Slot cars taught me how to solder! We scratch built several units (including a 1:24 scale "rail" dragster) from brass tubing and soldered the pieces together with dad's propane torch. Acid flux worked wonders but for whatever reason (sic) caused corrosion very quickly. Hand re-winding motors for them, methods to increase friction (tires), and even some rudimentary physics using a mercury switch from an old thermostat (inertial switch) and a solenoid from a broken 8-track player (counter momentum).
Erector set (still use this), Lincoln logs (I have a real one, now!), Lionel trains (still have them), Spirograph, Etch-a-sketch, Gilbert Chemistry Set, Tasco microscope, Estes rockets, Cox glow fuel engines and Legos.
All great training!
Ed Popielarski
Engineering Manager
970 NE 21st Ct.
Oak Harbor, Wa. 98277
Ph: 360-675-1322
Fx: 206-624-0965
Cl: 949-581-6601
https://maps.google.com/maps/myplaces?hl=en&ll=48.315753,-122.643578&spn=0.011188,0.033023&ctz=420&t=m&z=16&iwloc=A
-----Original Message-----
From: TechNet [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of <Bruce Tostevin>
Sent: Wednesday, August 14, 2013 9:38 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [TN] Refreshment
An electric fence for the plastic cows!! That's hard core.
But it's true, Erector sets, electric trains, slot cars, gas planes ... they all were great hands on toys that as you note, taught you great skills without even realizing it. One of the first early technical challenges I remember as a kid was building a model airplane, I think it was a Lindberg kit, where you actually wound, assembled and installed the little 3 volt d/c motor that spun the propeller. It actually worked quite well.
Bruce
-----Original Message-----
From: Stadem, Richard D. [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Wednesday, August 14, 2013 12:07 PM
To: TechNet E-Mail Forum; Tostevin, Bruce
Subject: RE: [TN] Refreshment
What an excellent post! Don't forget the old Erector sets. I learned all about electric current flow, polarity, power derating, etc., without even realizing it. I remember taking the little battery-operated motors out of toy cars and building a winch to hoist Lincoln logs. Building an electric fence for the plastic cows using the Tyco train power supply was not such a good idea, however, because my sister stepped on it and damn near electrocuted herself. After that, my playtime was monitored for awhile.
Unfortunately, kids in the 80s and 90s only learned to play computer games. Today they can program in C++ but if they need to change a tire or replace the plug on an AC cord they're screwed.
-----Original Message-----
From: TechNet [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of <Bruce Tostevin>
Sent: Wednesday, August 14, 2013 8:43 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [TN] Refreshment
Pat,
Both you and Doug make interesting points. I think to some extent, especially in electronics we've slowly become victims of our own successes at microminiaturization and automation. Most of us in the U.S. grew up with Heath, Eico and Knight kits for everything from stereo, ham and test equipment to weather stations. Allen Bradley, Mallory, JW Miller, RCA, Motorola, TI and Stancor parts all had leads and terminals that could be twisted, soldered or screwed together. If Lafayette, Radio Shack or the local electronics store didn't have the capacitors, photocells, transistors, logic devices and analog ICs you needed, there were plenty of places that would sell you $10 worth of parts - no $50 minimum PO required. In the day, even walking around a Lafayette or RS was educational. Old radios and TVs were goldmines for great useful parts. Sometimes you even got one of them working again.
Before the advent of the microprocessor driven "CHECK ENGINE" light you could mess around with carburetors, pull out the tach-dwell & timing light and actually work on and learn about the basic electronics behind an ignition system and its relationship to the timing of the engine. Hobby and trade magazines like Popular Electronics, Electronics Now, Radio-Electronics (some of which are evolutions of the same magazine under different owners), QST and the like were chock full of technical articles, Q & A columns, build-it projects and their back pages filled with suppliers selling everything from surplus military equipment to lasers.
