Remember those JUKU STEAM kits? Well, I can't find the software.

@cfg83 Always great when someone goes out of their way to support abandoned items. Certainly looks workable to me for the light one. If the adult understands the instructions lol.

I kinda wonder how useful coding is going to be when we are all serfs to the AI psychopaths. But realistically thinking logically should always be useful.

Anyone remember these?
https://radioshackcatalogs.com/flipbook/m-science_fair_kits_130-in-1_electronic_project_lab_28-259.html

I think that was mine… Christmas gift mid 90s. No software required lol. I don’t really get rid of things I wonder if it’s still in storage tub at the bottom of the closet…

My Purdue development kits from the mid 2000s for microcontrollers and FPGAs are still here. Almost none of the SPECIFIC things I did with them are still relevant but the concepts are.

@unksol I remember those electronics labs. I never had one but I remember soldering the Heathkit SW-717 shortwave radio together in about 24 hours …

@cfg83 they were very basic but easy for very young kids and had logic gates in them. AND/OR/NOT/NAND/NOR/XOR. Transistors etc.

Basically a kid friendly breadboard. Without them having to keep track of all the components. Plus a project book. Technically you could just follow the project book and connect wires.

And annoy your sisters with sounds christmas morning. Cause. Ya know

Or/then you could learn some principles and improve on them.

If you wanted to build something specific. That’s definitely a way nicer, permanent build kit. HAM radio was definitely less of a thing by the 90s/you probably have a few decades on me. I know it’s still alive. I can still miss radioshack/discreet components.

“The SW-717 was introduced in 1971 and remained available until about 1982”

https://people.ohio.edu/postr/bapix/SW-717.htm

Are you still actively using a HAM setup?

@unksol Ha ha, no, I’m a poser. I built it, ran it a bit, and it ended up in my Dad’s home office. Still there. We may try to turn it on.
The monthly TRW swap meet near me is run by the ham radio folks. That swap meet is slowly dying but still worth going. Many a misfit electronic has been restored by the musty bits and bobs on offer there.

@cfg83 eh. I always found the whole thing interesting. I was going to say that by the time it would have mattered to me. We had the Internet.

But I’m sure there are still people broadcasting from restrictive regimes with blocked Internet… Oh right… Maybe I should get a HAM radio…

@unksol The ham(sters) have a big win up their sleeve during disasters, because you can run a super-slow internet over ham radio for vital communications. We won’t appreciate them until we need them, then we will thank them profusely … and prompty forget about them once the disaster is past.

/showme Hamsters that are also ham radio operators being begged by short-sighted humans to use the ham radios of the hamsters for emergency internet.

@cfg83 Here’s the image you requested for “Hamsters that are also ham radio operators being begged by short-sighted humans to use the ham ra…”

@cfg83 one thing I knew a lot about as a kid was hamster tunnels. IDK what people are up to today/we didn’t have the Internet.

https://www.thehamsterforum.com/forums/diy-thread-show-us-your-creations.30/

Also gerbils and a hedge hog a 3rd grade teacher had that I could handle for the kids but they could not. Cause. Spikes if it freaked out. and then you did.ouch

I’m not going to ask AI for an Erinaceidae running a HAM radio but. Fuck AI

And the entire Internet is technically ones and zeros. Morse code. Yes you could do that but… Voice seems easier for actual communication.

Numbers station for repeating info

@cfg83 @unksol @Italianscallion is a knowledgeable ham … who likes to share his knowledge. So a ham ham?

@unksol Who needs AI when we have Spiny Norman looking for Dinsdale? …

@ItalianScallion @Kyeh @unksol

… ham ham?

Don’t make me go inception!

@cfg83 I mean. I’m always up for some monty python. Before the bastards start regurgitating it

Granted I’m assuming that YouTube hasn’t. Which… Eh… Also why is it on YouTube…

@cfg83 @unksol

@unksol The ham(sters) have a big win up their sleeve during disasters, because you can run a super-slow internet over ham radio for vital communications. We won’t appreciate them until we need them, then we will thank them profusely … and prompty forget about them once the disaster is past.

Ham radio is alive and well. I’m quite active in the ham radio club I’m in and just a couple of weekends ago another club member and I did a demo of ham radio at a weekend local celebration. The theme was “It’s not your grandfather’s ham radio!” and focused on some of many digital modes of communications used in ham radio these days. Yes, traditional voice communications is still widely used and there are those who very much like to do Morse code, even though it’s not a requirement for a license anymore.

cfg83, I miss Heathkit equipment. My first ham radio contact was on a Heathkit CW transceiver from my dorm room in college with an “unauthorized” wire antenna out the window to a nearby tree.

As for kits, I have a few of them here in various stages of progress. The one I really need to get going on is my QRP (low-power) FT8 digital transceiver.

The club I’m in has been active in public service communications over the 75 years we’ve been around, providing and coordinating communications for the Boston Marathon, and major events in the past like the Northeast Blackout of 1965 and various floods and probably hurricanes too.

Oh yes, the mysterious number stations. For those who don’t have a clue what we’re talking about, they were shortwave radio stations with a voice saying a string of numbers. That was it. No identification. Never a reply. Back in the day, we figured they were Soviet tranmissions to their spies.

@ItalianScallion @unksol WOW! That’s meat and potatoes.
Keep those antennas flying!

@cfg83 Wooo-hooo! I can connect to the devices! I haven’t checked out the coding yet, but this is a very promising first start. I’ll spread the word now.

Thanks again!
/giphy Success!

@TheMonkeyKing REALLY?!?!?!? I totally expected it to be way much harder to get up and running. Three cheers for that Github Samaritan!

@cfg83 @TheMonkeyKing they were very straight forward/step by step if you understood them. The issue would be if you had to interpret them.

I do think they only directly cover the lights. If they used the same hardware for the guitar… Just a microcontroller… But some things may need documentation

@cfg83 @ItalianScallion if one were going to get a set what would you recommend?

@ItalianScallion @unksol I would suggest the one that the github supports …

… A project to bring the discontinued JUKU STEAM LED Light Show Coding Kit back to life with custom firmware and a kid-friendly programming environment. …

@cfg83 @ItalianScallion a HAM radio setup