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| Bill's RC Gadgets |
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Welcome to my Radio Control Gadget page. I hope you enjoy my gadgets as well as I have enjoyed creating them. The RC Navigation Lights project is my first gadget to bring to market, but I have other ideas for radio control sub systems and plan to offer these in the near future.In my early high school years, I began my passionate love of electronics by studying Radio & Television courses. After high school, in the early 70’s, I pursued Electronics Technology and Computer Technology training. This was a time before desktop computers, and a world of small, magical electronic devices so commonplace today. In the early 80’s, I purchased my first computer - A Commodore 64. I can still remember the excitement of bringing it home and setting it up on the dining room table. I turned it on and then sat there staring at the little TV screen displaying READY, and saying to myself – "Now, what am I going to do with this thing?" Then I realized if I were going to derive any value from this computer, I was going to have to learn how to program it. I bought books on Commodore BASIC, books on the machine architecture and memory layout. I subscribed to several magazines that sported articles mainly on the Commodore 64. "Compute" and it's companion sister magazine "Computes Gazette" were a couple of them I particularly enjoyed. Through most of the 80’s I had an almost endless supply of new things to learn and explore in this little computer.In the latter part of the 80’s, a friend of mine that I had met through common interests in computers, ask me if I would be interested in working at the company where he worked to support a new computer system they were installing. The position was a temporary one and the new computer system was never put into service. At the same time, however, they discovered that I could write computer programs, and that kept me employed with them. After one year, the position became a permanent one, and my career as a developer was well on it's way. Fast forward almost 25 years later, and I find myself still employed by that company. It’s been a fun and interesting 25 years developing software for them. Now that I am approaching retirement, I am excited that I will have more time for hobbies, grandchildren, and spending time with my beautiful wife of 22 years. My first project, RC Navigation Lights, was particularly enjoyable and made sense to me because it encompassed many of the things I enjoy. It involved Electronics and printed circuit board design as well as programming to bring the microcontroller to life to perform all the steps needed from monitoring the receiver channel inputs, to driving the LED's that provide not only constant lights, but strobes and simulated rotating beacons as well. Check it out by clicking on the Products Tab. Enjoy… |