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Radio Shack Electronic Kits

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Richard Henry

Jan 1, 1970
0
Fred Bloggs said:
If a child walks into school with a 2nd - 3rd degree electrical burn
these days, it is probable the police will soon be around to arrest the
parents:)

Ifa child has a 3rd degree elctrical burn, he should be walking into a
hospital.
 
F

Fred Bloggs

Jan 1, 1970
0
Richard said:
When I got my electric train set, I quickly found that the spring from a
ball-point pen would glow red hot when placed across the track wire
terminals of the control box.

Hahah- that's when I learned you do not strip the wires with your teeth
when they're plugged into the transformer...
 
J

John Fields

Jan 1, 1970
0
Absolutely! Learning does not occur unless there's a failure that you
must analyse and understand. Flame makes it sink in even more ;-)

I estimate that I have torn up at least 20X as many sheets of paper as
I have kept.
 
B

Ben Bradley

Jan 1, 1970
0
In a crosspost to a large but apparently related set of newsgroups,
specifically:
sci.electronics.design,
rec.radio.amateur.homebrew,
sci.electronics.equipment,
sci.electronics.repair and
comp.robotics.misc;
I like many of you had my first experience with electronics through the
electronic kits that Radio Shack has had over the years. The versions
that spanned the 50, 100, 200 electronic experiments all come to mind.

My question is...how many versions and types of these kits have they
had over the years?

I would be interested in hearing which ones you recall.

I only recall that Radio Shack had them, probably over many
decades. I never owned one.

But I don't feel particularly deprived - when I was about five to
six years old I got a Heathkit version of these "N-in-1" kits. I have
no clue of the model number, but I think it had:
one transistor,
one diode,
one variable coil (magnetic material on the end of a small threaded
rod that went into the coil, you turn the end of the rod to 'tune' it
- common then, I don't see them nowadays)
several capacitors and resistors
small crystal earphone
I recall that it used small compression springs to accept the
wires, and Fahnestock clips to connect to things off-board: earphone,
antenna and ground. Or perhaps it used only springs, but Fahnestock
clips were common connectors for these projects.
There were two radio projects, one with the diode, and one with the
transistor. The one with the transistor was of course much more
sensitive and played louder through the earphone.

I later recall having another brand, a 'more advanced' model on an
actual printed circuit board (there were traces between each
component's leads and the clips or springs on the board), perhaps it
was a Knight-Kit. It had a relay, a silicon photocell, probably two
transistors, and the usual passive components.
 
C

catman

Jan 1, 1970
0
Mine was a RS Solar Power Kit. Not as many items as the *in1 kits, but
using the solar cells was cool.

While the instructions did not go into to too much detail on the why,
they did cover it at least a little. With the easy spring connections,
I would often switch things around to see what would happen. The
results were the most obvious with the sound experiments.

The important thing with the kits was that you at least learned what
different parts were called. Twenty five years later when my wife
wanted to build a Sinclar ZX81 we bought surplus, I got her a 150 in 1
kit first just so she could learn what the pieces were before she
started on building the computer since she knew nothing about
electronics when she started. The kits gave you confidence that you
could do this, even if you didn't completely understand what it was
that you were doing.

Paul Pawelski
 
C

clifto

Jan 1, 1970
0
John said:
Yes, I remember building one and driving by Burger King with it in
my car. It went off about 100 yards away from BK...

You should have adjusted the circuit to detect only burgers above 80
degrees F.
 
C

CLFE

Jan 1, 1970
0
Richard Henry said:
Ifa child has a 3rd degree elctrical burn, he should be walking into a
hospital.

Yes they should be, but you seem to have missed the point! With the laws
today - the parents would be arrested immediately - in most cases for Child
Abuse - and questions asked later. The answer of trying to teach them
electronics probably wouldn't be a good answer now days. Many of those who
made and uphold the laws either didn't grow up like we did - or - lead a
very sheltered life and took very few chances.

It certainly wasn't my parents fault, I was a very inquisitive child. Hell,
I stuck my fingers in empty light sockets and hit the switch and did many
other stupd stunts - more than I can keep count of. But, I LEARNED. Back in
those good ole days - Child Abuse may have been around, but parents weren't
busted just for looking at their child - in a cross manner. THAT was living.
Today - you have to watch anything and everything. I'm glad my kids are
grown, now I don't have that worry.
 
J

John Miles

Jan 1, 1970
0
To-Email-Use- said:
Learning does not occur unless there's a failure that you
must analyse and understand.

Nice. Original?

-- jm
 
J

John Fields

Jan 1, 1970
0

---
With all due respect and being as polite as I can be, I disagree.

