We lost an electronics legend in June.
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- Опубликовано: 30 июн 2023
- Don Lancaster passed away June 7th, 2023 at the age of 83. His impact as an author and electronics engineer cannot be overstated; even people like myself who were born long after his most consequential projects were created revere him as a guru; a teacher on another level. This is a short tribute video to a man who has inspired so much of my, and others', interest in electronics, and in the never ending quest to learn.
Don's website is here: www.tinaja.com 
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I appreciate this video tribute to my dad. Thank you so much for giving him this honor very much.
You Dad wrote books that inspired me throughout my career. He had the unique gift of making complex topics accessible. His legacy lives on through his many books and projects. So sorry for your loss!
Mad respect to a great pioneer in electronics and computing.
Sorry for your loss.
I'm pretty sure I have seen some of his work, but I was more into the subject than the person behind it at the time.
Just realize that as long as the creations of a person exists that person is still with us.
In the words of Salvador Dali... geniuses should never die. I am so sad your dad has passed, but so grateful that he lived and that his CMOS Cookbook gave me a career in life. I am so sorry for your loss.
He was a genuinely great man
Just heard this news yesterday and wanted to do a short tribute to Don, who was so helpful with my TV Typewriter project. Even though I was born well after some of his most famous projects, he still inspired confidence in my ability to carry my own project through, and has helped this math flunkie understand concepts that otherwise would be as impenetrable as concrete. I and I'm sure countless others who were similarly inspired will miss him dearly. I've turned off all ads and such out of respect - the one thing I can't figure out how to turn off is the 'Shop the Tech Time Traveller store'.. it seems to only allow me to turn that off for the whole channel. Anyway, please ignore that.. this is not about selling stuff or gaining subs, just expressing respect.
I remember to this day reading Don's articles in Radio-Electronics magazine with excitement and wonder. A great man, smart, imaginative, and an inspiration to a whole generation of electronics tinkerers, many made it into a career. RIP Mr. Lancaster
There was an electronics store in Tucson called Ancrona Electronics. I used to shop there often and one day when I went in, the young lady who ran the place told me I had just missed Don Lancaster by 5 minutes. She showed me a copy of one of the books he autographed. I built several of his projects including the TVT and the "Put the time on you TV screen" which I repurposed for a CCTV channel in a hospital where I worked for many years. I have original copies of most of his books. He was originally from Thatcher AZ, which is a small farming town about 30 miles from my home town. I'm sorry I never met him as he was an inspiration for many of my projects in the 70's and 80's which eventually led me to a 32 year career in IT.
Don really was amazing. I first ran into his writing in Computer Shopper, a phonebook-sized monthly magazine you bought _for_ the ads; I distinctly remember one column about building a Frankenstein laser printer out of HP and Apple parts to get a postscript printer for half the price of a LaserWriter. I later found him again on the internet; his site is an amazing resource, stuffed with copies of his articles and columns. He wrote a lot from the '80s on about what he called "flutterwhumpers", programmable robots that could "chomp" or "spit", and occasionally called them "Santa Claus machines" because they could create new things. They're what we now have built as plotters, vinyl cutters, 3d printers, CNC machines, and laser cutters.
I picked up several of his books used, but I have autographed copies of the Active Filter Cookbook and the Micro Cookbook, which i got when i was buying surplus parts from him on ebay. I've got a current project that's been on the back burner based on his PsychTone random-sequence synthesizer from 1971; I definitely need to pull it out and finish it as a tribute.
