circuit Diagram Pun

 

As seen on xkcd.com

N4GG Spark Gap Transmitter

Spark gap transmitters were invaluable in the 1910s and 1920s, especially for ship to ship and ship to shore. N4GG has done a remarkable job of building this replica. Photos of each step can be found here.

1940 Philco Console Radio

When I was 12-13 years old, I tinkered with old radios and TVs (just before my ham radio days). People would just give them to me to get them off their hands. My greatest find was a 1940 Philco console like the one at the right. I had already seen a few other lesser consoles from that era. I liked them for the shortwave radio bands that they all seemed to include. This Philco had really cool thumbwheel tuning and volume controls and this model had dual tuning eyes although I don't see them in this picture. Most all these models had 10" speakers and sounded pretty good, except for the hum. They had speakers with electromagnets for the driver magnet. The electromagnet was powered because it was also the power supply choke for the B+. You can imagine the 120 Hz hum! Magnets must have cost a fortune then, predating cheap ceramic magnets.

Wire Gauge Chart

Audio Weighting Curves

Click image to enlarge.

Drill Size Chart

Click image to enlarge.

1944 Electromagnetic Radiation Chart

Download the Original chart here (110M) or you won’t be able to zoom in on all the details.
This thing really is a magnificent work of art (to a geek, anyway).

USB Pinouts

RS-232 Pinout

 

SMT Resistor Size Chart

Size	Length (mm)	Width (mm)	Height (mm)	Watts
0201	0.60	0.30	0.25	0.05
0402	1.00	0.50	0.35	0.031/0.063
0603	1.60	0.80	0.50	0.063
0805	2.00	1.25	0.50	0.100
1206	3.20	1.60	0.60	0.125
1210	3.20	2.60	0.50	0.250
1217	3.00	4.20	0.900	0.250
2010	5.00	2.60	0.70	0.250
2020	5.08	5.08	0.90	0.500
2045	5.00	11.50	0.90	1.000
2512	6.30	3.10	0.60	0.500

Nicola Tesla

Nicola Tesla was one of my inspirational heroes when I started out in electronics as a teenager. I never built a Tesla Coil but I did become a ham operator who "homebrewed" my own ham gear and later became a design engineer. Tesla  (born 1856 died 1943) was around in the era of Thomas Edison and they became competitors. Edison, always the pragmatist, through trial and error and the sweat and tears of his lab assistants, invented a working light bulb. It's immediate popularity, brought more business his way in outfitting New York with DC power so everyone could power their new electric lights.

Tesla, the deep thinking intellectual, envisioned AC power which could losslessly be sent from far distances and be stepped up or down to any voltage needed. AC motors were far simpler than DC motors and AC transformers were needed later to run radios (later in the 1920s).

Westinghouse saw the advantages of AC and teamed with Tesla to design a large generating station at Niagara Falls.  A statue was erected there in honor of Tesla.

Edison fared well, inventing the telephone, phonograph and other handy devices. Tesla shot for the stars and invented radio devices and apparatus that could sympathetically create eartquakes. Tesla died a pauper and never received the press that Edison did.

 Edison was a good friend of Henry Ford and after Edison died his Menlo Park lab was moved to Michigan and made into a museum by Ford.

Tesla now has a cult following of hobbyists that build their own Tesla coils but he never recieved the attention in history and science books that he deserved.

Tesla ~ I came to America, gave my all and all I get is this stinking statue.....

Boat Anchor Days

I went through a phase where I wanted to compare late 50s Ham Receivers.
There is still a bow in that table.

Electronic Experiments - Then and Now

THEN  -  Radio Shack AM radio Kit - circa 1972. I'm pretty sure I built one of these.  Photo courtesy of Somerset.net

 NOW  -  Elenco 500 in 1 solderless electronic experimenter's kit, $236

Art From Parts

Tech Cartoon Links

Dilbert - Engineering office humor from world famous Scott Adams. Get to know Dilbert, Dogbert, Ratbert, Wally and the Boss.

 Joy of Tech - The Joy of Tech by Nitrozac & Snaggy is a geek comic satire series about life on the web. Also check out Geek Culture Blog with funny videos.

 Userfriendly - User Friedly archived tech cartoons by J.D. "Illiad" Frazer look at online users and their comical frustrations.

 xkcd - A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math and language by Randall Munroe, all done with stick figures.

Electronic Hobbyist Websites

If you are looking for some hobbyist websites that focus on electronic hardware, here are some of the better ones that I have found:

DIY: 

Electronics Lab - This is a great site with in-depth projects (explanations, schematics, parts list, pcb artwork) along with great design freeware and an active community for answering your questions.

KITS:

Carl's Electronics - Lots of kits to choose from for new hobbyists. Kits are a great way to get your feet before attempting to gather all the parts yourself.

Cana Kit - Canadian electronic kit webstore with lots of hobby kit selections, including Arduino and Raspberry Pi.

Ramsey Electronics - Another webstore with an extensive offering of kits from Amateur Radio to Pro Audio.

Quality Kits -  Canadian electronic kit store - many offerings.

FORUMS:

Electronics Point forum -  Active forum with lots of community support to answer puzzling hobbyist questions.

Edaboard forum - Huge forum with hundreds of thousands of posts on all things electronics.

Arduino Links

The Arduino is a great little embedded microprocessor experimenter's board with incredible community support. The hardware is a bit dated but it gets the job done. I use mine for IR decoding analysis, IR handheld transmitter range checker, a four channel logging thermal meter and an LED color change event monitor. Here are some links to useful websites on the Arduino.

Arduino Playground  - user contribution site of good Arduino projects and sourcecode

Freeduino - knowledge base index to links of all Arduino projects on the web.

Adafruit Learning System - great tutorials for Arduino beginners.

