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-
- The Criteria for the TestGear? Projects.
- ----------------------------------------
-
- In 1998 my (then 7 year old) daughter's friend's brother was (is)
- interested in tinkering with simple electrical and electronic projects.
- When I asked him if he had any basic Test Gear to check and calibrate his
- projects he replied "No none at all, but I have got my own ~Commodore
- AMIGA~". On inspection I found he had an old A500 with 1MB of memory,
- a Television set, an extra floppy drive and it was MISSING the mouse.
- I then asked him if he would like his AMIGA to become his Test Gear, his
- face showed much surprise and he said "Yes Please", he was at that time
- 8 years old.
-
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- This set the criteria for all of the projects as shown below:-
- --------------------------------------------------------------
-
- 1) The projects MUST run on a standard A500 WITH an extra floppy drive.
- Some projects may NOT be calibrated for this machine however as all
- the developement work was/is done on an AMIGA A1200.
- 2) The projects MUST be Operating System friendly.
- 3) A 0.5MB memory expansion for the A500 is optional.
- 4) The initial projects MUST NOT require a mouse to work, this is
- optional. The keyboard IS the required minimum.
- 5) The OCS graphics modes MUST be the required minimum display modes.
- 6) A Television Set MUST be the required minimum display medium.
- 7) Workbench 1.3x MUST be the required minimum Operating System.
- 8) The projects MUST work on both NTSC and PAL. This is so that everyone
- in the world can use the software without modification.
- 9) The projects MUST be simple enough for a young child to build in a
- VERY SHORT period of time, possibly under supervision. This is so as
- to be able to keep the attention span of that young child.
- 10) All of the required components MUST be available to the general public
- from any or a known source.
- 11) The projects MUST be VERY cheap to build in relation to their
- commercial/professional cousins.
- 12) All external power supplies required for any of the projects MUST be
- batteries. A young child should NOT have access to MAINS voltage
- facilities or power sockets.
- 13) All Calibration Equipment MUST be batteries or cells also.
- A young child has NOT got access to Professional Calibration Equipment
- so therefore he/she has to start from somewhere.
- 14) The projects MUST NOT require special printed circuit boards to be made.
- 15) The projects MUST NOT require any special tools, the standard tools
- should always be sufficient.
- 16) IF a special tool is required then a supplier MUST be available to
- purchase that tool.
- 17) As a multimeter/multitester is virtually impossible on any computer
- this MUST be a purchased item.
- 18) If MAINS IS required to power up a unit to be tested, then a MAINS
- ISOLATING transformer WILL be required and MUST be used. This MUST be
- under the supervision of an adult.
- 19) Any books required SHOULD be available from your local library.
- 20) NO special knowledge of electronics is needed or required to build
- any of the projects.
- 21) Read the ~Warning~ file for SAFETY reasons.
-
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Mr Barry Walker,
- 70 King George Road,
- Loughborough,
- Leicestershire,
- LE11 2PA,
- England.
-
- Email to:-
-
- wisecracker@tesco.net
-
- BYE.....
-
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