I had a book called 555 Cookbook. That book, and a bunch of CMOS chips set me up for a career. No PCB or breadboard, I wire wrapped everything. Personal computers were coming out (late 70s) and I started writing code. That PC got me a job writing a custom accounting program. Fast forward 40 years and I retired as an IT manager. Thanks for reminding me of where it started.
always interesting to hear how the story of a retired engineer started. I'm 26 and the internet has been around for basically my whole life that i forget you guys had it very differently.
This whole series is epic! Forest Mims should be immortalized for launching so many electronics careers with his books. I wish (actively in print) or at least free of copyright restrictions so someone could print them.
You Sir, have described my early days of electronics ! Forrest Mims is a name , when you mentioned it , brought such a flow of nostalgia to me . However, I am now retired from the electronics industry, (72 years old), and I remember those books from much earlier ( late 60's). I later went on to work for Radio Shack after a tour in the Air Force as a repair tech. ( in the service as well as Radio Shack )Thanks for the tour down memory lane !!! Sincerely, BOB AHN 😄
OMG I still have most of these notebooks from the 80's, got me started building little circuits, and later computers. :) Radio-Shack was my home away from home, lots of fond memories.
@@mar-tin702you should learn it for the sake of learning it, not just to make money. I’m in college studying CS and soooo many kids only reason for choosing it as their major is “they make a lot of money and I’m good with computers”. Most SWEs are unhappy because they chose a field that seemed profitable instead of a field that they enjoyed. Wealth is built by consistently making correct decisions. It cannot be bought with your time and effort.
I was an electronics nerd most of my life. Found an old electronics book of my uncle's at my granny's house and she gave it to me when I was about 11. I'm 79 so that book was basically tube technology. But I learned the basics from that book about electron flow etc. A couple years later joined a mail order club where each month I got a little package, I think it was 3.95 a month lol, and it was clever in that each month with a few more parts we could build ever more complex circuits. In the end we had a little tube amp and radio. Very basic but I learned a lot from that little experience. Fast forward to the 70's and I discovered Forrest Mims and chips. I was a traveling musician by then but there were periods where I would be home and had a little workbench to experiment. But those Mims books were treasures. I learned a TON from them about chips and circuits using them. Life got in the way tho and I became very busy with travel and whatever. Fast forward again to a couple of years ago and in my "retirement" I set up a dream little work bench and found all the old Mims books in PDF online. Free! I'm once again experimenting. Blinking LED's and building a synthesizer with sequencer. Lot's of fun!! But Mims was the Guru!!
I remember these little books the first time that they came around. They were such a brilliant resource along with my monthly copies of Everyday Electronics and Elektor. Thank you for the memories.
I've been out of the "lab" for a couple years but have recently started up again with new fiery passion. I've been catching up with your videos and have been learning a bunch, thank you for your time and work.
Thank you so much. That means a lot that you would take the time to watch and comment. I appreciate it and hope you're enjoying the hobby. Some other binge-worthy content is PileOfStuff, Gadget Reboot, and Simple Electronics.
I had the RadioShack 100 in 1 kit back in the day. Man, waking up on Christmas morning and finding that bad boy sat under the tree was awesome. One of the best Christmas' ever!
There was one project in one of those books called "The Light Listener". It used a phototransistor to convert light into sound. I built it and it actually worked! I could hear the digital codes coming off of tv remotes, the buzz from fluorescent lights, etc. It was awesome!
Once upon a time, I, too, had those booklets. I had also purchased many of the Tab books on electronics and circuits. I would collect old TV's, radios, etc to pirate parts from to build my projects. I had learned so much by time I was 18 that I would design my own circuits, such as radios and shortwave receivers, and then build them. I would often wind my own coils and sometimes make my own capacitors. The 70's and 80's were a great time...
When we used to have a Tandy store I bought a lot of those books, still have the mini notebooks and a couple of larger ones. Loved the way the circuits and text was laid out that way, felt like it was written just for you.
You, Sir, are onto something big here!! I'm a 60 yr old chemical engineer who has recently taken a keen interest in electronics as a hobby. My initial searches for resource material invariably mentioned books by the legend himself, Mr. Mims. So I collected nearly every one of his publications. However, I focused all of my attention on the one book that started it all... "Getting Started In Electronics". BUT, as a newb, my circuits didn't always work out as expected or just left me puzzled. So I once again returned to the Internet but was dismayed to find that no one has taken ANY of the Mim's publications from "book to video"...until I came across your video! For your next video project, please consider doing a video series on the "Getting Started in Electronics" book. I truly believe that it would "light a spark" in young minds to consider a field in electrical engineering!
Thank you so much for the kind words. I will definitely check out that other book. I've talked to some other creators and it sounds like their may be some more Mims content coming out.
I built many of Forrest Mims II's circuits when I was a kid! I had the engineering notebooks as well as his "Getting Started in Electronics." I graduated to these after the Radio Shack 130-in-1 electronics lab kit. I did not build all of them, but I built quite a few of them. I built up a few of his circuits in permanent form, especially things like his transistor checker.
Wow!I. In my 80s now,but I have all of Forrest Mims books ,still have em,but now I've gotten rid of a ton of stuff,had no money for parts in the day,so I'd get old tvs ,radios electronic stuff from the trash..
1976, I built a special reflective sensor, while working as a technician at Kodak; they had an expensive problem with slide film being hacked up when the slide mounts jammed in the track, so that the film being fed from a reel into the slide mounts would jam against the jammed slide mounts, the mounting cycle continued, and the cutter would cut through the middle of a customer picture!! Big "oops"... So, I built a sensor to monitor the slide mount advance through the track, and it would stop the cycle short... Ok, so, I used a 555 timer to monitor the phototransistor output, using the nice comparators and drivers to get to clean signal with adjustable level and hysteresis... 555 to the rescue!
haha. That's really fun. To this day when people show off their fancy creations over on hackaday, one of the first comments is usually that they should have used a 555 instead of that fancy microcontroller.
