What was your first circuit? Do you still remember it? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: bjcuizon
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 25, 2017, 07:01:33 am
content: Hi, I found out that there were already threads about something like your first multimeter, etc. Now, I think sharing (and maybe talking) about our first circuit would be fun as all of us had our beginning days....And hopefully, it could inspire and motivate some beginners and newbies too.So here we go, let's start with mine.Back in the day, when I was 8, I was really interested in analog audio stuff. I was not really interested in electronics back then, I just loved connecting wires (and lots of them) on audio systems. But while surfing on the web, I was directed to this circuit which says that the LEDs will light up depending on the intensity of the sound.I then went to my local electronics shop to buy some parts and connected some bare wires to the transistor. And to my excitement, it worked perfectly!This was a thing of beauty for me and so that's how I got into electronics.Anyway, that was my beginning. What's yours?

author: ataradov
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 25, 2017, 07:40:06 am
content: Hooking up some music playing IC.EDIT: This one:

author: capt bullshot
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 25, 2017, 07:58:30 am
content: I don't remember what was exactly the first circuit I built, one was a rather big and loud installation:My grandfather complained about the birds picking the best cherrys from the big cherry tree we had back then in the garden. So I wanted to help him out with an automatic solution:I hooked up a lot of electromechanical stuff (like a master clock providing a pulse per minute driving a uniselector salvaged from a PABX (fully electromechanical type, a cupboard sized box full of relays etc.), some relays, transformers, rectifiers to finally drive a relay on for some seconds every ten minutes. I even integrated a (also mechanical) timer to stop the ringing at night.The relay in turn switched (ac mains) power to a large telecom outdoor electric bell that I installed in the cherry tree.The whole installation lasted for about half a day, since my parents were asked by the neighbours to remove the annyoing noise.Other (more electronic) things I built can be seen here:http://wunderkis.de/Blinkenlights/blinkedinger.html(sorry, it's German text, just look at the pictures - no schematics)

author: RoGeorge
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 25, 2017, 08:03:21 am
content: Of course I remember!It was a 'square' 4.5V battery and a light bulb.As a kid, it was totally mind blowing to discover that you don't actually need a flashlight to light the bulb.

author: bjcuizon
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 25, 2017, 08:16:35 am
content: Quote from: capt bullshot on July 25, 2017, 07:58:30 amIt's Okay. My browser translated the text automatically to english. Now I can read and understand it.

author: NivagSwerdna
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 25, 2017, 09:27:01 am
content: ETI Metal Detector was my first 'proper' project. It never worked very well... in reterospect I probably didn't have the proper equipment to set it up properly.A copy of the original article is here...https://my.vanderbilt.edu/mriinterlock/files/2013/01/Induction-Balance-Metal-Detector.pdf(Before that lamps and switches and charging discharging big capacitors from salvage TVs)

author: Zero999
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 25, 2017, 09:46:16 am
content: Quote from: RoGeorge on July 25, 2017, 08:03:21 amI did a similar thing. I used to be fascinated with lights as a child and used to play with the light switch. My dad probably got fed up with me turning the lights on and off, so found an old doll's house, put some batteries, a switch and a light in is, so I could play with that instead. Of course it wasn't long before I took it to bits to see how it worked. I can't remember how old I was but it was before I started school, so under 5.I learned a lot of things, just by doing experiments. I didn't have access to the Internet or many books on the subject.I remember making my own relay, before I even knew the word relay or had read about it in a book. I used a large nail wrapped in thin wire as the armature, which doubled as one of the contacts. The other contact was a springy piece of steel. I was amazed that the electromagnetic switch I'd made allowed a tiny 1.5V battery to switch a motor running of a 12V battery.I made myself a motor generator set, using a lower voltage motor, driving a higher voltage motor. It enabled me to power a 9V walkie talkie off a 1.5V battery. I also learned about conservation of energy when I tried to connect a motor to a dynamo to make an overunity device and failed.

author: rdl
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 25, 2017, 01:02:43 pm
content: I'm sure I assembled a lot of stuff on breadboards just playing around. I'd bet that an LED circuit was the first, but I don't remember now. The first thing I ever built that was permanent and meant to be used was an LM317 based power supply. I built it in 1985 and disassembled it many years ago. I don't remember why and wish I hadn't, but I still have most of the parts.That's a genuine Simpson meter. I flipped the faceplate and made my own scale with rub on lettering. The transformer came from Radio Shack.

author: Rbastler
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 25, 2017, 01:29:29 pm
content: My first circuit was either a led blinking device, or a one transistor middle wave transmitterSent from my A0001 using Tapatalk

author: kakabouras
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: July 25, 2017, 01:45:50 pm
content: A crystal radio receiver that could pick up a single local MW station during the evenings onlyI was at the 4th grade at school then.

author: KL27x
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 25, 2017, 09:42:45 pm
content: I was probably 4 when I made my first circuit. Staple in the wall outlet.

author: georges80
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 25, 2017, 10:45:49 pm
content: Crystal set for sure was #1 in primary school.#2 was a 2n3055, a battery, a CDS cell, a bulb and a battery in 1st yr HS. Was fascinated that I could turn on/off the bulb via the CDS cell.All downhill after that as I headed along the path to choose EE as a careerThis all 45+ years ago... Been a hoot of a trip so far.cheers,george.

