Never built any Gizmos but have built many electronic projects. lol
First was a Heathkit tube operated shortwave radio in 1954.
Last where some SMD using etched PC board. Vero board is very good for many projects. There is an app for PC designing layout.
Goggle vero pc board. In fact Google just about anything if you do not need hand holding. Has always worked for me.
Hardly anything is Ungoogleable
Rich
If you ever fall over in public, pick yourself up and say “sorry it’s been a while since I inhabited a body.” And just walk away.
Big Boy Forever,
Browse through this site. A wealth of info for the newbie, dummy, old hat, old school, whatever. A lot of info, also through links. Have used it before and a lot is free:
http://www.build-electronic-circuits.com/electronic-schematics/
Build Your own, is alive and kicking.
Take Care!
Frank
You can always tell the new guys fromt he old hands. The new guys build everythign with Aurdino or similar. even if all they are doing is making a grade crossing flasher. Overkill, but I suppose to some it's easier to write a simple little program that calculate the resistors and capacitors needed for a 555 timer.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
I love to build some of my own electronics and even do some repair on TVs(LOL) every now and then. But, it is a building block approach with subminiaturized circuits now a days. I build what I can if I have time and use a variety of sources. More and more software is important, thankfully my son can program in java very well.
Richard
While I am not an electronics wiz, I build my own signal controls with miniature relays. I do use current detectors that are premade and do use some RS PC boards. Most of my component purchases are done online from several suppliers.
Something I learned over the years about do-it-yourself electronics projects printed in various magazines was, wait for one or two subsequent issues to point out all the things that were wrong about the original schematic, parts list, component values, parts sources, etc., because mistakes in editing will have crept in.
Right now, Garden Railways magazine has been running a series on how to build your own radio control DCC system transmitter and decoder for less than $20 each -- but one of the main components specified for the receiver is no longer readily available except in bulk packs of 50 or more, costing hundreds of dollars -- and you only need one.
There are a few companies that sell kits for electronic circuits, so you get a known circuit design and all the components in a convenient bag. Bakatronics and Ken Stapleton come to mind.
I would recommend that every model railroader who uses twin-coil switch machines build a capacitive discharge circuit. It's two resistors and two capacitors, plus a bridge rectifier if you're using an AC power supply. It's cheap, easy-to-build and all the parts are available at Radio $hack.
Another "Boy's First Circuit" project is lighting for a caboose or passenger car. This is a bridge rectifier to convert the DCC power to DC, a capacitor to smooth out power hiccups and a resistor to lower the voltage for your LED or Tomar lanterns.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
I'm a retired Telephone technican and enjoy building my own electronics. I have ventured into programing PICAXE and Arduinos, and have built some interface boards for optical detection and automation of movement. In my feedback to MR I have asked for more electronics projects but I guess they can only print what gets submitted.
cheers
Alantrains
Alan Jones in Sunny Queensland (Oz)
Once upon a time, Radio Shack actually did have a huge selection of parts. And let me tell you, inventorying that was NOT fun - when they stocked every standard resistor value in both 1/2 watt and 1/4 watt, from 10 ohms to 10M - and you know customers were always jokers, picking up a pack of say 100K and then realizing they wanted 10K so they stick the 100K pack back on the nearest hook and grabbed their 10Ks. They had nearly a full range of both 74xx series TTL and 4000 series CMOS. Those were the days - at least with an employee discount.
Now - places like DigiKey and Mouser are the place to go. Can be overwhelming for the casual hobbyist without an extensive electronics background, because those places have EVERYTHING. In triplicate or more. Maybse some slight variance in specification that may not mean anything to casual hobbyist. Some published circuits will have complete parts lists for one of the major supply houses, complete with their part number, so you can be sure you get exactly the item you need. Building electronic kits really isn;t any harder than building a model kit - part A has to go in the space for Part A, and not in the Part B spot - make a mistake and the circuit doesn;t work. Make a mistake liek that building a car or structure kit, it comes out looking pretty odd. Same concept, really.
The nice thing is that basic circuits are made up of inexpensive components for the most part. Once you start understnading how different things work, if you start experimenting on your own and goof, say by not using a large enough current limiting resistor, you might get a poof and then nothing, but you've only poofed a buck or so worth of parts.
A few things still come as kits, amazingly enough. I use the Tam Valley controllers for servos - the Singlet is available still as a 'kit' - not much of a kit though, all you need to do is solder on the two pushbuttons and two LEDs. The surface mount microcontroller is already attached to the board and programmed.
Besides saving money, being able to build your own circuits not only helps you debug and fix things that go wrong at the last minute, but help you understand them to develop your own or be more knowledgable about purchasing something a little beyoud your skill level.
while there are many C/MRI components you can buy from JDL Enterprises, the members of the Pacific Southern built may of Bruce Chubb's circuits to provide detection, control and signaling using a custom computer management system.
There are many traditional circuits that might be useful: LED, detection, signals. But today there are very inexpensive Atmel and Pic pico-processors that greatly expand possibilities. pico-processors can not only provide control but communication back to a panel or PC control system. (They are at the heart of DCC controllers and decoders).
Radio control (R/C) airplane servos are easily controllable by varying a pulse-width (555 circuit or pico-processor). They make animation (crossing gates, semaphores) possible and have become relatively inexpensive.
While I frequented Radio Shack often, I never thought that had a great selection and had to go to more traditional electronic supply houses or mail-order (Jameco and Digikey). But today you can get almost anything you want within a week from ebay.
greg - Philadelphia & Reading / Reading
As was said, forget RS.
There are many electronic and PC board suppliers on the Internet.
Be advised, just about everything is SMD components today.
Look at the links below.
http://tinyurl.com/n3k3wqv
Good luck.
I gave up on Radio Shack as a parts source long ago. They're too cell phone and geeky gadget oriented.
There are a few web sites devoted to do-it-yourself model railroad electronics projects, and a digital electronics designer in England sent me schematics for a grade crossing circuit and block signal controllers that he designed, and which I built and installed on our club layout.
Here's a link to one of the web sites with model railroad related circuits:
http://home.cogeco.ca/~rpaisley4/CircuitIndex.html
Maybe I'm too old school and still have my head back inthe 1980's, since everyone now is using DCC, but are there any modelers here who still build some of their own electronic circuits? I have some electronic knowledge.
I realize Radio Shack is not what it used to be, although there still are some suppliers who sell electronic components.
I am just asking to see if that kind of stuff is dead, and if it is even cost-effective and time-effective to do it any more.