EEVblog #280 - Talking Electronics

[EEVblog]

Dave, how does it fell to meet an actual "hero" from your childhood? Anxious? Afraid that he could be different than what you thought?

I had some advantage in knowing what he was like by the short clip in the State of Electronics doco preview "Roll Call" video.
But yeah, quite anxious and excited to meet him.

I was a fair bit surprised to find that he's now a big property developer which takes up all his daytime hours, I pictured him still slumped over the soldering iron and shipping kits, but that was not to be.

I didn't dare ask his age, but I was surprised at the huge level of energy and enthusiasm he still has.

I believe that that you left the interview with a big smile stuck on your face. 

Indeed, until I thought of a dozen things I hadn't asked him. I really should have went in with a plan and some questions, instead of just turning up, hitting record and having a chat.
And he was kind enough to take me to dinner afterwards, during which I thought "wow, 25 years later I'm having diner with Colin Mitchell, this is cool!"

Dave.

[Rerouter]

dave your comment can't help me but think at some point later in your life you will probably experience the flip side of the interveiw, to many of us you stand in similar shoes

[EEVblog]

dave your comment can't help me but think at some point later in your life you will probably experience the flip side of the interveiw, to many of us you stand in similar shoes

But I'm just a someone who presses record and mumbles! 

Dave.

[Rerouter]

and he was just someone who sat down at his table and scribbled

[EEVblog]

and he was just someone who sat down at his table and scribbled

and pioneered the kit business, and produced a magazine by hand back in the days before computers made it easy.
Anyone can do what I do because it's so relatively easy, as we all have the tools and it costs nothing. But few could have done what Colin did, and indeed no one else in the country, and probably the world, did.

Dave.

[Rerouter]

i know.. i was oversimplifying like you did,

while colins shoes are probably bloody hard to fill, your mumblings are understandable enough that you have a following, sadly not what most people have, thus making you unique,

[robrenz]

But I'm just a someone who presses record and mumbles! 

Dave.

Yes, but with infectious enthusiasm, great depth of knowledge, effective teaching style, yet with humility.
Many thanks and keep up the great work Dave.

Regards, robrenz

[bullet308]

You don't have to be Colin Mitchell. Just keep doing what you do.

I sense a passing-of-the-flag moment here. Perhaps a strategic alliance leveraging his resources...?

[wosser]

I just wanted to say I really enjoyed the video interview series with Colin Mitchell.  People who give up  (large amounts of) their own time to help people learn in this way are heroes to me.  I put Dave in the same category for sure.

I sent Dave a few dollars for his efforts and I'd encourage others to do so too, EEVBlog is one of the best and certainly most individual sources of electronics advice and ideas anywhere I've seen on the web.

[Precisiontools]

Thanks for making the effort on catching up with Colin and getting his thoughts. It's all good info on the golden years of the electronic scene in Australia.

I would have to say Jim Rowe was my inspiration, and single handedly guided me into electronics. How about an interview with him?

[gregariz]

TA! Thats a trip down memory lane.

Its funny how we get the dates mixed up. I had thought it was about 82 or 83 when I saw his magazines in the newsagents, rather than about 85 as he mentioned. I remember writing him a letter to tell him I got a mile out of the bug (Ant/Amoeba cant remember).

On a side note does anyone remember the small hobby computer programming mag (small local aussie one on colour newsprint) that was in the newsagents around the same time?. It used to just have listings in it that you could type in. It had an advertisement for the Sega SC-3000 when it came out. I've never heard it mentioned anywhere.. I suspect it only lasted a few issues.

[PA0PBZ]

I was very surprised to see a BC548 used as a FM (100Mhz) oscillator (the FM Bug). I would never have tried that because in my head that is a LF transistor. Just had a look at the datasheet and it says FT = 300Mhz... Is it just me?

[FrankMc]

Dave, how does it fell to meet an actual "hero" from your childhood? Anxious? Afraid that he could be different than what you thought?

I had some advantage in knowing what he was like by the short clip in the State of Electronics doco preview "Roll Call" video.
But yeah, quite anxious and excited to meet him.

I was a fair bit surprised to find that he's now a big property developer which takes up all his daytime hours, I pictured him still slumped over the soldering iron and shipping kits, but that was not to be.

I didn't dare ask his age, but I was surprised at the huge level of energy and enthusiasm he still has.

I believe that that you left the interview with a big smile stuck on your face. 

Indeed, until I thought of a dozen things I hadn't asked him. I really should have went in with a plan and some questions, instead of just turning up, hitting record and having a chat.
And he was kind enough to take me to dinner afterwards, during which I thought "wow, 25 years later I'm having diner with Colin Mitchell, this is cool!"

Dave.

