I'm another interloper from Daves' EEVblog who's enjoying this series of intelligent, passionate & insightful videos - brings back a lot of memories even though it's about 20 years since our local independent electronic supplier. A great & helpful guy called Frank Browning who was forced into closing down his interesting, lovely dusty shop (The Magnet) full of miscellaneous components, boards & test gear after years of what I imagine were barely profitable to him :o Even in the last 2 years the last main independent electronic supply shop in Liverpool (PRS) has gone to the wall. Sad days for the hobbyist & professional alike. Thanks for these videos, I'm really enjoying the series. Please keep them coming & don't be disheartened by the YT haters
+brickscratch Thanks for your support. More is on the way :-) Thanks for sharing your experience with those "dusty" shops from the past in your area. It is sad to see any of them go ultimately as they offered an opportunity.
+State of Electronics Those shops were also a bit of an oasis to chat with like-minded guys, ask advice & get ideas. As a young teenager I recall buying a graphic equalizer from an advert i'd seen on a postcard in the window, arranged to meet the guy there on a Saturday morning but I hadn't planned on it needing a power supply. He kindly took the time to explain to this simple young solder sniffer how to make a bridge rectifier (something which baffled me a bit at that time) Once i got my head around what it does, the penny dropped. It was a small lesson but it was a leap for me towards understanding circuits.
+brickscratch Yes that personal one on one help is another thing that would be missed if brick and mortar stores would all disappear. Its probably not immediately obvious to others the importance of being able to ask a question. That personal contact is often so important. Great comment and thanks
Thanks for the video dave and link. Hopefully the others in this series will go into more depth. This one was good but felt a bit american, flitting back and forth. I have more than a ten second attention span.
+Tangobaldy The series is a discussion between many and the style is driven by those conversations. The subject matter moves quickly away from just hobbyist activities, to other areas, however to keep within 10 minutes, I generally keep the discussion themed. To you that might seem limiting in depth however to move faster and tell more story with in the same 10 minute limit I think you would not like that kind of pace. As far as the style goes, being a bit "American" I take that as a compliment. Being to the point, clear in thought and, dare I say, it slightly commercial has always been my aim. Thank you for your response.
its truly professional. I prefer Dave's format in eevblog. Most times he says just a quick video and it lasts 40 mins or more. I can see how yours and his format will suit different viewers. I will continue to watch your channel. Sorry if i seemed negative, its hard to express thought in a few words. I am very chuffed to receive a great response.
Even as a younger (early 20s) I can realy feel the spirit of those times. When I was younger I took apart everything i could get just in order to salvage parts for my local depository. Today I can just buy what I need, but as a child, my possibilities were much smaller. But I think i miss those times, because you were happy with what you got out of it. It had always some adventure feeling. Came over from EEVblog, keep up this great series! :)
Similar story here in Belgium (Europe). I remember my dad driving me ten miles to the nearest city and I would spend all the money I saved in the electronics shops for a handful of components. I think Belgium has been privileged. Velleman (a Belgian company) is still active here and all major cities still have an electronics shop or two.
+lebeyes So much of peoples experiences, expressed in this series, I think are universal. I think some Velleman products are stocked by Jaycar here in Australia as well.Thanks for your comment :-)
In fairness to the old Wholesalers,counter sales were only the tip of the iceberg in their operations.Most of their business was either from Trade phone or mail orders.I worked at Atkins (WA) in Perth in the late 1950s-early '60s,& we were flat out all daygetting orders out of the store & sending them out.At Atkins,& our competitor Carlyles,the store came right up to the counter,so the counter staff often only had to reach out & get popular items.The median age of counter staff was around 25,counter staff didn't wear dustcoats,waiting time was rarely more than 10 minutes,usually much less.Maybe the elderly blokes were only a Sydney & Melbourne phenomenon! VK6ZGO
+Bryan Wheeler Yes I'm sure it wasn't all bad. I guess in terms of the participants in the series, thats how they remembered it was like for them. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
+ZeroHarry There are so many that were not mentioned. Sheridan Electronics, Oatley Electronics, Truscotts Electronics world, David Reid, Tudor Radio, and many many more. I wish there was both the time and the opportunity to mention them all. But yes ACE is a great mention thank you :-)
I was quite disheartened at the demise of the DSE stores as I had come to know them, good selections of components, great prices and people on staff who knew their products, however thanks to retailers like Wiltronics in Ballarat I was still able to source most of my parts without looking overseas (eBay etc.)
