Re: Role of ignition condenser in a distributor? & Radio Shack ranting

From: Tim Auton (tim.auton_at_uton.groupSexWithoutTheY)
Date: 09/27/04 

Date: Mon, 27 Sep 2004 01:59:09 +0100

Al <no.spam@wanted.com> wrote:
[snip]
>Let's face it. Few people do electronic hobbies anymore. When I was a
>kid in the 50s, I built my own transistor radio before anyone else had
>one.

Was it better (cheaper, smaller, sounded better...) than a
commercially available non-transistor radio?

>You could actually build something which was not available
>commercially.

You still can. Things have moved on, so we build different things
these days. The components are much better though. I built a PVR
(digital video recorder). I didn't make the motherboard, or the CPU,
or the RAM and I didn't write most of the code (I did write some
though, and I spent a whole lot of time making the damn thing work) -
but I bet you didn't make your own transistors or capacitors or invent
much of the circuit topology for your radio either. I also build
boards for my robots - not from discrete components, but from micro
controllers, integrated H-bridge drivers, packaged power regulators
and the like. Why not make it all from discretes? Same reason you
didn't make your own transistors.

>Often if it was available, what you built could be
>superior. This is hardly the case anymore. And it's not just
>electronics. When was the last time to saw a kit for a stick built model
>airplane with tissue paper fabric.

All the time! Go to an R/C hobby shop, the place is full of 'em. Go to
a place they fly gliders, the sky is full of 'em.

>Why bother building when you can buy
>something for less than 50 bucks on the internet and it flies out of the
>box?

Perhaps because the cheap planes suck?

Tim 

-- 
Guns Don't Kill People, Rappers Do.

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