I started School at Sleepy Eye Public. I only went there for Pre-K, and don't remember much. I then went to St. Johns Lutheran School (also in Sleepy Eye) from Kindergarten to 8th Grade. I was in basketball (I was never good at basket ball though) and track during 8th grade, but I guess I pushed a little too hard and injured my knee. After that, I went to High School at MVL (Minnesota Valley Lutherean). I realy learned to use the Macintosh there, and I also learned all I know of TI calculators there as well!

During my Junior Year I won the Richard G Drew Creativity Award from 3M. That was kinda cool. I took a tour of the St. Paul 3M plant, and I learned a little. I graduated in 1997. High School was realy great. To those in high school now, don't take it for granted! That's your 4 years to be a pain and have fun (or is that colege?)... Hmm... Oh well. It was fun anyway.

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Well, now I'm going to colege. I'm taking a 2 year Electronics Technology program at Minnesota West in Jackson Minnesota. It's a nice place. The classes are small (some are so small that if 3 people skip, you get the teacher all to yourself! hehe! : ) and the building isn't a maze of halls and buildings. I don't have much cash now, but the way I see it, I can get a decent electronics job witht he skills I learn here, and if I ever feel I need more education, there's always the future.

Right now, I have a few projects for various classes. One project for RF class is to build an AM/FM radio. I completed it the night I got the parts!

This is a voltage detector I had to build for Soldering and Mechanical connections class. It's fairly simple. It uses 7 Comparitors to create a bar display that monitors a voltage level. The two following pictures show it in use. It's attached to Walkman Jr. One picture was lit to show detail, and the other is dark, to show the lights better.

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I also built an AV Switch Box for my Apple G3 Tower. It allows me to select where audio and video signals are recieved from and sent to. There is a front mounted AV input, a monitor connection, and inputs and outputs between my G3, VCR, and other sources.

Here's a picture of my BASIC Stamp IIsx, the "Board of Education, and a 2x16 LCD. I've yet to make them interface properly with the computers at school. Maybe I'll figure them out.

Here's a hard to find toy. It's a one revolution per 8 day gear box! The large output shaft makes only 1/8 of a turn in a single day!!! That means this thing must run over a week in order to make a SINGLE revolution. Wow!!! I traded my other Sunbird car seat to a friend for this gearbox, so he can build a force feedback seat for his Playstation. I am planning on modifying my own seat for a similar purpose in the future.

Another project I did for personal reasons. The guy who traded the gearbox to me for the seat came up with this project, and I followed suit. I think his is better constructed (all metal), but mine has a lit power switch. You shoulf know that this 7 outlet box can be expensive, but you also pay for quality. His uses a cord that can handle extremly high currents. It's babout 3/4 inch thick! He has 12 outlets on his, but like I said, no switch. These can be built to handle very large amounts of current, more than a store bought, premade outlet strip. This uses the EXACT same construction as house wiring, so the only limiting factor is the input cord. Want to build one, grab an NEC Code book and plan house wiring for the number of outlets on the strip,a nd then just build it! Hehe! Very simple! Remember, Green, Ground, Black, Hot, White, Neutral. Never work with high voltages with power applied. Also, never tie two or more wires to a screw. Use wire nuts. It sounds inconvenient, but it's code. Not doing so can cause wires to fray or not hold, and that will lead to shorts, so follow standard electricians code if you build one.

Here is the Super Nintendo that I fixed. I got it for a few bucks at a garage sale with some games. They had spilled some greenish brown goo in it... Looked like 9-1/2 month old Surge (don't ask! : )
The computer portions of the system worked. you could hear the sound, play by ear if you knew what to do, but the video signal was messed up. To fix it I dunked it in a bowl of warm watter for a few hours so it'd soak clean. I then dried it. Drip dry, fan dry, then let it sit for 2 more weeks. It now works perfectly. A very worthwhile garage sale purchase. Since the case had to be damaged to open it to reach the insides cause of Nintendo's annoying gamebit screws, I had to trash all the screw posts. I'm thinking of making a Plexiglass transparent case for it, just so it will look extra cool!

Check out my portable AV Monitor Project

that I'm building for both school and for Quadrapod!

I'll put info on future projects and acheivements, both personal and school related here as they are completed.

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