author: Alex Eisenhut
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 26, 2017, 01:36:44 am
content: Like "designed", or from a book? I don't know exactly which one was first, but I have several firsts.1) I borrowed a book from the library about lasers. I was maybe 12. I read the thing, understood it at a 12 year old level. This was a 1970s book. The circuit shown for driving LED lasers was kind of complicated, I guess 1970s laser LEDs needed a big kick to start. I used a regular red LED. I turned on the circuit and the LED exploded and the top flew at the ceiling. It smelled pretty bad.2) I also had a bunch of 1950s kid encyclopedias with tube-based circuits. I was only able to get tubes from salvaged TVs. I didn't understand the part numbers and had no real way to find out. I tried different ways to build the promised radio, instead I ended up cracking the tubes in my Dad's vise to peel apart the insides. I'm amazed I didn't eat it...3) A success was a RAM expansion for the VIC-20. By this time I was maybe 14 and much better, I worked a lot to scrape together the 40$ I needed for two 8Kx8 chips. I wired it up from an article in 73 Magazine, for hams. This worked great and made the VIC more useful until I got a 64.4) I tried electrolysis of water. This book said to take apart carbon zinc batteries for the carbon electrodes. I built a nice big cell and ignited the hydrogen. That's a circuit, right?I built a lot of circuits from Radio Electronics (1980s).My first self-designed stuff must have been a 555 based timer for model rocketry, to stage motors. Black powder engines stage themselves, but I was looking forward to composite engines. I made a test with Estes black powder engines but my stager was so heavy that the rocket only made it 40 feet up until it ignited the second stage. It was sketchy but it worked.I quite stupidly put a bunch of N NiCd batteries IN the rocket to power the igniter.

author: Mr.B
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: July 26, 2017, 01:43:38 am
content: I was 6 years old.It was Christmas.My uncle who was an EE gave me the following:A 12v minature ES lamp.A minature lamp holder with screw terminals.A SPST switch with screw terminals.Four alligator clips with screw terminals.Two 6v lantern batteries.A couple of metres of insulated wire, red and black.A small, old screw driver with a turned wooden handle.A schematic diagram.It all started then and there.More than 40 years later, I still have the screwdriver.

author: floobydust
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 26, 2017, 04:34:05 am
content: The cartoons made the difference, as a kid I could not understand the little parts.

author: dos
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 26, 2017, 05:19:01 am
content: First was probably what another poster said, hooking a small incandescent lamp to a battery, adding a switch, etc. Second-1000th was stuff on one of theseI remember wanting to get into electronics at a really young age and my dad first just went to radio shack and bought a few random parts, like a strip of resistors of one value, a two-pack of electrolytic caps, and a LM7805 (I still have this in it's package!). No breadboard or anythingWhen he realized that there was nothing I could really do with that stuff he went back and asked the salesperson what to get a kid for learning electronics and he recommended that project lab, which I must still have somewhere. I spent hours making the dumbest things on it (lots of noisemakers if I remember right) but it really helped to familiarize me with the basics, and I remember the book it came with being excellent.

author: Red Squirrel
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 26, 2017, 05:45:15 am
content: Quote from: RoGeorge on July 25, 2017, 08:03:21 amPretty much mine too, but with 2 D cells, a wire and a bulb. My grandpa showed that to me.I got home, and figured the mains plug must work the same way, one side is negative, the other is positive (I did not know the concept of AC or DC). That's when the paper clip came out, and a C9 christmas light bulb. I got it to light up and thought it was the coolest thing, until my finger slipped and I got a pretty nasty shock.I was probably like 10. My exploration of electricity just kind of grew from there. Though I never really got into electronics itself other than taking things apart or seeing how much voltage something can handle before it blows up, my interest in component level electronics was always kinda around but never really pursued it till recently. I'm still a newbie in that respect.

author: ivaylo
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 26, 2017, 06:45:37 am
content: Of course done crystal radios before and what not, but this was the first to fit in a plastic soap box, to have a battery holder, etc... Must have been 10-11?

author: Gary350z
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 26, 2017, 11:50:58 am
content: My first circuits were the Heathkit Electronic Workshop "19".This is about 1967 as far as I remember. I was about 10.After seeing this post I did a google image search and found these photos.

author: CJay
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 26, 2017, 12:05:42 pm
content: Five or six years old, 4.5V battery with screw terminals, wired to a light bulb and switch mounted on the roll top of a cigarette box so the bulb illuminated my Grandad's cigarettes when the roll top was opened, later replaced with the filament from a gas lighter so he could light his cigarettes when the roll top was opened.My first radio was a crystal one with high impedance earpiece, again built with Grandad and around 7 years of age but my very first soldered project was an 'electronic dice' which was a 555 and 4017 on Veroboard.Sadly I didn't realise that I needed to cut tracks on my pristine lump of Vero but a very nice bloke at Van Bek electronics in my home town showed me the error of my ways and at the age of 9 or 10 I had built my first 'proper' electronic project.Oh, and it was a 126 Bell battery. I used to save pocket money to buy those. Wish I still had one or two, just for nostalgia.

author: VK3DRB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 26, 2017, 12:23:41 pm
content: My first circuit was a voltage divider. I turned the theory into practice by taping various (unregulated) voltages off a power supply.My first program was on an TI SR-56 calculator which made a counter, something like:+1=DISPGOTO 1My first job during high school was as in the Children's Shoes Dept at a major department store in Melbourne. My manageress's name was Mrs Shine. Colleagues names were Mrs Springett and Mrs Niblett. In the women's lingerie department next to ours there was one male employee. His name was Mr Strange. I am not kidding - it is true. What's that got to do with electronics? Well as much as I hated that job, Mrs Shine gave me a glowing reference which helped secure my first real job after uni at IBM, and I have been designing circuits ever since.

author: brucehoult
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 26, 2017, 12:41:02 pm
content: Like many people, I started with lantern batteries, hookup wire, bulbs, switches.I was fascinated by how there were two switches in our hallway and either one could always turn the light on or off. I was happy when I figured out how to use two DPDT switches to do that, and then totally proud when I extended the solution to an arbitrary number of switches.Making electromagnets from nails and finer wire came soon after, and then crude buzzers (using bits of hacksaw blade) and relays and motors.My first real "project" was for a primary school play when I was 10. The play involved a UFO and the UFO needed flashing lights. I designed a thing with a short length of broomstick rotated by an electric motor, using an old alarm clock as a reduction gearbox and a rheostat from a model railway set as a speed control, I put drawing pins along the broomstick at different angles and a set of copper fingers touching the drawing pins as the broomstick rotated. The copper fingers were then connected to small bulbs spaced around the circumference of the UFO (big enough for several actors to stand inside it) with coloured cellophane over them.