Many TANKS for doing this. In the UK I still have some of these books. One of my experiment kits was made by Phillips in the 1970s far more complicated than the poor kits for kids today. The transistors were mounted on a 1 inch PCB and held on the circuit card by a clip and spring designed to hold a contact wire. I also have a multi legged chip that produced sound effects. Back in 1992 I made a caving lamp (for emergencies ) 1200lm red LED. My friends laughed and look what happened with LED torches ;-)) In 1983ish in Blackburn Lancashire I remember seeing a blue LED in an electronic shop ;-) they said it was ON but you could not tell it was lit ;-)) all the best
haha good memories. Yeah. I remember when blue LEDs weren't a thing. Seemed funny to my young brain. I love that the stuff can be made somewhat understandable. I'm definitely nostalgic for the old project but grateful for the crazy amounts of information we have access to now.
Re: the "poor kits for kids today." I don't think they're poor, just things have changed so they're different and complex in other ways. Relatively good MCUs are now jellybeans and my youngest niece's latest kit is based around an FPGA... These kits generally have a few projects just using discretes and basic ICs (for example at least one 555 and a few 74 series chips are always involved) so they get to learn the fundamentals but if you showed them how to make a radio out of a few transistors in a lot of places there's nothing they can listen to using it so the "wow" factor of stuff like that is gone. So instead they make their own Bluetooth speaker etc. Ok, yes the wireless side is already made for them but there's still plenty to implement themselves plus they learn some embedded programming. Where the kits really are abysmal nowadays is the instructions though, possibly with the exception of Raspberry Pi stuff but their focus is more the computer side. Luckily though datasheets are much more easily accessible and the internet has lots of kid friendly forums but I that side needs to be fixed.
I wanted to spend the money I earned from my paper route on a race car set. My mother convinced me to buy one of those Phillips experiment kits instead. It was my start in electronics at age eight. My first PCB layout software (Layo1) ran on DOS, I think it was the mid 80's. Now, at 55, I still tinker with electronics, program micro controllers and recently started FPGA development. All because of a Phillips kit brought by accident.
@@alwinleerling the kit I had was on a wood base drilled with holes and the circuit was printed on cards with holes where you pushed up a clip (a bit like a hair pin) and then you put a spring over the top this is how the components were connected trapped by the clip and spring. The two transistors were mounted on a small square of PCB that were held by the same spring and clips. I was interested in electronics but the family business was blacksmithing and welding. When I left school I did an apprenticeship in engineering in 1984 I ordered a "BBC basic" rack mounted commercial computer with cards for measuring voltages and control cards, this was used to build a computerised gas test rig for Thorn EMI instantaneous water heaters. The animated graphics I did using BBC mode 7. We interfaced commercial testing equipment for Gas leakage / flow , platinum resistance thermometers and water and gas flow controlled by compressed air actuated ball valves. We had to solve many problems like making sure the natural gas pressure and flow complied with the standards required. BTW I was not that clever I just had a lot of perseverance. all the best, thanks for nudge to remember what I used to be able to do. I still mess with electronics but nothing serious. My engineering interests are satisfied by working on very old sewing machines.
I have built a good number of Mr. Mims projects and still use his note's\books for reference. The first H-bridge I built and actually worked was a direct copy of his schematic and listed parts.
Wow. Brings back memories of my childhood. I'd go to town with my mom just to get an opportunity to visit Radio Shack. It was such a great store on the 1970s. Full respect for what you have done.
Nice job on this. Brings back a lot of memories. I have all of the little books but also couldn’t afford to actually build the circuits u til way later in life. But the references always came in handy. Your circuit board idea is excellent to honor these circuits.
These little notebooks defined my childhood and I still have a couple of them along with a copy of Craig Anderton's Electronic Projects for Musicians. I even still have the vinyl 'page' with sound samples for each project. Great stuff, those. One other thing I was always able to appreciate was that the notebooks are all hand-written. That ain't Comic Sans. It's Mims' actual penmanship.
Thank you for the memories, I have actually one of those booklets on my desk, it belonged to my grandfather but I kept it after he passed away. These books weren't part of my childhood contrary to many here, but I find refreshing that, after studying a whole career, these booklets explain so succinctly many of the circuits that once puzzled me during my student years, definitely a nice view into the world of electronics. Very nice video! Looking forward for the next part
Cheers mate, I have the Archer's series for about 35 years and now I am the lead radio tech on major LNG facility. The were essential and I still have them.
I have all of these books saved up for years. Developed a passion for electronics. I now build robots for fun and will one day make electronics. Thank you!
This is a cool project, hope you continue making the circuits. I still have the books I bought, small breadboard I got with it, and even still have the Armatron from Radio Shack. Now I'm an electrical engineer with a PhD, published in IEEE journals, and I design micro-chips! I would thank Forrest Mims if I could. btw, my local Radio Shack was right next to Pizza Hut where we would also get a pizza, drink from red plastic cups, play video games while waiting and have the parmesan cheese and pepper flakes shakers on the table. The 80s were the best.
I really miss the Radio Shack of the 70s and 80s. I used to set in the back of the store and play with their model 1 TRS-80. I had one at the house, but I still enjoyed the people standing around me watching me program. I love this video and I am a new subscriber! Extremely well explained. The terminals can also be replaced by ones that are spring loaded. Also, variable capacitors and pots could be used, but I'm sure you already though of that. Videos like these should be also children friendly for the way you explain the circuits.
I'm in for the whole ride. Make them all. I think it would help a lot of people that never made these circuits. I learned something new. I admit I didn't build them. I think you learn something new every day. Subbed.
