How I Got Started In Electronics

A trip down memory lane! How I went from taking everything apart in the house, to getting my first electronics kit, buying books, magazines, breadboards, my first multimeter, and off to a fine career.
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[@HappyHermitt]

It's almost 2022, I'm 50 years old, and I just ordered the Getting started book. I can't wait

[@andregrant4305]

How's your journey coming along?

[@jstro-hobbytech]

Hey man. I am 44 and started 2019 after being forced into retirement due to ptsd and remembering after a few years I have a 2 and a half decade old software degree that I never used and went into policing instead. How are things coming along? I've thrown myself into the electronics side and only write software when needed and barely anything I learned is pertinent now except for arduino haha I've got a very respectable set up now. Still learning everyday. Ever wanna trade notes just email me.

[@davidthepilotdude5804]

What an absolute time machine. I love the commentary on how you found those magazines.

[@lylewyant3356]

I had a 101 from radio shack about 50 years ago. It helped me learn how to read a schematics.

[@pileofstuff]

That 160-in-one looks very familiar. I pulled mine out a few months ago for a play. Excellent nostalgia!

[@GadgetReboot]

I wish I still had mine, but I think I still have the solar cell from it and maybe the AA battery pack. So tragic.

[@dimitriguest9814]

It’s nice to see someone so excited about electronics!

[@yashsharma6112]

So inspiring and nostalgic at the same time

[@johnepperson8867]

You & I were enticed into electronics via the same path !!! I'm sure it was all pre-planned, even before we were born. Different people, different countries, same path 😊😊😊😊.

[@noggin73]

I had a 160-in-1 & a 200-in-1. In the UK it was sold in Tandy stores. Electrocuted many a friend with that little transformer :) As a teen in the 60's my father was into electronics (crystal radios etc). He was a bit of an odd man. Never taught me anything but I guess it rubbed off. I wish I kept all his Everyday Electronics magazines from the 60's/70's. Maplin recently shut down here :-(

[@GadgetReboot]

I always wanted the 200 in one kit and I don’t know if I remember correctly but the local price back in the 80s was $60 but I could be totally wrong. Now they sell them branded as an Elenco kits but the price is ridiculous like I think it’s a couple of hundred dollars otherwise I would’ve bought one. Now I’m curious to dig out my old RadioShack catalogue or try to find one online and confirm the price back then. I also electrocuted a few people with the little transformer and the relay and electrolytic capacitor. We would have a chain of people holding hands and the last person to complete the circle would be the one to get the shock. Good times.

[@michaelwright1602]

Darn shame these kits are no longer made, and the publications. Not at all the same today, they want our kids dumbed down, and the adults.

[@leemagaming696]

Harder to get people to buy their cheaply made and bad quality crap if people are educated enough to make what they are selling and also make their own businesses and wanting more money for their skills

[@tablatronix]

I remember basic stamp was the first diy friendly microcontrollers I was aware of, but it was still too advanced, I did not have the time and money for the prerequisites, supporting hardware, so I stuck with analog. When arduino came out I decided I have time for this, easier entry.

[@GadgetReboot]

I remember those stamps as well and thought it would be too convoluted just like when Microcontrollers first started showing up in most projects in the magazines I used to get disappointed because I didn’t know what to do with that so eventually I had no choice but to start learning. Then when I did start using microcontrollers I was using exclusively assembler instead of a higher language. Now I’ve found the middle ground with Arduino‘s.

[@tablatronix]

Yes it was some compiler build chain you had to get running, and buy or build the programmer, then buy the chips, or a kit, and then learn assembler pretty much. nope..

[@BgRdMchne]

Those oldschool Mouser and Digikey ads!

[@electronic7979]

Excellent 👍👍

[@jay_cadiramen]

Did these kits actually explain what it is you were making and how you could apply it in real life?

[@GadgetReboot]

The real life application part is usually vague and subjective, and the circuit descriptions are usually leaving out the things I'd actually want to know more about - back in those days that left me hanging, same as reading about circuits in magazine articles that skip the design part, but now google explains everything!

[@Stratomacaster]

Wow. I have the same 'Getting Started In Electronics' book. I also recently found a box packed away for years that had the entire 'Engineer's Mini-Notebook' series. I was amazed at how well they've held up.