author: G7PSK
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 26, 2017, 03:57:01 pm
content: A crystal set was my very first circuit, my parents had just bought a big old rambling house and in the attic I found among a lot of other junk a cats whisker crystal still in it's box so I made a radio from it then it was not loud enough so I built an amplifier for it from an old transistor tape recorder of the reel to reel variety and put the whole thing into a cigar box powered by six D cells. I had that radio for years before I got anything better it worked so well I did not need a big antennae. I was 11 when I built it and had the radio into my 20's

author: Refrigerator
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 26, 2017, 07:09:51 pm
content: I made my first circuit when i was four. It was a potentiometer, an incandescent bulb and a 9V battery in a cardboard box.You turn the pot and the bulb got brighter and dimmer.I brought it to the kindergarten the next day to show off.

author: spudboy488
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 27, 2017, 11:34:06 am
content: Similar to other posts, I started with a Radio Shack 65 in 1 kit. The first circuit was probably the first one in the book. The first one I remember though was a crystal radio. It helped to have a 50KW station 10 miles from the house.

author: pknoe3lh
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 27, 2017, 11:44:20 am
content: When I was around 8 I think (... don't remember)I saw a game:http://www.kreativekiste.de/elektro/dem-heissen-draht-auf-der-spurNext day (after terrorise my mother) we went to the local electrician to buy all the parts needed to rebuild this gameThats how I started

author: brucehoult
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 27, 2017, 12:10:51 pm
content: Quote from: spudboy488 on July 27, 2017, 11:34:06 amYes, I lived much too far in the countryside, surrounded by hills, for a crystal set to work. A two valve radio had enough trouble pulling a signal! TV reception was more snow than picture, and on summer evenings it was quite common for a TV station in Australia (!! 2500+ km away) to overpower our local TV translator south of Kaikohe in New Zealand.

author: daveyk
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 27, 2017, 10:15:21 pm
content: Quote from: kakabouras on July 25, 2017, 01:45:50 pmI remember doing a crystal radio using a corroded razor blade and a little whisker wire mounted above it and dragged acrossed It until a good "diode" junction occurred. That had to be early 1970's.Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

author: Hypernova
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: July 28, 2017, 01:13:19 am
content: Sticking mom's hairpin into the 110V socket. The resulting sparks gave me little rectangular blisters all over my palm for a week.First actual circuit was the dicksmith electronic dice kit during electronics class in intermediate school. My first time soldering so two LEDs were stuck at on.

author: Red Squirrel
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 28, 2017, 05:55:22 am
content: Quote from: Hypernova on July 28, 2017, 01:13:19 amHahaha. Suposedly when I was a toddler I crawled and pulled on the door/light switch with my mouth when my mom was loading groceries into the fridge. It broke and I got a shock on my face and was all black. I wish she had taken a picture of that, but this is before the "someone needs help but let me take a pic first!" era.

author: JPortici
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 28, 2017, 06:18:16 am
content: don't remember the very first.. but this hooked me up while in highschoolfound it looking around the interwebs...http://www.erbadellastrega.it/letture/sintetizzatore/italian vintage porn:http://www.introni.it/pdf/Radio%20Elettronica%201977_02.pdfwere never able to make the filter work, neither simulate it. this asshole used diodes as varible resistors, i blame it on 70's component's mojo

author: bd139
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 28, 2017, 10:47:02 am
content: This was mine

author: JPortici
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 28, 2017, 10:54:45 am
content: I WANT that kit. i just want it.

author: NivagSwerdna
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 28, 2017, 11:06:02 am
content: Quote from: pknoe3lh on July 27, 2017, 11:44:20 amA solar powered version (charging a battery over the long term) would make a great geocache... only open once you have navigated to the far end.

author: joeqsmith
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 28, 2017, 11:39:26 am
content: I remember using a 9V transistor battery, wire and a small light bulb held together with masking tape. The switch was pushing the wires together. I think that was before making the circuit with a line cord, outlet and starting the small fire on my bed.

author: Kleinstein
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 28, 2017, 12:17:13 pm
content: The first circuit I remember was in school, more or less try an error putting together 4.5 V batteries, lamps and switches. We somehow ended up in funny version that used 2 batteries, 2 lamps and a single, single simple switch in a way that either one or the other lamp was active. It took me very long to find out how this could work and for this reason I still remember.Probably this is still a nice puzzle for the beginners.

author: daveyk
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 28, 2017, 01:32:58 pm
content: That's a long way to recollect.I guess in school one of our teachers had us use magnet wire to wrap around a ~5 inch long 1x piece of wood to make the primary tuning coil. There was a point scrapper we made in metal shop class that would stand off the hunk of wood that we mounted the coil on. That scrapper was probably connected to the bottom (he'd) side of the coil. The scrapper was then scrapped across the coil in a wide arc and could tune the coil. The top of the coil went to a rectifier diode. We experimented with numerous ones, but I recollect using a corroded razer blade and another small piece of metal above it with a slice in it. From the slice was a dangling piece of magnet wire just touching the razor blade. Free m that slice metal, if I recollect correctly we hooked a crystal earphone from there to the ground (bottom of the coil). Between adjusting the razor blade rectifier and tuning to the coil you could tune in one of the two local AM radio stations.That was too cool. From there that led to a curiosity of electronics, CB Radio, Ham Radio and a career in electronics.I very fondly remember Radio Shacks P-Box kits. I can remember building a shortwave radio from one, building the RF preamplifier kit and a audio amplifier kit. I mounted all of that in a shell of a drawer storage unit with a piece of 1/8" paneling as a front panel with the controls sticking out. I listened to The His an Her show on it from Radio Nederlands broadcasting from the lesser Antilles (or something like that). I remember playing their Easter egg hunt (a world geography quiz) and mailing in my answers, getting a QSL card from them and hearing my name and results on the shortwave air!!! I was in heaven back then. I wish I could go back in time a re-experience that and teach myself to better appreciate the experience and better remember it and that in the long run, it is the best time of life growing up with a wild eye curiosity. That thirst for knowledge back then is better than having the answers.Of course I tore apart old TVs back then and actually managed to fix a couple. Tore apart radios. Fixed a BC348Q(?) B17 shortwave receiver and using it for years. Later built a bunch of Heathkit stuff, which I have sold all of it except for the 2m transceiver. Sigh, I sold my youth. All that is left is quickly fading memories.Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