As far as I can see, Jim Thompson's outlook on life seems to me to
be that of a (according to him) polio victim who somehow managed to
mollify that disability (to which all of us who refused to succumb
to that illness should kow-tow) and then went on to achieve
semi-greatness by learning how to transfer circuits onto silicon.

Not a big deal.

Got a circuit which needs to be reproduced a zillion times?
Also not a big deal, no matter what you've been told.

Learning occurs on many levels, not the least of which is the
information which we're given when we're ignorant and _can't_
analyze the data given us.

I learned the names for red and green when I was very young, and I
still see them the same way and call them the names I learned back
then.
 
J

Joerg

Jan 1, 1970
0
Hello Michael,

That's true, I guess the electronics hobby just isn't as big as it was in
the late 70's-early 80's. You would think kids would at least have some
curiosity about how the game controllers work, or how to build a power
supply to run their GameBoy to save the batteries. Of course, you can buy a
power supply for a fraction of what it costs to build one from scratch.

I believe most come with a wall wart type supply. After all, they pay
$300 or more for those gizmos. But that's just the problem, kids have
way too much money. We had to make do with whatever parts a discarded
radio or TV set yielded. And that was plenty. I remember jumping up and
down in joy as a kid when I found a 13.56MHz crystal in a TV. That
discovery propelled me into the ISM business.

Regards, Joerg
 
J

Jonathan Kirwan

Jan 1, 1970
0
Man, I wanted one of those kits SOOO bad!

I built one and still have it in a box, somewhere. Interesting unit,
at the time.

Jon
 
T

Too_Many_Tools

Jan 1, 1970
0
"In a crosspost to a large but apparently related set of newsgroups,
specifically:
sci.electronics.design,
rec.radio.amateur.homebrew,
sci.electronics.equipment,
sci.electronics.repair and
comp.robotics.misc; "

Is there a problem with posting a suitable topic to a number of groups
that would find it interesting?

It definitely was not meant to be spam.

TMT
 
R

Rob B

Jan 1, 1970
0
Too_Many_Tools said:
I like many of you had my first experience with electronics through the
electronic kits that Radio Shack has had over the years. The versions
that spanned the 50, 100, 200 electronic experiments all come to mind.

My question is...how many versions and types of these kits have they
had over the years?

I would be interested in hearing which ones you recall.

I recall my first electronics kit consisted of a single hair pin (U shaped
hair pin)
i promptly applied it to the nearest power source i could find (which
happened to be a 120v outlet) nothing happened at first so i proceeded with
my experimentation of wiggling the hair pin so as to make contact, i
remember the lights flickering and then i recall a loud scream imminated
from my general locale and the rest blurs

my second electronic kit was radio shack am radio with ear plug phone it
scratched out some noise and occasional radio signal

my third project was a shock box (pop-mech kit ?) where i dug up some old
transformer from my dads shop that resembled the one in the design (same
shape & number of wires) and i applied either 6v lantern battery or couple
of D cells to the indicated wires then self-tested the output... i have no
idea what i put together but my arm ached and felt like jello for a short
while after the test.

4th came the 100 or 125 kit from RS where you had to build some of the
elments/switches/ variable capacitor ? ( eg. bunch of thin brass(copper)
sheets and some thin plastic wafered together with an adjustment knob? ) i
remeber lights, buzzers (elec keyboard ), meter ?,

I enjoyed it then but electronics interest faded quickly once the TRS-80,
TI-99-4a, timex sinclair, ataris and commodores etc became available for
play plus the video games of 70-80
 
R

Rob B

Jan 1, 1970
0
Too_Many_Tools said:
"In a crosspost to a large but apparently related set of newsgroups,
specifically:
sci.electronics.design,
rec.radio.amateur.homebrew,
sci.electronics.equipment,
sci.electronics.repair and
comp.robotics.misc; "

Is there a problem with posting a suitable topic to a number of groups
that would find it interesting?

It definitely was not meant to be spam.

did someone complain ?

cross posting is for relevant groups, those appear to be relevant excepting
(repair) and i might have added (sci.electronics.basics) or (misc) but i am
just a humble hobbier :)
 
M

Michael A. Terrell

Jan 1, 1970
0
Fred said:
Hahah- that's when I learned you do not strip the wires with your teeth
when they're plugged into the transformer...


This explains a lot about you, Fred! ;-)

--
Service to my country? Been there, Done that, and I've got my DD214 to
prove it.
Member of DAV #85.

Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida
 
C

CLFE

Jan 1, 1970
0
I'm sure we've all had our turn at learning things the "hard" way back then.
Some funny, some not so funny - at least not then - but boy is it nice to
sit back and laugh at ourselves now...... But hey - we made it - and learned
a lot along the way. IF we all admitted to all the things we did then, many
would wonder how we either survived or weren't put in a looney bin.

CLF
 
J

Josh Wyatt

Jan 1, 1970
0
CLFE said:
I'm sure we've all had our turn at learning things the "hard" way back then.
Some funny, some not so funny - at least not then - but boy is it nice to
sit back and laugh at ourselves now...... But hey - we made it - and learned
a lot along the way. IF we all admitted to all the things we did then, many
would wonder how we either survived or weren't put in a looney bin.

CLF

True story:

At the ripe age of 11, I received my first Digi-Key catalog (Dad was into electronics...). At the time I was big into neon lights (sad I know), and had collected lots of the little bulbs from Radio Shack, salvaged equipment, etc.

Digi-Key had bare bulbs for 11 cents each! And strangely, they were listed as requiring 120v (without a resistor specification, and not pre-attached resistors, assembly, etc). I had to have a couple, as surely these were exotic and unusual bulbs.

So I taped two dimes and two pennies to an index card, filled out the order form, and mailed the whole thing to Digi-Key, along with a personal note about how much I loved neon lights (yes, still sad).

Couple weeks later I got back a stern typewritten note about minimum orders, effort of fulfilling tiny requests, shipping charges, yadda, yadda... and enclosed in the envelope with this letter were two neon lights wrapped in bubble wrap!

I could not wait to test my new neon lights that didn't require a current limiting resistor. Still, something seemed ominous about that, so I enclosed the first one in a glass jar, "just in case". Applied 120V and POW, tiny neon bomb!

I sent the broken glass and freed electrodes, carefully padded and wrapped, back to Digi-Key with a nastygram of my own, stating what had happened and how these were NOT 120V neon bulbs despite the catalog specification. Couple of weeks later I received a reply in the mail, with an apology, a statement of catalog revision, and... a replacement neon bulb ;) .

Ah, Digi-Key, thou dost know customer service.

Thanks,
Josh

P.S. Hope this wasn't too off-topic.
 
R

Rob B

Jan 1, 1970
0
Josh Wyatt said:
True story:

At the ripe age of 11, I received my first Digi-Key catalog (Dad was into
electronics...). At the time I was big into neon lights (sad I know), and
had collected lots of the little bulbs from Radio Shack, salvaged equipment,
etc.
Digi-Key had bare bulbs for 11 cents each! And strangely, they were
listed as requiring 120v (without a resistor specification, and not
pre-attached resistors, assembly, etc). I had to have a couple, as surely
these were exotic and unusual bulbs.
So I taped two dimes and two pennies to an index card, filled out the
order form, and mailed the whole thing to Digi-Key, along with a personal
note about how much I loved neon lights (yes, still sad).
Couple weeks later I got back a stern typewritten note about minimum
orders, effort of fulfilling tiny requests, shipping charges, yadda,
yadda... and enclosed in the envelope with this letter were two neon lights
wrapped in bubble wrap!
I could not wait to test my new neon lights that didn't require a current
limiting resistor. Still, something seemed ominous about that, so I
enclosed the first one in a glass jar, "just in case". Applied 120V and
POW, tiny neon bomb!
I sent the broken glass and freed electrodes, carefully padded and
wrapped, back to Digi-Key with a nastygram of my own, stating what had
happened and how these were NOT 120V neon bulbs despite the catalog
specification. Couple of weeks later I received a reply in the mail, with
an apology, a statement of catalog revision, and... a replacement neon bulb
;) .
Ah, Digi-Key, thou dost know customer service.

Thanks,
Josh

P.S. Hope this wasn't too off-topic.

it is stories like these that always make me wonder how lots of kids like
that survived child hood

had a similar experiment story (similar age) mixing Acetylene and Oxygen
from the torch into a small 16oz glass bottle then putting a match near
opening to see what kind of flame would be produced :)

for some unknown reason (alludes me to this day) i decided to put it inside
of a 5 gallon paint bucket and that was the better part of the idea

robb
 
M

mc

Jan 1, 1970
0
Ah, Digi-Key, thou dost know customer service.

They knew you might grow up to be an engineer and design something that uses
millions of dollars' worth of their parts.

RCA and Kodak were very generous to me with documentation and answers to
questions when I was young. Sadly, RCA died before I could do anything to
repay them. Kodak is still there and has benefited, I think, from some
writing I did in the 1980s.
 
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