[@LisyRuiz]

i loved this! made me nostalgic for a time i never experienced - thanks for sharing 💕

[@GadgetReboot]

Thanks for watching!

[@hdhwkq]

Well i never knew a girl will be interested in electronics Never mind :)

[@andrexipita]

@@hdhwkq ahaha BRUH 🤣🤣🤣

[@hdhwkq]

@@andrexipita XD

[@gmendes1831]

@@hdhwkq When I was a kid, it was exclusively for boys. I'm glad things have changed. Some changes, like this one, have improved.

[@malcolmanderson6735]

13:28 This is awesome, I bought my first hard drive about that time and remember that it was "a steal" at $300 for 30 MB.

[@AmitSingh-fs2ot]

I wish I could have seen your video when I was 14-15 years of age.

[@epremeaux]

Mims absolutely got me started as well. That same green book. I also had the Engineer's Notebook (the full sized blue cover, same size as the green book.. mostly included everything from the mini notebooks). I too loved the handwritten style, and the Engineer's Notebook specifically ignited my love affair with all things graph paper.

[@maxvideodrome4215]

I had precisely the same kits and books. Amazing. Thanks for putting this together. I don't know what happened to my old stuff.

[@markgunnison]

I had the second one but I think mine was 101. I also had a bunch of those small Radio Shack pamphlets. I wish I had kept my old magazines. I kept them for years but threw them away when the internet came around.

[@yutubl]

Very nice memories, I also have my electronic books still in my shelf as an degreed engineer technical informatics 1990. I started electronics as a pupil in the late 1970s with Philips Electronics Kit (up to AM + FM Receiver) before becoming 1984 a professional Electronics Service Technician (Radios, HiFi-Stereo, TV, own build speaker boxes, alarm devices and their installation and camera monitoring devices) with german books from publisher Franzis & Elektor. In advance I studied electrical engineering + technical informatics with engineering books (publisher Vieweg, Hanser, Teubner, Springer), Analogue Multimeter and self built Analog Oscilloscope, Commodore C64 (extra 2nd ROM, userport I/O extensions), Sharp PC-1403 pocket computer (BASIC and matrix calculations), Atari ST1024 (Motorola mc68000) with graphical user interface and mouse and 3.5 " floppy discs - cheaper than Apples McIntosh & 1st Amiga 2000 and cheaper & better than all IBM PC clones to that time.

[@GadgetReboot]

I am moving later this year and will finally have enough space to unpack and examine everything I have collected over the years and see if old computer scraps still work, try to get some telephone dial up modems working between old computers for fun, and use old components in new projects so they don't sit around another 20 years on a shelf in a box...

[@TinyMaths]

Honestly, my mistake when I was young (I started to take stuff apart later than you, when I was about 12), is that I never continued. Although I had a few electronics classes in the UK equivalent of community college; it wasn't the main focus of the course so I didn't take it seriously. I guess I knew nothing about resources in the early 80's when I started tinkering with stuff and had no idea you could actually progress and build stuff. My older brother had one of those '160 in 1' electronics sets; but he was quite possessive about his stuff; after all, I was a bit reckless at that age - so I rarely got the change to experiment with it myself. Here I am now 51 years old and considering getting into electronics, partly because I'm learning to programme, have made several simple web-based applications (games, timers, clocks calculators etc), and am considering building projects at some future point which incorporate programming and electronics.

[@gmendes1831]

It's never too late for a restart, this video showed where the gold was.

[@SensSword]

4:22 is where we all truly started. Love that book. Just bought a reprinted version because my original is heavily worn.