I watch you now for years I cannot belive Ur channel does not have millions of views yet I don't know it's the production quality but this is pure quality content this same video with the right level of product it's impossible not to get a million views
Forrest Mims books are a gold mine of clever ideas and reference circuits. But it's exactly as you say, I did spend more time dreaming about building those circuits, that actually building any of them. Those books weren't widely available where I live (outside the states), but I knew someone who had a couple of them, and I photocopied several pages for myself. They were my treasure when I was a kid, and they surely sparked my imagination and my interest in electronics for decades. When I grew up I finally bought a couple of the books from online stores. I love the idea of finally going through the circuits in the book and building them. Would love to do something like that, although I'd probably just build them on breadboard first, and only the coolest, or most useful projects would get a board. Finally, selling pre-made boards is great idea. Perfect for people who own the book and would love to quickly try the circuits. I have no idea why no one thought of that before
i was just reading the pdf of that book man and then your video pops up in my feed haha. awesome video. those circuits are a rite of passage, i think my first notes on circuit theory after i learned the basic laws were all 555 ciricuits. then dissecting the actual ic into it's transistor resistor logic using small signal transistors. it really helps understand current mirrors and differential pairs in small signal amplifiers using npn transistors and also biasing the base properly for separating the dc from the signal. it's responsible for me seeing the whole picture in a way. i revisited logic gates and flipflops using transistors earlier this year because of the 555. it was super cool. i remember opamp circuits breaking my brain years ago after being so deep into cmos logic and those old 555 ics for so long. they broke my brain for years but really are simple to grasp once i got out of my own way. seeing gadget throw them in everything for so long like he was eating a cookie had me stumped man hahaha. there isnt enough intermediate opamp theory on yt i find that's explained in a way us plebs understand. you dont need to know the math if you have a purpose then you understand the math, if that makes sense as im rambling here taking a break from reading a text book on the ansi c second edition that i got on sale haha. man out of print text books are expensive, i wish i kept all my old hardcover books from university. i ordered a data structures book today that i used in school and it is over 250 dollars for the hard cover and it's only a short book. i checked amazon and ebay everyday for months until i found it at a decent price today. i remember one of my data mining algorithm classes didnt even have a text book yet back in the 90's haha. the pdp we had was so old that you couldnt even really do operations on large data sets properly unless you scheduled a batch file to execute after hours because the university used it for student services and payroll too.
I used this and other books to launch the classes as a shop teacher. Mid to late 70's. I had the trill to have a printer overhead camera that launched the class to make our own boads.
Awesome, i think i still have all my books from the late 70s early 80s. It would be fun to make them 50 year later. I build a bunch of radio shack kits like the intercom kit, in the late 70s. Thanks for sharing this brings back good memories and reminds me what a geek i was as a kid. Larry
Wow what a trip down memory lane. Any time my mom wanted to go to the mall she could bring me and let me loose knowing I'd be in one of 3 places, the arcade, the hobby shop or the back of radio shack. Loved the back of radio shack. I have all these notebooks and probably built 1 circuit from all of them lol. Great idea making the pcbs, love it!
Amazing video! I’m a little jealous this video wasn’t available for my fall digital logic class. I still enjoyed the video, I always enjoy refreshing my memory and learning more. Thank you 😊
Forrest Mimms ! Certainly a name worth mentioning ! And the way those books were done over what looked to be graph paper, was genius ! But speaking of Radio Shack, one thing you never hear people mention, is where do I take all the, " Lifetime " guaranteed Tubes I have ? You'd have to be an old timer, to get that one ! My how things have changed ! It was really nice during the early days of the Shack, where you could actually buy components, or Stereo's and speakers, even some Ham Radio related gear ! Those were the days !
There's websites like adafruit and RS where you can buy components individually and cheaply I might add, still it's not like being in the store, especially when most of the people back then actually knew about the products they were selling and you could pick their brain for awhile.
Good that you corrected your sentence in post-production. Thank you for showing us that four of Mims's 555 circuits work and how. I guess I'd call the "frequency divider" a "pulse counter" since it only triggers on every third pulse of the trigger down-up transition, as shown in Mims's illustration.
I built a few dozen when I was a kid. I liked the Hartley radio transmitter. The hard part for many of the projects that interested me was I didn't have tools to built enclosures and supports for many of the parts other than taping things to the desk/etc. Learned a lot. Didn't learn so much from those spring board things 150-in-1 type of kits.
I do want to go back to my spring kits and find out what I can learn from them today. There's a lot more documentation so you never know. I remember that transmitter. Such a cool looking device.
@@AnotherMaker I was able to get up and down my block hearing it. Then, one day, it de-tuned. I couldn’t find it on my AM/FM radio. Tossed it. Think I used a plastic soda straw to make the coil.
Something to think about for next iterations :) Have a look at panelization - basically you have cutouts to build a bunch of boards the same way - they would panelize your boards onto a big panel in order to do the printing. But, if you create 'shark bites' between your boards - basically make your little board a panel of the smaller circuits. Add the pwr input on each, but have the central power panel with your jumpers to switch which board you power up. The logic here is it would look/function the same, bar a couple of unsoldered pins on each board. But, if you wanted to actually use a circuit, you can break off that circuit and use it by itself :) So if you did sell kits, you can sell the above and singles (if people wanted specific circuits) But by default they'd get the batch of panels. So say someone wanted to use a specific circuit from their pack, they can break it off and actually use it.
ARRL & the “Pop-Tronics” magazines were my intro - discrete components, tubes, VTVM’s, Heathkits! No “Ick’s” to start my electronics play.. The 555 timer was a fine intro to integrated circuits.
I think it would be fun. And not super hard to source the components if you're doing it in bulk. A few of the cheap resistor/transistor/capacitor kits would do it.
No, I did not have enough money when I was a kid bit I do have the full first set and yes I believe I built most of those projects.. it was fun! I still have all the components with me. 555 and 3900 and others. 😊 This video brought back so many memories... thanks
Thank you! I'm hoping to release one of these a month. It's 7 boards total and I'm finished making the 4th one now, so I should be able to stay on schedule.
80's life was awesome , I used to save my pocket money and buy all the tools like solder bar , components , pcbs and i have also done several projects given in a book.
I loved those books and think I still have mine stuffed in some tub somewhere. They were awesome and I pretty much bought mine the way you bought yours. About once a week, depending on cash in hand. After all, sometimes you have to buy components.
Usually when you want to have interchangeable parts on a PCB, you'd use an IC socket, and you can just push the components in just like on a breadboard. The "machined" sockets are better than the spring contact sockets, but the spring contact sockets allow for different lead sizes on the components. Less fumbly than screw terminals. Phoenix Contact (and generic clones) also have push-in wire to board connectors, with a little release button you can press with a jeweler's screwdriver
Yup. And I think they're 5.0mm (or at least the ones I saw were) so they'd fit on this PCB. I'm using a ton of them, so trying to keep costs down a bit.
I remember learning to solder at 9 years old. On the weekends, I would rush into my local Tandy shop (RadioShack), buy these books (still have everyone) and some Veroboard with my paper round money.
Wow, I build all of those projects, dead bug style on perfboard......some 40+ years ago. I still have that 555 book and a few more around here somewhere.
I am clearly very like you. I had the exact same experience in the uk equivalent shop, known as Tandy (they sold Radio Shack, Archer and Vellman branded items). Sadly Tandy went bust about 1996, but then a mail order component company known as Maplin branched out into high street shops. These were very similar to tandy, except they generally had a much larger stock of components, but still carried the das blinkenlights toys and gimmicks. I learned so much from these books, especially one about the NE555 and another one about the 741 opamp. Thank you for tickling a part of my brain which hadnt awoken for a few decades!
