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Registered Member #15
Joined: Thu Feb 02 2006, 01:11PM
Location:
Posts: 3068
Well, as many of you know, my name is Dan and I am 33 years old. I am married and have a 1yr old son named Michael. I am current living outside of Philadelphia, PA.
Growing up i was probably the complete opposite of many people here. I had little interest in academics or science and spent almost all my time skateboarding, partying, and hanging out with goth chicks! The rest of the time i spent building ramps including a 24 foot wide, 12.5 foot high monster of a halfpipe which was in my backyard (3rd halfpipe in my yard at that time), as well as the famous Uhaul ramp which was one of the first East coast miniramps (again, at a time miniramps weren't in existence) College years i began road racing (ended up a measely CAT 2), and then branched off into mountain biking where i competed in both expert cross country as well as expert trials. Spent the years until 2000 mainly trials riding and freeriding until injuries prevented me from doing more trials.
It was during these years that i started a bicycle lighting home business (Space Cat Advanced Lighting Systems) outfitting many different race teams as well as emergency bike patrols (police, fire department) with advanced controllers / etc... Also, sold upgrades kits . . .
In 2002 i started getting involved in high voltage (mostly since that is what i was doing at work), and the now the rest is history!
Today, i spend most of the time raising my family, playing the piano, working on projects with EVR, and drinking wine - Lots!
Registered Member #135
Joined: Sat Feb 11 2006, 12:06AM
Location: Anywhere is fine
Posts: 1735
After frequenting the last forum it became apparent to me that the size and type of my projects were good, but really not that great in comparison to the 'bigger kids', so for that reason and many others, like not being able to build projects, I felt that I was the underdog. I'm no newcomer to Chemistry, Physics and Engineering, but pinning this on myself felt appropriate, and as a self-criticism.
I have been around electronics since the age of 2, knowing the part names at this point. I have always been fascinated with steam engines, physics and chemistry. As far as a genious goes, I'm nothing special, just insightful.
I spend much of my time now looking at design in more detail. Concerning myself with efficiency, error, stability, and all those things control engineers ponder. Ethics is also one of the considerations I concern myself with. I think this is very important because HV is risky business and evaluating those risks is also important.
My major goals right now are to finish my Tesla coil plans, do the final revision of my linear regulated power supply, and out of everything, get the hell out of college!
My hobbies are really numerous:
EE, Chemistry, Physics demos for the Physics club, power supplies, Jachob's ladders, frequency counters, digital uC related, glassblowing, Tesla stuff, flyback stuff, woodworking, circuitboarding, guitarist, and much more.
What brings me the most satisfaction is instrumentation. Just being able to design something that meters the input and gives you some known quantity with precision. This is one of my areas of interest. But the problem is that I don't want to be doing meters for years on end, I like variety.
Turning 27 has left a bad taste in my mouth to a degree. There is so much to do and I just can't get things nailed down. I feel victimized. I hope to graduate soon.
Registered Member #79
Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 11:35AM
Location: Arkansas
Posts: 673
Hi there, I'm Matt, the down-under wannabe-mod and wannabe-genius
BP, you are a genius. Wanna-be my foot.
I'm 18, living 30 mi from anywhere civilized in Arkansas (we got "city water" two years ago, and we STILL CAN'T GET DSL. :-@ ). However, living 1/4 mi from the nearest person has it's advantages. I get to blow up stuff and make all kinds of noise without anyone bothering me. We have a pond with a HUGE rope swing my dad and I built out of drill pipe, and sixty something acres just full of trees and ticks. We used to have animals, we raised goats, chickens, ducks, and cows; occasionally some pigs. We haven't in a few years, though I don't know why. My father and I converted a greyhound bus into an RV a couple years ago . I built that site awhile back. I'm GB, the "oldest boy". I'm on there somewhere, grinding the welds for the air conditioner I think. If you visit, be sure to read "The Search" My dad wrote it, believe it or not it's 100% true and darn funny. It's about our hassles riding on a greyhound to pick up our bus. Some stuff we have accomplished are building our own underground workshop with garage above (laid 2000 something concrete block, I was 13 and as a result, REALLY buff. I kinda miss that, especially now that I work at a nursing school ...) Rebuilding a 3kW? generator, John Deere tractor, overhauling suspension and engine on our "bus". Our current project is a sawmill, on hold due to lack of time/energy on both our parts.
Personally, I am obsessed with anything computer/3d/HV/chemistry/music/rubberband and a paperclip related. I spend most of my time desperately trying to pick apart sometype of terribly boring story or writing a psych paper for my college profs, just trying to get some free time! Right now my big projects are my DRSSTC and ferrofluid synthesis, along with 127 other 40% finished projects. Somewhat like my website. (shameless plug)
I work at a nursing school, (oh yeah, when the RN's get out of class, I make sure I'm doing something just down the hall. Geez, some of them are cute!) and I by the time I'm 26, I'll be a CRNA and making a buttload of money for 40hrs a week. That's the plan anyway! A far cry from the $5.15/hr I'm making now. I could probably make more at burger king, radio shack's asked me 3 times if I was interested, but working there has it's advantages. (See above ) Especially because I start school there this fall.
