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Old 6th Nov 2020, 9:11 pm   #41
Mooly
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Default Re: Ridiculous thoughts and ideas from a young age

I was always fascinated by meters (meters with pointers) and wondered if I could build a voltmeter from a Lego moto and a loosely fitted belt or string of some kind between pulleys. The idea was that the faster the motor went and the more the slipping 'belt' could pull a pointer over. Not sure how many ohms per volt that would have weighed in at.

Those Ladybird books were great, I remember those. I built a pretty impressive buzzer from a piece of soft iron bar my father procured which was hammered into a horseshoe shape and wound with many turns of wire. The whole thing was fitted to a block of wood and used a hacksaw blade as the vibrating element and with an adjustable screw as a make/break contact.

My first foray into real electronics came from a pile of parts removed from a small 6 transistor radio of the type popular back in the day. I longed to make an amplifier of some sort or other and remember carefully soldering various bits together with no real idea about component polarities or types. Seem to remember that not only didn't it work in any way but at first I hadn't grasped the essential of having to provide a supply voltage.

Eeee but they were happy days
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Old 6th Nov 2020, 9:19 pm   #42
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When they demolished the local station and its associated signal-box, us kids were all over the remains. I remember scoring a load of old carbon-zinc primary-batteries that were about 4 inches diameter and 8 inches long. These had been part of the signalling/telephone system in the station's weighbridge.

We had a lot of fun with these batteries: they were old and dried-out, but if you got a good log-fire going then dumped a dozen or so of the dead batteries into it they burned rather impressively!

I pulled the central carbon-rods out of some of these batteries - they were about an inch diameter.

We discovered that if you connected one of them across the terminals of a car-battery, using suitably-thick leads, the carbon-rod would get-hot to the point where it started to throw-off impressive showers of sparks. After a few minutes of this the rod would start to thin-out and the thinner part would then glow white-hot before finally breaking.

Then we sought-out a fresh rod!
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Old 6th Nov 2020, 9:29 pm   #43
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I was always fascinated by meters (meters with pointers) and wondered if I could build a voltmeter from a Lego moto and a loosely fitted belt or string of some kind between pulleys. The idea was that the faster the motor went and the more the slipping 'belt' could pull a pointer over. Not sure how many ohms per volt that would have weighed in at.
That reminds me of something I haven't thought abort for decades!
My home made meter was a length of nichrome wire that expanded as the current increased and a pulley that moved a needle across a scale.
A Hot-Wire ammeter. It worked really well and no doubt I used it with my Hornby train controller.
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Old 6th Nov 2020, 10:54 pm   #44
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We discovered that if you connected one of them across the terminals of a car-battery, using suitably-thick leads, the carbon-rod would get-hot to the point where it started to throw-off impressive showers of sparks. After a few minutes of this the rod would start to thin-out and the thinner part would then glow white-hot before finally breaking.

Then we sought-out a fresh rod!
Ah yes reminds me of experiments on my bedroom windowsill. Steel wool burns well with electricity applied, but I don't remember how I lit the cotton wool (but probably with electricity again), just that it was worryingly close to setting fire to something else like the curtains.
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Old 6th Nov 2020, 11:27 pm   #45
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I used to fill glass pop bottles with hydrogen by electrolysis. Carbon rod from a 126 battery with screw terminal. It took several hours to displace the water. Made a satisfying bang when ignited. I tried to make electric matches using my supply of nichrome wire to detonate them remotely, but I don't remember much success.

Inevitably, these were my H-Bomb experiments.
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Old 6th Nov 2020, 11:37 pm   #46
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Failed remote detonation was how i learned about volt-drop!
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Old 6th Nov 2020, 11:56 pm   #47
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I remember making a basic arc light with a couple of pencil leads held by crocodile clips connected to a 12v supply. I could get some quite bright sparks with it.
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Old 7th Nov 2020, 12:16 am   #48
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When I was ten I was given a buzzer and I used it along with MES bulbs bell pushes and those Woolworth's tumbler switches to make signalling units between my room and my younger sisters room.
I ended up with about six fine wires that I must have got from a coil of some sort tucked under the hall carpet, it didn't work too well.

My dads best friend was an electrician, and he drew out for me a much simpler arrangement that used fewer wires.

I found it hard to understand. He had introduced me to the concept of a common conductor, instead of thinking.about multiple circuits in isolation.
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Old 7th Nov 2020, 12:26 am   #49
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I blame Star Trek for that.

