Dr. Patrick Hickey, a microbiologist and electronics maker, stopped by at our fortnightly group meeting to showcase some of the cool work he has done with vintage and free-form electronics.
Patrick has created a range of interesting projects using vintage components, often salvaged from broken hardware manufactured in bygone eras. His collection of vintage components includes rare LEDs from soviet factories, and a seven segment display salvaged from the Kennedy Space Centre control room. We particularly liked the bubble displays from the 1970’s.
In the first part of the session Patrick presented on some of his previous projects. The slides from his presentation can be found at the bottom of this blog post. In the second part of the session we got to look at some of these projects in person. See the photos below. Patrick often creates ‘free-form’ or ‘dead-bug’ circuits (the latter named due to an IC flipped on it’s back looking like a dead bug!), which don’t require circuit boards. Instead components are soldered directly to one another, and the circuit evolves a unique structure. The same circuit can be created in many different forms opening up a new avenue for creativity in electronic design.
We really enjoyed hearing about Patrick’s work. I left the session with a new perspective on the aesthetics of components and circuitry.
