On Sat, 11 Apr 2020 18:35:29 -0000 (UTC), John wrote:

I haven't touched a soldering iron for about fifty years,

I've been using them pretty regularly for as long. For most of that
time it was via a Weller Soldering station (with BT) and I'm still
using it today. ;-)

so I thought of
using this shutdown time to get geared up for a bit of tech activity.

Good man.

Got
myself a USB scope,

I'm not sure how much use you will put that to. I have a real
(Tectronics I think) scope and I can't remember the last time I used
it but I guess that depends on what sort of thing you are doing.

a couple of multimeters

Always handy. ;-)

and a dual stabilised DC power
supply so far.

An essential.

I have loads of new components in the loft (or at least
they were in 1970 - 1980) left over from various commercial/military
projects.

Hmm ...

I hope all this will keep me interested for a while. I started
building a novel design for a human presence/movement detector in 1976,
but shelved it because of work commitments, so I will probably continue
with that for starters.

If you get that sorted, I'd be interested as part of a lighting
project.

Sorry, I am just rambling in my old age.

Hey, it makes a change from the B that was replaced with the C word.
;-)

Most of my recent 'electronics' projects have revolved around the
Arduino micro controllers but there is also a certain purity with
something that just works made from discrete components.

Such an example is a LED I fitted to my Weller Soldering station that
comes on when the element is heating. ;-)

Cheers, T i m