About Justin Nelson

I live in Northwest Indiana, United States -- about 40 miles south-east of Chicago, IL. I've been an enthusiast of Computers and Electronics for most of my life. A bit of my history:

Computers

In 1981, my Dad brought home a Commodore VIC-20 computer system. He bought it mostly because everyone else had an Atari 2600 or ColecoVision video game system, and he wanted something different.

I quickly bored of the video games, and started learning to program in BASIC. After begging my Dad to get us a floppy disk drive, he brought home a cassette drive instead!

After initial disappointment, I used that cassette drive constantly. I was able to save my programs and load them up later.

My first coding project was a Tic-Tac-Toe game... at six or seven years old.

Electronics

During this same time period, my Dad was learning Electronics. This was back when you had a Radio Shack store usually within a couple of miles of the house! Ah, how times have changed...

Anyway, my Dad (who is an Artist, and a retired Art Instructor) is COLORBLIND ! So while learning Electronics, he would often have me locate Resistors, which use color-coded bands to indicate their value.

At first he would say "Get me a Brown, Black, Orange", but eventually I learned the color code. So he would simply say, "Hey, I need a quarter-watt, ten kilo-ohm resistor".

As I grew older, I learned more and more about computers and electronics, receiving a Soldering Iron at the age of 12... and the rest is really history.

Automotive

We grew up without a lot of money. We never went hungry, but we did have some of the crappiest cars you could imagine! We owned such terrible cars as a Ford Pinto, an AMC Pacer (think Wayne's World), and many other run-down cars that probaly belonged in a junk yard.

At the age of about 13, my Dad taught me to do a tune-up on our Ford Mavrick. Back then, a tune-up involved:

• Gap & Change Spark Plugs
• Set the Points
• Replace the Condensor
• Adjust Timing

Timing adjustments are made by rotating the distributor until it "sounds about right"!

My Dad taught me these things so that he'd never have to do it himself again! And that knowledge has always stuck with me. I fix cars and trucks, household appliances, commercial equipment (see below about my Maintenance job) and anything I can get my hands on that might be fixable...

Today

Today I enjoy making Home Automation projects and other fun stuff. My favorite thing to happen in the last few years, is the introduction of inexpensive, yet extremely versatile Microcontrollers. The Arduinos and ESPs have really blended the best of both worlds (Electronics + Programming), and made those two hobbies into a mainstream thing again -- something I hadn't seen since the 1980s and 1990s.

I think it's a great thing, and I love sharing my ideas and projects with the world by making videos. I also have a background in audio (radio, DJing, recording etc) which helps with making quality videos.

As per my upbringing, I have never in my life had a car payment. I buy, in cash, a car or truck that needs some TLC. You know, like how I had to rebuild the transmission on my Silverado... in my driveway! But I got a good truck at a great price. That was over 2 years ago.

So I still work on cars, I don't want (or even really like) newer cars (I own a 2007 Chevy Silverado, and a 2007 Pontiac Grand Prix).

My "Day Job"

I don't really have a "day job" per-se, but I do run a small Maintenance business. I mostly keep a local 4-star Steakhouse up and running. The money is good, the people I work with are awesome, and the sense of pride when I finish a project is such an ego boost!

Enough about me... for now... take care and stay safe!