Subj : 555 - love the comments!
To   : Ed Vance
From : Barry Martin
Date : Wed Dec 18 2024 07:12:00


Hi Ed!

 EV> I learned about Logic Gates from reading a Popular Electronics
 EV> magazine in the
 EV> 1970's.
 EV> For some reason AND, OR, NOR  and NAND Gates made sense to me.
 EV> So I bought a do-jig (can't recall the correct name) that let me
 EV> wire TTL
 EV> circuits to see how they worked.

Correct name might do 'do-flingy'! <g>  I (vaguely) recall one Christmas
getting a Radio Shack 100-in-1 (or some number) electronics kit: had a 
bunch of spring connectors to various components, jumper wires, probably
resistors, etc.  Recall I'd follow the instructions to build one of 
their projects, check out what it did, then swap parts to see what that 
did.


 EV> I remember playing with seven segment LED Displays (7447?),
 EV> 555's/556's.
 EV> Never played with CMOS IC's 'cuz I was afraid that I would ZAP
 EV> THEM and lose
 EV> mymoney I paid for those critters.

I don't think I zapped any parts: the manufacturer did than for me!  A 
lot of my electronics time (at least after the initial learning years) 
was repair.  Ever see a 7 W resistor glow red?  About the diameter of a
cigarette and this one was probably 2 to 2.5" long.  A filter cap had
failed, dumping all the 'juice' across this resistor and another one 
which was about the diameter of a quarter and  1.5" long - value of that
one got altered and so needed replacing.  This was in a tube-type 
amplifier-receiver.  My Mother and I noticed something smelt 'warm' but 
could figure out where the smell came from.  Radio was playing properly,
not from the table lamp....  Finally I came into the room and glanced at
the right time to notice a red glow from inside the amp - that's not 
right!   ...Dad had me repair (we had the schematic from earlier 
repairs) -- what was nice is his attitude was "it's broken so can't make
it much worse" but his Scottish ancestry (his Mother) 'required' 
attempting to repair before replacing.  I repaired it and I think the 
amp lasted another five, maybe ten years.


 EV> Yas, I am part Scotch and cheep at that.
 
I had a friend who said he was part Scotch ..,and part water!

                     ¯                                 ®
                      ¯  BarryMartin3@MyMetronet.NET  ®
                     ¯                                 ®


.... Forecast called for a nip in the air; Scots ran outside, glass in hand!
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