This is my story, and it’s gonna be a bit long, but I want you to know a little about me. After all, a large part of what I’m selling is me. You get a lifetime of experiences. I do believe my experience will give my products and services a little more value than just the the products themselves.
Again, this is a bit long, so if you decide not to go forward, here is an easy link out – Home Page. But if you are still curious, here’s my story and I’m sticking with it!
My journey into the wonderful world of electronics started over 40 years ago. After graduating from irving High School (Go Tigers!) in Irving , Texas, I joined the United States Marine Corps. I scored high enough on the entry test to be able to choose the training and job of my choice. After much consideration, I figured working on navigational systems on aircraft would be a great career. So off to USMC boot camp in San Diego, California I went.
United States Marine Corps
After three months of boot camp, I was transferred to Naval Air Station Memphis in Millington, Tennessee for schooling.
Absolutely the most difficult test during this school was the dreaded transistor theory test. It had to be passed to move forward. It’s a in-depth, multi-page test covering all aspects of transistors. This included all the formulas needed to fully understand how and why transistors work as they do and how they are used in circuits. My proudest accomplishment while at this school was achieving a perfect score on the test. At the time, I was only the third person ever to ace the test. Now, that was a long time ago. I am sure there have been many Marines and Navy personnel ace the test since then. But at that point I was number 3!
I was proud of my time in the Marines. But when my enlistment came to an end the lure of civilian life was calling my name. So I was set, right? Great education and experience working on aircraft electronics. Jobs would be knocking at my door. Well… not quite.
You see, providing an education in electronics costs Uncle Sam a lot of time and money. He wants to recoup that investment into more enlisted time. Until you re-enlist, they don’t teach ALL the theory as technical school would. I knew enough to diagnose and repair the units in which I was trained, mainly by following flow charts. But I didn’t have the knowledge base to work on equipment i was not familiar with. If you re-enlist, you get that theory and can work on just about anything. It may be different now, but that’s how it worked back in the early 80s.
Civilian Life
After my military separation, I landed back where I started in Irving. I worked a few odd jobs, including armed security in downtown Dallas. I even trained to be a professional wrestler for a short time. Electronics was always on my mind and I knew at one point I wanted to go back to school and learn what Uncle Sam didn’t teach me. I enrolled in a local trade school that specialized in electronics. Even before I graduated, I landed a job with Honeywell International repairing power supplies from mainframe computers. At that time we would troubleshoot down to the individual components and repair them. Nowadays, the cost of electronic components and circuit board production is so much cheaper to than it used to be. Technicians today usually just find the faulty board and replace it. It just isn’t economical to take the time to troubleshoot down to components anymore.
Life was good. I had a good electronics job. I was finishing up trade school, about to graduate at the top of my class. Then things completely fell apart. A very rocky marriage which had been spiraling out of control was quickly ending. On top of that, Honeywell announced the branch I was working at in Dallas was closing and moving to Boston. I had the offer to make the move with the company, but with everything else going at the time, I elected to stay in Texas.
I worked several non-technical related jobs, eventually moving to Colorado Springs, Colorado to help open up the first Blockbuster Video stores in that state. After opening up the third store, I became homesick and moved back to Texas, eventually landing in Paris, Texas where other members of my family had settled.
Paris Public Library
It was in Paris that I would eventually land the job that would become my “first career.” After working at a local computer store for a couple of years, I landed a job at the Paris Public Library. They hired me to start their computer department. At the time, all they had for public access was two computers hooked up to a CD tower with a National Geographic CD. No Internet at all.
I spent the next 26 years building the department and helping patrons use the computers. Over the years I have helped thousands of folks research the Internet, write resumes, apply for jobs, apply for unemployment or social security benefits, etc. I was in a position to help many in situations where just a little help was needed to actually make their lives a little better. Looking back, helping those folks was what made my 26 year career at the library so meaningful to me.
After being at the library for several years, the city created an information technology department. As with most I.T. departments, only they are intelligent enough to save us from total destruction. All of the technical aspects of my job were slowly taken away, piece-by-piece, until in the end practically nothing was left. Twenty-six years after creating the library’s computer department, I didn’t have the administrative clearance to even install a simple printer on any computer in the library. The disrespect I felt from this was all the motivation I needed to retire a little earlier than planned.
Circuitslingers
It would be great if I were able to spend my remaining days on earth lounging on the couch, watching techie videos on YouTube (which I do – allot), but I need be doing something. That’s where the idea for Circuitslingers FPV Drones and Robotics came from.
Drones
Something I have enjoyed during the past eight years or so has been flying drones. My first drone, a DJI Mavic Pro Platinum, was hot stuff when it was released in 2017, but the drone industry has really evolved since then. One of the more exciting developments is FPV, or first person view, allowing drone pilots to use headsets to see what the a would-be pilot inside the aircraft would see. FPV headsets restrict vision to only the picture coming from the drone, giving pilots the sensation of actual flight. I was hooked!
I’m no expert on FPV drones, but I’m excited to learn what I can. I invite you to follow me as I delve headfirst into the world of FPV drones. Watch this website for product reviews and eventually even a few drone building kits and videos. Let’s learn together!
Combat Robotics
I’ve been a fan of BattleBots since its inception in 2000. Although I found it interesting, I never thought about getting involved due to some of those robots costing up to $50,000 to build. Also, many of the teams were made up of multi-degreed mechanical and electrical engineers. All that seemed a little out of my reach. How do you compete with that, right?
A while back I was watching videos on YouTube (again). I came across a few videos from a group who held regular combat robotics competitions. But these bots were a lot smaller than their TV counterparts. After a few more videos I discovered I was watching robots in two weight divisions – one limiting the robot to 1.5 total pounds (antweight) and the other at 3 pounds (beetleweight). I knew the size of the bots had to allow builds to be very affordable.
After researching a little further, I found listings not only for combat robotics groups all across the United States, but Europe has new groups forming across the pond every day. I even found a group in Dallas!
So more affordable, more assessable – combat robotics suddenly became something within reach for anyone with the desire. No high-dollar sponsors needed as with the BattleBots. But something else I noticed was the people building and fighting those small bots looked like they were having a boatload of fun. I had to try it.
So as with FPV drones, I don’t claim to be an expert at building and fighting combat robots. But I’m learning more about it every day. So come along with me for the ride. Let’s learn together!