[@noneofyourbusiness76]

All those old books and magazines really brought back some memories! I love that folding analog meter...never saw that one before. In the 80's my grandfather gave me an old analog meter he built from a kit...probably heathkit. This video got me rummaging around for some of my old books...found my Electronics Vest Pocket Reference Book by Harry Thomas...pure gold nostalgia LOL

[@noimagination99]

Wow, I love this! I had the two kits at the beginning of the video too! The first was frustrating, but it at least got me really interested. I have Forrest Mims' 555 book, and a couple others, but not the big green one. I just may have to get that one now that my electronics hobby is waxing again. 🙂 Then the 1986 (year I graduated from HS) Radio Electronics magazines, priceless. I can't believe they had them at 7-11!, and of course, the magazine rack in the back next to the video games and pinball machines. What a benefit it would be today to get kids interested in STEM if we still had such things. I loved those magazines and would browse my college's library full of them, going way back. Then, JDR microdevices! That brings back good memories of my earliest computer builds. JDR was THE place to go for scratch-building home PC's back in the '80s-90's. My favorite. Wonder what happened to them? Oh, yeah, the $400 20 MB hard drive!! Imagine today having to spend $400 to store a couple of pictures! Not to mention that $400 in 1986 was equal to $1100 today!! Wow I still have my Radio Shack catalog collection, almost complete from early '80's to about 1990 +/- a couple of years. It's fascinating to look back at the technology and prices. Great video, I really enjoyed the trip down memory lane! Thanks!

[@cpnscarlet]

I still have all my RS Designer Note Books that were about 3' x 4". Fortunately, it's all on-line. Unfortunately, how many kids are getting into electronics? Hobbies are dying - sacrificed to the great god of interactive gaming.

[@marinvidovic763]

Interesting recent intetview on youtube , titled: "Forrest Mims: Adventure os an Amatur scientist ".

[@midjehunt7424]

Thing is ,4 years in electronics from a book may teach a bit, . If one sucks it up fast on the correct book, it is only likely to give one knowledge on the theory. I have theory on Religion books but does that make me able to dictate to others as a self professed expert?. I think yes according to this video, just thumb through a few pages and wow, you are an expert. Well done on that stuff, I read a book on whaling today, so I am off to catch me a whale, I may know nothing about being on a boat, and running the gear, but it was a fine book.

[@midjehunt7424]

I spent years as a conultant and worked on many global projects. Made a good living out of it, Made some contacts along the way i but never used them to progress my carrier as I loved it as a job more than a career. As a consultant I got to speak freely to many as long as it did not break my NDA with various folk, and trust me I got to talk to many over the years from pop stars to politicians, not just the hard work, one just finds themselves tied up . Thing is, I think the uk is just creating idiots in engineering these days. If they knew which way to plant a simple diode it would be a start, perhaps they start by trying to tie their own shoelace.?

[@GadgetReboot]

Hope you had fun and if you caught one, hopefully it wasn't one of the endangered whales! Not sure how to respond to the rest...

[@tedbastwock3810]

I really dont even want to help the arduino crowd. Folks, if you want to get started in electronics, there is a pot of gold underneath the nearest available arduino or rasberry pi board. Just go grab it and you will be basically the same as an EE.

[@MrGigi-dz9cv]

I remember tearing everything apart. Any radio. Some of them, i feel sorry about. I was also destructive.

[@muzdokgober9371]

wow very good book, I really want to have the book, I hope someone can send the book to me, I'm from Indonesia, studying electronics

[@pileofstuff]

Wow. I was subscribed to ETI back in my youth. At the time I didn't know of *anyone* else who read those same magazines. Your start is *very* similar to mine.

[@GadgetReboot]

Big surprise as usual, eh?

[@simonthomas6531]

not very good at it. but I respect lot of the work gone into designing lot of the modern world though them. I had a look at British inventions and was shocked at how many things we did. we started the modern electronics industry off with valve +grid valve and invented tv/radio/light bulb/record player/telephone etc .also multimeter and first basic oscilloscope . USA did more of modern ones dvd/microprocessor /Practical led.

[@ekbanjosworld4926]

I skipped the kid kits. I was a late bloomer. I did start my electronics by reading the whole NEC code book one winter around 1987. Then I got into computers as they came out. Took a Novell Networks course on DOS. Found out that network engineering didn't pay well. Then I started with all the Archer Series like you did. Afterwards I bought the one on Building Power Supplys and built a regulated 0-30VDC unit with meter and three ranges ! My next trick was rebuilding my first Dynaco ST70, haven't looked back since! Now I have my General Class HAM Radio license so that ended up getting me back into Tube Amps ! Awesome hobby ! No pdf file or computer can ever replace a real Library !

[@Ronnock]

Network engineering didn't pay well? It sure does now!

