26 Nov
2009
26 Nov
'09
12:10 p.m.
Tony Duell wrote:
The 2 Far-Eastern kits came as a bare PCB, a bag of
components, a back og
gears and axles, and so on. You had to assemble everything. And the
instructions explained what the various bits did and why (OK, the
explanations were at a simple level, but still fairly accurate). And
there was no pre-programmed microcontroller. In fact no ICs at all. Just
10 discrete transsitors, and assocaited passives (the 2 kits, although
quite different mechancially, were very similar electroncially).
Educational value : Lots.
And I find 10 transistors to be a lot more elegant a design than the
thousands of transistos in a microcontroller...
... and one time two tubes did all your work @ 45 volts. :)
-tony