So, hear me out... I was talking to myself two days ago about how versatile the 555 was and that there are probably a million and a half applications of the swiss army knife of circuit design.... And then youtube plops this in my feed, today. I am certain I have my phone set to not record things, but we all know how effective settings are in software, these days. Anyway, great video, I appreciate your work, and for those struggling with problems, talk to your phone about it, you never know when the algorithm will connect dots and make things happen. "What if WE are the algorithm...."
I found a few while I was designing them...which I was pretty surprised since it was a later edition. And I think I found one that made its way to a board. If you want to share any notes, I'd always take them!
Oh my goodness. I'd forgotten about those. I had his original engineer's TTL notebook and a few of the mini notebooks. In the pre-internet days those books were vital. You didn't necessarily build the circuit in isolation but they were great as building blocks within a larger design. I've still got those books - somewhere.
I probably owe my entire career to Mr. Mims (and Don Lancaster). Aside from the "just enough" explanations in his books, what really separated them from many of the others at the time was that the THE CIRCUITS ACTUALLY WORKED! And you could buy all the parts right there at radio shack.
Forrest Mims really did a great job writing those books. He was definitely an inspiration to me growing up. But, I'm convinced those designs were simply takin' from other sources. The light sensing circuits don't ever use diodes. Diodes make a greater difference in voltages. In turn, it makes the circuit work better when going from lite to dark, or vise versa.
Here in UK Tandys was the weekend go to figuring out the next project (within pocket money) The books are still on my shelf and I still refer to then now and then.
I still have my copy. For some reason, hand drawn diagrams make learning easier. Similarly, I find that making diagrams with pencil in a large notepad is the best way to develop a design. Which a few generations are now unaware of. It engages the brain in a particular way. I just drew up a diagram of an ESP32 cluster topology a few days ago. Although it was all in my head, it is so much clearer what must be done if I make a multi-colour diagram. And it is much faster than using computer graphics.
I added a playlist that I'll put these in. My channel is kind of all over the place. Whatever hits me on a given day, but all these boards will be in a playlist if you don't want to sub to everything.
in the past oi had a springboard, was nice , my first experience with electronics, after that i studied electronics for years and build nice things , was good at 6502, Z80 , uses 555 a lot and also TTl 74xx series and 40xx series lots of fun.
At first I was skeptical about your efforts, and I apologize to your sir, as you have informed me that you did speak with Forrest, I think your efforts are wonderful. It would be great to see a reprint of this work along with your pcb's - What I like most about his work is it taught me by doing rather than force feed me all the theory that makes no sense... By doing hands on and seeing results, that to me is when a person can relate the theory to it. When I first learned transistors, it was from his work, I only knew little operation of them, but I could make stuff, and when stuff wasnt working right, thats when I dove into theory and learned more about bias etc. At the time, 1976 my great uncle was an engineer for RCA and when he started teach me some tube stuff, I had small foundation to better understand them. - I see so many "makers" who grab 3 modules and say I made a thing, sure cool, but what about the people who make those modules? if we dont keep learning at this level, the we will lose it and who will make future modules because todays people are only connecting devices and dont know how to make devices - ok sorry for rant, I just feel your work here extends Forrest work and has so much more to offer than people realize
I had a book called 555 Cookbook. That book, and a bunch of CMOS chips set me up for a career. No PCB or breadboard, I wire wrapped everything. Personal computers were coming out (late 70s) and I started writing code. That PC got me a job writing a custom accounting program. Fast forward 40 years and I retired as an IT manager. Thanks for reminding me of where it started.
Yep. I have this little space between my front teeth that is perfect for stripping those small wires.
@@stringlarson1247 🤣🤣
Wonderful success story
always interesting to hear how the story of a retired engineer started. I'm 26 and the internet has been around for basically my whole life that i forget you guys had it very differently.
@@asdfasdf8198 Thanks. The future is all yours.
This whole series is epic! Forest Mims should be immortalized for launching so many electronics careers with his books. I wish (actively in print) or at least free of copyright restrictions so someone could print them.
You Sir, have described my early days of electronics ! Forrest Mims is a name , when you mentioned it , brought such a flow of nostalgia to me . However, I am now retired from the electronics industry, (72 years old), and I remember those books from much earlier ( late 60's). I later went on to work for Radio Shack after a tour in the Air Force as a repair tech. ( in the service as well as Radio Shack )Thanks for the tour down memory lane !!! Sincerely, BOB AHN 😄
OMG I still have most of these notebooks from the 80's, got me started building little circuits, and later computers. :) Radio-Shack was my home away from home, lots of fond memories.
Are you a millionaire? Is it worth it learning this shit while Others are making millions
@@mar-tin702you should learn it for the sake of learning it, not just to make money. I’m in college studying CS and soooo many kids only reason for choosing it as their major is “they make a lot of money and I’m good with computers”. Most SWEs are unhappy because they chose a field that seemed profitable instead of a field that they enjoyed.
Wealth is built by consistently making correct decisions. It cannot be bought with your time and effort.
I was an electronics nerd most of my life. Found an old electronics book of my uncle's at my granny's house and she gave it to me when I was about 11. I'm 79 so that book was basically tube technology. But I learned the basics from that book about electron flow etc. A couple years later joined a mail order club where each month I got a little package, I think it was 3.95 a month lol, and it was clever in that each month with a few more parts we could build ever more complex circuits. In the end we had a little tube amp and radio. Very basic but I learned a lot from that little experience. Fast forward to the 70's and I discovered Forrest Mims and chips. I was a traveling musician by then but there were periods where I would be home and had a little workbench to experiment. But those Mims books were treasures. I learned a TON from them about chips and circuits using them. Life got in the way tho and I became very busy with travel and whatever. Fast forward again to a couple of years ago and in my "retirement" I set up a dream little work bench and found all the old Mims books in PDF online. Free! I'm once again experimenting. Blinking LED's and building a synthesizer with sequencer. Lot's of fun!! But Mims was the Guru!!
I remember these little books the first time that they came around. They were such a brilliant resource along with my monthly copies of Everyday Electronics and Elektor.
Thank you for the memories.