[@MrDoneboy]

Wow, Forrest...I was learning electronics from my dad, in the late 60's!

[@Bobo-ox7fj]

Wow, I'd forgotten my folks got me a more modern but more or less identical kit when I was... oh, 7 or 8? I'll have to thank them for that again.

[@UnexpectedMaker]

That was fantastic! Thanks for sharing how your journey started!

[@GadgetReboot]

It was fun going down memory lane! Looking back at those old books and magazines now, I realize how far I have come. Wouldn’t change a thing.

[@UnexpectedMaker]

I'm surprised you still have them all and that they are still in such great condition!

[@AJB2K3]

ETI the magazine that merged with EPE to become Practical Electronics

[@hadibq]

guess radios inspired many of curious minds and led them into this wonderful endless-knowledge world of electronics😊

[@mab06]

I came here after finding a copy of the Radio Shack book on my shelf. I'm now trying to square Forrest Mims apparently being a creationist.

[@tedbastwock3810]

As if thats odd. Your side is the new and unfounded one

[@psyclinez5985]

I was the same way as a kid,then later went to votech for electronics. My kids 11,12 are the same way and I want to get them books.

[@cactusland88]

Nice video! It sadly reminds me of all the stuff I didn't build. Oh well.

[@hoggif]

That seems so familiar. At the age of 11 or 12 I had an intersting book from the 1960s. After learnirning more language skills it was ETI over here. Everyone else referred to popular mechanics that was not available locally. Then came the internet and so much more access to information and great youtube channels.

[@GadgetReboot]

Something I like doing now is discovering scanned copies of magazines online from decades ago with all kinds of projects that I probably missed out on because I couldn’t afford five dollars a month as a kid but now I can go back and revisit.

[@marktiger4613]

I had that the first kit never got anything to work now I am 51 almost got my kids out of the house and going to get ham ticket and want to build my own stuff and repair stuff because of low budget

[@jp-hh9xq]

Thanks so much for this video! The last 40 years of my life were set on track by the predecessor to this book, by the same author, the Engineer's Notebook. I started my EE bachelors in 1986. Masters (MSEE) later. Still a major player in the engineering industry today, working for the last 20 years on AI algo for autonomous vehicles. But it all started here, with basically this book. I think this was a revision just a few years after the one that set me on my way. I love electronics, but SW is easier to make a living at these days.

[@jp-hh9xq]

Ok I commented before I got to the part of the video where it talks about Engineer's Mini-Notebooks. Before that the Engineers Notebook was all of the mini-notebooks, in one book for

[@MrDoneboy]

Thanks, for your knowledge, which has helped me for my career!

[@mr.e4546]

That's so freaking BadA$$!!!

[@abhinavkumar4417]

Can you give me all the names together

[@jstro-hobbytech]

The childhood I always dreamed of. At least I got learn all this stuff later in life from friends like you. You sir should be working at space x

[@GadgetReboot]

I don’t know if Elon would accept my résumé but he would probably work me to death with his work ethic expectations.

[@frunomaol5069]

I liked the first half of the video.

[@merseytrainz]

I had the '160 in One Kit' from Tandy in the England UK, circa 1970, and I still have a few of the components to this day...

[@GadgetReboot]

I think I saw the solar cell when I was sorting things this past year...it is majorly scratched up now!

[@franklinmartin8103]