you showed an article about a TV display for the KIM-1, I remember reading that article, and I also owned a copy of his TV-Typewriter book. In the Netherlands there was an electronic magazine called elektuur (now it has gone international and is called elektor) in it they published a clone of the KIM-1, the junior computer. So I told my boss, who at the time was selling the kits for the junior computer, that I could design a PCB that would give a junior computer video. So I designed the video PCB for it and did the layout (with roles of black masking tapes, transparent pair on a 2:to 1 scale, and dots you could peel off the edge of strips of cardboard, and rub off lettering, and such, it was a dual sided PCB. A single board was produced but the PCB manufacturer made a mistake (because probably I had not given them enough information) and they made the PCB mirrored wrong, so the PCB was almost unusable, I decided to try to use it anyway by bending the legs of the few IC's used over "dead bug style", and got the software generated video working (this was before 1980, so before the ZX-80 came to market, that did something similar), just like the ZX-80 my contraption could only create video when the CPU wasn't doing anything else, except scanning the keyboard in-between two video frames. When my boss saw that the video generations stopped if the junior computer did some calculations, he was convinced it wouldn't sell. I tried to convince him otherwise but he was not interested. but he did realise i could design stuff, and layout PCB's, so later I got more layout creating jobs, including an expansion board for the TRS-80 model 1. So yes, I also owe my career to Don Lancaster.
I guess you didn't keep that first effort board? That'd be quite a showpiece. It's amazing how many people Don inspired to get into electronics!
@@TechTimeTraveller no unfortunately I think the board was trashed.
I'm self taught in electronics and Don Lancaster's books have been a goldmine. I keep his CMOS Cookbook on the desk alongside Douglas Self's Small Signal Audio Design and the big old Horowitz & Hill - and you're right, DL had a way of putting things simply and clearly and intelligibly to someone who was not an expert in five other complicated niche subjects already. Back when I started trying to learn this stuff in a pre-internet world, most books were either impenetrably physics-heavy or just "here's a doorbell circuit" with poor technical info and too many errors. DL's books sit right in the middle and are perfectly balanced really. Sad times.
Like you, I'm self-taught and Don Lancaster was my main goto-guy. I bought his CMOS Cookbook in 1981 and kept it until about five years ago when it all but fell apart. I'm now on my second CMOS Cookbook!
Wow, when I heard his name, it echoed in my brain...oh yes, the author of some of the first electronics books I ever bought in the 70's. I still have some of them on my bookshelf behind me. Rest in Peace Don.
He was even a pioneer in self publishing. he was carving his own postscript pixels from scratch.
I should have mentioned his involvement with PostScript. There are videos I think on RUclips still where he gets into that. Really interesting.
I’m surprised he never discovered Cairo. A much more advanced graphics model than PostScript.
Sad news - I never did anything as ambitious as the TV Typewriter, but I have at least one of his books and based more than one project on what I learned from them. Also the invaluable advice about whether patents are worth pursuing and why you should never call yourself an "inventor".
I have every book he wrote. He was ahead of his time. He wrote awesome books ans explained everything in great detail..
We lost a great man RIP Don
Thank you for the wonderful tribute to Don. For us here in New Zealand, we had cheap kits and computers from the likes of Dick Smith from Australia, and Sir Clive Sinclair from the UK. Don seems like the US equivalent and we need to keep his legacy alive. Many more of our electronics mentors and heros will be leaving us in the near future, so we owe them tributes such as yours. RIP Don and my condolences for your dad and dog
Sad to hear that he's gone. In February 1974 there was an article in Radio-Electronics written by him about using ICs to build a music synthesizer. It wasn't a complete project, but rather useful info on how to use different ICs to create such a device. It helped me a lot, and I have built a polyphonic synthesizer using this article as a valuable guide, and for not a lot of money. It had only one waveform available, a square wave, but it was fully polyphonic (I had built a 49 keys keyboard), and was perfectly in tune! A big thank you to Don, condolences to his family, and may he R.I.P.
I've got a couple of his books - Sadly, I'm far too young to have been reached by his direct influence at the time, and I don't have nearly the money to own really any of the hardware he designed, but I've still been touched by his world both through this channel and through the books I read as a kid, which inspired me to get into computing and electronics at a young age.
We've lost a big one, but he certainly seems to have led a full life. His influence on the world may never truly be measurable, but we all know just how important it really was.
