Heathkit to reenter the kit building business!

[dchisholm]

This short article by Jack Ganssle mirrors what many of us gray-haired old men (GHOM) experienced with Heathkits:
< Heathkit returns!- >.

I'll emphasize one of his points: Heathkit's assembly manuals were well-done. You actually COULD learn some electronics by building the kit and reading the manual, and there was plenty of troubleshooting information there for the kit that didn't work. If anything, the tedium and excessive detail became irritating as your experience increased, but even that was an important lesson - "Attention to details" is an important part of engineering work.

We'll have to see what form their revived product line takes. Many of us would like to see products that follow the "original" Heathkit model, with lots of wire stripping, soldering, board stuffing, etc. But, as I pointed out in an earlier post in this thread, touch-labor has been driven out of consumer electronics, so "kit assembly" is more likely to consist of fastening together several subassemblies and plugging a few connectors - much like you would "build" a Personal Confuser by installing a motherboard and power supply into a chassis.

Another post mentioned an idea that I think has some merit. Perhaps we can persuade the new Heathkit to re-offer some of their better, classic, designs. While I don't think that McIntosh ever claimed their products "sounded as good as a Heathkit", I seem to recall that a few Heath products had respectable performance and decent reviews. If they exploit the "retro" or "nostalgia" aspect, there may be a viable market. (But then again, nostalgia just ain't what it used to be in the good-old days!)

Dale

p.s. - Did you know that the most original Heathkit (pre-WWII) had wings?

[AdamThorne]

Ah, my Dad worked for Heathkit... mmm around 1980. I remember a bunch of heathkit stuff around. My father was a technical writer for them. The gig involved getting a free kit, without instructions but with access to the engineers, in order to come up with the manual. At least, that's the impression I had as a child. I remember a bunch of audio stuff, a 9-pin dot matrix printer that was huge and loud and (comparatively) fast, an H-89 computer, and even the Heath Educational RObot (HERO) in our house for a while. There was evidently a big (dual 15"?) speaker nicknamed "The Coffin" by the techs, but the writing staff only got a kit for 1 speaker to do the job! Then you had to either buy another one, or sell yours off to one of the other writers.

It would be nice to see them in business, but I can't really imagine it as an american venture any more. But there are plenty of guys on ebay offering audio kits, why can't Heath? I'd pay a premium for a name I trusted. Not a big one, but still...

[benb]

I learned a lot from Heathkits before I went to college going for an EE degree. My father got a radio amateur license hen I was about 5. He built a SB-400 transmitter and used a National NC-300 with it, then built a SB-301, and the NC-300 went to another table for SWL, mostly for me. I built an AM radio about age 8. There were a few other Heathkits around the house my father had built. My first "stereo" age 12 was a GD-109 stereo record player - standard Garrard automatic turntable, ceramic cartridge that sounded better than one would expect, and about a 5wpc solid-state amp.

About age 12-14 I had a growing interest in electronics, and I read through the ARRL Radio Amateur's Handbook, and the schematic and Circuit Description portion of every Heathkit manual I could find.

I also don't expect a lot from the new Heathkit, and am doubtful about a tube amplifier or really anything that's not powered by an already-UL-approved wall wart or other standalone power supply. It's a different world as far as litigation and product safety.

But even so, this is a Good Thing. I can see Heathkit's re-entry into the kit business as being prompted by other phenomena that have already been happening in recent years with Make Magazine, the growth of hackerspaces and makerspaces, and a general, if fairly minor, resurgence of the "DIY" phenomenon. Even Radio Shack has noticed it, even though its business model seems to be focused on cellphones and phone service sales. I commented on this Hack-A-Day discussion:
Speak your mind and help RadioShack suck less - Hack a Day

[smoking-amp]

Built a bunch of Heathkits in my day too. The educational aspect and the confidence that you could maintain the item were important. I think some kind of internet forum of kit builders would be very important now. Member of the club, contacts, that sort of thing. Building component level PC board stuff nowadays looks difficult cost wise except maybe for some niche items. I could see some test equipment for car maintenance like an error code reader, oxygen sensor tester, knock sensor test, ....

