✦ Crystal Radio - a crystal earphone, an antenna, a ground connection and a 50,000-watt AM transmitter.
✦ Carbon-mic intercom - Parts: a carbon microphone, a speaker and battery.
✦ Semiconductor Fucker - a transformer and a battery. (Hey. I was only 6 at the time)
✦ Lux Meter - a solar cell and a meter. (I was 8)
✦ Audio Signal Generator - my first electronic kit
✦ Digital White/Pink Noise Generator - using one chip from Tandy Electronics. White noise OK but unable to calibrate the pink noise.
✦ X-Y Laser Deflection System - 2 speakers connected to mirrors, a stereo amp and some software, amplifiers and a laser. Could never afford the neon laser (before semiconductor lasers became available)
✦ Realtime Bandpass Audio Spectrum Analyzer - A HUGE project which might have worked great if I'd known what the Nyquist rate was.
✦ Talk-back intercom - Used for communication in live music production.
✦ UItrasonic Interferomic Microphone - Measuring sound using sound but still didn't know what the Nyquist rate was.
✦ Realtime Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) Spectrum Analyzer. Extremely poor response when written in BASIC and running on a 4 MHz processor. Finally figured-out what the Nyquist rate was.
✦ Midilink - A device for transferring MIDI data over very long distances.
✦ Pulsed Reluctance Motor - My first experiment into weird devices.
✦ Gravitional-warp Capacitor Array - It's how UFOs fly. I was told it would work - but it didn't.
✦ Fluid Vortex Propulsion Device - Uses a ring vortex for propulsion. Still in progress.
✦ Various Unix FTP commands - Got my first internet connection (a UNIX shell account).
✦ Parabolic Microphone - A microphone and a dish.
✦ Ring Vortex Detonation - Too dangerous to complete.
✦ Tentertainment System - A portable battery powered stereo, light, gas heater, 240v inverter for use in a tent. The battery went flat after about 45 minutes and I was too nervous to leave the gas heater running while asleep in the tent.
✦ 30A var. DC Supply - A large transformer, some large caps and diodes. Variable for about 2 minutes before the output transistors blew-up.
✦ TVDI - Plug your electric guitar into the motel room TV. Really annoy your neighbours and end up with a visit from the police.
✦ 4WD Wheel Winch - Fits to the front wheels of a 4WD to make a winch. Never built.
✦ Jacobs Ladder - Fun, dangerous and painful.
✦ Tesla Coil - Fun, dangerous and painful.
✦ The Colorwand- I actually sold a few of these expensive toys.
✦ Noise-Canceling Headphones Put these babies on ... if you're brave enough.
✦ Pulse-width Modulated Voltage Regulator - using one LM555 IC. Works great.
✦ AF/RF Sweep Frequency Oscillator - a handy piece of test equipment.
✦ Electric Pushbike using a 12V small sealed lead-acid battery and a 18V drill. Maximum speed 3 MPH.
✦ AM Broadcast Transmitter - Fun and illegal.
✦ FM Stereo Transmitter - Using the BA1404 chip. Terrible audio quality.
✦ Poynting Flow Vector Thruster - Unconfirmed thrust. But not for me.
✦ Parabolic Hydrophone - got wet and didn't work.
✦ Relay-switched Marx Generator - Used to start a cinema projection xenon bulb in a parabolic reflector. Very bright and hot enough to cook things at a distance.
✦ High Voltage Generator - Bipolar Cascade Voltage Multiplier.
✦ Vortical Charge Separation test - top secret. Still in progress.
✦ Radiant Energy Research - Interesting with unresolved problems.
✦ One Atmosphere Uniform Glow Plasma Panel - it glowed violet.
✦ Ozone/Al Fuel Cell - An incredibly small amount of energy was generated.
✦ Electrohydrodynamic Thruster - a 'lifter'.
✦ Toroidally-polarised magnetic device - Never built, hard to imagine the EM field.
✦ PZT thruster - Might work but didn't for me.
✦ Vortex Research - Visually stunning. Still in progress.
✦ "Pressure Safe" - a device to stop people getting sucked to the inlet of a pool/spa.
✦ Miklos Thruster Test - Says he has generated a mechanical force which is not due to ion-wind - and he did too!
✦ Electrostatic Attractive Beam Theory based on the Miklos Thruster Test.