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Welcome our newest microMedic judge: Forrest M. Mims III — Parallax Forums

Welcome our newest microMedic judge: Forrest M. Mims III

Ken GraceyKen Gracey Posts: 7,395
edited 2013-05-11 16:24 in Announcements
Hey all,

You read it correctly. We are very fortunate to have somebody we all know as a valuable educator in our electronics experience: Forrest M. Mims III.

www.forrestmims.org

Thank you Forrest for your support in the 2013 National microMedic Contest!

Ken Gracey
Parallax Inc.

Comments

  • bjimbestbjimbest Posts: 3
    edited 2013-03-10 08:29
    Wow! Forest Mimms III! I have been a medical devices engineer for over 33 years. My background has been in Reliability Engineering, Systems Verification & Validation, and Test & Measurement Engineering. On the side I have been an enthusiastic amateur medical device designer, reference www.bestsolu.com . I have well over a dozen of Forest's books on my shelf. Whenever I get stumped on a idea or design, I always go back to the basics as described in Forest's books. It will be a great learning experience to take part in this competition and have such an esteemed teacher as our judge.
  • prof_brainoprof_braino Posts: 4,313
    edited 2013-03-10 14:48
    The Mimms books got me started in electronics, with calulating the value for the current limiting resistor for an LED.

    Welcome, Mr Mimms!
  • Peter KG6LSEPeter KG6LSE Posts: 1,383
    edited 2013-03-10 18:38
    Forrest is the reason I got in to electronics back in elementary school ....* smiles*
    20 Years later am using his books to tutor and teach my fellow college students ... He is a Icon for the "makers" and DIYers of the 80s and 90s ...

    One thing he is known for is the use of LEDs as a RX sensor..... Deja Vu! the optics lab Yesterday was on sensors and the first part was to use a Green LED as a detector.. Tis a small world .......

    Peter.
  • borisgborisg Posts: 39
    edited 2013-03-11 01:41
    A welcome addition. I just know Forrest Mims from a few of the Amateur Scientist columns he wrote in SciAm which I still remember and recently he made an appearance on WUWT which triggered those memories. The electronics books he authored are from after my initial explorations in electronics which I suppose gives away my age as my first IC's were RTL and my first photosensors were made by scraping off the black paint covering on a Phillips transistor (in the pre-LED days).
  • Clock LoopClock Loop Posts: 2,069
    edited 2013-04-18 03:13
    Speaking of Mr.Mims..

    I just wanted to remind people, even before I found that Mr.mims was going to judge...

    That Mr.Mims discovery of using an LED to detect photons could be used as a cheap sensor...

    Not an accurate one (however using luxeon rebels might help sensitivity, or other high output leds, not becuase they are cheap but because they have high output, 3.3v @ 30ma makes a rebel VERY bright with no need for cooling, and can also be used for detection due to 100ohm resistor(or less depending on VF of led)
    I mention this because leds are so cheap, one could use 50 of them to sense something and still not be expensive..

    A bunch of sensors that velcro around a limb or body part with leds placed in specific spots to do pulse detection, with a full body velcro kit, one could determine blood flow irregularities. And other things depending on wavelength and intensity of led outputs.

    I will not be making this due to poverty.
  • jazzedjazzed Posts: 11,803
    edited 2013-04-18 11:44
    Wow. And I came just here to thank Clock Loop for his continuing participation.

    Forest Mims is largely responsible for my interest in electronics (beyond my Uncle's Ham Radio).

    Thank you Mr. Mims sir for all your contributions.
  • ercoerco Posts: 20,257
    edited 2013-04-27 08:45
    I won first place in the county science fair many moons ago as a direct result of Mr. Mimms' fine books at Radio Shack. Thank you, sir!

    Now I wish I was in the contest. I came up with a great idea just yesterday!
  • NWCCTVNWCCTV Posts: 3,629
    edited 2013-04-27 21:09
    @erco, I believe there is still time to enter. Of course, we would need some type of device to extinguish whatever you build!!!!!!
  • Invent-O-DocInvent-O-Doc Posts: 768
    edited 2013-04-29 15:43
    There's plenty of time to enter, erco, though I think that Mr. Mims would be most welcoming of anything that uses LEDs or a 555 timer.

    I've been reading some of his books recently. First, his two LED books from 1973 are interesting (i'm working on an LED book proposal) and he also wrote an interesting memoir in the mid-80s called Siliconnections.
  • jim N8RHQjim N8RHQ Posts: 85
    edited 2013-05-04 18:50
    Mr Forrest M. Mims III, wow indeed!
    Sort of a hero for me.
    Thank you for all your contributions.
    This one in particular
    EN.jpg


    influenced me in so many ways!
    EN.jpg
    1024 x 1410 - 249K
  • ercoerco Posts: 20,257
    edited 2013-05-05 15:12
    jim N8RHQ wrote: »
    Mr Forrest M. Mims III, wow indeed!
    Sort of a hero for me.
    Thank you for all your contributions.
    This one in particular
    EN.jpg


    influenced me in so many ways!

    +1, the Engineer's Notebook got a lot of us going in the hobby. I have my original yellow copy plus a few backups. They are starting to appreciate on Ebay & Amazon! http://www.ebay.com/itm/Forrest-Mims-Engineers-Notebook-NEW-by-Forrest-M-Mims-/180743269176?pt=US_Nonfiction_Book&hash=item2a15236b38
  • ElectricAyeElectricAye Posts: 4,561
    edited 2013-05-11 16:24
    erco wrote: »
    +1, the Engineer's Notebook got a lot of us going in the hobby. I have my original yellow copy plus a few backups. They are starting to appreciate on Ebay & Amazon! http://www.ebay.com/itm/Forrest-Mims-Engineers-Notebook-NEW-by-Forrest-M-Mims-/180743269176?pt=US_Nonfiction_Book&hash=item2a15236b38

    $32.79 for a copy printed in 1992? Golly gee, Wally, I've got a copy or two of the 1980 edition. I feel rich all over.
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