I have some very good memories of my early days experimenting with electricity and electronics. I could start my story by telling everyone that I was in Ben Franklin's second class on how to fly kites during Thunderstorms, but that may be a little bit more of embellishment than I want to admit to. Back in the 60s my parents were a little worried since almost every little electrical project I worked on actually turned into a "light dimmer" even if that wasn't what I had originally intended. A few years later my experiments broadened a bit as I learned where the house fuse box on the outside was located and how to change those round glass fuse modules. They had a center contact and copper threaded section then the glass top and see through window in the center to check if the small metal link was burned open. So to continue to be somewhat undetected, I spent some of my paper route money on getting fuse replacements before my dad found out. Well that didn't continue too much farther as he was wondering why, when ever he worked with his power tools in the garage, the fuses were always going out. He was perplexed that how 15 amp fuses were getting into 20 and 30 amp sockets. Well I had to tell him the 15 amp fuses were cheaper in cost than the 20 and 30 amp fuses. I didn't have that much money and that didn't go over well with dad. There was also the time I was doing an experiment while my parents were out of town in a business trip and I was living with a good family friend living one block down from our house. So I word tell my second mom I was going to my home to play with my train set and would be back in a few hours. Well that was partially true. I did play with the train for about 10 minutes. Then off to experimenting. The results of that experiment was all the house lights went out. I checked the outside fuse box and everything looked Okay, but I did notice no one else in the neighborhood had lights on either, so I went back inside my house to play with other toys. About an hour later there was a loud knock at my front door, so I got up to answer the door. When I opened the front door there stood two city Power and light workers complete with hard hats and tool belts. When I opened the door, they immediately turned and looked at each other but didn't say anything. A minute or two later one of them asked me if my parents were home. I said No, they were at work. I lied as both were out of town in a business trip. They again turned and looked at each other and said nothing. I got this strange feeling but it went away as they then said "the power is back on" and they they left. I didn't do any more experimentation for a several months. After that, dad sold the home and we moved to a different city.

[@gmendes1831]

In electronics I am a pedant, but I have walked a path in software since 1986 and the gold of that is in the free software LFS until 2008. 2004 to 2008 was the best period, throwing in the trash perl and all distros with a package manager, of course. You really showed the gold of how to learn electronics, your path was identical to mine, respecting the differences between living in the capital of the Empire and living in one of its colonies. Very grateful for your honesty. Spreading knowledge is against the law in the Illuminati West.

[@SidneyCritic]

Tricky Dick Smith is in Canada, wtf. There is even Julian's Maplin.

[@MrHmm-cv6gs]

I am using old magzine to learn electronics , these days reading practical electronics 1964 november. Edition.

[@GadgetReboot]

I've been looking at old publications over at worldradiohistory.com including some I owned myself in the 80s and 90s but didn't have a use for half of the information. Now I do!

[@MrHmm-cv6gs]

@@GadgetReboot because you have mastered the electronics🙏

[@walidoulondon8107]

Just awesome ❤

[@kamleshchavan7451]

SIR ,What books to read, to learn about transmitter and receiver module e.g 433 transmitter and receiver module , used in RC toys How this module works , how the data is transmitted from transmitter to receiver which controls the dc motor, can u please guide me SIR

[@babumanikuttan2258]

So nice sir. Thanks

[@tedbastwock3810]

cool video

[@molenz1960]

This is a great video. I'm just starting to study electronics in my early 50's as a hobby after nearly 3 decades of being an automotive mechanic, this will not only enhance my on the job electrical diagnostic skills but more importantly be a path to learn so much more. Forrest Mims book is definitely on my shopping list. Thank you.

[@MrGanganagar]

Beautiful indeed

[@JohnMiller-mmuldoor]

My son is the same way. He doesn’t play with normal toys ever since he’s been about 4 . He just dismantles everything and tries to reassemble what he can

[@markgreco1962]

Remember the red project boxes filled with components? The back of the red plastic box was punched like a circuit board. I had several of them radio shack P-Box

[@VinlandAlchemist]

A magazine that includes an etched pc board for a project?? MAKE IT, DUDE!! :)

[@GadgetReboot]

I need to find where I placed that magazine now, I do want to go back and check it out! If I do I will make it a kit build video.

[@GadgetReboot]

I just found the magazine with the PCB and it uses two different 4000 CMOS chips that I don’t have so I just placed an order and I will build the kit as soon as that comes in.

[@VinlandAlchemist]

WOO-HOO!! :)

[@GiC7]

Thanks

[@buriedbits6027]

Marvelous gift for a 10 year old and all those other kits!

[@nox5282]

It’s so sad they don’t make kits and books like these anymore

[@typedeaf]

Did you really do around 300 projects before reading the Mims book? Did the projects help you learn or understand anything, or was it just following instructions for you? How would you do it now?

[@GadgetReboot]

when I had the RadioShack multi project kits I was just following assembly instructions but the Mims books started making things make sense. if I were starting today I’d probably be learning from the Internet and inevitably start with something like Arduino and blindly download working code and then gradually figure out how it all works if I were interested.