Make: Volume 77

W

hen I was five years old, my dad gave me

my first lessons in soldering and playing

the piano. Dad was a biomedical technician.

Simply put, he’s the guy that fixed all the stuff in

the ICU that keeps people alive. As a result, we

had no shortage of electronic scrap and parts.

At one point, we even had an entire X-ray room

in our garage — a decommissioned unit that he

eventually donated to a veterinary clinic.

Keep in mind in the 1980s, pre-internet, DIY

electronics projects came from books and the

sage wisdom of those who came before you.

While most kids my age were learning the

alphabet, Dad taught me the basics of logic gates

and analog cir ...