If you need assistance, please send an email to forum at 4hv dot org. To ensure your email is not marked as spam, please include the phrase "4hv help" in the subject line. You can also find assistance via IRC, at irc.shadowworld.net, room #hvcomm.
Support 4hv.org!
Donate:
4hv.org is hosted on a dedicated server. Unfortunately, this server costs and we rely on the help of site members to keep 4hv.org running. Please consider donating. We will place your name on the thanks list and you'll be helping to keep 4hv.org alive and free for everyone. Members whose names appear in red bold have donated recently. Green bold denotes those who have recently donated to keep the server carbon neutral.
Special Thanks To:
Aaron Holmes
Aaron Wheeler
Adam Horden
Alan Scrimgeour
Andre
Andrew Haynes
Anonymous000
asabase
Austin Weil
barney
Barry
Bert Hickman
Bill Kukowski
Blitzorn
Brandon Paradelas
Bruce Bowling
BubeeMike
Byong Park
Cesiumsponge
Chris F.
Chris Hooper
Corey Worthington
Derek Woodroffe
Dalus
Dan Strother
Daniel Davis
Daniel Uhrenholt
datasheetarchive
Dave Billington
Dave Marshall
David F.
Dennis Rogers
drelectrix
Dr. John Gudenas
Dr. Spark
E.TexasTesla
eastvoltresearch
Eirik Taylor
Erik Dyakov
Erlend^SE
Finn Hammer
Firebug24k
GalliumMan
Gary Peterson
George Slade
GhostNull
Gordon Mcknight
Graham Armitage
Grant
GreySoul
Henry H
IamSmooth
In memory of Leo Powning
Jacob Cash
James Howells
James Pawson
Jeff Greenfield
Jeff Thomas
Jesse Frost
Jim Mitchell
jlr134
Joe Mastroianni
John Forcina
John Oberg
John Willcutt
Jon Newcomb
klugesmith
Leslie Wright
Lutz Hoffman
Mads Barnkob
Martin King
Mats Karlsson
Matt Gibson
Matthew Guidry
mbd
Michael D'Angelo
Mikkel
mileswaldron
mister_rf
Neil Foster
Nick de Smith
Nick Soroka
nicklenorp
Nik
Norman Stanley
Patrick Coleman
Paul Brodie
Paul Jordan
Paul Montgomery
Ped
Peter Krogen
Peter Terren
PhilGood
Richard Feldman
Robert Bush
Royce Bailey
Scott Fusare
Scott Newman
smiffy
Stella
Steven Busic
Steve Conner
Steve Jones
Steve Ward
Sulaiman
Thomas Coyle
Thomas A. Wallace
Thomas W
Timo
Torch
Ulf Jonsson
vasil
Vaxian
vladi mazzilli
wastehl
Weston
William Kim
William N.
William Stehl
Wesley Venis
The aforementioned have contributed financially to the continuing triumph of 4hv.org. They are deserving of my most heartfelt thanks.
Registered Member #543
Joined: Tue Feb 20 2007, 04:26PM
Location: UK
Posts: 4992
Hiya friends,
this is another one of my social threads in which everyone from the brand new member to the crusty old fossil can have something useful to say, and we can relate to one another.
My parents were great educationalists, so we had lots of encyclopaedias in the home - especially encyclopaedias from the late Victorian and Edwardian era (say 1890 - 1914). Here, our interests were reported in the very greatest detail as the latest discoveries of science - indeed, they were so thoroughly described that to an autistic child as I then was, I quickly saw that I too could make such simple designs as were shown in detail in the old encyclopaedias.
In no time, I realised that car ignition coils from a local scrap yard could bring me that much closer to Lodge and Marconi, and the world of Leyden Jars and Wimshurtsts Machines described in the crumbling old books.
Within a year, I'd guess, I'd made a rig consisting of a Post Office relay (the interruptor) a waxed paper capacitor, and a 6V ignition coil which could generate sparks an inch long - powered from the 240V mains. I didn't know any other kids whose parents allowed them to experiment with the mains, but my Dad was right in his opinion of me, cos I'm still here!
I had a friend whose Dad was a dentist, and he gave me some expiered X-ray film through which I fired discharges from ignition coils. Nothing could have prepared me for the elaborate patterns of the discharge recorded on the film which had been invisible to the naked eye - the eye saw only a fat spark passing through th film, but the film showed patterns out to an inch from the point of discharge.
It was simply the most exciting thing I'd ever done or seen, and even better, was done without any oversight or inspiration from grown-ups whatever. A spark transmitter that could be heard at the end of the garden (say 200 metres) was like some vision of heaven, but I had not one person to share it with.