I've been out of the "lab" for a couple years but have recently started up again with new fiery passion. I've been catching up with your videos and have been learning a bunch, thank you for your time and work.
Thank you so much. That means a lot that you would take the time to watch and comment. I appreciate it and hope you're enjoying the hobby. Some other binge-worthy content is PileOfStuff, Gadget Reboot, and Simple Electronics.
I had the 150 in 1 kit from RS back in my youth. I can still remember it vividly. The 80's was a fun time to be a kid.
I had the RadioShack 100 in 1 kit back in the day.
Man, waking up on Christmas morning and finding that bad boy sat under the tree was awesome. One of the best Christmas' ever!
There was one project in one of those books called "The Light Listener". It used a phototransistor to convert light into sound. I built it and it actually worked! I could hear the digital codes coming off of tv remotes, the buzz from fluorescent lights, etc. It was awesome!
Oh wow. I still have these books also. I was 13 when I got my copies. Great memories. Thanks for sharing,.
Thanks so much for watching and commenting!
Once upon a time, I, too, had those booklets. I had also purchased many of the Tab books on electronics and circuits. I would collect old TV's, radios, etc to pirate parts from to build my projects. I had learned so much by time I was 18 that I would design my own circuits, such as radios and shortwave receivers, and then build them. I would often wind my own coils and sometimes make my own capacitors. The 70's and 80's were a great time...
Radio-Shack and Walden book in New York (Queens) were some of my favorite hang-out spots after school. At least it kept me out of trouble. hehe
I have every one of these books. I bought them over 30 years ago. I loved them.
A real magic book to teach you.
Oh man, you're making a 46 year old feel like a 6 year old again! Which is just what I needed!
I had every one of these as a kid.
Excellent mini notebook collection
Lots of good times
yes please!!! this is the stuff dreams are made of and inspires
Thanks so much! I think I'll keep making them.
When we used to have a Tandy store I bought a lot of those books, still have the mini notebooks and a couple of larger ones. Loved the way the circuits and text was laid out that way, felt like it was written just for you.
Awesome idea, I really like the 4-in-1 PCB, this would be great for a kids' electronic lab.
You, Sir, are onto something big here!! I'm a 60 yr old chemical engineer who has recently taken a keen interest in electronics as a hobby. My initial searches for resource material invariably mentioned books by the legend himself, Mr. Mims. So I collected nearly every one of his publications. However, I focused all of my attention on the one book that started it all... "Getting Started In Electronics". BUT, as a newb, my circuits didn't always work out as expected or just left me puzzled. So I once again returned to the Internet but was dismayed to find that no one has taken ANY of the Mim's publications from "book to video"...until I came across your video! For your next video project, please consider doing a video series on the "Getting Started in Electronics" book. I truly believe that it would "light a spark" in young minds to consider a field in electrical engineering!
Thank you so much for the kind words. I will definitely check out that other book. I've talked to some other creators and it sounds like their may be some more Mims content coming out.
Great job. can't wait for the next instalment of this series.
Thank you so much!
I built many of Forrest Mims II's circuits when I was a kid! I had the engineering notebooks as well as his "Getting Started in Electronics." I graduated to these after the Radio Shack 130-in-1 electronics lab kit. I did not build all of them, but I built quite a few of them. I built up a few of his circuits in permanent form, especially things like his transistor checker.
I was obsessed with my 150-in-1 electronics lab kit I got in the second grade and was always taking it to school to show off projects
Wow!I. In my 80s now,but I have all of Forrest Mims books ,still have em,but now I've gotten rid of a ton of stuff,had no money for parts in the day,so I'd get old tvs ,radios electronic stuff from the trash..
1976, I built a special reflective sensor, while working as a technician at Kodak; they had an expensive problem with slide film being hacked up when the slide mounts jammed in the track, so that the film being fed from a reel into the slide mounts would jam against the jammed slide mounts, the mounting cycle continued, and the cutter would cut through the middle of a customer picture!! Big "oops"... So, I built a sensor to monitor the slide mount advance through the track, and it would stop the cycle short... Ok, so, I used a 555 timer to monitor the phototransistor output, using the nice comparators and drivers to get to clean signal with adjustable level and hysteresis... 555 to the rescue!
haha. That's really fun. To this day when people show off their fancy creations over on hackaday, one of the first comments is usually that they should have used a 555 instead of that fancy microcontroller.
Many TANKS for doing this. In the UK I still have some of these books. One of my experiment kits was made by Phillips in the 1970s far more complicated than the poor kits for kids today.
The transistors were mounted on a 1 inch PCB and held on the circuit card by a clip and spring designed to hold a contact wire.
I also have a multi legged chip that produced sound effects.
Back in 1992 I made a caving lamp (for emergencies ) 1200lm red LED. My friends laughed and look what happened with LED torches ;-))
In 1983ish in Blackburn Lancashire I remember seeing a blue LED in an electronic shop ;-) they said it was ON but you could not tell it was lit ;-))
all the best
haha good memories. Yeah. I remember when blue LEDs weren't a thing. Seemed funny to my young brain. I love that the stuff can be made somewhat understandable. I'm definitely nostalgic for the old project but grateful for the crazy amounts of information we have access to now.
imho: the LED that started coming out in the mid-1990's is the greatest invention in human history. Prior to that, all was dark.
Re: the "poor kits for kids today." I don't think they're poor, just things have changed so they're different and complex in other ways. Relatively good MCUs are now jellybeans and my youngest niece's latest kit is based around an FPGA... These kits generally have a few projects just using discretes and basic ICs (for example at least one 555 and a few 74 series chips are always involved) so they get to learn the fundamentals but if you showed them how to make a radio out of a few transistors in a lot of places there's nothing they can listen to using it so the "wow" factor of stuff like that is gone. So instead they make their own Bluetooth speaker etc. Ok, yes the wireless side is already made for them but there's still plenty to implement themselves plus they learn some embedded programming.
Where the kits really are abysmal nowadays is the instructions though, possibly with the exception of Raspberry Pi stuff but their focus is more the computer side. Luckily though datasheets are much more easily accessible and the internet has lots of kid friendly forums but I that side needs to be fixed.
I wanted to spend the money I earned from my paper route on a race car set. My mother convinced me to buy one of those Phillips experiment kits instead. It was my start in electronics at age eight. My first PCB layout software (Layo1) ran on DOS, I think it was the mid 80's. Now, at 55, I still tinker with electronics, program micro controllers and recently started FPGA development. All because of a Phillips kit brought by accident.