author: German_EE
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 28, 2017, 05:54:34 pm
content: Back in the dim and distant past (yeah, I'm old) a magazine called Practical Wireless used to have a series called Take Twenty, simple circuits using less than twenty components. Well, I built a TRF radio from a Take Twenty design, I remember that it used a 2N2926G transistor and I built it by drawing the schematic on cardboard then pushing components through but that's about it.Oh yeah, it didn't work first time, I learned fault finding at an early age.

author: Red Squirrel
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 28, 2017, 06:26:22 pm
content: Quote from: bd139 on July 28, 2017, 10:47:02 amI actually have one in storage that is similar. I need to actually dust it off some day and go through it again for nostalgia sake, and now I'd actually understand the stuff it explains. Back when I was a kid I just put the wires where it told me and was like "cool!" but did not know how it actually worked.

author: bd139
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 28, 2017, 08:42:48 pm
content: Yeah those kits certainly lacked explanation. This lead to the demise of mine when I decided to "work it out" blowing just about everything up in itThen I got the Forest Mimms book followed shortly after by The Art of Electronics (1st edition!) which actually made sense then.Quote from: German_EE on July 28, 2017, 05:54:34 pmI got a load of those from a car boot sale once in the 1980s. Great magazine of the time! You can actually download old issues of it here:http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Practical_Wireless_Magazine.htmHardly anything in PW worked properly. It usually had poor designs based on particular transistor beta and recycled reject parts by the original authors.

author: schmitt trigger
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 28, 2017, 08:51:20 pm
content: My first fully electronics project that I actually built from scratch was a directly-mains powered, 5-tube amplifier. The vast majority of the components were salvaged from old radios.I already understood the essential operational principles, having fully readBasic Electronics, by Van Valkenburgh, Nooger & Neville, but the negative feedback thing was a big mistery to me...so I just put a resistor and a capacitor network, which I copied from an old radio.Days later, as I was listening to a vinyl record, my sister came to me: "I can listen toyour musiconmy radio"In disbelief, I went to her room and, indeed, my music was being broadcast on a spot within the AM band (560 - 1600 Khz).It took me several years, while studying my EE degree, to realize that my kludgy negative feedback was actually positive feedback and the amplifier was oscillating like crazy, and the music would effectively modulate the oscillation and I had, in fact, built an AM transmitter!

author: bjcuizon
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 29, 2017, 12:00:55 am
content: Quote from: schmitt trigger on July 28, 2017, 08:51:20 pmNice!..haha, Building an AM Radio transmitter from scratch without even knowing it.Great stuff!

author: ManuelMcLure
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: July 29, 2017, 06:34:44 am
content: I don't remember what the exact circuit was, but it was made using a Denshi Block kit back in the 70s. We had several of these but the best was the SR-4A Deluxe:http://searle.hostei.com/grant/ElectronicKits/index.html#DenshiBlockSR4A

author: bd139
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 29, 2017, 09:37:57 am
content: Quote from: schmitt trigger on July 28, 2017, 08:51:20 pmI love the artwork in those books. I wish people made that much effort now.

author: Zero999
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 29, 2017, 03:19:58 pm
content: Quote from: bjcuizon on July 25, 2017, 07:01:33 amNotice there's no current limiting resistors for the LEDs or transistor's base? You're lucky it worked and didn't blow up! I suppose it needed careful adjustment of the volume control.

author: amspire
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 29, 2017, 03:58:28 pm
content: My first circuit was a very common beginner's project in the '60s. A crystal AM band radio.The interesting thing is that back then, it was easy getting all the parts such as the coil wire and former, the tuning capacitor, the germanium diode and the crystal earpiece. It was a pretty magical thing to get a decent quality radio sound from wire, metal plates that do not even touch and the little tube with two wires.Back then, many of our older relatives lived through a period from when there was no electronics, almost no electricity, no recorded sound, no TV, no cars, no relativity and quantum mechanics and little instant communication through to the modern post war world of the 60's.I think that particularly after the experiences of many in the war, being able to build a radio from scrap was a pretty amazing skill to have. People often had to find alternatives to the diode like galena crystals (lead ore) or razor blades.Who would even know nowadays how to make a diode from a razor blade?

author: Neilm
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 29, 2017, 04:57:01 pm
content: I, like many people had a 50 in one kit.I do remember one of my first circuits - it involved 2 AA cells, a small audio transformer and my little brother. Set me on electronics for life.

author: brucehoult
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 29, 2017, 06:47:53 pm
content: Quote from: Neilm on July 29, 2017, 04:57:01 pmSome form of oscillator or buzzer might enhance that circuit.

author: bjcuizon
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 29, 2017, 10:12:07 pm
content: Quote from: Hero999 on July 29, 2017, 03:19:58 pmHaha! Good eagle eye there! For the leds I just used a board with leds that has the resistors for it from an old disassembled flashlight. For the transistor, it was medium power anyway, so I just connected it directly to the output of the pc soundcard.

author: tooki
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 30, 2017, 11:58:39 am
content: Quote from: RoGeorge on July 25, 2017, 08:03:21 amIt was probably a 6V lantern battery (4.5V ones are not common in USA), but otherwise same for me, I'm sure! For a lot of us, probably!