+State of Electronics Yes indeed they are doing better at their new location than they did down in the Bridge Street Mall (old Tandy store), thanks for the work you've put into this series :)
+Tangobaldy you can just buy 1 resistor in maplin, but they're 40p each, unlikely to be in stock and you have to queue up at the counter and wait to be served by someone who doesn't want to help. Also not all maplins have a counter for components anymore. Tandy was a similar story before Maplin and that's the whole list of electronic component high street shops in uk except perhaps some independant shops which closed decades ago. We've never had self service for components. The random bags of salvaged ceramic caps or electrolytics or resitors in maplinis a really weird idea.
Nashville, TN USA ringing in... I miss the surplus shops we had when I was growing up, and there were some of all of the types you mention: Javanco (where I worked in the summer) & Eddie Warner's for the "come fill your basket" type of surplus stores, Randolph & Rice and Electra for the hi-dollar/counter waiting experience, and an independent Radio Shack that had decades of extensive inventory and a repair shed, beginning in the early '70's until just a couple of years ago. All of these are gone now, since you can get parts cheaper from Shenzen, including free shipping, for less than postage and handling would be across the U.S. Scavenging parts from the Dumpster (Skip) has become difficult locally since electronics are prohibited from being set out with the municipal trash. It is now centrally gathered and kept out of the waste stream for ecology concerns...Are Australia's glass-valve, lead solder antiquities considered hazardous waste now? I've heard that they are considered 'orrible in parts of the UK now.
Great...!! ...more or less, the story was the same here, in Italy...only the Actors are different. In this video I have seen my personal adventure in the early '70, when I was 10 and for a resistor I paid 100 Italian lire or 15 Cents of american dollar...same price for a liter of gasoline or for some bread.
I remember Tandy as in US Radio Shack, yes Tricky-Dicks to, But today my weekly internet cost more then my hobby. today my hobby comes from China. yes still use Jaycar BUT when I need a bag of all color RGB LED's for 10 cents a pop, were do u go? aliexpress. if you know its Name, rank, & Serial number, its on my door in just 15 - 40 days. for less then the cost of a hot-dog or pizza. problem is you need a lab microscope just to see it
+John Ridley just re-checked the price its is 10 cents a pop for them color RGB LEDs & did I tell about the 600 transistors for $9 NOTE- the Base pin is on the end as its Chinese so its E-C-B , LOL? :-) or the 1000+ resistors in 150 values for the same. or the Arduino add on sensors or $3
+John Ridley visit your optician and explain your hobby. Amazingly they will prescribe glasses that improve your eyesite. No need for usb microscope unless you have very bad eyes
blimey im still stuck into 70's soldering. I thought all that surface mount and solder flow was for the factories. Good on you mate. I use a big led lit magnifying lamp. 0.5mm pitch will make me go cross eyed. Even spec savers cant give you lenses for that
meanwhile here in uae you either get overpriced components that are extremely dodgy from a place know as the Republic of Indians of UAE (not being racist, just saying that they own that place absolutely. not that i have a problem with them, but its overcrowded) or buy stuff from zeroohm.ae which still is not that good but has the best possible quality of items. but the delivery is really expensive, 10$... other than that all 8 can do is salvage. which it is very hard to find salvageable stuff here. all what people throw away are tosters. other than that they send for recycling. I am currently a month away from being 16. and ive taken apart things since I was 3. never understood anything from inside, my paremts never helped me. and as a small child I just gave up, until in the beginning of this year I finally decided to buy a proper soldering station(hakko 888D, which cost me 170$ to get from the official supplier. 3x the price of it in USA. we dont even have tax in UAE), proper cordless drill that transforms into a cordless jigsaw (Black+Decker multievo series), dremel (because I also like diy woodwork) and a half decent multimeter (Uni-T ut61c) and only then did I return to electronics, and understand what the mysterious circular towers on the magical green boards (I used to think that when the pcb is red it is a faster and more advanced XD) I feel like I am much less privileged than any of the guya in the video. but oh well...
good video but head is spinning around from a story / sentence being told by 10 people. would be nice to have one person telling / completing an sentence and then move on to the next person.
