NortWare

What are "Nerd kits"? They're electronics kits from a bunch of old MIT classes, such as digital systems. They contain a huge breadboard with an integrated power supply to give +-15 and +5 volt power to the breadboard rails! They have storage for wires and also a side compartment with a components kit. These are old kits! They're full of old 70s and 80s components.

During fall 2024, Wireless Club acquired this amazing gift of ~30 of these kits from the generous Henry Houh (of the film "21" fame). They make the perfect project boxes. Circuits can be built in them and just closed up and stored for a later time.

Nerd kit inside — Here's the inside of a kit, with a small single-transistor flip-flop built on it. You can see the yellow components case next to it.

nerd kit full of electronics — I built this shelf to perfectly house the Nerd Kits, people have their own kit which they check out.

Here are a couple videos of people building simple circuits on the kits! To the left is a 555 based metal detector which uses a sensitive oscillating lc circuit to produce a tone based on the presence of metal!

To the right is a video of an arc lighter circuit, which runs off a custom inverter designed with a single transistor and primary feedback from the ignition transformer.

Alarm circuit — Simple 555 and LC circuit piezo driver to create a very loud alarm.

Vacuum tube on nerd kit — Vlad and I are getting started on vacuum tube tech in the nerd kit! The logic levels need to be supplied separately due to strange and high voltage levels, we're doing this with boost converters right now.

Nerd kit with synth — The start of a musical synthesizer using schmitt triggers exponential VCOs and simple transistor VCRs! The kit contains a simple pre-amp and class A amplifier. There's more to be added to this!