Remember Heathkit? Then you are old. Anyway, Heathkit was a company that produced electronic devices (such as stereos). They were generally good, high quality devices that you could get much cheaper than market value, but they would arrive in the mail in pieces … totally unassembled, and sometimes with a free soldering iron.You then got to put them together. After you were about three quarters through the project and realized that you had fucked it up beyond belief, you could then mail it back to Heathkit (on your dime) and they would finish the assembly for you and send it back. For a fee. So, the total cost was then higher than market value, but you got to have a lot of fun with your new soldering iron.
It is quite possible that Heathkit has been around since it was last on my radar screen (like, when I was twelve). In any event, thy have just come out with a new product, which is called the HE-RObot (Hero robot). It includes a Core 2 Duo Processor and it runs, unfortunately, Windows.
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I built my first Heathkit (a 35 watt vacuum tube “hi-fi” amplifier) back before there was stereo — 1956.
Ah, that was back in the days when you could SEE the electricity pulsing through the gizmos.
Ah, Heathkits! I did assembled various home entertainment gizmos from them, back in the 70’s. Back when electronics was still a fun hobby (ie. the entire works weren’t all stuffed into a single massively integrated chip).
GC-1000 Most Accurate Clock
I still use a Heathkit guitar amp. It’s transistors are more reliable than the tubes in my even older Ampeg Jet and the Heathkit complements my late 50’s Guild Slim Jim quite nicely, thank you. So, yeah, I’m old.
My first Heathkit was a radio transmitter, which I used to broadcast an AM radio program from my basement to the surrounding neighborhood, back in 1957 or so. I followed up with audio amplifiers and FM radios for self and friends. Even visited the company where they made the things, not far from my hometown of Grand Rapids, Michigan.Now that I live in Tokyo and have a family, my youngest son has taken over the tradition; but he builds his robots from parts found in Akihabara and programs them in C++.