I didn't get to do a drafting course until college. It was taught by the
dean (guess any prof who had to get us to understand solid state
physics was "too good" to teach drafting).. I still fondly remember
doing some sheet metal layout and having such an oddly shaped piece in
the flat mapping so well to the intended shape in 3D. Didn't help at all
with EE, but fun!
73 & stay safe
Lenny W2BVH.
On 4/24/2021 1:08 AM, Wayne Burdick wrote:
OK, I've really dated myself now.
Anyone remember "drafting"? A favorite class in high school: blueprints,
mechanical drawings, schematics, straight edges, hand lettering, projections and
elevations. We invented things to draw that weren't real, but looked like they should be.
Did all the math by hand -- on a slide rule, if necessary. Day-dreamed about what we
might one day build.
45 years later, we're using tools we couldn't have imagined. Modeling circuits
and objects with millions of parameters and vectors, realizing them in virtual
space, manipulating them in real time. Testing finished products before they're
even assembled.
The transformation is mind boggling. Yet the best part now, as it was then, is
the occasional burst of creative energy that propels an idea forward. The
feeling of pieces falling into place. Or forcing them into place out of sheer
necessity.
Most of the time, we think of our new tools and techniques as advances in the
state of the art. Things we can't live without. But those same defining moments
happened just as often in simpler times.
Case in point -- my first real project, a rendition of W7ZOI's
Micro-mountaineer. Carefully documenting it took several sheets of
4-squares-per-inch grid paper, which may still be in my cellar, beneath a
lifetime of such drawings. With the schematic, I took a lot of pride in making
the circuits look well-organized, as if that would somehow improve my odds. On
the PC board, I drew large traces and pads with the etch-resist pen, as if that
would somehow appease the electrons.
I etched the PCB, soldered two dozen parts, and connected a 12 V lantern
battery. Thanks to my paranoia about what would happen if I did it wrong, I'd
taken my time and done it right.
I was rewarded with a hiss of band noise and a few CW signals on 40 meters.
Here's to those moments, and to that timeless pursuit: turning abstractions
into reality.
73,
Wayne
N6KR
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