And that's really all any of us can hope to do - be an inspiration and spur to those who come after us. As to that... his life was an unqualified success, whether he knew it as fully as others do or not.
A good intelligent person that left a permanent mark in history. He will be missed.
I started following him during the 70's in High School while taking Vocational Radio & TV. Have a bunch of his books and used a lot his teachings in my circuit builds. 73's Don , you'll be missed by the Electronics Hobbyist world.
I saw this news earlier today and immediately thought about you. The good news is, your channel introduced me (and probably a lot of other people) to Don. I wouldn't have known about him, or the TV Typewriter, without your channel. So, thank you for what you've done to help preserve a little bit of computing history.
My condolences to his friends and family. Don was amazingly prolific and influential. Also, my condolences about your dad and dog.
Don Lancaster was your Richard Altwasser to me. He designed the ZX Spectrum ROM. My Hero !!!
For those of us who built electronics circuitry back in the 1980s (such as poor graduate students in Chemistry departments who were building a lot of interfacing and control circuits), the name "Don Lancaster" loomed large because of his wonderful cookbooks that contained useful descriptions of how op-amps, TTL chips, and many other useful ICs functioned and could be applied. A true loss.
Didn't hear this. RIP Don Lancaster.
I fallowed him got his books, he did so much , fallowed him in popular electronics kilobaud , i built the Paia syenthisizer kit and other things , he's my herio , I''m 73 and he was somting to me and deseveves a tribute.
I sympathise, I lost my mother, my home of 26 years, and my dog in the same 6 month period
His Hardware Hacker column was the must-read-first part of Radio Electronics magazine in the 90s. Never failed to include an interesting bit that made me laugh out loud. Makes me want to go to the garage to my magazine collection and re-read all of them.
Gonna have to have some Don Days on the channel and tackle a few of his projects. I really want to try the digital dice one he did for some reason.
@@TechTimeTraveller how about make every June Don Lancaster month… then travel back in time to look at some of his work.
Many of us were always excited to buy his latest Cookbooks. RTL, DTL, TTL, CMOS and Business books. Interesting times.
RIP Don! I owe so much of my practical knowledge to you. I actually wore out a copy of the The Active Filter Cookbook and had to buy a fresh copy. Thank you for helping me seem a lot smarter than I really am!
I have original copies of his RTL, TTL, CMOS, Micro (vol 1 & 2) Cookbooks and they are the centerpiece of my 70s/80s nostalgia collection. His work was so educational and inspiring to me over the years that I cannot imagine what the world would've been like without him. Popular media remembers those times as being led by Gates and Jobs and Tramiel and the like, but the real nerds knew it was guys like Lancaster, Zaks and Mims who were moving the state of the art forward from where the rubber met the road, one book at a time.
When living in Phoenix in the early '70's, I got to meet Don. He was quite a character. You didn't mention his stacked assembly he was known for, but showed it toward the end of your video. This the one I built. And, yes, he would also return my emails as well. In fact, I was one of the few that has his phone number!
R.I.P., Don. Thanks for all of your work, especially your TTL, CMOS, and Active Filter Cookbooks. Brilliant, clear explanatory writing at its best.
Your channel is an amazing tribute to Don and other pioneers from his era. Please keep up the great work.
Sorry for your loss
I had to look in my bookshelf and sure enough, there was a book - TTL Cookbook - by Don Lancaster.
As a Swede, there was not much available at that time when it came to readable literature on electronics. Then I found an ad in Popular Electronics about a book club that also welcomed members "overseas".
I became a member and one of the books was this one. It helped me understand and apply digital technology. So I feel grateful for good educators like Don who helped me to become good at the "new" technology early on.
Rest in peace Don.