author: donmr
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 30, 2017, 03:32:36 pm
content: Quote from: RoGeorge on July 25, 2017, 08:03:21 amMy dad used to like to demonstrate how you could connect the batteries and bulb with 2 table knives.

author: SeanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 30, 2017, 03:44:17 pm
content: I remember the first thing I plugged into the mains though, a metal can flourescent lamp starter. Wanted to see the glow, and pushed it into the 5A socket outlet and turned on the power, though I think I did at least remember not to touch it after plugging it in and turning on the power. The starter, along with the black Schipperkie, vanished in the bang, and while the dog did come back for supper, the starter was totally gone. Power tripped out at the new fangled distribution board in the laundry ( Installed a few months before as it had the important thing of earth leakage protection and thus was safer for use with an electric washer and clothes iron for Mom) and I turned it on again, when I recovered my hearing?and sight. Unique board, it had Australian socket outlets on it, thus the wiring was to regular SA 15A socket outlets plugged into the Australian rewireable plugs that came with it.

author: OMyMyOHellYes
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: July 30, 2017, 07:13:05 pm
content: Quote from: RoGeorge on July 25, 2017, 08:03:21 amQuite similar to that - I think it was in 4th grade. We were studying some very basic electric concepts in science. I think I had a C cell battery, some aluminum foil, pieces of wire from a phone cable and a bulb out of a flash light. I remember after a few attempts and re configurations that I worked it out so that I could have it all laid out and manually switch it. I think somehow I had two different layers of foil separated by a piece of construction paper for an insulator somewhere in there. It worked well until I stapled it all down to a board so I could take it to school. I didn't think through the part about stapling through the insulation ...OMyMyOHellYes

author: Roxtronix
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: November 06, 2022, 12:40:29 pm
content: Quote from: CJay on July 26, 2017, 12:05:42 pmWow ... that might have been meI worked there in the late 1970s... such good memories. Small retailers selling components with knowledgeable staff just don't seem to be a thing any longer :/ I was a customer there from age 10 and they gave me my first job at 16/17 selling the components in the front and doing repairs in the back.Sorry about the necro-post

author: DavidAlfa
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 06, 2022, 04:18:47 pm
content: This one when I was 15 or so, to play N64 emulator:http://arcadecontrols.com/Mirrors/emulatronia/n64pad/imprimir.htm

author: NiHaoMike
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 06, 2022, 05:04:40 pm
content: A "traffic light" circuit with 2 transistors that switched between red and green LEDs.Quote from: bd139 on July 28, 2017, 10:47:02 amI remember a similar project with a different kit that actually reacted to blowing on the microphone. Anyone else think it might be possible on the above kit by using the speaker as a microphone and the third transistor as an amplifier?

author: Sredni
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 06, 2022, 06:00:31 pm
content: I remember: a wired telegraph. Two pieces of wood with a small lightbulb and a switch made with a flexible sheet of metal that controlled the other terminal's bulb. Very high tech.For some reason, neither my parents nor my cousin's seemed to think that drilling a hole in the floor/ceiling to let the wire through was a good idea.Adults. Go figure.

author: RJSV
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 06, 2022, 08:37:19 pm
content: Guitar Octave Pedal.Made a large breadboard set, 3 solderless breadboards using LM-324 OP amps and LM-339 analog comparators. One half did the input, doing Analog to Digital, using only 4 bits. That got clocked into RAM, those days the RAM was 4 bits by 256 locations, so I'd used 4 ICs to obtain 1 k samples.Clocked in, at 8 khz, and clocked out, at 16 khz, for OCTAVE music sound. (Try listen to older Wes Montgomery guitar talent).That circuit was missing a 'zero crossing' coordination; instead it just blindly circulated, the input counter registers, and output counter registers, for addressing the guitar sampling buffer, both operating in just a circular manner, rather than the more correct way, of starting or stopping each sweep, at a consistent zero crossing, to avoid 'glitched' output waveforms.More fascinating than the guitar sound, with octave higher 2nd note audible; that whole unsheilded breadboard RADIATED EMF to the surroundings.That means, the circuit's own input got some trash, and, (sorry FCC) nearby TV receiver sets had hashy screen trash NOISE. ..Fascinating, and not really anticipated RF emissions.The memory addresss registers actually used a 2-port shared access to the little 256 X 4 bit RAM.

author: Kleinstein
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 06, 2022, 09:32:43 pm
content: I remember is kind of rats nest with 4.5 V batteries and light bulbs and a single on/off switch. The strange part was the single switch could turn one lamp on and another off at the same time. Took me quite some time to understand how this could work with only an on/off switch.

author: vk6zgo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 07, 2022, 01:15:35 am
content: Back when I was a kid, we lived out of town, lighting was kerosene lamps, radios were all valve battery sets, & the most "electrical" thing kids played with were battery "Torches" (flashlights).After messing around with everything else I could wreck, I fixed upon the hapless torches, discovering that, yes, they didn't need the reflector to work.This was also tied in with my obsession with making a movie projector, after finding an article on a magazine about making a film strip projector.I didn't know the difference, so as 9 year old, had delusions about what I could make.When we moved back to the city, at about 11, such things lost their appeal, cars were much more appealing, & I became a little revhead, as they were fun to work on.Thus, it was not till I was around 14 that I built my first bit of electronics--a "one valve" regenerative radio which didn't work.(Thinking back, I probably had the feedback winding connections reversed)The next year, I made a better regen radio whichdidwork, although not as well as I would have liked.A couple of years later, I made a proper superhet radio---a "mantel set" for my Mum, which worked Ok for some years.I went off building stuff for years after that.I keep planning to revisit those "regen sets" to see if they were just crap designs, or if it was my poor construction techniques.

author: Wallace Gasiewicz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 07, 2022, 01:27:18 am
content: First tried to breadboard a Receiver with number 27 tubes, Something started on fire,Then built a AF amp from the back of the RCA tube book, It worked OK but I was never able to get rid of the hum. I think I used old filter caps that were not too good.It was a push pull with power pentodes. I used transformers from old radios.

