timeline of a technophile
Chapter 1 (the beggining of a technophile)I was very young when I first became interested in electricity and electronics, the type of kid who would stick wires into electrical outlets, always taking things apart (and often getting in trouble for it). Even before I was a teenager I had made electromagnets by wrapping wire around iron/ferrous metal bolts and connected the wire ends to a battery.
My 2nd grade (age 7 years) science experiment was an electromagnet that picked up paperclips (how many paper clips could an electromagnet pickup). I had come up with this experiment entirely on my own. I doubt the same could be said of most of my 2nd grade classmates. In addition to electromagnets I was also playing with electric motors and lights that had been recovered out of various things I had taken apart.
I had played with electric trains when I was young as well. My Stepfather had a hobby train set (a small n-scale or something like that). It was fascinating in that it was electric and could speed up or slow down all from a central controller. There were also remote switches that could send a train from one track to another.
By the time I was getting close to my teens I had started picking up junk electronics and things at nearby neighborhood garage sales. Many times I would wait until the sale was over and ask if I could have the TV/Stereo/Lights/etc. for free if I hauled it off.
Now that I owned (and couldn't get in trouble for taking apart) plenty of electronic "junk". I started learning how to de-solder and solder things together. I've spent many years since then taking things apart soldering and de-soldering things. De-constructing and then constructing things that are useful, entertaining even occasionally artistic.
During my younger years some other influential things that where happening inlcluded the advent of video games in the 80's along with the home game consoles the Atari 2600/VCS cartridge based game system. TI 99/4a, Commodore 64, Apple II series computers.
Chapter 2 (The Modulation/Demodulation 'Modem' Years)
The mid 1980's and the early 1990's were the golden era of Computer Bulletin Board Systems. In 1986 a friend of mine gave me his old 300 baud (yes baud not bits per second) Zoom Modem. It was for the Apple IIe computer and was an internal modem immediately I installed this modem in the family's home computer (a beige Apple IIe with a green screen monitor). It did not even have the capability of dialing numbers. The number was dialed with a standard analog phone (that was on the same phoneline) when a carrier signal was heard a switch connected to the modem was flipped and the handset of the phone was placed on hook. The modem would the "talk" to the other modem and negotiate the connection speed (a process called "handshaking")
This was only the beginning of my modem obsession and being able to dial up other computers, computer systems and mainframes was nothing short of magic and technical prowess. I soon graduated to a 1200 baud modem which I purchased second hand after saving up my paper route money. It was an external modem so I also had to purchase a serial/parallel/realtime clock card for the Apple II series computer (note: at that time I/O ports and real time clocks were not neccesarily built in or included with a basic computer system). I also had to purchase seperately a cable to connect the the serial I/O card to the modem. I called a local cable making cable company and had them build a very short cable since this was the cheapest possible way to get a modem cable (short of making it if you had the materials). I gave them the pinout specifications from the modem manual and the type of connectors needed. The cable worked perfectly!
Much of what I did was in the pursuit of wanting to have my own BBS since at the time having your own BBS was considered über elite. It wasn't until later that I eventually set up a BBS. In fact I sold the modem, cable and clock card to a friend who set up a BBS on his Apple IIe called Academy of Computer Science or ACS (3 letter acronyms for BBS'es were a must have). That event took place in the summer of 1987 between my Junior and Senior year of High School a time when my friends and I also got jobs for the summer at a company which specialized in purchasing liquidated computer and electronic inventories. I had originally gone there to see what they had and found a 1MB expansion card for the Apple II. During the price negotation the owner/partner of the company offered me a summer job working in the warehouse in echange for electronics. This was too good of an opportunity to pass up.
In High School typing class was still being done with electric typewriters since computers were too valuable to be exclusively used for a typing. I hated it I wanted to learn how to type on computers so I could program faster then by the hunt and peck method plus typing on the computer corrections are easily made. I took the only available computer course at the time "Computer Math".
Chapter 3 (beyond high school)
I enrolled in a local university not long after I had graduated from High School my goal was a degree in Electrical Engineering. I did well in my Fortran 77 programming class and enjoyed Chemistry but at that time I had hated high school with such a passion college was too much like it and I dropped out.
In Fall of 1989 I begin going to a local vocational school for electronics it was an intense course of study lasting 48 weeks total. This was divided into 6 sections AC/DC, Analog/Digital, Transistors, Digital Logic, and Microprocessors with my final project being a transistor radio constructed with surface mount components. This was a great learning experience for me and for the first time in my life excelled in school with a 4.0 grade average graduated with an Award for Acedemic Acheivement (best overall grades and attendance). During most of 1990 I also worked full time at a graphics shop that produced car decals/stickers. After graduation I quit the assembly line graphics job and begin looking for a job that I could sink my teeth into.
List of hardware acquisition and purchase (approximate times and costs)
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1986 300 baud Zoom Modem - cost 0.00$
1987 1200 bps modem - cost appx $120
1987 serial/parallel/timeclock card for Apple II - cost appx $100
1987 custom made modem cable $15
1989 IBM Compatible 80286 12mhz
with 2 - 5 1/4" low density (360KB) Floppy Drive, 1 MB Ram,Amber Screen Monitor
1990 purchased 2 - 30 Megabyte Mitsubish Hard Drives would work as either MFM or RLL
1990 purchase VGA color monitor and Video Card for over $250
1990's purchased an eprom programmer connected to an IBM PC parallel port. $120
1990-1991 begin working for various independent computer assemblers, building new computers and refurbishing old ones. Acquired, purchased, traded, computers and parts
1991 Started taking trips to Dallas, Texas for the "Saturday Sale" a very large outdoor area in downtown Dallas that on the first saturday of the month would be converged upon by computer sellers and buyers
1992 worked in a downtown Kansas City, Missouri computer shop
1992 purchased an Amiga 500 ($200-$300) and a 386dx 40mhz motherboard $120-$200
built and repaired numerous computer systems.
1992 later part of 1992 moved back to Wichita, Kansas.
1992 Purchased Math Co-Processor 80487 chip $80? for 386dx40 computer
1992 External Parallel Port 40MB tape drive $400
1993 Amiga 3000 and Amiga 1000 computer $500
1993 Purchased 486dx2 66Mhz first clock doubled microprocessor (With built in Math Co-Processor) and Mother Board $600
1994 First Laser Printer $400
1997 First Flatbed Scanner
1998 First CD-ROM Writer
electronic/mechanical projects
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1988 built a solid state tesla coil from instructions in a book by Robert Iannini
Build Your Own Lasers, Phasers, Ion Ray Gun and Other Working Space Age Projects.
I used this solid state tesla coil for many, many years repairing it numerous times up until 1997 or so (about 10 years).
1993-94 copied an updated 14,400 bps modem firmware eprom to a file so that I could create duplicates for friends with the same modem. The upgraded firmware allowed the modem to "read" caller-ID information from the telephone company.
1998 Constructed a remotely controlled (via joystick interface and electric power cables) to control an old very heavy duty outdoor camera mount (a person could stand on top if it and it would rotate the person on top of it)with a few other pieces and parts a 'found art' sculpture was constructed.
posted by ml.dub @ 11:05 AM