Vale Don Lancaster. Yes he truly did create the typewriter that changed the world, thank you Don
I do have an autographed book by him,I have always valued his contributions to the 6502 community.When he focused on printers and recycling toners etc. he made a unique observation that he was in Arizona at the time and explored the local Indian culture,he noticed that some of the art designs were similar to some robot control masking in modern manufacturing robots.🤖
My Dad even had a license plate "6502"
My condolences. I owe much of my 40 year career to Dons books and articles. In high school 1976 i was tasked with fixing a tv typewriter that was used in the school cctv system for daily announcements. I used his articles and some others help to get it working again. I caught the bug after that. The TTL cookbook and opamp cookbook were constant references as i progressed thru college. I spent my early years in AT&T wafer fab doing IC testing in Reading Pa. And i still live and work in the area. THANKS DON for helping a geeky kid in 1976 find his place
@davidanderson557 Does that AT&T wafer fab still exist ? I didn't even know they made semiconductors
It saddens me to hear this. I can second many of the things you mentioned. I sent him an email a few years ago. I was working on my own homebrew computer and was looking into solutions for video display. I too was hesitant about sending him an email, and I was not expecting a response, however less than half an hour later he sent back a lengthy response. He seemed like a really nice person, and I went on to buy his TTL Cookbook. I will try to archive his website in case it does not last much longer, it is a trove of information. The internet archive may also have most of it saved. Thank you for keeping his old but important work alive all these years later, these videos give younger folks like myself a look into the past at the beginnings of the machines that are now commonplace.
He really was that rare famous person who was willing to converse with his fans. I've luckily saved all my emails with him. Ugh. Still can't believe he won't be there anymore.
Hi, as the daughter of Don Lancaster, he has asked me to get his work archived for the future. All persons who would like to archive his works are welcome to do so. It may take me much longer to learn how to archive everything, so any help is appreciated.
@@TechTimeTraveller
Can you wait until the comments on this video seem to have stopped coming then provide an archive of them for Cathy? I think that would add a lot to the lasting tributes that are still coming in. Just a thought.
@justin.campbell I'm new to electronics , I downloaded a free PDF copy of the CMOS cookbook off his website :P
i grew up with his articles and projects in the 1970s! RIP Don.
I still have some Don Lancaster books I got as a kid. He was a wealth of information, and his humor and easy style of writing made an intimitdating subject fun.
I'm so sad to hear of Don's passing. I still remember his cookbooks that helped me on my lifetime hobby. Condolences and best wishes to his family and friends. He will be greatly missed by the many amateur and professional electronics engineers all over the world.
One of the pioneers along with Steve Wozniak (Apple 1 and 2), Jim Butterfield (Kim, PET , C64), Forrest Mims (Radio Shack Engineer's Notebook), Peter Jennings (Microchess).
So sad. I learned electronics by spending a summer reading my brother's collection of Popular Electronics (about 3 feet of shelf space). Don Lancaster figured heavily in that reading.
The man has passed but thankfully his ideas and teachings will live on, thanks in no small part thanks to your videos.
Oh wow, I'm sad to hear of Don's death..I was revisiting his Web site about a month ago, and it really is a mind-boggling and wonderful compilation. I hope it will remain online for the ages.
His stuff in the electronics mags added a lot to my childhood. I've got several of books, and read every one.
Thanks for bringing Don to our attention. Coming from the UK and being a slightly different generation,
I wasn't aware of him or his works before watching your videos. He certainly seems to have contributed greatly to the enabling technologies eg cheap keyboards that enabled the microcomputer revolution to flourish.
It is interesting to hear he had other ground breaking interests as well.
I have all his cookbooks-wouldn't be who I am today without them. Sad.
Just shaking my head. First the Reddit app fiasco, the end of Apollo app, now this…
I am so sorry. I didn't know him, but I have also lost a lot of friends and mentors in recent years and I can relate. I had older friends who taught me so much in different subjects, and when they passed away it is such a lonely feeling.
I can very much relate to this. I lost a dear friend and mentor who was much older than I was at the time, I think I was about 16 to 19 and towards the end of those years he was in his 60s maybe early 70s and a retired TV engineer, sadly he passed, but I still have so many wonderful memories and often think of the things he taught me.
