ELECTRONICS       

Electronics has been my biggest hobby since I can remember. 

I got my first Radio Shack electronics project kit when I was in second grade (I think - I cant clearly remember). I began actually building simple circuits in 4th - 5th grade. This page will be a listing of most of my projects of interest. It will take me some time until I get a vast majority of stuff uploaded, as many of my projects are in boxes packed away, undocumented, and no pictures. So I will slowly take some digital pictures and upload stuff. Here is what I got so far.

I took vocational electronics in 11th and 12th grade at Jefferson Technical Center in upstate NY. I learned so much there. We had an awesome class, with modern equipment, a great teacher, and a great curriculum. I was involved heavily with the Vocational Industrial Clubs of America (VICA), where I competed in electronics technology against other vocational students. My first year I took 2nd in New York State, and my second year I took first and went to nationals, were I was a finalist.

Here is me in vocational school and me winning states in VICA

Also in vocational school I got to assemble a Knight Electronics Lab kit. It is a really nice kit. Had to assemble everything, it was a neat project. Here are some pics.

Here is a motor I built in 9th grade electronics class:    Believe it or not it actually runs quite good... even after years of sitting around. It will run on DC or AC. I haven't actually measured it, but I am certain it can do several hundred if not over 1,000 RPM. 

Here is months of hard work:     my junior project at DeVry. It is an Intel 80188 based micro-controller.  Me and my lab partner basically designed the exact same setup but we each built our own project. But I admit my lab partner did about 99% of the programming. Assembly Language wasn't my best programming language although I do respect it. We spent a couple of days on the design, 2 -3 weeks wire wrapping, and 2 months programming. To get checked off the project had to be a clock; set the time, keep time, and display it. Sounds simple, but our project was 12 pages of assembly code for just a clock. Oh, and just as a side note: my overclocking days go all the way back to the 188 - I ran this thing at 20MHz completely stable.

Ham Radio   I got my Tech liscense when I was 19 and my first radio was a HTX-202. I built a couple home - made antennas, including the portable ground plane seen here and also a large copper tubing j-pole.

Car Audio  I got involved with car audio in college. My first system was laughable, but everyone starts out somewhere. I had a really nice detachable face Sony head unit that really rocked. I ran some cheap Sony 6x9 2-ways in place of the factory rear 5x8's. In the trunk I had a Mobile Spec 140W amp driving a single 12" pyramid subwoofer. This was all in my Thunderbird. The setup sound really good but the bass was barely loud enough to hear. Note: all the equipment survived about 3 break-ins (I always removed the face plate), except for my old junkie CB radio was stolen.

More recently I bought a Pioneer DEH-8200 with the animated graphical display and 45W per channel. I really liked this head unit! It went in my 99 ford truck. Along with it, sitting behind the seats (it was only a regular cab truck, don't ask how it all fit) was my Rockford Fosgate 800a2 and subs. I tried two different sets of woofers. The first (and best) was a single JL 18W6. It was strong enough to put a good rattle across the dash and make make my fiancé sick after having to much fast food (the subwoofer sits directly behind the passenger seat and fires forward into the back of the person sitting there). I used a bunch of 120,000 µF caps all banked in parallel (I got them really cheap) for a total of a 1.2F cap. My other subwoofers I tried were two Audiobahn 1200X's. They were a lot more bang for the buck but couldn't match the frame rattling bass of the 18. Here are a few picks of everything.

The JL 18W6

The Audiobahn 1200X's

The capacitor bank I made. It looks huge but its only 1.5 farads. I just got a really good deal on all the caps so I put 'em all together to make one bigger one. Total cost about $30 at the time.

Sorry everyone I have TONS more stuff I need to upload...

Ok, I'd like to take a second to advertise for Teslamania.com which is ran by Bert Hickman about his company Stoneridge Engineering. Bert has helped me on a lot of high voltage projects in the past and I had the chance to meet him before. There are things for sale on his website like Lichtenberg Figures and magnetically shrunken Quarters, and other things as well. I just wanted to take a second about the Lichtenberg Figures which I find fascinating. Here is one I purchased from him:

It is a truly stunning sight, which resembles etched glass. But instead of being etched by lasers, this is actually etched by lightning that was trapped inside solid acrylic plastic! His site explains the process well but basically electricity is imparted into the plastic by the use of an particle accelerator! Its a piece of art and fascinating science at the same time! Definately check his website out to learn more, and look at his other things as well... Teslamania.com

This webpage originally born on 2-22-02. Last updated on 2-11-07