TechniToys is a personal website that I began in an attempt to start organizing hundreds of photographs and bits of information from my own projects that are so disjointed and spread out across multiple computers that many are forgotten.
Out of necessity I have found myself spending increasing amounts of time documenting useful information – either gleaned from the web or through my own work – that I don’t want to lose. Unfortunately, this documentation still gets lost, or even the fact that it was written gets forgotten.
In some cases the information I am trying to preserve may be of use to others as well, so it seems appropriate to put it all in one accessible place where at least I can find it.
I hope that I am able to add a bit to the mix as I go.
The site will be focused on a variety of topics which may or may not be technical or involve toys, including:
- Art (Kinetic and Assemblage)
- Amateur Astronomy
- Animatronics
- Automatons and Mechanical Contraptions
- Aviation
- Coin-operated Machines (antique and collectible)
- DIY
- Electronics and Microcontrollers (PIC, Arduino)
- Home Theater (Audio, Video, HTPC, and Design)
- Metalworking and Woodworking
- Movies
- Metal Casting (aluminum, brass, bronze)
- Mold Making and Resin Casting Techniques
- Music Creation (Acoustic Guitar, MIDI, Piano)
- Neon Glassworking
- Radio Control Airplanes, Helicopters, and Flying
- Sculpture Techniques (Clay, Wax)
- Shop Machines and Tooling
- Steampunk
- Video Restoration
Background
I began dismantling, building, and generally tinkering (voiding warranties is the contemporary term) with electrical and mechanical things as a youth in the 1960s. It wasn’t enough to dig into my own things; I convinced others that their toys were far more interesting inside, and if their mothers hadn’t intervened they might have learned a thing or two. I wore out the Allied, Lafayette, and Burstein-Applebee electronics catalogs as a teenager, and the library checkout cards in the back of Alfred Morgan’s Boy’s… books were dominated by one borrower’s name. The curiosity about what makes it work has never diminished.
A career as an electrical engineer since the early eighties generally elevated that natural curiosity about electronics and all things technological. Nevertheless, it was usually the outside interests and after-work projects that really provided the impetus to explore new subject areas and develop new skills that were beyond the scope of the day job.
When not at work, the 1980s were spent immersed in sport aviation – building, flying, or working on three airplanes, two of which we flew for several years. I was also actively collecting antique slot machines and trade stimulators at the time when the pickings were still good, and a few pieces from that period are still in my collection.
When the interest of maintaining and flying the real planes waned, we turned to Radio Control flying in a big way. We flew just about everything short of turbine jets – 3D helicopters, planes, high-performance sailplanes, and even an RC ornithopter, and just loved it. For lack of a good flying site we haven’t flown in some time, but we still have over a couple dozen electric and glow aircraft in the fleet.
Acoustic guitar had been of almost obsessive interest since I was about 12 years old, and after about 45 years of practice I thought I sort of played guitar. But then I tried making some decent quality recordings of a few pieces, and like hearing your own voice for the first time, it wasn’t what was expected. I made it through a few recordings before I let it go, and I haven’t really touched the guitars for a couple years now.
The last few years have been primarily spent taking care of our dogs and studying, thinking about, or working on projects related to automata, animatronics, and kinetic art. I need to spend less time thinking about the ultimate project and start producing something realistic.
As for other interests, well, just look at the list above.
Enjoy!