@@alwinleerling the kit I had was on a wood base drilled with holes and the circuit was printed on cards with holes where you pushed up a clip (a bit like a hair pin) and then you put a spring over the top this is how the components were connected trapped by the clip and spring. The two transistors were mounted on a small square of PCB that were held by the same spring and clips. I was interested in electronics but the family business was blacksmithing and welding. When I left school I did an apprenticeship in engineering in 1984 I ordered a "BBC basic" rack mounted commercial computer with cards for measuring voltages and control cards, this was used to build a computerised gas test rig for Thorn EMI instantaneous water heaters. The animated graphics I did using BBC mode 7. We interfaced commercial testing equipment for Gas leakage / flow , platinum resistance thermometers and water and gas flow controlled by compressed air actuated ball valves. We had to solve many problems like making sure the natural gas pressure and flow complied with the standards required.
BTW I was not that clever I just had a lot of perseverance.
all the best, thanks for nudge to remember what I used to be able to do. I still mess with electronics but nothing serious.
My engineering interests are satisfied by working on very old sewing machines.
I have built a good number of Mr. Mims projects and still use his note's\books for reference. The first H-bridge I built and actually worked was a direct copy of his schematic and listed parts.
That's really fun
Wow. Brings back memories of my childhood. I'd go to town with my mom just to get an opportunity to visit Radio Shack. It was such a great store on the 1970s. Full respect for what you have done.
Nice job on this. Brings back a lot of memories. I have all of the little books but also couldn’t afford to actually build the circuits u til way later in life. But the references always came in handy. Your circuit board idea is excellent to honor these circuits.
I had most of these books back in the day. Now that I'm old, I have given several of them to my apprentice.
That's so awesome. That's kind of my thing...to introduce these to another generation.
These little notebooks defined my childhood and I still have a couple of them along with a copy of Craig Anderton's Electronic Projects for Musicians. I even still have the vinyl 'page' with sound samples for each project. Great stuff, those. One other thing I was always able to appreciate was that the notebooks are all hand-written. That ain't Comic Sans. It's Mims' actual penmanship.
Im in computer repair, iphone, laptop & aspiring electrician. This book has me gobsmacked on how lovely to use as a study source.
Thank you for the memories, I have actually one of those booklets on my desk, it belonged to my grandfather but I kept it after he passed away. These books weren't part of my childhood contrary to many here, but I find refreshing that, after studying a whole career, these booklets explain so succinctly many of the circuits that once puzzled me during my student years, definitely a nice view into the world of electronics.
Very nice video! Looking forward for the next part
Cheers mate, I have the Archer's series for about 35 years and now I am the lead radio tech on major LNG facility. The were essential and I still have them.
I have all of these books saved up for years. Developed a passion for electronics. I now build robots for fun and will one day make electronics. Thank you!
This is a cool project, hope you continue making the circuits.
I still have the books I bought, small breadboard I got with it, and even still have the Armatron from Radio Shack.
Now I'm an electrical engineer with a PhD, published in IEEE journals, and I design micro-chips! I would thank Forrest Mims if I could.
btw, my local Radio Shack was right next to Pizza Hut where we would also get a pizza, drink from red plastic cups, play video games while waiting and have the parmesan cheese and pepper flakes shakers on the table.
The 80s were the best.
I really miss the Radio Shack of the 70s and 80s. I used to set in the back of the store and play with their model 1 TRS-80. I had one at the house, but I still enjoyed the people standing around me watching me program. I love this video and I am a new subscriber! Extremely well explained. The terminals can also be replaced by ones that are spring loaded. Also, variable capacitors and pots could be used, but I'm sure you already though of that. Videos like these should be also children friendly for the way you explain the circuits.
I'm in for the whole ride. Make them all. I think it would help a lot of people that never made these circuits. I learned something new. I admit I didn't build them. I think you learn something new every day. Subbed.
0:08 I remember having a few of these. I always loved when my dad took me to Radio Shack and Olsens across the street.
Yeah. Such good memories. I spent a lot of my age 10-16 years in a radio shack.
This was great! I hope there will be a part 2!
I watch you now for years I cannot belive Ur channel does not have millions of views yet I don't know it's the production quality but this is pure quality content this same video with the right level of product it's impossible not to get a million views
Forrest Mims books are a gold mine of clever ideas and reference circuits. But it's exactly as you say, I did spend more time dreaming about building those circuits, that actually building any of them.
Those books weren't widely available where I live (outside the states), but I knew someone who had a couple of them, and I photocopied several pages for myself. They were my treasure when I was a kid, and they surely sparked my imagination and my interest in electronics for decades. When I grew up I finally bought a couple of the books from online stores.
I love the idea of finally going through the circuits in the book and building them. Would love to do something like that, although I'd probably just build them on breadboard first, and only the coolest, or most useful projects would get a board.
Finally, selling pre-made boards is great idea. Perfect for people who own the book and would love to quickly try the circuits. I have no idea why no one thought of that before
i was just reading the pdf of that book man and then your video pops up in my feed haha. awesome video. those circuits are a rite of passage, i think my first notes on circuit theory after i learned the basic laws were all 555 ciricuits. then dissecting the actual ic into it's transistor resistor logic using small signal transistors. it really helps understand current mirrors and differential pairs in small signal amplifiers using npn transistors and also biasing the base properly for separating the dc from the signal. it's responsible for me seeing the whole picture in a way. i revisited logic gates and flipflops using transistors earlier this year because of the 555. it was super cool.
i remember opamp circuits breaking my brain years ago after being so deep into cmos logic and those old 555 ics for so long. they broke my brain for years but really are simple to grasp once i got out of my own way. seeing gadget throw them in everything for so long like he was eating a cookie had me stumped man hahaha. there isnt enough intermediate opamp theory on yt i find that's explained in a way us plebs understand. you dont need to know the math if you have a purpose then you understand the math, if that makes sense as im rambling here taking a break from reading a text book on the ansi c second edition that i got on sale haha. man out of print text books are expensive, i wish i kept all my old hardcover books from university. i ordered a data structures book today that i used in school and it is over 250 dollars for the hard cover and it's only a short book. i checked amazon and ebay everyday for months until i found it at a decent price today. i remember one of my data mining algorithm classes didnt even have a text book yet back in the 90's haha. the pdp we had was so old that you couldnt even really do operations on large data sets properly unless you scheduled a batch file to execute after hours because the university used it for student services and payroll too.