I got into X-rays from the famous article in the Scientific American Book of Projects for the Amateur Scientist (1960) in which old valves are excited by an Oudin coil.
So this is how it began for me, with heaps of parts from cannibalized valve (tube) televisions, and I bet there are many here who will relate to my own beginnings.... so let's here 'em! .
Registered Member #30
Joined: Fri Feb 03 2006, 10:52AM
Location: Glasgow, Scotland
Posts: 6706
Story time!
If you asked my mum and dad, they would say "He always liked to take things apart." What they wouldn't tell you is that they were both science geeks too, and encouraged me to do it. My mum was a science teacher, and brought me my first oscilloscope to play with (borrowed from the school physics lab) when I was about 6.
We had a TV, but the "Danger High Voltage" label was removed from the back, and a "Danger Mind-Numbing Drivel" one stuck on the front.
wrote ... A spark transmitter that could be heard at the end of the garden (say 200 metres) was like some vision of heaven, but I had not one person to share it with.
Science can be a lonely place. You get into ways of thinking so specialised, that the man in the street has absolutely no idea what you're talking about. As far as he's concerned, it's black magic and the scientist, engineer, or computer programmer is some kind of witch doctor.
I have some friends who are engineers, and others who aren't. If we ever all get together, it's like a clash between two different worlds. I've had great debates about the merits of C++ vs. Java, only to be interrupted by someone yelling, "For God's sake will you speak English"
I'll leave you with a quote from a book:
"Outside the industry, my dog is the only one who will sit and listen intently to a dissertation on tracking down circuit latch-up -- at least as long as I'm holding a doughnut in my hand."
(Bob Blauschild, "Analog Circuit Design: Art, Science and Personalities")
Registered Member #543
Joined: Tue Feb 20 2007, 04:26PM
Location: UK
Posts: 4992
Thanks for that, Steve,
though sometimes I feel we are alike as chalk and cheese, we have the fact of educationalist parents in common. My Dad had been a Signals officer of WW2 - everything from Dunkirk to Normandy and Arnhem Bridge - but immediately joined the Royal Corps of Music in 1945, and then became a lecturer at the Royal Academy of Music. (Everyone in our family is either a professor, a Church of England vicar, or a fellow of one or more of the Royal societies. )
I was not permitted any American comics as a child (rubbish! - my parents were not alone in this) but they would order Wireless World and Practical Wireless for me, as a matter of course. There was no Barbie holding a soldering iron. - Stella
Registered Member #2390
Joined: Sat Sept 26 2009, 02:04PM
Location: Milwaukee Wisconsin
Posts: 381
Well, I guess Steve and myself have at least one thing in common, if you asked my parents they would also say "He loved to take things apart!". When I was about 8 years old my parents bought the first family computer. I thought is was sooo cool! For some reason I just had to see what made it tick! It was an "ibm compatable" with a whopping 512k of memory (look out norad!). Anyhow, one night they went out for dinner and left me alone with the babysitter staring at that nice warm amber glow of that sweet sweet monochrome monitor. Low and behold as soon as the sitter zoned in on the tv, realizing i was in a computer coma, she decided i was ok on my own. Well, I began tearing that thing apart! Once i got a good look at every single piece i could remove...... BUSTED!!! One really worried babysitter later, I was ORDERED to put it all back where it came from!! So i did, and it worked, back to playing some lame game. To my surprise, my parents never found out! I told them when I was about 15. Thats where it started for me. From there it was the snowball down the hill effect. If it can be tinkered with, i tinker. If it can be plugged in, i plug it in. If it can blow up a bridge in a foreign country, i blew it up. My military career was just like pouring gasoline on a magnesium fire. I believe that a curious child is one that will grow to be very bright! My story is not as cool as the others, but it is mine!
Registered Member #16
Joined: Thu Feb 02 2006, 02:22PM
Location: New Wilmington, PA
Posts: 554
I got into electronics in general fairly slowly. Dad was a techy, but once he had kids, he rarely played with electronics any more. He started a storm chasing team, and got his ham license in 1993, and I followed his lead a few years later, studying for a license. I was having trouble with the electronics portion of the (then much more technically intense) technician class license test, so he broke out a whole mess of components I never knew he had to help me grasp it. At this point I was about 12.
