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Introduce Yourself
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Topic starter
2022-01-30 7:08 pm
Hello everyone,
My name is Rick and I'm a "close to retirement" 65 year old kid at heart.
I've spent the last 40+ years in the mechanical engineering field and I've spent the majority of those years with an international company that provides paper machines and equipment to the world paper manufacturers.
I live in northwestern Ontario and love the outdoors, especially fishing and gardening. I like to be creative and I like building things.
My hobbies range from watercolour painting, to woodcarving, to wood working and landscaping.
I'm joining this forum as a complete beginner to the world of electronics. In essence, I'm creating a new Rick... and "ElectronicRick"
I know, a little goofy but I like to try and make people laugh... or at least chuckle whenever I meet them.
Electronics has always intrigued me and it's something I've always wanted to get involved in.
Now at 65 years old, I'm hoping that an old dog CAN learn new tricks. I have a serious desire to jump into this with both feet, especially with products like the Arduino micro controllers and Raspberry Pi micro processors. (Actually learned the difference between those two from the DroneBot Workshop YouTube channel and website! Thanks Bill!!!
Ultimately my goal is to not only understand the marvelous and mysterious world of electronics but I also want to build miniature working models. I'd like to accomplish this by marrying the world of automata with the world of electronics, to control the movement of miniature mechanical things.
I would very much appreciate some guidance, support, suggestions, and even constructive criticism from the members of this Forum, along my journey of discovery, learning and the building of new things.
I've been very impressed with Bill and his DroneBot Workshop Youtube channel and website, and equally impressed with members contributing to this Forum, so I think I've found the right place to start.
Thanks for listening to my story.
Best Regards,
Rick
Inst-Tech reacted
2022-01-30 11:07 pm
@electronrick, Welcome, and as a former Pulp & Paper employee of a very large paper company, I share your enthusiasm with mechanical and electronics.. I was in Instrumentation Electronics and electrical maintenance for almost 40 years.. Sent 28 of it in that paper mill..Fortunately, we have a many people on this forum with varying degrees of practical project building, electrical and electronics,and programming of MCU.
Your in good company as there are more than a few ol' timers on here that just want to learn and have a little fun..uh, that would be me...hehehe, at 75, I'm still learning! My main interest is in learning C++ coding(programming, to be more efficient with creating some projects I have in mind for the near future..
again, Welcome,
Kind regards,
LouisR
LouisR
Topic starter
2022-01-30 11:40 pm
@inst-tech Hello Louis R.
Thanks for the warm welcome.
An X-instrument guy eh... that part of the paper making process has really changed over the last 40 years!
Coming from that trade, you are well ahead of me I'm sure when it comes anything electronic.
If you've been in the industry that long you will know the name Valmet, based out of Finland. That is the company I work for out of our unit in Thunder Bay. You may have even worked with some of the individuals from our Valmet-Automation group, or Metso Automation, when we were amalgamated with them.
I'm involved with the project management part, but have worked with many fine instrumentation people over the years, and in many mills. I considered people like you the "cardiac surgeons" of the papermaking process... you keep the heart pulse ticking!
I too am looking forward to the coding part... that's what will feed the logical part of my brain, and will hopefully make all my creations "tick"
Look forward to hopefully meeting you some day, and sharing some finished projects and old paper industry stories.
Take care.
Best regards,
Rick B
Inst-Tech reacted
2022-01-31 12:51 am
@electronrick Indeed, I worked for Champion International Paper for the first 14 years at the plant in Pensacola, Fla., and then International Paper bought us out, and I worker there until I retired in 2014..
You are one of the few people I've encounter that understood what Instrumentation really is about..to most, it's just "magic" or some geek using tweezers and a tiny screwdriver in lieu working for a living...lol
Yes, I'm well aware of Valmet, and Metso..I ran the control valve shop for 19 of those 28 years there, and was the SME for Control Valve technology for the mill, and registered at corporate Reliability engineering for the same..Now it's on to other more exciting things like home automation and robotics..have a lot to learn, but now have the time to devote to it.. Hope you hear from you on the forum as often as you can..a lot of pretty sharp people, excluding myself of course, I'm just a newbee here..love Bill's videos!
kind regards,
LouisR
LouisR
2022-01-31 5:05 pm
Greetings and welcome from a fellow Ontarian and 60 pluser. I'm sure you'll find a lot of help and support here... and I'm looking forward to your input on the mechanical aspects. I'm currently poking at a few designs on that front, and I'm discovering that, as a mechanical engineer, I'm a great computer scientist, lol. New tricks indeed.
I edit my posts to fix typos, correct grammar, or improve clarity. On-screen keyboards are evil.
Topic starter
2022-02-02 7:42 am
@binaryrhyme Thank you! I'm looking forward to the adventure and the discovery of ALL things new.