Happy Birthday
Hello everyone
Well it has been twelve months since my very first post – banging on about replacing the battery in my cordless telephones. The last year has certainly zoomed by very quickly, and with it has seen 135 original posts about all sorts of things. Funnily enough, I had never planned on creating a “blog” at the time… instead a few books of notes were being used to record my thoughts and ideas.
It all started while looking for an electronic kit to build… I thought it would be great to have a website where you could read about others’ experiences in building the kit – in order to decide whether or not you would like to build it yourself. Whilst waiting for the kit to arrive some other ideas evolved into posts, mundane things such as replacing calculator batteries, sourcing cheap electronics books, and the start of a power supply saga.
After writing about the JYE Capacitor meter kit, Madeleine and Marcus from Little Bird Electronics asked me to write about this Arduino thingy that they had, and sent one over to play with. Thanks guys! Things picked up a bit after that – now hundreds of thousands of people regularly visit my Arduino tutorials for fun, guidance, and to rip them apart (the tutorials, not the Arduino). And along the way I have had loads of fun writing about more kits, reviewing various parts and items, sharing my projects with the world and learning the basics.
One of the best things that has resulted from this blog is the opportunity to come into contact with some very interesting and inspirational people such as Jon Oxer from Freetronics, Andy Gelme, Dave Jones, Tim Carr from Mindkits, and many others too numerous to mention. Furthermore, it has been great conversing with the many members of the tronixstuff Google Group, answering the thousands of random email questions (well, answering most of them has been great), interacting with my twitter followers, and giving away things with the regular competitions. Speaking of which:
Finally, a lot of the content in this blog would not be possible without the generosity of various people and organisations. So a huge thank you to Little Bird Electronics, Freetronics, element-14, RS Designspark, Alan Parekh, Ogi Lumen and Gabotronics. And especially to those who were kind enough to make a donation.
The year ahead shall see a few (or more?) more Arduino tutorials, the start of another series concerning a different type of microcontroller, more interesting and inane projects, more reviews, and possibly a book. So stay tuned, and thanks for coming along for the ride.
In the meanwhile, be good to each other and make something 
Welcome to t r o n i x s t u f f
Welcome to the tronixstuff website. Regular articles are published about many things, including analogue and digital electronics, electronic kits, part reviews – and you can also follow our popular series of Arduino tutorials. The latest posts are below, and at your top-right are indexes to previous articles. On the right are ways to subscribe for new post notifications, as well as links to our Google Group for discussion. Look around, learn something. And remember – there is so much more than just Arduino! (“Arduino” is a trademark of Arduino Team).
Before following any tutorials, please read and understand the boring stuff. You follow anything here at your own risk.
We now have a Google Group!
Hello readers
I would like to announce the opening of our own tronixstuff discussion email list via Google Groups: http://groups.google.com/group/tronixstuff
Through this group we can discuss posts, projects, products and anything else mentioned on the tronixstuff or related websites. For the time being it will be moderated until we get going and see what the level of conversation is like. However, please feel free to ask questions, offer suggestions, or make constructive criticism about anything in the tronixstuff world.
It is also meant for support with any of the Arduino tutorials or products mentioned in the blog. I will do my best to help you, so don’t be afraid to ask!
However it is not for spam, discrimination, attacking others, or blatantly selling things.
So sign up now!
Hello, world
Hello there. This is the blog of John Boxall. Who am I? For over seventeen years my profession has varied, roughly orbiting in the worlds of electrical, electronics, mobile communications, information technology, business and humanities. However now in the mid-life I have come full circle and returned to my favourite things – electronics design and having fun.
The world of open source hardware (and software!) has really highlighted a new beginning in the electronics and maker world – enabling people to start taking over by creating their and modifying their own things for the benefit of themselves or others. Well, that’s my take on it. Hopefully my writings and projects are of interest to you.
In the middle of nowhere
Please comment with your thoughts, criticisms and anything else as well. Over time, I would like to share with you some electronic and other projects with you. Of course they will be open source, and licensed accordingly with Creative Commons.
Oh, there is a ‘subscribe’ box to your right at the top, why not enter your email address, then every time something new appears on the blog you will know as soon as possible. And a warning – I am colour blind, so my apologies in advance if anything looks odd design-wise. Please let me know if something is difficult for you to read so we can change it. My email address is john (at) tronixstuff (dot) com.
Anyhow, take it easy, be good to the world, and make something!
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