I'm an 89'er, half-Norwegian-half-Canadian. I spent my childhood
years in Canada, and at the age of 11 my family moved to Norway where
we have family. I watched Sonic the Hedgehog as a kid and always
wondered how the robots which seemed to be tin-cans with wires inside
could live and function.
Much later I saw a show on The Discovery
Channel about BEAM robots, and was fascinated by how some people were
able to taken an old stereo, and rebuild it into a real robot. When my
family purchased our first PC in the mid-90s, the first thing I did was
search for "circuits" on the Internet (I also played Sim city, which
came with the computer). I found a lot as you can imagine, even back
then, but never built anything with active components. The mere act of
interpreting schematics was difficult, and I had no idea where to even
find the exotic components mentioned. Instead I tried to make motorized
vehicles with scavenged or purchased toy motors, connected to batteries
and switches. However, as Lego was much easier to use and gave better
results, I spent my time playing with it instead.
Years passed without me doing anything constructive until the end of junior high. It wasn't
until joining the 4HV forum in mid-2005 that I started seriously with
electronics by investing in parts (and persistently nagging the good
folks at 4HV) and finding a project which was both fun and simple. That
project was a 2N3055 flyback driver, because I had a bunch of broken
monitors which were about to be thrown away, and the circuit consisted
of one active component. Since then my skills and the fun I get out of
this hobby have just continued to grow. Naturally my hobbies have had an
effect on my choice of higher education, and I first acquired a
Bachelor's degree in automation. Afterwards I acquired a Master of Science
degree in Digital System Design, at the Norwegian University of Science and
Technology. I'm currently employed as a software engineer at Esko Graphics Kongsberg, in Norway.
If you wish to contact me, I can be reached via email. My address is the name of this site "uzzors2k", and my email host is gmail.com
Disclaimer:
I do not take responsibility for any injury, death, hurt ego, or other
forms of personal damage which may result from recreating these
experiments. Projects are merely presented as a source of inspiration,
and should only be conducted by responsible individuals, or under the
supervision of responsible individuals. It is your own life, so proceed
at your own risk! All projects are for noncommercial use only.