Great video about a great man. I borrowed the CMOS Cookbook by a friend (had it for years) but eventually I had to return it and get my own copy. This was my main source of inspiration when I started to dabble with electronics as a teenager.
I was going to suggest you put something up on screen from the TVT.
I should have cut something in but it's all in the documentary video already anyway - right now my bench is a mess as I have that 1974 terminal all apart for the other video I'm working on, and I like to be very careful about checking everything out each time I power up my TVT because you never know when it might decide to go rogue. :)
You said Tinaja correctly. To confirm, it sounds like Tin-nah-ha.
F.O.B. Thatcher Az - I grew up when The TV typewriter was state of the art in home computing.
Excellent tribute to my teenage hero! I absolutely loved this man for all he taught me in my curious youth.
I luckily had the opportunity to meet him and his wife Bee. We spent the 4th of July with them about a decade and a half ago in Thatcher, AZ. I happen to live in Tucson so, it's not a bad trip. I refer to his awesome Op-Amp cookbook even today. What a great guy! I have many of his books. I'm so sad to hear of his passing. He really made me the EE I am today. Thoughts and prayers to all of his loved ones. Rest in peace my friend.
That's such a beautiful and personal obituary, the personal connection and impact makes this such a real connection and heartfelt legacy.
Thanks for sharing. He pioneered so many things including 3D printing. i.e. what he called 'flutterwumpers' and 'Santa Claus machines.' I was always inspired by his articles. I grew up as a kid with a copy of 'TTL cookbook' as a guide back in the 80's. And then later on with PIC controllers that he promoted. Things have moved on since then with microcontrollers and SoC's. Today's maker generation should be reminded about people like Don!
I had both the TTL and CMOS cookbooks as a teenager.
Sad to hear he’s gone. Thank you for the tribute video. Thank you also for your channel that preserves these old devices and their lore.
Nice tribute, found the hackaday article on it. I have an understanding of your loss, as I lost all sixteen of my cats to the smoke from a house fire in early June, then lost a child to suicide in late June. It's been a hell of a year...
Sorry to hear this, he was one of my favorite authors and very important in my early education in electronics. Truly a great loss.
May he Rest In Peace🙏🙏🙏
That's unfortunate. I was also hoping to meet Don at some point as I live in Arizona.
I remember tinkering with bare metal PostScript thanks to Don, I think mainly from his column in _Computer Shopper._ Sorry to hear that he's gone.
Id love to see the DIY keyboard as a feature on yr channel.
In 1954 I was born. I don't think the word geek was invented yet. But that's what I was. And Don Lancaster was a childhood hero.
Just a VCIW (Voice Crying In the Wilderness) here but I had to chime in with my two cents worth about Don's demise. Thanks for letting us all know, TTT. It comes as a bit of a shock to me. Don replied to my email years ago with a helpful line of enquiry about some technical matter I was puzzling over as a dedicated digital electronics hobbyist. I feel as if I've lost personal friend and mentor - a great pionneer and brilliant communicator. His guru-like status is well-deserved and unparalleled. Good luck, Don, in your next-world ceaseless search for, and dissemination of, knowledge now even beyond "Tinaja Questing".
I lost my dad and dog last year. It really sucks and I know the unique pain. Hope the rest of your year is better.
Thank you. Same to you. Everything just feels.. kinda off right now.
The books of Dan Lancaster are still readable, so now and then there is a chip used that became though the years critically scarce and hard to get, it is still magic.
I guess I'll never win the elusive Tinaja quest experience (FOB Thatcher AZ...)
I'm sorry to hear this; condolences to the family. I was a 'fan' of many of his books, and occasionally followed his website.
I just discovered your channel and subt I'm so sorry to hear that 1 of your mentors has passed Thank You for sharing his story and his Memory
I just saved his webpage to the internet archive wayback machine.
Excellent!
Thank you!
Thank you for this to my grandfather. I miss him everyday
Thank you for everything, Don.
So, so sad - even today I refer to his books for my DIY projects. He made everything so simple which is a real and very rare talent.