author: eti
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 07, 2022, 04:17:21 am
content: Battery, bulb, in school.

author: basinstreetdesign
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 07, 2022, 05:04:02 am
content: First circuit? Yep, I was 12 in 1962 and found some books at the library on electronics and HAD to try SOMETHING out. I can still see the jet of blue-orange flame that shot out of a 5 inch radio speaker voice coil as it answered the age-old question: “What happens if you plug it into the wall?”.First not-so-simple circuit? I built a simple one-tube amplifier from parts hacked out of an old B&W TV. I had inadvertently wired the power filter cap backwards. This blew the fuse. When Mom replaced the fuse we heard a loud bang. I discovered I had a roomful of acrid smoke and it sent the can out of my bedroom, around 3 corners and down twenty feet of corridor to bounce off the front door of our apartment. This raised eyebrows. The fact that it also managed to blow a house fuse got my soldering grounded for a week, to boot. The parents weren’t pleased.

author: jhalar
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: November 07, 2022, 05:46:46 am
content: Around when I was 13 my first circuit was "built" using a Braun Lectron set which was abandoned when a Tandy 100 in 1 appeared one Christmas.

author: Circlotron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 07, 2022, 07:10:28 am
content: I was 6 or 7 (mid 1960s) when I got a Denshi Block electronics set, same as in the pic. Mine was a bit earlier than the one in the pic because mine said across the top "let's open an (sic) door to electronics!!" Typical English grammar of some Japanese products of that era. At a similar time next door gave me a commercially made crystal set and a pair of headphones. Later while in grade 4 I took the headphones, some batteries, a good length of wire and a carbon microphone to school for show-and-tell and wowed the whole class. Edit - last pic shows my version.

author: jonpaul
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 07, 2022, 11:25:47 am
content: Screwdriver magnetizer with yoke coil and 6X4 tube, 1955Filament transformer and bridge rectifier/cap to make 12VDC to run model T spark coil to drive tesla coil. 1957Transistor tester 1960j

author: unknownparticle
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 07, 2022, 07:47:59 pm
content: For me it was a guitar fuzz pedal for a lad in my class at school. He was in a band playing lead guitar and fancied himself as the next Jimmy Page!!The project was out of Everyday Electronics mag. Problem was I couldn't test it before he tried it, as I don't have a guitar or amp. Gave it to him on a Friday afternoon and he gave it back to me on the Monday and said it doesn't do anything! So I checked all my work, it was on veroboard, so I was suspecting a wrong connection somewhere but I couldn't find any mistakes. So I looked at the circuit and layout in the mag for ages, and eventually found a layout error!! I was gobsmacked at the time, I was really shocked that a/ the mag made a mistake, and b/ I found it!So, I corrected that and arranged to take it over to his place for a test run! It was quite intimidating for a schoolboy to turn up to a band practice with these edgy dudes with attitude! So we connected it up and he played a few chords with me trying the controls and it worked really well, he was well pleased as were all the other guys! He wanted it modifying though, with a foot switch to turn the fuzz on and off, that was a bit tricky but I managed it and all was good! My cool rating went to 10 at school after that!

author: ccktek
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: November 07, 2022, 11:25:15 pm
content: My memory of my first circuit is one of my most formative.When I was 6 my father brought home from the hardware store a large carpentry nail, a length of bell wire, several small steel brads, and a No. 6 dry cell. We wound the wire on the nail and connected the ends of the wire to the cell, magnetizing the nail, which attracted the brads. To me this action at a distance was (and still is) miraculous. I’d witnessed a consequence of Ampere’s law. Maxwell would come much later.

author: brucehoult
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 08, 2022, 02:25:23 am
content: Quote from: ccktek on November 07, 2022, 11:25:15 pmSimilar except we used part of an old hacksaw blade, fixed at one end, and arranged so the current for the solenoid went through the hacksaw blade, until movement towards the solenoid broke the circuit.

author: eti
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 08, 2022, 08:56:28 am
content: Quote from: Sredni on November 06, 2022, 06:00:31 pmA horse-powered drill? Wow. Did you get Swan or Edison to invest?When you mentioned telegraph, I pictured you in a top hat and tails, working by lamplight 😁

author: jonovid
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 08, 2022, 10:30:13 am
content: the two transistor flip flop circuit & before that, a torch circuit on a block of wood

author: Electroplated
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: November 08, 2022, 09:52:47 pm
content: First electrical circuit, battery and bulb featured in a Janet and John kids book when I was 6 years old, first electronic circuit, way back in 1964, a EL84 (iirc) valve amp and output transformer from a scrap radiogram, had a photograph of it until a few years ago, was also my first introduction to the theory of electrocution and why valve HT is derived from a transformer and not a direct feed of 230v mains

author: RJSV
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 08, 2022, 10:09:22 pm
content: Electrocution is over-rated. NOT.Somewhere there, 5th grade at 10 years old, figured out you could hook toy train transformer 10 vac output to another toy train transformer, 'backwards', into the 10 volt terminals, that generates voltage back up at 120 vac.Problem happened right away, when I GRABBED the wires, clumsy, and got shocked, through the hand.Lucky, maybe simply due to no ground path, but it would definitely have caused internal burns...very serious (potentially), but I let go fast.

author: brucehoult
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 08, 2022, 11:39:18 pm
content: Quote from: RJHayward on November 08, 2022, 10:09:22 pmA 600V+ mains supply can pump 4A through the body, causing severe internal burns.A 1960s Hornby train transformer puts out about 2A at 12-14 VAC. If you use a second identical one to convert back to to 120 V then you're going to have no more than 200 mA (or 100 mA for 240 V) through a short circuit, and a less through a human body. That's a huge difference to grabbing mains directly.

