6 ms·

Bowden's Hobby Circuits

107 points by _Microft 4y ago

souptonuts 4y ago
love that wonton soup recipe
eternityforest 4y ago
Wow!! I love this so much! I don't even like building this kind of pure analog stuff, but this retro site is just such a wonderful thing. Just like the days when tech was still exciting, despite being so much more primitive.
- Kaibeezy 4y ago
  You’ll love this one too. If you look at in on your phone, make sure to see the wide view with all the buttons. https://www.newmodellersshop.co.uk/ https://www.newmodellersshop.co.uk/ I’ve had the tab open for years, can’t bear to close it. I should get a big printout and hang it up.
_Microft 4y ago
You can easily build some of these circuits with very low investment. The ICs (555; 4017; ...) for circuits like the "LED sequencers" are very cheap (less than $1/1€ each). With ICs in DIP packages [0], the circuits can be built on breadboards [1] since the pins can be inserted directly into the holes of the breadboards. If you are new to this then you can find an overview of electronic symbols in Wikipedia [2] for example - this is helpful because it gives you names and terms to search for. Having even a cheap multimeter to measure voltages, resistances or the polarity of diodes is better than nothing btw (but better don't use these to measure line/mains power - even if they claim to be able to do that). Have fun! [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual_in-line_package https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual_in-line_package [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breadboard https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breadboard [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_symbol https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_symbol
- kragen 4y ago
  According to https://yaqwsx.github.io/jlcparts/ https://yaqwsx.github.io/jlcparts/ the NE555DR costs 11.98¢ but of course not in a DIP. That's about as much as four Padauk microcontrollers these days—if you can find those in stock somewhere. JLCPCB doesn't include the CD4017 in their "basic parts" list; Digi-Key has them for 52¢ but doesn't have a DIP version in stock, just an SOIC. The other night I took apart my cheap multimeter which claims "1000 V" and found no creepage clearance between the traces on the board. So far I haven't died measuring mains power with it but I don't think I'll do that anymore...
  - buescher 4y ago
    555 timer is a sub-10-cent part in quantity. Digi-key even has the NE555P in stock for 40 cents onesies and 11 cents in 2500 unit orders. And there's a parts shortage on, if you haven't looked lately. Yeah, don't use cheap tools when your life is on the line.
    - kragen 4y ago
      Yeah, it's 8.87¢ in quantity 50. That's still the cost of two Padauk microcontrollers.
      - asddubs 4y ago
        so what's your point? people should be buying a reel of one time programmable microcontrollers that you'll have to program in an esoteric language in a proprietary toolchain and a programmer that costs more than 8 cents? Or put together one of those open hardware programmers themselves? I mean the padauk stuff is not really a very beginner friendly environment, and it's not as cheap to get going once you consider the accessories needed. just buying and re-using an arduino or a knockoff for a couple dollars would probably be better if you wanted to make the case that a microcontroller is a better place to start.
        kragen 4y ago
Kaibeezy 4y ago
Would look smashing in Papyrus.
- Kaibeezy 4y ago
  OK, I only said that because it displays in Comic Sans on my Windows desktop (Chrome, Opera, Firefox, Edge), but now I see it looks fine in Times on iOS (Safari, Opera).

107 points by _Microft 4y ago

love that wonton soup recipe

Wow!! I love this so much! I don't even like building this kind of pure analog stuff, but this retro site is just such a wonderful thing. Just like the days when tech was still exciting, despite being so much more primitive.

Kaibeezy 4y ago
You’ll love this one too. If you look at in on your phone, make sure to see the wide view with all the buttons. https://www.newmodellersshop.co.uk/ https://www.newmodellersshop.co.uk/ I’ve had the tab open for years, can’t bear to close it. I should get a big printout and hang it up.

_Microft 4y ago

You can easily build some of these circuits with very low investment. The ICs (555; 4017; ...) for circuits like the "LED sequencers" are very cheap (less than $1/1€ each). With ICs in DIP packages [0], the circuits can be built on breadboards [1] since the pins can be inserted directly into the holes of the breadboards. If you are new to this then you can find an overview of electronic symbols in Wikipedia [2] for example - this is helpful because it gives you names and terms to search for. Having even a cheap multimeter to measure voltages, resistances or the polarity of diodes is better than nothing btw (but better don't use these to measure line/mains power - even if they claim to be able to do that). Have fun! [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual_in-line_package https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual_in-line_package [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breadboard https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breadboard [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_symbol https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_symbol

kragen 4y ago
According to https://yaqwsx.github.io/jlcparts/ https://yaqwsx.github.io/jlcparts/ the NE555DR costs 11.98¢ but of course not in a DIP. That's about as much as four Padauk microcontrollers these days—if you can find those in stock somewhere. JLCPCB doesn't include the CD4017 in their "basic parts" list; Digi-Key has them for 52¢ but doesn't have a DIP version in stock, just an SOIC. The other night I took apart my cheap multimeter which claims "1000 V" and found no creepage clearance between the traces on the board. So far I haven't died measuring mains power with it but I don't think I'll do that anymore...
- buescher 4y ago
  555 timer is a sub-10-cent part in quantity. Digi-key even has the NE555P in stock for 40 cents onesies and 11 cents in 2500 unit orders. And there's a parts shortage on, if you haven't looked lately. Yeah, don't use cheap tools when your life is on the line.
  - kragen 4y ago
    Yeah, it's 8.87¢ in quantity 50. That's still the cost of two Padauk microcontrollers.
    - asddubs 4y ago
      so what's your point? people should be buying a reel of one time programmable microcontrollers that you'll have to program in an esoteric language in a proprietary toolchain and a programmer that costs more than 8 cents? Or put together one of those open hardware programmers themselves? I mean the padauk stuff is not really a very beginner friendly environment, and it's not as cheap to get going once you consider the accessories needed. just buying and re-using an arduino or a knockoff for a couple dollars would probably be better if you wanted to make the case that a microcontroller is a better place to start.
      - kragen 4y ago

Kaibeezy 4y ago

Would look smashing in Papyrus.

Kaibeezy 4y ago
OK, I only said that because it displays in Comic Sans on my Windows desktop (Chrome, Opera, Firefox, Edge), but now I see it looks fine in Times on iOS (Safari, Opera).