[Noisebridge-discuss] New kit: Retro Scanner

[Josh Myer]

Hey all,

If you have never soldered before, but want to learn how, come out to
Circuit Hacking Monday this week!  I have a new kit aimed specifically
at total newbies, and would love early feedback on it.  It's a vintage
circuit: the Larson Scanner ("Knight Rider Circuit"), done the same
way I learned almost 15 years ago, and it was already an old classic
then.  You can see the details at
http://www.appliedplatonics.com/scanner/  I'll be at the space about
8PM, but there should be a bunch of them for sale before I arrive.

The Retro Scanner kit gives plenty of opportunities to practice
soldering.  Better still, almost every step includes a way to check
your work.  That way, in case something's in backwards, you'll know
immediately: it's the part you just put in.  And, even if you don't
catch it, the rest of the kit will continue to work.  Little mistakes
stay little, instead of becoming big problems.

For more advanced people, if you wonder how we did electronics before
Arduinos and PICs, you might be interested in this circuit.  It's a
555 timer connected to a 4071 decade counter, with a diode decoder
matrix.  This is a lot of parts to do something we'd do with an ATTiny
and Charlieplexing today, but it's a window into the not-too-distant
past.  For good measure: I'll give a free copy of the kit to the first
person to identify the easter egg in the copper.

(If it's any good, I'll share a YouTube video of the construction later on.)
-- 
Josh Myer 650.248.3796
 josh at joshisanerd.com