EEVblog #280-2 - Talking Electronics - America - Part 2 of 5

Part 2 of the interview with Colin Mitchell from Talking Electronics.
In this one he talks about moving Talking Electronics Magazine to America, and the deal with and demise of Poptronics magazine.

[EEVblog]

It was awesome to meet him, and he was exactly as I had imagined!

[philbx]

Amazing gentleman and one from an era where taking time to help (and teach) people was considered a good thing.
Too bad our 'optimized' society lacks many people like Colin, and of course yourself Dave.
BTW, had the pleasure of speaking with Colin a while back re. a kit. Nice bloke!
Also Branko is another one. Maybe interview time for him also Dave?

[CampKohler]

Jeeze, it sounded like he was going into the desert wastes when he came to America! What a heartbreaking story.

[douglas]

It would have been nice if the magazines had been published in the USA. We had a couple of mags in the USA and they had their good and bad points. It would have been great to have another to choose from. My favorite articles are on construction of practical, useful projects.

[gnuPirate]

Quite a remarkable gentleman ! Lots of courage, and great ideas and work.

[tronixstuff]

Thanks Dave for capturing Colin's story

[Satchmoeddie]

FYI, NEMA (National Electrical Manufacturing Association) keeps the USA firmly planted in the mid 20th century when it comes to electrical distribution, and branch circuitry. I can stuff my pocket with French Telemechanique motor controllers, or I can put one USA NEMA motor controller on a cart and wheel it over to the cabinet. The NEMA is rated for something like 15, 000 on off cycles. The French one is rated for 1, 000, 000 on off cycles. We kept 25 cycle mains power in upstate New York until the 1990s, because no one wanted to pay the cost of retooling. This is the same type power generated at the very first AC generating station in the USA. How could they keep that going on that long and never upgrade? Meanwhile those 20 news agencies have Americans believing we have the best of everything, and are the best at everything.

[Greegor]

As a buyer (among other things) I was on the other side of those
regional distributors ( jobbers ) trying to buy magazines to sell in
a computer store about 1983 and the "jobbers" required that I
commit to a rediculously large quantity or none. I felt like it was
controlled by organized crime or something. I remember finding
that a few magazines were NOT locked in with the jobber and
would sell me a bundle of 30 magazines wholesale each month, COD.
Sold all as courtesy, not profit.

[KrisBlueNZ]

Ahh, Talking Electronics brings back a few memories!

When I was around 8~12 years old my main learning magazine was Everyday Electronics, from the UK, which had some good projects for beginners with a limited amount of explanation and teaching. I also got into ETI, who had some very cool projects but were also not that great at teaching. They did have a wonderful "Dregs" section though, with interesting and funny news and usually a photo with a funny speech bubble added. Then both of those magazines moved towards microprocessors, which I wasn't interested in at the time.

I bought a few issues of Talking Electronics. I remember thinking that it must have been written by someone young who had only just learned enough to design the circuit and explain how it worked. That seemed like a weakness at the time, but I think often beginners are best taught by someone with only somewhat more knowledge and experience, because the highly trained people who have degrees are often unable to relate to people who are just starting out. Dave is definitely an exception to that statement though!

One of my successful projects from around that time was the "LED Zeppelin", a simple game from Talking Electronics with blinking LEDs and a pushbutton. I constructed it using skeleton wiring (I was too cheap and/or poor to buy a PCB) and potted it in candle wax, using a plastic projector slide container as the mould!

Around that time I got interested in microprocessors, with the Apple //e computers at secondary school, and subsequently did electronic design and microcontroller programming for an embedded systems company.

I agree wholeheartedly with what Colin says about starting simple and gaining confidence. Some people might say that cutting and pasting some code, or building up a little kitset, doesn't teach you much. That's true, but it gives you confidence and stimulates your interest, so you're motivated to learn how it works.

Once you have something that works, you can make changes and test them out, which is an excellent way to learn, in my opinion. You think of a feature you want to add, or something you want to change, and you have the motivation to open up that thick book (or nowadays, search that PDF or website) and learn how to make those changes.

The confidence and sense of achievement you can get from doing this successfully can't be underestimated in my opinion. Especially for beginners, and especially for young people, but for anyone, really.

Just by giving a kid a little PCB with a microcontroller on it, and a free development system that's easy to install, you can turn them from a programming-phobe into a programming-phile in a matter of days.

So thanks Colin for having the right approach to teaching, and helping a LOT of folks get a head start in this amazing field.

[SimoWill]

"Everything over there was like going back 20 years." GOLD

[EEVblog]

Yes indeed. Some things are not easy to find, but there is a TON of material there.

[kerajit]

I very like this series, although a lot of this things when you talk about distribution is foreign to me. But still nice thing to hear about home electronics in times when i wasn't alive yet or still pooped in my nappy.

[mianchen]

Just finished part 1, and part 2 is up. Great timing!

[zox]

this man left something behind him with all the trouble he had to go trough i have only respect

[eWhizz]

he is like the Father Bob of electronics! love it 😊

[typedeaf]

At 14:30 he is talking about 10 projects that teach assembly for some processor. Any idea where to find these?

[envisionelec]

The audio/electronics business in America is exactly this - to this day. You can do anything in America...except make a profit.

[jerzmacow]

At least we can put our plugs upside down! And us canadians get 115V, thank you very much. I think we can all agree that the standard european cylinder plug is the worst.

[ricardorubenmartinezsalaza]

congratulations. You are fantastic, excelent, thank you for all . thank you again MASTER.soy tecnico electronico en mexico y he estado siguiendo con mucha atencion la pagina del sr.Mitchel y sus entrevistas espero que tenga contenplado un viaje a estas tierras, que ademas disfrute de mi tierra y la gente venga con una conferencia . I hope to make you many questions on your email, see you

[umeramir]

Please check Colin Mitchell's website. It is heaven of circuits.

Thank you Dave. Love you~