Much of this is gone now and the early hobbyist opportunities all that infrastructure afforded gone with it. Today in the era of unmarked 0603s, 0402s, barely manageable smt solid state devices and the limited usefulness of point-point layout and wiring it's become far more difficult for a young teen to start playing around with electronics on a bench at home. While I'm certainly not advocating a return to the "good old days", it's understandable how this has in part contributed to where we find ourselves today in as, Doug wrote, trying " to capture the imagination of the youth to combat the shortage of skilled labor," and your difficulty in finding analog techs with a little experience. In some respects that early germination has been stunted by the new technologies. Nothing says, "I think there's a problem with my circuit" like overheated parts and melting wires on a proto-board, and is as rewarding as figuring out the solution.
Bruce Tostevin
Benchmark Electronics
Nashua, NH
-----Original Message-----
From: TechNet [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Pat Goodyear
Sent: Tuesday, August 13, 2013 10:21 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [TN] Refreshment
We have a couple of engineers that work with local high schools in robotics.
We are finding that finding I&C technicians that have skills to work on
analog don't exist, there are no schools. So we have been mentoring
new-hires one on one to give them some basic skills.
Most of the equipment we use was designed in the late '60s with slide rules and they try to engineer it to 6 decimal places and wonder why it won't work too that accuracy.
Before I went out 3 months ago we were trying to reverse engineer a high voltage power supply that wouldn't work as the vendor supplied it, needed to turn off with an input controlled SCR but the supply had too much leakage current to allow the SCR to fully shut off.
Analog techs are hard to come by.
pat
On Tue, Aug 13, 2013 at 2:57 PM, Stadem, Richard D. wrote:
> Amen! Excellent post, Doug!
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: TechNet [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Douglas Pauls
> Sent: Tuesday, August 13, 2013 3:24 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [TN] Refreshment
>
> Ed,
> Ain't got a Harley (wish I did). Don't do a lot of internet surfing
> (cause I end up on YouTube and days pass before I extract myself) Beer
> drinkin' ain't nothing like college. A 12 pack is a year supply for
> me. Six months if Hillman comes over.
>
> I think a lot of it depends on how your employer views STEM
> initiatives. One of the things I really like about Rockwell Collins is
> that they encourage (to varying extents) our engineers to work with
> local schools to get the young enthusiastic about science and
> engineering. Might be FIRST Lego League, or FIRST Robotics Challenge.
> Might be the international rocket competition. Dave and I do
> something we call The Rockwell Road Show, which we do for anything
> from pre-school to college. We do 35-45 shows a year and the teachers
> tell us that it shows the kids that the stuff they see in their books
> is actually used in the real world. Dave and I are also fortunate to
> have a boss that lets us do that without worrying what time to charge
> it too. I think she knows that if Dave and I don't get out every once
> in a while to have fun like this, we would explode. Not a pretty
> sight. I understand 3M has a similar program called The Traveling
> Wizards. NASA has a treasure trove of neat information. We have to
> capture the imagination of the youth to combat the shortage of skilled
> labor.
>
> What other things could we be doing to pass along to the next
> generation? If you have chemical knowledge, volunteer to be a guest
> speaker at your high school chemistry class. Bet the teacher won't
> turn you down. There are series of fantastic chemical demonstration
> from Dr. Bassam Shakhashiri, professor emeritus of UW Madison. Be a
> guest lecturer at the local university or tech college? Many of you
> may remember Dr. John Sohn, of Bell Labs. When Lucent tanked, he took
> the early buy out, went to college for a year, and has been teaching
> high school science classes and loving every minute of it. Thinking
> of doing the same myself, provided Hillman does not talk me into
> something stupid and I die.
>
> Second, those who have been at IPC meetings know that Dave and I don't
> do any work, but we are smart enough to hire exceptionally smart
> college students as engineering co-ops. These young men and women are
> smarter than I ever remember being at that age. Such a program allows
> us to mentor the next generation and they often bring to us new
> knowledge from their courses. If your company does not have an active
> engineering co-op program, it should have. We would not accomplish a
> tenth of what we do without them. There was one semester where the
> budget would not support having co-ops, no matter how much we argued.
> Six months later, our director wondered why we had not accomplished
> much. Cuz you took away our co-ops! Are they that important? Yes,
> they are THAT important!!
>
> Does your company allow or encourage Job Shadows? We do. Let the
> guidance counselors at your local high school know you are interested
> and I bet you see a number of high school kids interested in STEM
> jobs.
