More about me
My name is Ján Sučan (pronunciation: [ja:n sut͡ʃan]). I'm Slovak. Currently, I live and work in Trondheim in Norway.
How it began
The story started many years ago. Some of my memories are a bit blurred, but I remember the main events very well.
As a kid, I liked playing with LEGO. My parents were supporting me in this. Later, I got to LEGO Technic sets. I was able to spend hours building and rebuilding those.
In 2001, I spotted this article in a Czech youth magazine ABC describing automatic power supply switching for a dynamo-powered bicycle light. There was something about it that caught my attention. Back then, I had no idea it was possible to make PCBs and electronic devices at home. I showed it to my dad, an electrical power engineer. His reply was: “We can build this.” Then I started learning to make PCBs, solder electronic components, and bring electronic circuits to life.
I got my first computer as a Christmas gift from my parents. I could start exploring and experimenting without being afraid of breaking my dad's PC he used for work. He switched to it from a drawing board.
Shortly before I finished the primary school, my friend mentioned an operating system called Linux to me. It got me intrigued. The first Linux distribution I tried was Slax.
We didn't have an internet connection at home. My dad was bringing me various articles about electronics printed from the internet at his workplace. Among those, there was an article introducing microcontrollers to absolute beginners. I decided I would learn how to use microcontrollers. I started with PIC16F84 and later AT89S51 programmed in an assembly language.
My hobby in electronics was the reason why I chose a technical secondary school in my hometown Stará Turá instead of a general education secondary school (a grammar school). My study program was electrical engineering. There was also a computer programming subject where we used Pascal.