That piqued my interest, but I didn't do much with it for about another 2 years. Around the time I turned 14, Mom and Dad bought me one of those Radioshack breadboard learning kits (the nice $70 ones, not the cheap 100-in-1 things with all the components built in) for Christmas. The kit came with a pair of books by Forrest Mimms, a digital and an analog lesson book. I introduced my friend Brad to them, and upon finding some of the cool projects floating around the web, we went nuts. We spent the rest of our high school career tinkering constantly with anything from phone hacking hardware to HV projects, to coilguns, to assorted (now illegal) backyard chemistry experiments. I built a massive coilgun as my final high school project, then sold almost all of my electronics stuff.
When I went into the Air Force, I was moved away from the component side of the electronics world, and into the system-based ('big box' theory, as we called it) world. Giving an 18 year old kid with a knack for electronics and computers a $500 Million radar and communication system to play with was something akin to dropping an average 16 year old into the middle of the playboy mansion. The insane deployment rate and 60+ hour weeks I worked most of the time kept me from actually undertaking many projects, but I spent a lot of time learning, designing, and hording an enormous collection of components. Once out of the service this past spring, I quickly went right back to my old ways.
There are a pair of coilguns in the works, an alternative power setup for the house, and more radio projects than I can possibly list, all of which have been floating around in my head for some years, all sitting on the work bench, waiting for the bad weather to force me back inside for the winter.
Registered Member #543
Joined: Tue Feb 20 2007, 04:26PM
Location: UK
Posts: 4992
doctor electrons wrote ...
Well, I guess Steve and myself have at least one thing in common, if you asked my parents they would also say "He loved to take things apart!". When I was about 8 years old my parents bought the first family computer. I thought is was sooo cool! For some reason I just had to see what made it tick! It was an "ibm compatable" with a whopping 512k of memory (look out norad!). Anyhow, one night they went out for dinner and left me alone with the babysitter staring at that nice warm amber glow of that sweet sweet monochrome monitor. Low and behold as soon as the sitter zoned in on the tv, realizing i was in a computer coma, she decided i was ok on my own. Well, I began tearing that thing apart! Once i got a good look at every single piece i could remove...... BUSTED!!! One really worried babysitter later, I was ORDERED to put it all back where it came from!! So i did, and it worked, back to playing some lame game. To my surprise, my parents never found out! I told them when I was about 15. Thats where it started for me. From there it was the snowball down the hill effect. If it can be tinkered with, i tinker. If it can be plugged in, i plug it in. If it can blow up a bridge in a foreign country, i blew it up. My military career was just like pouring gasoline on a magnesium fire. I believe that a curious child is one that will grow to be very bright! My story is not as cool as the others, but it is mine!
Curiousity is at the heart of science, Mike. You like me, and you trust me, so here are the questions that you now should ask:
1. What is there?
2. How can we know?
But isn't it fascinating to see how very much we all have in common.? Our interests flowing from the same kind of early experiences with HV.
That's why it's important to give newcomers a lot of latitude - what I call our "Mission to Explain" - so that, little by little, they will come to recognize our role as the priests and prophets of the new age.
Registered Member #2390
Joined: Sat Sept 26 2009, 02:04PM
Location: Milwaukee Wisconsin
Posts: 381
Dave Marshall wrote ...
I got into electronics in general fairly slowly. Dad was a techy, but once he had kids, he rarely played with electronics any more. He started a storm chasing team, and got his ham license in 1993, and I followed his lead a few years later, studying for a license. I was having trouble with the electronics portion of the (then much more technically intense) technician class license test, so he broke out a whole mess of components I never knew he had to help me grasp it. At this point I was about 12.
That piqued my interest, but I didn't do much with it for about another 2 years. Around the time I turned 14, Mom and Dad bought me one of those Radioshack breadboard learning kits (the nice $70 ones, not the cheap 100-in-1 things with all the components built in) for Christmas. The kit came with a pair of books by Forrest Mimms, a digital and an analog lesson book. I introduced my friend Brad to them, and upon finding some of the cool projects floating around the web, we went nuts. We spent the rest of our high school career tinkering constantly with anything from phone hacking hardware to HV projects, to coilguns, to assorted (now illegal) backyard chemistry experiments. I built a massive coilgun as my final high school project, then sold almost all of my electronics stuff.
When I went into the Air Force, I was moved away from the component side of the electronics world, and into the system-based ('big box' theory, as we called it) world. Giving an 18 year old kid with a knack for electronics and computers a $500 Million radar and communication system to play with was something akin to dropping an average 16 year old into the middle of the playboy mansion. The insane deployment rate and 60+ hour weeks I worked most of the time kept me from actually undertaking many projects, but I spent a lot of time learning, designing, and hording an enormous collection of components. Once out of the service this past spring, I quickly went right back to my old ways.