> I guess my point is that there are LOTS of thing we can all be doing
> to help pass along the things we have learned to the next generation.
> But are we?
>
> Doug Pauls
>
>
>
> From: Ed Popielarski <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: 08/13/2013 02:49 PM
> Subject: Re: [TN] Refreshment
> Sent by: TechNet <[log in to unmask]>
>
>
>
> Hey, now! I'm a bona fide Harley ridin', interweb surfin', beer
> drinkin' rabble rouser, even at my advanced age (<60 mind you).
> I've taken a few under my wing and watched them leave the nest and
> soar. Unfortunately, that seems to be happening less and less as time
> goes on.
> Ed Popielarski
> Engineering Manager
>
>
> 970 NE 21st Ct.
> Oak Harbor, Wa. 98277
>
> Ph: 360-675-1322
> Fx: 206-624-0965
> Cl: 949-581-6601
>
>
> https://maps.google.com/maps/myplaces?hl=en&ll=48.315753,-122.643578&s
> pn=0.011188,0.033023&ctz=420&t=m&z=16&iwloc=A
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Stadem, Richard D. [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Tuesday, August 13, 2013 11:18 AM
> To: TechNet E-Mail Forum; Ed Popielarski
> Subject: RE: [TN] Refreshment
>
> Speak for yourself, Ed. Sounds like you have one foot in the grave
> already.
> I know many "senior" engineers who have a very high level of energy,
> have kept up with technology and science, including the 'net, and you
> could not take their laptops away from them unless you pried their
> cold dead fingers from it. They are enthusiastic, work well with folks
> from all age groups, and are eager to share their experience and
> knowledge as well as learn from the freshly recruited grads. While it
> is true that the new grads are coming online with certain skills and
> tools not known or understood by some of the older folks, they are no
> less enthusiastic and eager to solve today's problems, and they do
> their pioneering and thinking outside the box just as well as anybody,
> in fact, perhaps even more so.
> They just need the proper coaching and encouragement, and 99% of them
> are ready and willing to step up and start hitting homeruns right
> where you left off. It is up to us to help them, learn from them,
> teach them what they are willing to learn from us, and then we all
> benefit.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: TechNet [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Ed Popielarski
> Sent: Tuesday, August 13, 2013 10:33 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [TN] Refreshment
>
> Inge,
>
> I, too, have noticed the gradual fade, and it's my opinion we,
> ourselves, are to blame. Similar to what has happened inside NASA, the
> "pioneers" that sculpted the industry are dead, dying, retired and
> tired. We as a society failed to properly backfill with fresh talent
> and the methodology of upstarting engineering grads is much different
> than "in our day". Seems to me the new generation engineers have
> developed a love affair with their desktop computers and the internet
> (something that didn't even exist when we were sprouting wings) and
> "we" collectively, are transforming to a more digital existence, as
> opposed to the hard, wet, hot physical realm. As this evolution
> proceeds, much of the pioneering spirit is lost, as well as the
> good-old-fashioned "chutzpah" to "break outside the box, damn the
> torpedoes, full speed ahead." Job preservation has become a primary
> focus and this has really retarded the craft.
>
> Just my $0.0199999 and ventilation of an issue that I've been
> containing for some time now.
>
> Ed Popielarski
> Engineering Manager
>
>
> 970 NE 21st Ct.
> Oak Harbor, Wa. 98277
>
> Ph: 360-675-1322
> Fx: 206-624-0965
> Cl: 949-581-6601
>
>
> https://maps.google.com/maps/myplaces?hl=en&ll=48.315753,-122.643578&s
> pn=0.011188,0.033023&ctz=420&t=m&z=16&iwloc=A
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: TechNet [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Inge Hernefjord
> Sent: Tuesday, August 13, 2013 3:00 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: [TN] Refreshment
>
> Technet, once a supernova...now just a fading sparkle. Time for
> renaissence (french)? Blood transfusion? Vitamin therapy? Dopamin
> cure?
> .......zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz, ...sorry....YYYAAAWN...
>
> Inge
>
>
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