Does anyone hobby around with circuits?

[AlmostHandy]

A few months ago, I broke out all of my old electronics gear to make antennas. I'm in the process of learning to get my Ham license, and reading all of those books, and sorting through all of my crap has spurred a new interest in the hobby.

Is there anyone here who builds their own circuits for things? Anyone etching (or outsourcing) PCB's?

Most of my projects are related to my new radio hobby.

I'm currently working on building my own weather station. It's pretty basic right now, with only an anemometer and temperature circuits designed.

Apparently, there are a lot of ways to make an anemometer. Some people are using optoelectronics, like the little slot wheels inside of old computer mice. Others are using magnetic switches, or hall effect sensors. Yet others are making anemometers that don't have any moving parts at all, instead exploiting the predictable relationship between airspeed and the heat dissipated by a sensor exposed to the flow while being held at a constant temperature differential above ambient. I prefer the mechanical type with spinning cups.

The design I'm looking at simply converts the AC signal from a motor to an LM2917 frequency-to-voltage converter, and then reading it on a meter. The designer made his own readout for a surplus needle meter.

I would prefer to have a digital readout, and will be using some sort of A/D conversion circuit between the LM2917 and a BCD to 7 Segment converter, like the 7447.



I also found a couple of circuits online to make my own test equipment. One works as an adapter for a regular DMM, and converts henrys to volts.

Another circuit I found uses a PIC16F873 to make an autoranging capacitance meter.



Does anyone here have play around with this sort of thing?


(edit: Meant to post this in wasteland. I've reported it, so hopefully it will get moved soon. Sorry for the inconvenience. )

[smason]

I haven't done anything for quite a few years. I never really designed anything, but have definitely made quite a few things. Did some home-brew PCBs using EZsomethingerother and printing on to this blue transfer film. These days, I'm too lazy, and it's too easy to just order what you need online

[AlmostHandy]

Right on. I was really into it when I was a kid, but really only learned the basics. I got out of it for a while, and have only tinkered since. Now I'm really interested in more complex circuit, and learning about TTL and CMOS Logic. It's pretty cool. I have a couple of PIC chips, and am working on building my own serial programmer for it. It would be cool to incorporate the processor into my weather station for some data logging and storage capabilities. I have some good textbooks, and a couple of hobby level books, but I have so many questions.

Believe it or not, I am having a hard time finding an active forum for electronic hobbyists. I'm a HUGE fan of Bill Beaty and his Amateur Science page at amasci.com, but the forum there is just dead.

I've been thinking about trying to find some classes on the subject, and going back to school.

[poltergeisty]

There was a thread in the General Scanning forum about lighting sensors. I have plans here about how to make one using solar cells. Been meaning to make on for a loooong time. Love to have something from Honeywell.

I also have plans on building this CCD imaging dome cam that looks at the night sky. Would love to couple that with the weather station, lightning detector and remote telescope.

[smason]

Yeah it's impossible to find a lot of parts locally, most hobbyist type shops are long gone. Luckily there's still Mouser and Digikey. It is a bit of a dying hobby, a lot if not all of the good magazines are gone, and not that much on-line. I used to love to read stuff on sci.electronics.* and anything by Sam Goldwasser on the net.