JD is an electronics hobbyist, builder, and relentless tinkerer. As a child, he took apart everything he owned to figure out how it worked. Since then he has built many different projects ranging from anelectric fishing pole to a remote-controlled lawn mower, which was featured on the cover of MAKE magazine in April 2010. Having worked as a builder doing carpentry, plumbing, and electrical work for 8 years, his knowledge is founded in real world experience rather than textbook recitation. In addition to building robots and remote controlled toys, he enjoys automating everyday tasks, blinking LEDs, designing and etching PCBs, and lots of random things in between. Much of his time has been spent researching, building, and testing various motor-controllers to make his bots move. As a self-proclaimed poor man's roboticist, he will always try to find the cheapest way to do something usually by building it himself. JD graduated from the University of Alabama in Birmingham with a degree in Business Management. He currently lives in Birmingham, Alabama with his beautiful wife Melissa and their growing flock of animals.