Almost every technical problem on that programme could be solved by 'reversing the polarity' or, that other great baffler, 're-modulating the phase'.
That was jon pertwee's version of doctor who

My stupid stunt - left home alone, wanted to remove a bunch of chips from a circuit board I was playing with, didn't have any soldering equipment whatsoever but I knew solder melts when it's hot. What did I do? Put it on one of the cooker rings, and walked off expecting to come back later when it was done.

It was a very short while later that the entire house was full of nasty black smoke and the smell didn't go away for about three days. The chips didn't come out.
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Old 7th Nov 2020, 1:29 am   #50
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Mine is a spelling mistake(!).

For years - longer than I can remember - probably into my teens, I spelled 'amplifier' as 'ampliFIRE'. Why? Well, my parent's record player (gramophone) in the early 60s was a rexine covered Bush which had the valves near the top of the case at the font with the volume and tone controls. It ran hot - very hot - and my mother always worried that it would catch fire. As a 6 year old (or so) this talk of 'fire' stuck with me because my father always wrote off my mother's worries by saying that it was '. . . just the amplifier (FIRE)'. Oh dear, how mortified I was to find that it was nothing to do with fire . . .

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Old 7th Nov 2020, 6:53 am   #51
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Ah yes reminds me of experiments on my bedroom windowsill. Steel wool burns well with electricity applied, but I don't remember how I lit the cotton wool (but probably with electricity again), just that it was worryingly close to setting fire to something else like the curtains.
When I did a similar experiment, my father 'liberated' a small reel of tungsten wire for me to try... You could get that to glow white-hot for 10's of seconds before it burnt away.
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Old 7th Nov 2020, 6:56 am   #52
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Originally Posted by Mooly View Post
I was always fascinated by meters (meters with pointers) and wondered if I could build a voltmeter from a Lego moto and a loosely fitted belt or string of some kind between pulleys. The idea was that the faster the motor went and the more the slipping 'belt' could pull a pointer over. Not sure how many ohms per volt that would have weighed in at.
I tried (and just about got to work) a similar thing using a Fischertechnik motor spinning a magnet close to an aluminium disk (like a car speedometer) with a rubber band as the return spring. I wanted to use it to move a pen across a bit of paper as a recording voltmeter but it didn't have enough torque for that.

Later of course I learnt about servomechanisms.
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Old 7th Nov 2020, 8:38 am   #53
Graham G3ZVT
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Paul, I once confidentiality marched into one of the radio shops in Shudehill Manchester, and asked for a Multiguard OC71. Go figure.
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Old 7th Nov 2020, 10:20 am   #54
PaulM
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Graham, I hope the shopkeeper put you right gently!

The problem with my spelling of 'amplifier' is interesting in that since the age of 9 I had been reading PW, PE and even PT (when I could lay my hands on copies . . .), but still I was seeing 'amplifier' as 'amplifire'. By 11 I had even made transistor amplifiers and used valves. The problem was further compounded because I then knew that valves had heaters, and that went with 'fire' . . .

To cap it all, I'd written a pretty long project at school called 'electronics' which my teachers thought was marvellous but sadly had not corrected my spelling (perhaps they didn't know either).

It was something of an event when I realised I'd been spelling it wrongly for years with nobody correcting me!

Never mind, I once knew somebody in their 40s in the world of TV who spelled 'video' as 'vidio' - just as bad really.

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Old 7th Nov 2020, 10:50 am   #55
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I used to fill glass pop bottles with hydrogen by electrolysis. Carbon rod from a 126 battery with screw terminal. It took several hours to displace the water. Made a satisfying bang when ignited. I tried to make electric matches using my supply of nichrome wire to detonate them remotely, but I don't remember much success.

Inevitably, these were my H-Bomb experiments.
You reminded me about making hydrogen using weak acid (vinegar, I think) and magnesium swarf my dad sometimes brought home from work. I could sometimes get a carrier bag to float across the garage. Generally though, we threw the Mg on the bonfire and put a bucket of water on top!
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Old 7th Nov 2020, 11:33 am   #56
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Aged about 7, a friend and i wanted to make a baked bean tin and single wire "telephone". The type that relies on the sound wave travelling along the wire.
We found a large drum of house wiring cable in the garage and proceeded to strip a single wire out of it.
Dad was not pleased when he got home and saw what remained of his new drum of twin cable!
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Old 7th Nov 2020, 12:41 pm   #57
Graham G3ZVT
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Paul, I once confidentiality marched into one of the radio shops in Shudehill Manchester, and asked for a Multiguard OC71. Go figure.
There I go again. I meant confidently

Some perverse version of Skitt's Law at work here.
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Old 7th Nov 2020, 1:21 pm   #58
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Sounds like Mrs Malaprop may have figured in the family tree somewhere.