The retro tube gear amps could be a go if the liability issues can be dealt with. There could even be a big breakthru niche there if they were to exploit the recent technology for no-filament Low Voltage vacuum tubes available now, but I doubt they have the finances to fund that..yet. (its been sitting on the shelf for ten years now and no one has picked up on it) How about a PC attached curve tracer kit?

Another way would be to kitify some existing popular products, like the licensing of the DEC LSI-11/H-11 was done. Imagine a McIntosh tube amp kit for example.

With the internet available, a total re-think may be in order. Let the customers design the products thru forum efforts, then sell the parts package with a construction manual. With free expert design, one could imagine building amazing stuff. Another useful service would be to develop service/mod manuals for some of the used hi-tech equipment sold on Ebay for which no service manuals are available. Or mods to such equipment. I'm thinking for example a Xantrex switching power supply with PC link. With some PC software they could be configured as a programmable power waveform generator or curve tracer for example.

A hybrid go-kart. Start small, think big. With forum expertise one might expand horizons quickly. A Heathkit modular hybrid car someday with forum developed interchangeable upgrade assemblies. Let the customers develop the products they want. I think this is the model that needs to be followed, it's time has come. The group design experience would be extreme education as well.

Then there are those 3-D printers. Can make most any mechanical part. Soon to be sintered metal printed parts. Titanium car parts? The sintered titanium powder process is already developed. Just waiting to be exploited. I want my hybrid vehicle made with a titanium frame and sheet metal. Fender benders just spring back out. Titanium bike parts. Titanium kayaks and canoes. (Titanium in powder form is cheap by the way. It was the old machining process problems that made its products expensive.)

[labjr]

I'd like to see some small kits like a tester for matching MOSFETS and JFETS.

[benb]

I vaguely recall reading somewhere that the assembly manuals cost a lot to develop (as in they had ordinary people test-build kits based on the manual and they tweaked it based on what mistakes they made along the way - possibly with an industrial engineer overseeing), and it of course shows up in their high quality manuals. Heathkit still has the copyright on all manuals (15 years ago I called Heathkit and paid $35 for a photocopy of a manual for a '50's TC-3 tube tester that I had bought for $25).

What brings this up is an idea I had a few years ago of making kits based on the old manuals. Unbuilt Heathkits tend to sell for much higher prices than assembled units, partly because of the rarity of authentic unbuilt Heathkits but also people still want to build them, especially the older tube-based kits of the '50's and '60's. It seems to me that making a parts kit that duplicates an older model Heathkit shouldn't cost TOO much.

[smoking-amp]

A Heathkit 3-D printer kit should be one of the priority products. And a kiln for sintering the powdered metal parts it prints. Then you could make all the aluminum chassis and front panel parts for anything you want. There is a sintered glass powder process, and modelers clay and ... available now too. You can make most anything on a 3-D printer now. Someday you'll be able to make the vacuum tubes on it as well.

[simon7000]

Originally Posted by thaumaturge

Is limited, but that's where they got you if you really need them for old equipment.



Based on a Wheatstone bridge / log amp null meter design. Thing is built inside a copper lined box. Supply must be whisper quiet (electrically). Unit was constructed by old salt who worked in primary cal lab I used to work for. After I moved on they called one day and said they were throwing out a bunch of old stuff and did I want it? My stock answer to such questions; Sure.... Pile also included an HP8640B and a GenRad 1422D Standard air cap (that I just sold for $1k).
Doc

Then send me $500 because the place to buy batteries is:

McMaster-Carr

[amptramp]

Originally Posted by labjr

I'd like to see some small kits like a tester for matching MOSFETS and JFETS.

There is a simple JFET matcher at New Page 1. I do not have permission to link to the page but it is under "Tech Tips".

[jackinnj]

Originally Posted by labjr

I'd like to see some small kits like a tester for matching MOSFETS and JFETS.

The EICO 685 does that. It uses a separate transformer winding for base drive/gate drive at 60Hz.