Someday I plan to build the biggest DRSSTC in the world, which will hold that title for all of three minutes by the way things look on this forum. I could settle for the only one I know of in Arkansas for now.
Registered Member #53
Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 04:31AM
Location: Ontario, Canada
Posts: 638
Hi, again, or would it be still?
Im 18 and living on the smoggy, canadian, shore of lake ontario. I started my high voltage projects with a van de graff 2 years ago, and then started my tesla 2 the following winter. I am currently looking to become an electrician's apprentice and I hope at some point to be a line man.
Registered Member #318
Joined: Tue Mar 14 2006, 07:07AM
Location:
Posts: 6
Im Kyle the insomniac. 19, addicted to cars and lan parties... and caffine. Ive been with 'the' forum since late 2001, when it was originally at powerlabs.org and got shuffled around from place to place. Blackplasma talked me into taking a minute of my time, to resign up here for the millionth time. Well here I am, bored an pennyless from spending money on electronic parts. Im helping a friend with rebuilding an automatic transmission, small truck engine, restoration of a car, Im always doing something.
Projects currently pending: Electronic fuel injection to one of my older cars building a server (have the case welded and fixed up, internal UPS will be added soon). pull the soleniods (or heads) off a V8-6-4 .....too much crap to list.
Registered Member #229
Joined: Tue Feb 21 2006, 07:33PM
Location: Romania
Posts: 506
I am 35 years old and my job is physician, specialist on medical oncology, with competence in palliative medicine. I liked to dismantle all my toys, since was a kid (just to see what is inside). In high school, I found a Tesla biography and was hooked by the streamer pic of his huge coil at Colorado Springs. Didn't do much (just experimenting with Rhumkorff and ignition coils in the physics lab) or imaging stuff with a pencil and paper. In 1998, while making specialisation, I discovered the internet for the first time, and of course, one of the words I searched on the browsers was "tesla coil". In the same year I built my first tesla coil powered by a dual ignition coil system, and this was my single toy, until i found a job in the town i am living now. In the begining i was impressed by the concept of "cool devices made from garbbage", inspired by the Greg Hunter page, then I started to buy stuff for my new coils. I dont know much electronics or engineering, almost all my knowledge is strictly practically, with some internet/forums theory based. Sometime, I just wonder that the stuff I am making actually works. I see the "coiling activity" as a relaxing hobby, after hours of hard work and stress in hospital, after so much death and sufference. I like to build, and HV stuff is just what happens to be chosen ( really amasing).
Registered Member #78
Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 11:27AM
Location: Sydney, Australia
Posts: 133
I'm Wilson, recently turned 17, (How come there are so many 16 year olds here ) the mad scientist pyromaniac. Burnt all sorts of weird and dangerous things in my confined balcony. I'm relatively new to the HV scene, and science in general, only having developed an interest things other people would find weird and bizzare a year ago. Current projects:Induction Heater, inverter, EM Guns, among a whole lot of other things Currently in yr 12 studying Maths 4U, 2U eng. phys, chem, ext jap. Unemployed and becoming increasingly desperate in finding sources of funding for my HV projects.
Registered Member #79
Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 11:35AM
Location: Arkansas
Posts: 673
This forum is so cool. Most of the people my age in my town are just boring. Their idea of a good time is watching TV ...zzzk snork? I spend more time watching my scope than my TV sometimes. My cousing calls it the "nerd TV." Nice to see so many hardworking folks around, we're a dying breed. Man, if Einstein had only had the internet...
Registered Member #103
Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 08:16PM
Location: Derby, UK
Posts: 845
I'm Andy, from Derbyshire in the UK. I'm studying for a degree in software engineering at the moment, in my final semester. I've always been interested in electronics, it was between electronics and computers. Hope to eventually get a job either writing software for embedded systems, or doing something with computer networks. Not sure what to go for...
My interest in electronics started at quite a young age, I built a lot of projects out of books, that sort of thing, but never really did much else. I won 2 awards for my GCSE electronics project (a ni-cad battery charger) but apart from that I never really did anything constructive! I only recently got into HV, at the start of last year when I built a small SSTC. I have numerous unfinished projects and it seems to take forever to get anything done! On more than one occasion, I have spent absolutely ages building a project with a PIC in it, and then I just never bothered to write the software - so it does nothing. I also have more ideas than time....
Other things - I'm into mountain biking, walking, camping, photography and computer hardware.
Registered Member #206
Joined: Sat Feb 18 2006, 03:17PM
Location:
Posts: 72
I'm Matthias (~ Matthew) from Duesseldorf (Germany) and an other 16 year old "genius" I'm not _that_ pyromaniac, but plasmamaniac .
I'm playing with electronics since I can think and program Motorola's MC68HC05B6, Atmels AVRs and the 8051 series, but in the last years, I mainly played with high voltage, high current and cool stuff like robots, rc and pirat radio... but don't tell anyone
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