 SparkFun - electronic parts store with extensive Arduino boards and accessories.

Arduino Home website - This is the Italian homepage for the Arduino Team. They have everything you need to get started.

Fake Fluke Meter

                                                Sold by Thomas Edison's Electrical Factory for $12.60.

 

The real deal - Fluke 88V - price $442, on sale $330

I live 10 miles from the Fluke factory and own some of their older 8050A meters (although I like Extech for a less expensive portable meter). This is offensive to both Fluke and Thomas Edison...

HD Audio Codec Features

                                                  Click image to enlarge.

Common Part Pinouts

                                                            Click image to enlarge.

Limor Fried - My Hero

Limor (Ladyada) Fried, of Adafruit Industries, is a rare find in the engineering world, especially if you are starting out as an electronic hobbyist. Her website is full of tutorials, kits, parts for sale, sourcecode and general awesomeness for us electronic geeks. Being a seasoned engineer, I went through my electronic novice days, basically self taught with Electronics Illustrated, Popular Electronics and Ham Radio "elmers" to help me. I can greatly appreciate the value Limor has brought to the hobby.

I have purchased some Arduino and Raspberry Pi accessories from her site and service is very good. Keep up the good work, Limor! 

XLR Pinout

 

Thanks to this site for the best pinout explanation.

Standard Resistor Value Chart

Click the image for a larger view.

ASCII Table

Click the image to see a large view.

Radio Active Dodge Colt

This ham took a $500 Dodge Colt and added $25,000 worth of ham gear and other electronics to his car. Visit odditycentral.com for more shots of the inside and outside. This is way over the top for a mobile installation.

Best Electronic Hobbyist and Pro Magazines

Once upon a time in America, in a tech era far far away, there were electronic hobbyists and ham operators and kids excited over the space program and hi-fi enthusiasts building their own loudspeakers and amplifiers. Phones still had rotary dials then and there was no Internet, not even personal computers. It was easier to focus on a weekend construction project. This was the 60’s and we had magazines like Popular Electronics, Electronics Illustrated, Radio-Electronics and four ham radio magazines all chocked full of cool projects to build. This was my era and I miss it! So what is left now? See below:Hobbyist Magazines:
Star ratings are based on bang for the buck and how broadly they cover hobbyist electronics topics.
Circuit Cellar ****– Great construction articles, strong on digital and embedded designs, not analog. There are some articles and white paers free online. Otherwise it’s $38/yr for the digital subscription.

Nuts and Volts *****– Very much like Circuit Cellar in content. The online digital subscription price is only $20/yr – great bang for the buck.

 Make **– This is a unique blend of crazy DIY and electronic construction articles. Not all are electronic. Also, the magazine is not monthly, more like 4-5 times a year. The digital online edition is 4 issues for $10.

 Silicon Chip ***– An Australian magazine, with projects much like Popular Electronics would have done. There are analog, digital and vintage electronics sections. The online subscription rate is $57/yr.

 Everyday Practical Electronics *****– Excellent hobbyist magazine with a good range of analog/digital projects with in-depth construction details, from the UK.  The online subscription is $20/yr.

 Elektor (UK) **** – Great German hobbyist magazine but they have a UK version in English. They have some pretty advanced projects and a very comprehensive website with sourcecode and pcb files for many projects. The subscription is $40/yr or $54/yr which is for both printed and DVD-ROM. You can also buy Elektor credits and just buy certain articles for a dollar or two.
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Electronics Magazines for Engineers and Advanced Hobbyists:
This category is supported by part manufacturers advertising and most all are available on-line for free, which makes them valuable for hobbyist and professional alike. I didn’t rate them because all are free (except printed copy of IEEE Spectrum) and some are topic-specific.
 Electronic Design - #1 reason to read this magazine: Bob Pease (staff scientist at National Electronics) column on analog. The magazine site has very good coverage of news on the industry.

Electronic Design News (EDN) – my favorite free magazine for engineers. Over the years, I’ve gotten more good design information from EDN than any other free magazine. Their articles are downloadable in pdf format too.

Electronic Component News (ECN) – definitely targeting component news. Sometimes the ads for new parts seem to blend with the articles.

EE Times – This is more news on the industry than news on components and design methods. It used to have the most sensational dirt on industry issues.

IEEE Spectrum – Official journal of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, not actually free for a printed copy ($30/yr) but all the online content seems to be free. Excellent general interest articles on the latest in Electronics advancement and much free aggragated material from IEEE partners.

 Electronics Weekly – UK magazine – great worldwide industry news plus some really unique pages such as Made By Monkeys.

 Test & Measurement – targets test and measurement industry. We all measure things and you might find a better way to do it here.

 Printed Circuit Design & Fab – targets printed circuit board layout designers and has some great articles on best layout methods, changes in the industry, best deals on proto board fabrication.

Compliance Engineering – targets the EMI engineer, especially safety compliance testing for UL, CE, etc. Online standards papers are NOT cheap so at least you can get direction here before asking your boss for $120 again for a 10 page standard paper.



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Paces to Buy Parts and Browse Datasheets:
DigiKey – Best supplier for having datasheets on everything they sell online.
Mouser – best price and availability, compared to DigiKey.
Parts Express – more hobbyist oriented, especially for loudspeaker projects.
Jameco – another good site for techs and hobbyists to buy parts.

Other Online Resources:
Electronic Hobbyist Links – lots of links to hobbyist resources.
ePanorama – great resource of technical know-how articles.

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In the Ham Radio arena, QST Magazine and CQ Magazine are still around, although CQ doesn’t run construction articles any more.
Deceased:
Electronics Illustrated - 1972
Popular Electronics – 1990
Electronics Australia - 2001
Radio-Electronics – 2003
____________________
Ham Radio Magazine - 1990
73 Magazine – 2003