Electronics for Magicians By Jon Thompson EBook...

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Electronics for Magicians By Jon Thompson EBook...

Postby FairieSnuff » Jul 22nd, '09, 22:30



Review:-

Available at stores.Lulu.com/booksbytomo £8.99

What is it? _

A starters ebook on using electronics in magic and mentalism.



So what can i say.... i have been eagerly awaiting this ebook since i heard about its possible creation. Having just starting a project involving electronics at that time, what a resource this book would have been. In it contains at least 30 odd hours of googling and wikipedia-ing informtaion and in an easy to understand language - ie pictures !...

Its starts off showing, explaining and detailing various components and then goes on to show how these can be linked together to make various props.

It also covers the little tips like prepping your wires etc... Yes it does sound tediously dull... but.... Im a girl... Im blonde.... and I can follow the instructions without too many mishaps and have produced some of the items in the book with no problems at all and sitting with that proud look of deviousness..

Without giving too much away with some reworking you can easily be making your own versions of some marketed effects that cost lots of money, with just time and patience and maplins bookmarked on your web....

It certainly is a novel way forward for anyone who is wanting to be different, as lets face it, its not an area that has been done to death and the scope for what you can achieve it huge..

I cant wait for its follow up....

I did wonder if it would live up to my expectations after waiting for it for aggggeeesss...

It sure did .... There really isnt anything bad i can say about the book, except i would have personally liked it to cover one particular area more, but thats just due to the area im working in... and besides thats what pm's are for.. lol..

Go get it and then go live in maplins .... ya know ya want to...

F x

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Postby Lenoir » Jul 22nd, '09, 23:25

How many pages is it? And could you possibly describe one or two of the finished products?

I'm quite stingy, y'know.

"I want to do magic...but I don't want to be referred to as a magician." - A layman chatting to me about magic.
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Postby IAIN » Jul 22nd, '09, 23:31

how many pages is it?! :lol:

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Postby Lenoir » Jul 22nd, '09, 23:36

Don't want it to be as disappointing as those freebies I got from you! :o :P

"I want to do magic...but I don't want to be referred to as a magician." - A layman chatting to me about magic.
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Postby Le Petit Bateleur » Jul 23rd, '09, 07:57

What a great idea :D I've just ordered and downloaded it. Will post more thoughts once I've had a good read through it.

Question to Tomo: are you planning to publish schematics for an electronic clipboard at some point?

Cheers
LP

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Postby FairieSnuff » Jul 23rd, '09, 09:32

Its 64 psges....

It shows you how to make 3 full projects, The haunted torch, The 21cmm device and the indicator wand. Although there are lots of little bits through out the book to play with.

Its not a book that shows you how to make everything under the sun, but with this book you have the basic workings and knowledge of how to.

It really is almost an encyclopedia in its presentation and base knowledge it gives you.

F x

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Postby Lenoir » Jul 23rd, '09, 11:01

Thank you fairie, I will download it when I'm home

"I want to do magic...but I don't want to be referred to as a magician." - A layman chatting to me about magic.
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Postby Tomo » Jul 23rd, '09, 11:13

Le Petit Bateleur wrote:Question to Tomo: are you planning to publish schematics for an electronic clipboard at some point?

Not yet, but I have my eye on a new touch sensitive panel from Atmel. It's not been launched yet, but it looks rather amazing.

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Postby DrTodd » Jul 23rd, '09, 18:13

This will revolutionise magic and mentalism...

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Postby yddraig » Jul 24th, '09, 09:38

Bought and downloaded my copy last night, had a brief look through and was amazed, for the price it's a fantastic investment. Can't wait till the weekend so I can start dabbling :D :D

Thank you Tomo.

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Postby Tomo » Jul 24th, '09, 12:31

Cheers chaps. You've no idea how worried I've been about how this ebook would be received, so I'm really glad so many of you are diving into Maplins.

I still think it's incredible that simple electronic components can be so incredibly useful in magic and mentalism with a bit of devious thought - even the finished modules and projects are really small without resorting to expensive printed circuit boards, microcontrollers or all that jazz.