I had forgotten about those books at Radio Shack: what a treasure they were!
I used this and other books to launch the classes as a shop teacher. Mid to late 70's. I had the trill to have a printer overhead camera that launched the class to make our own boads.
Awesome, i think i still have all my books from the late 70s early 80s. It would be fun to make them 50 year later. I build a bunch of radio shack kits like the intercom kit, in the late 70s. Thanks for sharing this brings back good memories and reminds me what a geek i was as a kid. Larry
Wow what a trip down memory lane. Any time my mom wanted to go to the mall she could bring me and let me loose knowing I'd be in one of 3 places, the arcade, the hobby shop or the back of radio shack. Loved the back of radio shack. I have all these notebooks and probably built 1 circuit from all of them lol. Great idea making the pcbs, love it!
You can still find some of these books in pdf format. Great stuff!
Amazing video! I’m a little jealous this video wasn’t available for my fall digital logic class. I still enjoyed the video, I always enjoy refreshing my memory and learning more. Thank you 😊
Forrest Mimms !
Certainly a name worth mentioning !
And the way those books were done over what looked to be graph paper, was genius !
But speaking of Radio Shack, one thing you never hear people mention, is where do I take all the, " Lifetime " guaranteed Tubes I have ?
You'd have to be an old timer, to get that one !
My how things have changed !
It was really nice during the early days of the Shack, where you could actually buy components, or Stereo's and speakers, even some Ham Radio related gear !
Those were the days !
There's websites like adafruit and RS where you can buy components individually and cheaply I might add, still it's not like being in the store, especially when most of the people back then actually knew about the products they were selling and you could pick their brain for awhile.
It would be awesome to see more of these videos. I'm often caught trying to explain how things were done "in the old days".
Good that you corrected your sentence in post-production.
Thank you for showing us that four of Mims's 555 circuits work and how.
I guess I'd call the "frequency divider" a "pulse counter" since it only triggers on every third pulse of the trigger down-up transition, as shown in Mims's illustration.
Haha. It's surprisingly hard to talk and film at the same time :) And I think that's a fair title.
I built a few dozen when I was a kid. I liked the Hartley radio transmitter. The hard part for many of the projects that interested me was I didn't have tools to built enclosures and supports for many of the parts other than taping things to the desk/etc. Learned a lot. Didn't learn so much from those spring board things 150-in-1 type of kits.
I do want to go back to my spring kits and find out what I can learn from them today. There's a lot more documentation so you never know. I remember that transmitter. Such a cool looking device.
@@AnotherMaker I was able to get up and down my block hearing it. Then, one day, it de-tuned. I couldn’t find it on my AM/FM radio. Tossed it. Think I used a plastic soda straw to make the coil.
love this collection. something so right about going thru these, engineering paper and pencil... good times
I loved those books! I wish I still had mine! Thank you, so much for sharing this!!🤩 I’d love to see more!
Something to think about for next iterations :)
Have a look at panelization - basically you have cutouts to build a bunch of boards the same way - they would panelize your boards onto a big panel in order to do the printing.
But, if you create 'shark bites' between your boards - basically make your little board a panel of the smaller circuits.
Add the pwr input on each, but have the central power panel with your jumpers to switch which board you power up.
The logic here is it would look/function the same, bar a couple of unsoldered pins on each board.
But, if you wanted to actually use a circuit, you can break off that circuit and use it by itself :)
So if you did sell kits, you can sell the above and singles (if people wanted specific circuits)
But by default they'd get the batch of panels.
So say someone wanted to use a specific circuit from their pack, they can break it off and actually use it.
ARRL & the “Pop-Tronics” magazines were my intro - discrete components, tubes, VTVM’s, Heathkits! No “Ick’s” to start my electronics play..
The 555 timer was a fine intro to integrated circuits.
I use to own that book while I was in college. Loved watching this video!
Great stuff. I learned electronics from these books. Great to see the books memorialized in PCB’s.
Nice video, takes me back! Thanks for the time and effort you dedicated to it!
Well done! Thank you for this installment. I, for one, appreciate your work and would enjoy seeing more of these.
Peace and Love to ALL!! 😉
Thank you so much! I look forward to doing more!
Forrest M Mims.......wow. That brings back a ton of memories....Thanks.
Learned so much from those from middle to high school. Put me onto a good path.
That's so good to hear. The guy was a legend.
A kit with one of each would be great. Still have my books too.
I think it would be fun. And not super hard to source the components if you're doing it in bulk. A few of the cheap resistor/transistor/capacitor kits would do it.
@@AnotherMaker I actually just bought a Radio Shack kit off Ebay, no idea where my old one ended up. I think it will be fun to use again.
Brilliant. I remember the good old days of sitting in the back of Radio Shack doing this exactly.
No, I did not have enough money when I was a kid bit I do have the full first set and yes I believe I built most of those projects.. it was fun! I still have all the components with me. 555 and 3900 and others. 😊
This video brought back so many memories... thanks
Loved these books as a kid!
Would be awesome if you did more of these
I love these! I built many including my favorite the missing pulse detector circut
Good stuff man, would love to see more!
Thank you! I'm hoping to release one of these a month. It's 7 boards total and I'm finished making the 4th one now, so I should be able to stay on schedule.
80's life was awesome , I used to save my pocket money and buy all the tools like solder bar , components , pcbs and i have also done several projects given in a book.
I loved those books and think I still have mine stuffed in some tub somewhere. They were awesome and I pretty much bought mine the way you bought yours. About once a week, depending on cash in hand. After all, sometimes you have to buy components.
I sure hope you make the other PCB files available and HOW ABOUT op amp book circuits! I have PCB-1 ordered but not arrived yet!
Man, I had them all! Very cool to see them here again 😎
I went through many of the Heathkit electronics trainers back in the 80’s. Would be cool to go back through them
Forrest Mims! Lots of fond memories...
I have that book. Bought it when I got into electronics. Love it!
Great video! Very informative and looks like you'll have a great demand for the PCBs as educational tools.
Thank you. I hope people get as much out of it as I have.