Hi Dave

It was nice to see you interview Colin.....Back in around 1988 ( i think) i wanted to learn about microprocessors and came across Colins TEC...I built it and all the add ons and im sure i built the Microcomp as well.....Brings back some nice memories......Called into  Colins house in Moorabbin to purchase kits and met him several times...Also got into pic micro,s from an ad on one of his Mag,s...

Hoping to see an interview soon with Don Mc Kenzie ;-)... Built some of his stuff as well...Z80 printer buffer..

Thanks again
Frank

[EEVblog]

ts funny how we get the dates mixed up. I had thought it was about 82 or 83 when I saw his magazines in the newsagents, rather than about 85 as he mentioned.

Yeah, I have similar mix up's. Like I was sure DSE et.al were making EA kits before TE came along. But I trust in Colin's memory.

I'm going to start a series on going through the old EA mags in chronological order, should be really fun. Just not sure how to space it, one mag every 2 or 5 years?
I'm talking 40 years worth here...

Dave.

[EEVblog]

Also got into pic micro,s from an ad on one of his Mag,s...

So did I, with Newfound Electronics PP1 programmer.
I quizzed Colin on this, but he did not recall every advertising a PIC programmer.

Hoping to see an interview soon with Don Mc Kenzie ;-)... Built some of his stuff as well...Z80 printer buffer..

That would be interesting. I know Don (never met personally though), he watches the blog, and I think was the first ever person to comment on it back when it was on the aus.electronics group.

Dave.

[bullet308]

I'm going to start a series on going through the old EA mags in chronological order, should be really fun. Just not sure how to space it, one mag every 2 or 5 years?
I'm talking 40 years worth here...

Dave.

How about just pick out some of the cooler projects and do them on a breadboard? Be nice if there were gerbers available for the boards...

[amspire]

I'm going to start a series on going through the old EA mags in chronological order, should be really fun. Just not sure how to space it, one mag every 2 or 5 years?
I'm talking 40 years worth here...

Dave.

I am really looking forward to this.

I remember one of the really exciting moments was the what may have been EA's first ever IC project. I think it was a Fairchild uLogic 914 RTL (Resistor-Transistor Logic) IC, and I think they used it to build a differential audio amplifier or something. This would be probably be late 60's.

It is not that it was the first IC available, but it was the first range of cheap ICs for the hobbyist.

It may look like a dumb project now, but it is very hard to explain how exciting it was at the time.  At that time, we were still playing around with germanium Mullard OC71 transistors that came in a black painted glass tube, and to actually have an IC was like having something magical.

It was also a time when not only did AWA make transistor radios, but they made the germanium transistors. The capacitors, resistors, diodes, speakers, batteries, transformers, the PCB and case were all made in Australia.

The series will be a great trip through the history of electronics.

Some other key points in history I can think of is the first silicon transistor projects (probably the BC107/108/109 transistors). The first uA709 opamp projects. The thing about the 709 is if you took an input to a rail, it would blow up. The first uA741, LM301A and LM324 projects. The first 7400 series digital IC project. The ping-pong tennis gave for a TV screen - that was huge. Definitely a few of the pre-transistor Valve projects. Probably one of Jim Rowe's Playmaster amplifier designs. A few instruments like a frequency counter, the low distortion audio oscillator using one of the now un-obtanium thermistor bead devices for amplitude stabilization. The first AM/FM tuner.

Richard.

[Kevlarious]

SWEET vids !!! TY 4 sharing

[EEVblog]

It would be nice to pick out those big milestone projects etc and feature those, but it wold mean I'd have to look through every single issue which would be a massive amount of work. I was hoping to just pick say the Jan issue of each 5 years and see what has changed from the previous years. In terms of types of projects, components used, the ads, editorials, mailbags, feature articles etc.

Dave.

[pickle9000]

Don't forget to include some ad's, I wanna see pricing and features from way back.

...mike

[amspire]

I think each March issue has a yearly index, if that helps.

Definitely agree with pickle 9000 - ads please.

I managed to find a partial index of EA articles, so here are some suggestions:

Apr 71    Start of a series Basic Electronics Course that was in every issue for several years
Nov 72     Inductance Bridge
Jan 73      Digital volt-Ohm Meter, 2-Meter Portable FM Transceiver
Feb 73     Digital Volt-Ohm Meter - 2
Jul 73      Aerial Noise Bridge, Introduction to Marine Acoustics (start of a series)
Mar 74    Solid State RC Bridge
May 74    Audio Distortion Meter, Simple TRF Receiver, Australia's Radio Pioneers, Musical Note Synthesiser 
Jul 74     Build Electronic Concert Organ, Playmaster 142, Automatic Telephone Exchange, Scope Switch       
Mar 79     Wien bridge and op-amp select filter's bandwidth
Apr 79      Noise generator, Hee haw siren for toys, Handy aid to fine soldering, Caravan DC power - a better way
Feb 80     Novel way to play your old 78s, High current regulated power supply
Jun 80      Bridge measures unknown resistance and capacitance, Improved resistance-capacitance oscillator
Feb 81     Add milliohms measurement to your digital multimeter
Sept 82     Active DC Load, NiCad battery charger, Simulate a NiCad cell   
Aug 83     Wide Range Low Distortion Sweep Oscillator
Oct 83, Jan 85, Nov 88, Jun 94, Oct 95     Capacitance Meter
Aug 85      Adjustable supply to +/-100V at 0.25A
Jan 87      ECG waveform display on Apple II computer
Aug 87    Complex impedance meter
Jan 89     Electrolytic capacitor tester
May 93    Direct conversion receiver, Fuzz and wah-wah pedal, Remote control tester,
Jan 95    DVM milliohm adaptor, Efficient linear power supply (1.25V - 30V @ 3A)
Apr 95  In-circuit transistor tester
May 98   ESR meter measures batteries, too
Jan 99    Phase Bridge gives a free third audio channel
Mar 00  Simple ESR tester (meter), Soft audio limiter

Richard.

[gregariz]

Here are the project lists that used to be on the Electronics Australia website for both EA and ETI. I used to go to the RCS website for that stuff and a list of AEM, but RCS seems to be shut now, I guess his son decided to call it a day?

[gregariz]

ts funny how we get the dates mixed up. I had thought it was about 82 or 83 when I saw his magazines in the newsagents, rather than about 85 as he mentioned.

Yeah, I have similar mix up's. Like I was sure DSE et.al were making EA kits before TE came along. But I trust in Colin's memory.

I'm going to start a series on going through the old EA mags in chronological order, should be really fun. Just not sure how to space it, one mag every 2 or 5 years?
I'm talking 40 years worth here...

Dave.

I would of trusted his memory too.. but its a while ago now so I'll cut him some slack. I ran across this guys website who seems to have a couple of date stamps on his magazine (Gordon and Gotch 1982?)

http://retro-riders.com/tech/magz/

http://retro-riders.com/tech/magz/te/te_magz.html

http://retro-riders.com/tech/magz/te/magz/Issue08/big2.jpg

What confused me I think was when he talked of ETI/EA doing a project electronics magazine. The only one I could think of was ETI's hobby electronics, and I'm pretty sure that was around 1980 or 81 82, but of course a few of the mags were releasing 'books of circuits' around that time so I could be completely wrong.

[FrankMc]

Also got into pic micro,s from an ad on one of his Mag,s...

So did I, with Newfound Electronics PP1 programmer.
I quizzed Colin on this, but he did not recall every advertising a PIC programmer.

Hoping to see an interview soon with Don Mc Kenzie ;-)... Built some of his stuff as well...Z80 printer buffer..

That would be interesting. I know Don (never met personally though), he watches the blog, and I think was the first ever person to comment on it back when it was on the aus.electronics group.

Dave.

Your spot on Dave...I bought the same Programmer..The guys name was Jim Robertson  from down Geelong way....

Speaking of Mags..... When i was  an apprentice i use to buy  Everyday Electronics  and Practical Electronics every month....

Frank

[FrankMc]

I'm going to start a series on going through the old EA mags in chronological order, should be really fun. Just not sure how to space it, one mag every 2 or 5 years?
I'm talking 40 years worth here...

Dave.

I am really looking forward to this.

I remember one of the really exciting moments was the what may have been EA's first ever IC project. I think it was a Fairchild uLogic 914 RTL (Resistor-Transistor Logic) IC, and I think they used it to build a differential audio amplifier or something. This would be probably be late 60's.

It is not that it was the first IC available, but it was the first range of cheap ICs for the hobbyist.

It may look like a dumb project now, but it is very hard to explain how exciting it was at the time.  At that time, we were still playing around with germanium Mullard OC71 transistors that came in a black painted glass tube, and to actually have an IC was like having something magical.

It was also a time when not only did AWA make transistor radios, but they made the germanium transistors. The capacitors, resistors, diodes, speakers, batteries, transformers, the PCB and case were all made in Australia.

The series will be a great trip through the history of electronics.

Some other key points in history I can think of is the first silicon transistor projects (probably the BC107/108/109 transistors). The first uA709 opamp projects. The thing about the 709 is if you took an input to a rail, it would blow up. The first uA741, LM301A and LM324 projects. The first 7400 series digital IC project. The ping-pong tennis gave for a TV screen - that was huge. Definitely a few of the pre-transistor Valve projects. Probably one of Jim Rowe's Playmaster amplifier designs. A few instruments like a frequency counter, the low distortion audio oscillator using one of the now un-obtanium thermistor bead devices for amplitude stabilization. The first AM/FM tuner.

Richard.

Hi

I remember having some of those  OC 71 transistors.....I still have some bc107,108 and 109,s that i brought to Oz back in 1977...;-)

Frank