Everything you'll need - from the values of components to bits and bobs like the types of wire I used - are described fully in the book. If you're into DIY, you'll already have most of them. However, Lenoir suggested I post a link to a good "how to solder" guide for the truly terrified. There's a good one at Instructables: http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-solder/ If you look on the right hand side of that page, there's more information, including some videos.

I'm already compiling ideas for volume II. Now the basics are out of the way, we should really be able to get motoring. I'm looking to focus on "found" electronics next time, but also on techniques for reducing the size of scratch-built circuits. I'm really excited about "re-purposing" the innards of electronic consumer gadgets and gizmos. Some of these, like universal TV changers, are literally £1 from a pound shop and yet, their capabilities make them very interesting indeed.

If anyone has any ideas they'd like to see included in the next volume, has an idea for their own gadget they'd like to bounce off me, or just needs help, drop me a line.

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Postby DrTodd » Jul 25th, '09, 07:03

This book + antiques + creativity = devastating new effects and routines...well done that man!

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Postby Tomo » Jul 25th, '09, 12:24

phronesis wrote:This book + antiques + creativity = devastating new effects and routines...well done that man!

Thank you very much :D

There's so much more to cover. For example, the wonderful NE555 can be used in several operating modes and I've only used one of them so far. Its big brother, the NE556, contains two independent NE555s. Combining them in series enables you to easily create a module that arms and resets a gaff after a delay, which gives you the chance to handle the object you gaff before the effect proper.

Then there silicon controlled rectifiers (SCRs). These were the forerunner of the transistor and they're still in full production . Apply a voltage to the base and they conduct. Remove it and they keep conducting. They're a VERY cheap 1-bit memory the size of a transistor!

I mentioned ultrasonic transducers in the final chapter (which is in the online preview). These are crying out for abuse.

For the curious, there's a full, free online course on electronics here: http://www.allaboutcircuits.com/vol_1/index.html

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Postby nikmagick » Jul 26th, '09, 14:38

My review from me blog: http://bit.ly/3USysR

Electronics for Magicians by Jon Thompson

At The Amazing Meeting Seven this year there was a fascinating presentation by Steve Bauer who talked about winding up the estate of Jerry Andrus and in particular the incredible and eccentric inventions and gizmos found in the Andrus house, called the Castle of Chaos. I like to think Jon Thompson has a similar gaff, filled with electronic bits and bobs, and the air heavy with the smell of melting solder. That’s how an inventor’s place should be like.

Now I haven’t played with electronics for many years. In fact my soldering iron is gathering dust on the shelf and my bags of resistors, transistors and capacitors are lost in the Narnian depths at the back of a wardrobe somewhere. However, after reading Electronics for Magicians I’m going to dig all my old kit out.

This ebook is excellent for people new to electronics and people who know the pain that a burn from soldering iron can give. It provides perhaps the clearest introduction to the world of electronics I have read for a long time (So clear that I am considering buying a couple more copies and ‘censoring’ the magic out them and giving them to a couple of technical theatre students of mine.)

Components, circuits and the possibilities for magicians are explained in good depth and plenty of ideas are given as to how to use them in practice. A couple of projects are given, but as Chapter Seven suggests the key here is your creativity in using the electronics to your own ends. I’m certainly inspired to make, create and invent.

http://stores.lulu.com/booksbytomo

Recommended.

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Postby Tomo » Jul 27th, '09, 11:49

nikmagick wrote:I like to think Jon Thompson has a similar gaff, filled with electronic bits and bobs, and the air heavy with the smell of melting solder. That’s how an inventor’s place should be like.

At the moment. it's quite full of books, computers, stripper decks, modelling balloons, glamour models (eh?), and what's best described as a nascent electronics lab, where I'm slowly designing and building some interesting gizmos. I'll dig my camera out and post a picture of the lab when I get time to tidy up a bit.

In the meantime, volume 2 looks like it's going to contain some very useful modules and projects. Does anyone know the origin of that effect where you have coloured lights and switches that unscrew and that can be plugged in anywhere and yet each colour switch always lights the corresponding light? There are several circuits available on the internet and it seems to go back a long way.

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