I built my first video card for my KIM 1 using Don's book as inspiration in 1978. RIP Don.
Oh, crap. I'm so sorry.
RIP Don Lancaster
I was packing my books for a move just 30 minutes ago and ran across his CMOS Cookbook.
I saw this headline and was waiting for you to cover it. Thanks for doing so. RIP Don.
Also, with regards to your losses so far this year - an old coworker/mentor always used to say "Keep smiling - makes em wonder what you're thinking". Words to live by. Chin up, bud.
Thank you. I am just trying to keep my mind busy and away from dwelling too much on these things, although it inevitably weighs on me and probably will to some degree for a long time. It is a part of life I wish weren't necessary but nonetheless have to accept.
Amazing person and amazing work. Love his books RIP 🌹❤🌹❤️🌹❤️🌹
A few authors inspired my technical endeavors. Don's TTL Cookbook made digital electronics approachable for me and my like minded young engineer buddies. His distillation of the subject matter into basic concepts allowed people of normal intellect to gain a foothold and jump into electronic projects. We stand on the shoulders of a giant...
The Sinclair ZX80 (and later ZX81 and Time Sinclair 1000) seems likely to have been inspired by Don Lancaster's TV Typewriter for it's 'cheap' video output .
RIP Don.
Hard to believe the TTL Cookbook and the Postscript weirdness in the Computer Shopper were written by the same person. What a legend
Don was a dreamboat all right please send a few million like him no hurry next week will be fine
I'm sorry about your dad and your dog. I don't know their circumstances but I've seen many people pass away untimely because of the experimental treatment forced on the population recently. Too many.
RIP your father, Don, and your dog.
Thanks for sharing Don's legacy.
I read his TV cookbook as a teenager
He is the likes of Jim Williams and. Bob Pease all RIP
That homemade keyboard seems neat. I would really be interested to see that on your channel.
I never knew about Don, started my electronics adventure quite a bit later, but you make him seem nice and I will be reading up on him and I might see if I can build by own tv typerwriter sometime.
RIP
Thanks for sharing. 😉👌🏻
😪✝🖥💻
Man who helped pave the way.
Beam him Up Scotty!
Hopefully someone has archived his web site before the machine it's hosted on "goes away" and the content is lost forever!
As Don's daughter, he has asked me to make sure that his content is archived. Please feel free to archive anything, as it will probably take me a long time to figure out how to get it all in archives. I can use everyone's help with this. Thank you!
@@daughterofantisocialgenius Thank YOU Cathy!
Very sorry for your losses. Wishing you a better last half of the year.
Thank you!
I love this stuff. I wish I was smart enough, but passion alone is not enough :( Well, I can build PC's at least and do a proper OC's, ect.
Also, sorry for your loss. Lancaster seems like a rare and incredible man, especially these days with this current generation.
OK i'm gonna download a PDF copy of some of his books 😅😅. I must learn from this legend. I just found out his CMOS cookbook is available on his website
Interesting that he was also involved with PAiA. I also noticed in your video on the Grant Runyan computer that the memory boards in his computer where designed by Solid State Music. There was obviously an overlap with the early, relatively affordable computer scene and the synthesiser one as SSM made a series of chips that were very important in the synth world. It all makes perfect sense though, as most of these pioneers were in or close to California, and despite the analogue nature of synths at the time, digital features were starting to become important in order to add things like memory for settings and more reliable control.
Don't forget "The Incredible Secret Money Machine"! ...and the TTL Cookbook
I still believe his "magic sine waves" for power inverters forcing the harmonics to zero is the answer beyond modified sine wave inverters now on the market. It has got to work for electric car motor drives, too.
How sad
This almost as bad as losing Bob Pease.
I lost my cat last year [2023]. I feel ya about losing your dog.
Ive always heard Dons name and the TV Typewriter. But ive never heard of his cook books. THOSE need to be republished somehow some way. As learning tools there worth there weight in gold.