+Adrian Higgins That would be wonderful but also impossible. Not everyone can deliver a single line of thought, articulate it clearly and be conscious at the rate of delivery. Far too often, long pregnant pauses, self corrections to details and many other genuine but flawed responses cause people to stumble. It isn't fair on them (time dates and so forth can be difficult to remember on the spot) but also more to the point, many have rights to review what they say and reject outright the whole sentence over a small error. In many cases editing allows me to correct/omit those problems but also to show how the voice of the many resonate in unison on so many issues. Thanks for your comment. Much appreciated.
I'm another interloper from Daves' EEVblog who's enjoying this series of intelligent, passionate & insightful videos - brings back a lot of memories even though it's about 20 years since our local independent electronic supplier. A great & helpful guy called Frank Browning who was forced into closing down his interesting, lovely dusty shop (The Magnet) full of miscellaneous components, boards & test gear after years of what I imagine were barely profitable to him :o Even in the last 2 years the last main independent electronic supply shop in Liverpool (PRS) has gone to the wall. Sad days for the hobbyist & professional alike.
Thanks for these videos, I'm really enjoying the series. Please keep them coming & don't be disheartened by the YT haters
+brickscratch Thanks for your support. More is on the way :-) Thanks for sharing your experience with those "dusty" shops from the past in your area. It is sad to see any of them go ultimately as they offered an opportunity.
+State of Electronics Those shops were also a bit of an oasis to chat with like-minded guys, ask advice & get ideas. As a young teenager I recall buying a graphic equalizer from an advert i'd seen on a postcard in the window, arranged to meet the guy there on a Saturday morning but I hadn't planned on it needing a power supply. He kindly took the time to explain to this simple young solder sniffer how to make a bridge rectifier (something which baffled me a bit at that time) Once i got my head around what it does, the penny dropped. It was a small lesson but it was a leap for me towards understanding circuits.
+brickscratch Yes that personal one on one help is another thing that would be missed if brick and mortar stores would all disappear. Its probably not immediately obvious to others the importance of being able to ask a question. That personal contact is often so important. Great comment and thanks
I love this really old stuff, makes me feel like a young whipper-snapper!
Thanks for the video dave and link. Hopefully the others in this series will go into more depth. This one was good but felt a bit american, flitting back and forth. I have more than a ten second attention span.
+Tangobaldy The series is a discussion between many and the style is driven by those conversations. The subject matter moves quickly away from just hobbyist activities, to other areas, however to keep within 10 minutes, I generally keep the discussion themed. To you that might seem limiting in depth however to move faster and tell more story with in the same 10 minute limit I think you would not like that kind of pace. As far as the style goes, being a bit "American" I take that as a compliment. Being to the point, clear in thought and, dare I say, it slightly commercial has always been my aim. Thank you for your response.
its truly professional. I prefer Dave's format in eevblog. Most times he says just a quick video and it lasts 40 mins or more. I can see how yours and his format will suit different viewers. I will continue to watch your channel. Sorry if i seemed negative, its hard to express thought in a few words. I am very chuffed to receive a great response.
Thank you for your comment. Yes its not the same type of video. It's hopefully complimentary to your youtube needs :-)
+EEVblog Thanks to Dave for sharing, liked and Subscribed, keep it up!
Even as a younger (early 20s) I can realy feel the spirit of those times. When I was younger I took apart everything i could get just in order to salvage parts for my local depository. Today I can just buy what I need, but as a child, my possibilities were much smaller. But I think i miss those times, because you were happy with what you got out of it. It had always some adventure feeling.
