My first ever electronics project was an altoids tin with two 9Vs, a 7805, and a USB port on a piece of protoboard I found in my grandfather's old electronics parts bins. I followed an Instructable to make it. After that, I was hooked. My next project was a dice roller I got from a copy of Make magazine. I ordered most of the parts off digikey. I loved the little projects in Make magazine, I thought it was so cool that you could just build your own electronics.
It's crazy; some years ago (many?) there were so many Alroids projects. I even wanted to buy a few tins of mints just to use the boxes (not that I dislike the cinnamon ones - or the quick rusting not withstanding).
I remember, there used to be powerbanks, buck-boost converters, joule theives, a ton of simple but cool projects.
I wonder where that vibe died. (Or if it transformed into something else?)
7 comments:
My first ever electronics project was an altoids tin with two 9Vs, a 7805, and a USB port on a piece of protoboard I found in my grandfather's old electronics parts bins. I followed an Instructable to make it. After that, I was hooked. My next project was a dice roller I got from a copy of Make magazine. I ordered most of the parts off digikey. I loved the little projects in Make magazine, I thought it was so cool that you could just build your own electronics.
It's crazy; some years ago (many?) there were so many Alroids projects. I even wanted to buy a few tins of mints just to use the boxes (not that I dislike the cinnamon ones - or the quick rusting not withstanding).
I remember, there used to be powerbanks, buck-boost converters, joule theives, a ton of simple but cool projects.
I wonder where that vibe died. (Or if it transformed into something else?)
I'm not sure if it was dying out before, but it feels like cheap 3D printers (and software like tinkercad) may have contributed.
That's a very good point I hadn't considered, and I think you are right.
Very cool project. It's awesome to see young people in particular get involved in electronics.
Other, less capable (1802 & 6502 processors) Altoid computers:
https://www.retrotechnology.com/memship/memship.html
https://www.reddit.com/r/beneater/comments/15k19xp/be6502_in...
The beaglebone family of SBCs were specifically designed to fit inside altoids tins
Looking forward to your son's MIT maker portfolio video in a few years!
Kidding lol.
Nice to see a wholesome post every once in a while. Its good to fuel their passions and interests when young. Keep it up man.