Evelyn has been spending quite a bit of time working on her electronics stuff. The immediate need is for the LED sign she is developing for Chasen. The other is for our business idea of making really cool electronic clock kits–more to come on this one.

One of the issues we’ve encountered is finding a good “intro to electronics” site. The stuff out there is either way too much theory or doesn’t explain anything. One site that we have found very helpful is the Electronics Club. They have easy to understand diagrams, helpful real-world advice, and some interesting projects to try out. It’s a great example of a site that doesn’t have a lot of glitz, but does have a lot of excellent and solid information. If you are interesting in learning more about electronics, check it out.

It’s been interesting to see how the hobby arena has changed over the last 20 years. For a while kit building was a big deal (ex. Ham stuff, Heathkit, Popular Electronics, etc). Then the PC came into the picture and pretty much destroyed the hobby electronics arena. Then, for some reason (maybe because of programmable microprocessors–ex. the PIC or the BASIC Stamp or the Rabbit), electronics has come back into the picture. You now see magazines such as Make that are reintroducing people to the hobby. It’s really good to see, since there are tons of really cool things you can do with electronics, especially the embedded microcontroller stuff.

Update: If you are looking for a good electronics supplier, we recommend Allied Electronics. They used to be an old Chicago company, but are now based in Fort Worth. They ship super fast (all of our orders have arrived next-day) and have very competitve prices for most parts. The other cool thing is that they pick and pack stuff very carefully. All of the ICs (even cheapie 555s) are in ESD bags and storage tubes.