Came over from EEVblog, keep up this great series! :)
+tehsiggi Thank you
wow, that is really cool, well put together. I can't wait to watch the rest. Thank you Dave for blabbing!!
+Thad ward Thanks for your kind words. Glad you like it
Dave said take a look and glad i did .
This is AMAZING thanks forthe great time!
+kiskiller3 No worries. More coming shortly :-) Thanks for your comment because its much appreciated!
Similar story here in Belgium (Europe). I remember my dad driving me ten miles to the nearest city and I would spend all the money I saved in the electronics shops for a handful of components. I think Belgium has been privileged. Velleman (a Belgian company) is still active here and all major cities still have an electronics shop or two.
+lebeyes So much of peoples experiences, expressed in this series, I think are universal. I think some Velleman products are stocked by Jaycar here in Australia as well.Thanks for your comment :-)
My electronics started at our local electrical surplus shop. Dickies was next in line.
Oh, that's Dick Smith! Used to see the ads in magazines. Couldn't get to buy stuff though when you're a kid in Jamaica.
...of course, liked and subscribed (came from EEVBlog....)
+Salvo Morina thank you much appreciated :-)
In fairness to the old Wholesalers,counter sales were only the tip of the iceberg in their operations.Most of their business was either from Trade phone or mail orders.I worked at Atkins (WA) in Perth in the late 1950s-early '60s,& we were flat out all daygetting orders out of the store & sending them out.At Atkins,& our competitor Carlyles,the store came right up to the counter,so the counter staff often only had to reach out & get popular items.The median age of counter staff was around 25,counter staff didn't wear dustcoats,waiting time was rarely more than 10 minutes,usually much less.Maybe the elderly blokes were only a Sydney & Melbourne phenomenon! VK6ZGO
+Bryan Wheeler Yes I'm sure it wasn't all bad. I guess in terms of the participants in the series, thats how they remembered it was like for them. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
Don’t forget about the good old ACE Radio in Marrickville!
+ZeroHarry There are so many that were not mentioned. Sheridan Electronics, Oatley Electronics, Truscotts Electronics world, David Reid, Tudor Radio, and many many more. I wish there was both the time and the opportunity to mention them all. But yes ACE is a great mention thank you :-)
I was quite disheartened at the demise of the DSE stores as I had come to know them, good selections of components, great prices and people on staff who knew their products, however thanks to retailers like Wiltronics in Ballarat I was still able to source most of my parts without looking overseas (eBay etc.)
+SpectreOZ Yes Wiltronics was/is a shining light right in the middle of country victoria. A real surprise to me as well. Thanks for the comment.
+State of Electronics Yes indeed they are doing better at their new location than they did down in the Bridge Street Mall (old Tandy store), thanks for the work you've put into this series :)
+SpectreOZ Your most welcome :-)
Those days were awsome
I love this , Dick I owe so much to you.
In uk we only have maplins which is very overpriced and limited stock. You cant just buy one resistor. They are in bags of 100s of random values.
+Tangobaldy you can just buy 1 resistor in maplin, but they're 40p each, unlikely to be in stock and you have to queue up at the counter and wait to be served by someone who doesn't want to help. Also not all maplins have a counter for components anymore. Tandy was a similar story before Maplin and that's the whole list of electronic component high street shops in uk except perhaps some independant shops which closed decades ago. We've never had self service for components. The random bags of salvaged ceramic caps or electrolytics or resitors in maplinis a really weird idea.
wow, I remember getting a 2 pack of resistors from Tandy for a few bucks :)
Nashville, TN USA ringing in... I miss the surplus shops we had when I was growing up, and there were some of all of the types you mention: Javanco (where I worked in the summer) & Eddie Warner's for the "come fill your basket" type of surplus stores, Randolph & Rice and Electra for the hi-dollar/counter waiting experience, and an independent Radio Shack that had decades of extensive inventory and a repair shed, beginning in the early '70's until just a couple of years ago. All of these are gone now, since you can get parts cheaper from Shenzen, including free shipping, for less than postage and handling would be across the U.S. Scavenging parts from the Dumpster (Skip) has become difficult locally since electronics are prohibited from being set out with the municipal trash. It is now centrally gathered and kept out of the waste stream for ecology concerns...Are Australia's glass-valve, lead solder antiquities considered hazardous waste now? I've heard that they are considered 'orrible in parts of the UK now.