Usually when you want to have interchangeable parts on a PCB, you'd use an IC socket, and you can just push the components in just like on a breadboard. The "machined" sockets are better than the spring contact sockets, but the spring contact sockets allow for different lead sizes on the components. Less fumbly than screw terminals. Phoenix Contact (and generic clones) also have push-in wire to board connectors, with a little release button you can press with a jeweler's screwdriver
Yup. And I think they're 5.0mm (or at least the ones I saw were) so they'd fit on this PCB. I'm using a ton of them, so trying to keep costs down a bit.
Actually I think they have a second set of feet, so maybe not.
I still have those very same books! The 555 one was crucial!
The 555 is a wonderful chip. I built lots of stuff with these. Most useful was a tachometer for my Vega (yes, I owned a Chevy Vega). Worked great.
I remember learning to solder at 9 years old. On the weekends, I would rush into my local Tandy shop (RadioShack), buy these books (still have everyone) and some Veroboard with my paper round money.
Wow, I build all of those projects, dead bug style on perfboard......some 40+ years ago. I still have that 555 book and a few more around here somewhere.
I am clearly very like you. I had the exact same experience in the uk equivalent shop, known as Tandy (they sold Radio Shack, Archer and Vellman branded items).
Sadly Tandy went bust about 1996, but then a mail order component company known as Maplin branched out into high street shops.
These were very similar to tandy, except they generally had a much larger stock of components, but still carried the das blinkenlights toys and gimmicks.
I learned so much from these books, especially one about the NE555 and another one about the 741 opamp.
Thank you for tickling a part of my brain which hadnt awoken for a few decades!
Absolutely! That's so fun. I think another creator I know is coming out with some of the 741 opamp stuff, so that should be fun.
Oh wow, that would be amazing. Which creator, I'll give them a follow?
Keep doing what you're doing.
@@daveash9572 Thank you. No pressure on him to actually make the video, but he's worth following any way... Gadget Reboot.
So, hear me out... I was talking to myself two days ago about how versatile the 555 was and that there are probably a million and a half applications of the swiss army knife of circuit design....
And then youtube plops this in my feed, today. I am certain I have my phone set to not record things, but we all know how effective settings are in software, these days.
Anyway, great video, I appreciate your work, and for those struggling with problems, talk to your phone about it, you never know when the algorithm will connect dots and make things happen. "What if WE are the algorithm...."
haha. It's pretty insane how that works. And thank you! I will try to channel your thoughts before my next video.
@15:00 set the trigger to be from the unstable signal, Yellow. This should make it more stable.
I have them all, and tested many of the circuits. I did, however, found many mistakes, so I have them pretty well marked-up!
I found a few while I was designing them...which I was pretty surprised since it was a later edition. And I think I found one that made its way to a board. If you want to share any notes, I'd always take them!
@@AnotherMaker - Sorry, can't give them up. I know, I know!
Oh my goodness. I'd forgotten about those. I had his original engineer's TTL notebook and a few of the mini notebooks. In the pre-internet days those books were vital. You didn't necessarily build the circuit in isolation but they were great as building blocks within a larger design. I've still got those books - somewhere.
I probably owe my entire career to Mr. Mims (and Don Lancaster). Aside from the "just enough" explanations in his books, what really separated them from many of the others at the time was that the THE CIRCUITS ACTUALLY WORKED! And you could buy all the parts right there at radio shack.
Waiting for Part 2.
1:50 "earn literally tens of pennies from this video" 😂😂😂😂🤣🤣
Great video dude. I loved these books and learned a shed load from them.
Thank you so much!
VERY GOOD TOPIC. Great idea with the PC boards. Got the books never built circuits. Over time I have built some if I had a use for them though.
Forrest Mims really did a great job writing those books. He was definitely an inspiration to me growing up. But, I'm convinced those designs were simply takin' from other sources. The light sensing circuits don't ever use diodes. Diodes make a greater difference in voltages. In turn, it makes the circuit work better when going from lite to dark, or vise versa.
Awesome idea. Thank you very much.
Here in UK Tandys was the weekend go to figuring out the next project (within pocket money) The books are still on my shelf and I still refer to then now and then.
Such fun memories. I did some of the kits as a kid. Wish I would have done more from the books. I loved them though.
4:07 I would use modern spring-cage or lever terminals from WAGO or Phoenix Contact.
For example, Phoenix LPT 2,5/ 2-5,0.
I think they're the same footprint, so they can be swapped in.
@@AnotherMaker Should be. Highly recommended. :)
I still have my copy. For some reason, hand drawn diagrams make learning easier. Similarly, I find that making diagrams with pencil in a large notepad is the best way to develop a design. Which a few generations are now unaware of. It engages the brain in a particular way. I just drew up a diagram of an ESP32 cluster topology a few days ago. Although it was all in my head, it is so much clearer what must be done if I make a multi-colour diagram. And it is much faster than using computer graphics.
I’ve got all of those books also. BTW, almost all of those 555 circuits came from the application sheets from the manufacturers.
Great video !
Thanks!
Well, I'm tempted to subscribe just for this series. Wonderful nostalgia!
I added a playlist that I'll put these in. My channel is kind of all over the place. Whatever hits me on a given day, but all these boards will be in a playlist if you don't want to sub to everything.
in the past oi had a springboard, was nice , my first experience with electronics, after that i studied electronics for years and build nice things , was good at 6502, Z80 , uses 555 a lot and also TTl 74xx series and 40xx series lots of fun.
What a great idea!
I had all of those books and built none of them, but they were all somehow integral to one of my" inventions".
I sub'd
At first I was skeptical about your efforts, and I apologize to your sir, as you have informed me that you did speak with Forrest, I think your efforts are wonderful. It would be great to see a reprint of this work along with your pcb's - What I like most about his work is it taught me by doing rather than force feed me all the theory that makes no sense... By doing hands on and seeing results, that to me is when a person can relate the theory to it. When I first learned transistors, it was from his work, I only knew little operation of them, but I could make stuff, and when stuff wasnt working right, thats when I dove into theory and learned more about bias etc. At the time, 1976 my great uncle was an engineer for RCA and when he started teach me some tube stuff, I had small foundation to better understand them. - I see so many "makers" who grab 3 modules and say I made a thing, sure cool, but what about the people who make those modules? if we dont keep learning at this level, the we will lose it and who will make future modules because todays people are only connecting devices and dont know how to make devices - ok sorry for rant, I just feel your work here extends Forrest work and has so much more to offer than people realize