There are a pair of coilguns in the works, an alternative power setup for the house, and more radio projects than I can possibly list, all of which have been floating around in my head for some years, all sitting on the work bench, waiting for the bad weather to force me back inside for the winter.
-Dave
Thats pretty cool Dave! You were lucky in the sense that your family was involved in electronics. My dad was a draftsman and my mom worked at the veterans hospital. I had nobody to help with my interest in electronics. I grew up poor. Had to learn what i could with what i had. Thats probably why i am a bit behind most of you guys here. But that is why i am here, to learn from the peers i was never lucky enough to have before. So i apologize in advance for sometimes not being on top of things. I also thank everyone here in advance for bearing with me through the learning! Ya gotta explode a few transistors before you make a silicon omelette right!!
Registered Member #1134
Joined: Tue Nov 20 2007, 04:39PM
Location: Bonnie Scotland
Posts: 351
Hahaha "the nack", I love it!
My Mum and Stepdad were both nurses, however my Mum always encouraged me with whatever I was interested in! At first it began with with Geology/Fossil collecting, and I had a keen interest in Science/nature.
It was when Secondary school, came along, that the Electronics and Chemistry thing took off for me, and very quickly I might add. Once at Secondary School, I had access to the City Library, where I spent a lot of time (when I should have been taking P.E, and German )
At our School we had a Science and Electronics Teacher called Malcolm, who was a keen radio amateur, and we quickly became friends. From him, I got the best start you could have in electrical engineering, especially where valve technology was concerned. We went to radio rallies up and down the country, where I acquired most of my test equipment, and he taught me how to build / repair valve radios.
By that age of 12 I had build by first He-Ne laser using surplus parts, By 15 I had built my first Tesla coil, and By 17 my first x-ray machine in my Mums kitchen! (and this was before the internet, yes, we used books back then!).
Two books spring to mind. There was the "Amateur Scientist" by C.L Stong from which I reproduced the x-ray experiment, using a Tesla coil, instead of an Oudin coil. And a 1930's Edition of "the boy electrician", in which it was perfectly acceptable for small boys to build large induction coils and play with x-rays!
By the time "career day" came round I had made my mind up that I wanted to do electronics, however as it happened I was colourblind, and some Bureaucrat behind a desk somewhere decided that I "couldn't possibly do that", so I spent most of my remaining years in the city Library learning what I wanted to learn, as opposed to what I was told to learn
Recently I have been trying to make a living out of it, by fixing whatever comes my way, and building things and selling them.
I did the first reverse engineering work on the Sony playstation drive with Sam Goldwasser back in 2007, and made quite a bit out of building Blu-ray pointers. I have also been selling my x-ray art (albeit slowly) but recently got published in the "American College of Radiology Magazine"
Registered Member #639
Joined: Wed Apr 11 2007, 09:09PM
Location: The Netherlands, Herkenbosch
Posts: 512
Quite fun to see we are all quite alike. My dad has always allowed me to play with computers electronics and chemicals. My mother however doesn't understand much and is quite reluctant to let me play with the 'unknown'.
Even as a toddler I had the tendency to take all kinds of stuff apart to see what's inside. Eventually my parents decided it was a waste and didn't buy me any more toys. Some time later they did buy me an electronics experimentation box with all sorts of projects. After building most of them I got bored and they gave me a new box to play with. It had a few new projects but 90% where the same. So yet again I got bored. Luckily my grandma knew a electronics shop so she took me there and I bought a few random parts and kits and a soldering iron. I also started to gather lots of electronic junk for parts which my parents disliked. My uncle also provided me with parts from old philips pick and place proto type machines.
Now during my high-school time I got obsessed by high voltage electronics. It all started with a igniter based on running a small mains transformer backwards and discharging a capacitor trough it. I also had access to the web so most of the time that I wasn't building stuff or learning I browsed the web. Build a coilguns, flyback driver and a small teslacoil. And discovered 4hv At the end of my high-school career I build a large DRSSTC as a final project.
I also got interested in all sorts of sports during my time in high-school. Started with Judo then came climbing. A few years further I started Jiu Jitsu and Aikido. I really enjoy all those sports since they require a lot of concentration and thus force you to let go of everything for a while. My way of relaxing.
Now I'm a first year electronics engineering student. And have just been asked to guide a few physics students to build a musical DRSSTC. Still enjoying my time on the uni although it can be quite though. Still not sure if I'll make it
This site is powered by e107, which is released under the GNU GPL License. All work on this site, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 License. By submitting any information to this site, you agree that anything submitted will be so licensed. Please read our Disclaimer and Policies page for information on your rights and responsibilities regarding this site.
How it all began for me
.