I smiled at what I thought was a nice bit of satire I read the post.
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Old 7th Nov 2020, 1:31 pm   #59
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I could never understand why circuits were so complex. I thought surely, there's only one signal (!) so the circuit should just comprise a series chain of components, in one end and out the other, simple.
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Old 7th Nov 2020, 3:36 pm   #60
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Well, I e had many daft ideas over the years! Most from lack of understanding.

First one, I was very young, I had no idea of the concept of recorded media, and it was the day that the death of Freddie Mercury was announced, and I said to my mum when I saw it on the news ‘does this mean we won’t be able to listen to Queen on the tape anymore?’ I had it in my head that somehow putting the tape in the machine put you through to a live playing of what was listed on the cassette! I remember feeling quite sad about the whole thing until someone played the tape (Innuendo, brilliant record!) and Freddie’s voice came through as loud and clear as ever. It’s probably why I’d never turn off a song part way through, as I thought it’d be quite rude!

Another one from a young age, we had a Toshiba colour TV with a sheet of glass over the front of the tube, possibly a contrast screen, I thought it would be possible to take it off and climb in to whatever was on at the time! Little did I know that there was more glass behind the first bit! Luckily, I never tried it.

One time my Auntie told me she had a TV that didn’t work, and she had been told they tube is broken’ so I suggested sticking it back together with sellotape... I thought the ‘tube’ was just like a bog roll tube!! No idea of the actual construction of one, never mind the fact it had a vacuum in it! The set in question probably didn’t have a broken tube at all.. I do remember my Grandad telling me about the inner workings of a tv, and his mention of a gun in the back and the electricity had to jump across a tube, I had all kinds of wild images in my head after that!

Long before LCD TV’s were a thing, I’d thought of getting a load of pocket TV’s and making a video wall out of them, I didn’t think about how to drive them, or the fact it’d be like watching TV through a garden trellis! I just thought the idea of having a thin tv that could hang on the wall would be rather good.

Most ridiculous thing I ever did was build an ‘amplifier’, which actually made everything quieter... it was entirely passive, since it was actually the tuner from a smashed black and white TV! It amused me for a while...

One of my friends from school decided that his battery powered pocket fan needed more power on a hot summers day, so wired it into the mains, as you can imagine, a motor designed for use on 3V from 2 AA batteries had a very short but spectacular life!

First electric shock I got was from a Sega Game Gear, I’d taken it to bits and was messing about looking at how the screen worked, it was a colour LCD with fluorescent backlight, I thought it was perfectly safe to prod around with it switched on, it only ran from 9V, and I’d never had a shock from a 9V battery! So I touched the connections to the backlight tube, it didn’t half sting!

I used to forage around for broken electronics that had been dumped as a kid, and I once thought that maybe I could project a picture onto a wall with the broken off gun of a CRT, I never got to try that either!

I had lots of excitement once when at the age of about 10 I found an almost complete black and white TV thrown in a bush! It just had the back cover broken at the top, all the insides were intact, I dragged it most of the way home in a plastic box, and my Dad caught me with it, ‘your not bringing that rubbish home! It’s probably stolen!’ So I had to leave it in the middle of a playing field and go home. The next day I rushed straight from school to the field expecting the worst, everything used to get smashed by the big kids, to my surprise, there was the TV upside down in the middle of the field! Someone had nicked the box and left it, so I dragged it into the bushes and hid it, managed to keep it there for a good few weeks. I’d noticed on the back that it said it could run from 12V, so I thought it might work from 9V! So off I went with a 9V battery in my pocket, and some bits of wire, and tried to make it run with a measly half dead 9V battery, suffice to say, it did nothing! Although I was probably trying to shove 9V into the mains input... eventually the big kids got their way with it and destroyed it, I was rather upset! All these years later I saw one on eBay and bought it for old times sake, it was an Iskra Classic.

There are probably loads more daft little stories, these are just some that I remember well!

Regards
Lloyd
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