author: themadhippy
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 08, 2022, 11:43:30 pm
content: QuoteAt around 8 i discovered a mechano set motor in series with the secondary of a bell transformer produced similar results,and was portable so could be used in the school playground.Another early project was the sweary box,4 7 segment displays,a rotary switch and a load of diodes,turn the switch and varies swear words would appear on the display.

author: vk6zgo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 09, 2022, 01:32:26 am
content: Quote from: eti on November 08, 2022, 08:56:28 amBefore electric & pneumatically driven ones, drills, were human driven, with a handle you turned on the side, or crank-like "brace & bit" style.Until rechargeable drills appeared, it was often more convenient to use such drills rather than dragging heavy power cords around.I cannot imagine any applications for horses in drilling.

author: vk6zgo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 09, 2022, 01:37:35 am
content: Quote from: vk6zgo on November 07, 2022, 01:15:35 amI don't usually quote myself, but I started digging through the old box full of "valves" in the back shed, & found a bunch which would work for those old projects---- maybe it is telling me something!

author: brucehoult
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 09, 2022, 08:31:47 am
content: Quote from: vk6zgo on November 09, 2022, 01:32:26 amY'reckon?

author: AndrewNorman
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: November 13, 2022, 11:13:53 am
content: For me it was the circuits in "Dick Smith's Funway into Electronics vol1".Got given the book for Christmas, got the LED flasher working and then spent many hours trying to get the damned crystal radio to work. Never did manage, but it did get me interested in the subject.

author: Kasper
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 13, 2022, 05:05:27 pm
content: Mine was a battery, 2 wires and a light bulb following instructions in elementary school. Then I made up my own circuit: a battery and 1 wire.

author: capt bullshot
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 19, 2022, 10:13:26 pm
content: Quote from: KL27x on July 25, 2017, 09:42:45 pmGuess it wasn't a long lasting circuit, aka short circuit

author: brucehoult
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 20, 2022, 12:11:25 am
content: Quote from: capt bullshot on November 19, 2022, 10:13:26 pmBoom boom!!(If you get the reference you're probably old. And Anglo, eh Derek?)

author: PixieDust
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 20, 2022, 12:11:01 pm
content: Here's my first circuit. I did the layout, the soldering and the cutting out on my CNC machine.

author: hans
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 20, 2022, 12:18:08 pm
content: My first circuit was at elementary school... the secondary school had a walk-along day, and one subject was physics.We were given a battery and 3 light bulbs. They first showed a series connection and how you need a complete circuit to keep all bulbs lit. They then asked to rewire it that any bulb stays lit if another is unplugged. It seemed so intuitive to create a parallel circuitMany years later when I built my first PCB, it had a 555 + 4017 on it to create a LED siren light for a small electric car.

author: TomWinTejas
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: November 24, 2022, 02:52:04 am
content: My parents got me an electronics kit for Christmas when I was about 10 and I enjoyed playing with LEDs and buzzers. But my first real project was for extra credit in my high school physics class. I got the circuit from one of the Forrest Mims Engineer's Notebooks, the Optoelectronics one, which was an 'AM lightwave transmitter and receiver'. I recall getting some crude fiber optic cable and showing how the refractive index allows for real world benefits. Little did I know that all these years later I would be designing fiber optic networks for a career

author: Shay
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: November 25, 2022, 05:46:59 pm
content: Quote from: Kleinstein on July 28, 2017, 12:17:13 pmIn simple switch, you mean a classic SPST switch?2 Voltage sources, 2 lamps, a single spst switch, that either state turns only one lamp. that's the puzzle?

author: brucehoult
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 25, 2022, 11:40:53 pm
content: Quote from: Shay on November 25, 2022, 05:46:59 pmWhen I was about 10 our house was extended and a new hallway got a light switch at each end such that, of course, flipping the switch at either end would flip the state of the lights. That was fascinating!You can do it using two SPDT switches and two conductors between the switches (and a 3rd that goes to the actual lamps), but I noticed the switches being installed were actually DPDT.I sat down with pencil and paper and figured out that with DPTP switches you can actually generalise this to an arbitrary N switches! I wired this up with 4 or 5 as yet not installed switches and a 6V lantern battery and torch bulb and demonstrated to the electrician that flipping any of the switches flipped the bulb state. He was stunned :-)I don't know if I've ever seen N>2 in the wild, so this result may not be well known.

author: Shay
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: November 26, 2022, 12:02:08 am
content: Quote from: brucehoult on November 25, 2022, 11:40:53 pmNice. This is my crude solution to @Kleinstein puzzle:L1 is parallel to B1, so by default it's on.clicking on SW1 causes it to short L1 and B1 (would not recommend, but thats the best I came up with for theory) and puts L2 in series with B2.

author: Circlotron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 26, 2022, 11:01:19 am
content: Quote from: brucehoult on November 25, 2022, 11:40:53 pmSchematic please!

author: brucehoult
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 26, 2022, 11:46:13 am
content: Quote from: Circlotron on November 26, 2022, 11:01:19 amSerious?First and last switches only need one wire out, to the energy source and the lamp(s). Between every pair of switches one wire is hot and one wire isn't. Each switch either passes that straight though or else reverses which wire is hot.It actually looks simpler on a physical switch because you're just connecting the 4 corner terminals out of the 6 in an X.

author: themadhippy
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 26, 2022, 12:55:25 pm
content: Quote6 terminals? were did you find these strange intermediate switches as every one ive used only has 4 terminals to keep it simples for us thick sparkys

author: brucehoult
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 26, 2022, 01:25:48 pm
content: Quote from: themadhippy on November 26, 2022, 12:55:25 pmHow on earth can you have a DPDT switch with only 4 terminals?Unsurprisingly, 11 year old me in 1974 isn't the only one to come up with this.https://forum.digikey.com/t/how-to-wire-a-dpdt-switch-as-4-way-for-multiway-switching/6985

author: themadhippy
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 26, 2022, 02:06:41 pm
content: QuoteTake a look at your diagram,theirs only 4 external connections needed ,and thats what you buy off the shelf from your electrical supplier,they go under the name of intermediate switch and do exactly what you described above,sit between 2 way switches to add a 3rd,4th -999th switching position.They really should rename them universal switch as they can be used for the most common switching arrangements found on lighting circuits.