My small town of 12000 people had three electronics parts stores.
Nice!!!
+Torbjörn Svensson Thank you :-)
Great...!! ...more or less, the story was the same here, in Italy...only the Actors are different. In this video I have seen my personal adventure in the early '70, when I was 10 and for a resistor I paid 100 Italian lire or 15 Cents of american dollar...same price for a liter of gasoline or for some bread.
Could you please tell me what the ending soundtrack is?
+Spirit The track is called "Pas_de_Deux" from the UA-cam Music Library
+Spirit darude sandstorm
(had to be done)
What song do you use for your background music?
+GamingFTW12 It's made up of two tracks "Pas de Deux" and another called "Wishing Well" both in the UA-cam audio library
Thank you. It brings out the memories for inside me.
Unbelevable !
I remember Tandy as in US Radio Shack, yes Tricky-Dicks to, But today my weekly internet cost more then my hobby. today my hobby comes from China. yes still use Jaycar BUT when I need a bag of all color RGB LED's for 10 cents a pop, were do u go? aliexpress. if you know its Name, rank, & Serial number, its on my door in just 15 - 40 days. for less then the cost of a hot-dog or pizza. problem is you need a lab microscope just to see it
+JONOVID So true ... Tandy and the others feature in the next episode as well. Thanks for your comment
+John Ridley just re-checked the price its is 10 cents a pop for them color RGB LEDs & did I tell about the 600 transistors for $9 NOTE- the Base pin is on the end as its Chinese so its E-C-B , LOL? :-) or the 1000+ resistors in 150 values for the same. or the Arduino add on sensors or $3
+John Ridley visit your optician and explain your hobby. Amazingly they will prescribe glasses that improve your eyesite. No need for usb microscope unless you have very bad eyes
blimey im still stuck into 70's soldering. I thought all that surface mount and solder flow was for the factories. Good on you mate. I use a big led lit magnifying lamp. 0.5mm pitch will make me go cross eyed. Even spec savers cant give you lenses for that
meanwhile here in uae you either get overpriced components that are extremely dodgy from a place know as the Republic of Indians of UAE (not being racist, just saying that they own that place absolutely. not that i have a problem with them, but its overcrowded)
or buy stuff from zeroohm.ae which still is not that good but has the best possible quality of items. but the delivery is really expensive, 10$...
other than that all 8 can do is salvage. which it is very hard to find salvageable stuff here. all what people throw away are tosters. other than that they send for recycling.
I am currently a month away from being 16. and ive taken apart things since I was 3. never understood anything from inside, my paremts never helped me. and as a small child I just gave up, until in the beginning of this year I finally decided to buy a proper soldering station(hakko 888D, which cost me 170$ to get from the official supplier. 3x the price of it in USA. we dont even have tax in UAE), proper cordless drill that transforms into a cordless jigsaw (Black+Decker multievo series), dremel (because I also like diy woodwork) and a half decent multimeter (Uni-T ut61c) and only then did I return to electronics, and understand what the mysterious circular towers on the magical green boards (I used to think that when the pcb is red it is a faster and more advanced XD) I feel like I am much less privileged than any of the guya in the video. but oh well...
good video but head is spinning around from a story / sentence being told by 10 people. would be nice to have one person telling / completing an sentence and then move on to the next person.
+Adrian Higgins That would be wonderful but also impossible. Not everyone can deliver a single line of thought, articulate it clearly and be conscious at the rate of delivery. Far too often, long pregnant pauses, self corrections to details and many other genuine but flawed responses cause people to stumble. It isn't fair on them (time dates and so forth can be difficult to remember on the spot) but also more to the point, many have rights to review what they say and reject outright the whole sentence over a small error. In many cases editing allows me to correct/omit those problems but also to show how the voice of the many resonate in unison on so many issues. Thanks for your comment. Much appreciated.