author: Calambres
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 26, 2022, 05:37:36 pm
content: I remember my first circuit very well: a crystal (diode) radio. Then it came the Philips Electronic Engineer. I was fascinated:I still keep the original manual:

author: CatalinaWOW
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 26, 2022, 06:40:25 pm
content: Similar path to many, first built was a 'crystal' radio based on a germanium diode, then on to a regenerative receiver based as I recall on a 12AT6 tube. The first one I designed myself was a dual slope A-D converter. That had maybe 5% accuracy, drift so bad that only the lack of accuracy saved it, 8 bit resolution and several samples per second conversion rate. But I was still proud of it. Boy did I have a lot to learn.

author: TimFox
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 26, 2022, 06:42:34 pm
content: Mine was a code-practice oscillator that I built in Cub Scouts, ca. 1960, similar to the one in the QST article linked below.It used a CK722 PNP germanium transistor from Raytheon.That, and the GE 2N107 NPN transistor, were heavily advertised to young people at that time.IIRC, they were both about $2.50 each back then.https://www.robkalmeijer.nl/techniek/electronica/radiotechniek/hambladen/qst/1959/07/page30/index.html

author: brucehoult
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 26, 2022, 10:01:16 pm
content: Quote from: themadhippy on November 26, 2022, 02:06:41 pmWell great if this is common enough they make specialised switches for this. I've only seen general-purpose DPDT switches, but I'm a hobbyist doing low voltage stuff not a sparky, and 6 terminal DPDT switches are possibly the MOST common kind.https://sparks.gogo.co.nz/catalog/Buttons-Switches-Relays-261/Miscellaneous-100/DPDT--AB--Small-Panel-Mount-Toggle-Switch-6mm-Thread-1015.html

author: TimFox
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 26, 2022, 10:05:02 pm
content: A DPDT switch hard-wired to only four terminals is often called a "reversing switch", or in US domestic lighting a "four-way switch", which is connected between two or more "three-way switches" (SPDT) to control lighting along a corridor, etc.

author: themadhippy
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 26, 2022, 10:37:30 pm
content: Quotein the electronics world agreed,however what surprised me isQuoteas ive yet to see a dpdt switch in a standard light switch format

author: mawyatt
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 26, 2022, 10:59:17 pm
content: Quote from: TimFox on November 26, 2022, 06:42:34 pmRemember those CK722s, one of the early plastic cased transistors. You could shine a light on them and they responded!!First project here was a telegraph made from old scavenged lantern batteries, scrap phone wire, tin can top, scrap nails and scrap wood 2 by 4s. Tin top was cut for telegraph "key" with nail contact, and the "T" shaped "sounder" and wire wound around 2 nails as electromagnet. Was 6~7 then and parents thought I was nuts, they were probably rightFond memories from back then!Best

author: Kjelt
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 26, 2022, 11:03:05 pm
content: Early 1980s I was early teens I got this little 25 electronic schematics book from the library.I saw this two led blinking light with two transistors two capacitors and a bunch of resistors, that would be my first circuit to buildI bought a 220V iron and solder that ofcourse was not fit to make this stuff (what did I know, nobody to teach me) and went with the bill of materials to the electronic parts store.There they had the resistors and leds but not the exotic old transistors from the schematic which was from the 70s. They told me I could use two other transistors that were plastick and not the metal can from the schematic and also the capacitors which were 16V rated they only had 25V ones which would not matter according to them.So I came home proud with my treasure parts and started to build the circuit just to burst in tears since the transistors looked completely different and I had no clue how to find out what was the emitter, collector or base. I did not even know what it was back then. I tried my best to solder everything together without pcb, just in the airlead manner. And ofcourse when I connected the 9V battery.................... nothing happened.Big tears chrsing the salesperson who told me the transistors were the same and the voltage on the capacitors did not matter, yeah right!No help, no friends with knowledge, a father who did not know a transistor from a capacitor so that was the end of it.Till half a year later I met someone at school who had a real analog Tandy (Radioshack in the US) multimeterand knew how to measure these magic three pin components.He made it to work.Since then two years later I met my neighbour across the street, a real geek working at Philips tv labs who had an attick full of scopes, tv cameras, computer etc. Etc. It took a year before he agreed to teach me one and another about electronics and he was my inspiration and mentor to study electronics and the rest followed.

author: TimFox
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 26, 2022, 11:06:59 pm
content: Quote from: themadhippy on November 26, 2022, 10:37:30 pmHere is an American "four-way switch", as I discussed above, available from a standard manufacturer (Leviton) for $11.35 at Home Depot.https://www.homedepot.com/p/Leviton-120-277-Volt-15-Amp-4-Way-Commercial-Grade-AC-Quiet-Toggle-Light-Switch-White-54504-2W/300287591

author: themadhippy
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 26, 2022, 11:25:43 pm
content: Quotefor some reason the link dont work for me,however a model search seemed to show something with 4,not 6 terminals,which is exactly what i was saying,that a full dpdt switch in a standard switch plate seems to be rarer than rocking horse turds

author: brucehoult
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 27, 2022, 12:30:00 am
content: Quote from: themadhippy on November 26, 2022, 10:37:30 pmI'm having trouble finding them in online catalogues now too.It's easy to find DPDT mains switches e.g. ...https://www.clipsal.com/products/detail?CatNo=30MD2... just not mounted on a plate for mounting on a wall cavity.There is clearly no technical obstacle to making them. As I see now I know the name, you can get "intermediate" switches, no problem.Maybe the world -- or at least the New Zealand domestic market -- was just a little different in 1974 than in 2022.