General > General Technical Chat
Is Arduino killing the electronic hobby?
xrunner:
--- Quote from: westfw on June 28, 2021, 09:57:22 pm ---Pretty much anything other than radio (which for some reason I wasn't much interested in.) ...
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But now radio too. :) SDR (software defined radio) has taken over.
Except for a few front-end parts such as an attenuator and rf amp, the signal is digitized and it's all programming from there. :-//
hamster_nz:
What Arduino and the like is doing is opening up the scope and quality of what can be achieved as a hobbyist on a pocket-money budget. The range of inexpensive sensors now available is just awesome.
I think that the learning curve to get out of the "Arduino and wire jumper" projects to a more traditional project (audio, radio, automotive) is much higher than it was, and there is limited material to guide you.
It needs quite a few more skills and equipment - it used to be that if you could solder some through-hole parts to veroboard you could build something meaningful - a guitar amp, a power supply or a radio receiver for much less than the cost of a retail equivalent.
At least for me, finding any meaningful projects that you can't just buy off the shelf for less the the cost of parts is also very hard. Hence why all my projects are largely meaningless. ;)
Siwastaja:
--- Quote from: hamster_nz on June 29, 2021, 01:40:41 am ---What Arduino and the like is doing is opening up the scope and quality of what can be achieved as a hobbyist on a pocket-money budget. The range of inexpensive sensors now available is just awesome.
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That is true, but it has also blurred the meaning of "achieving". I mean, it's very easy to buy pre-engineered modules and write a few lines of code to initialize them to get Incredible Things done. Personally, I "built a radio" when maybe 6 years old. I was so proud of it; built a functional radio all by myself! But let's face it, I just dismantled a working radio, took a cardboard box, made some holes for the speaker and antenna and glued/taped the existing working radio inside it. Arduino is more than that, of course, but the problem is the same.
Because as long as this works, as long as you can buy the shield (and have the library) which does the thing it's all fine. But then, if you want to do something a bit different where pre-engineered module simply does not exist, you hit a total vertical wall that is so steep there is no way to get over it. You may not even be able to recognize the wall.
This is frequently seen when overconfident Arduino hobbyists + some young business-oriented guy get the idea of changing the world by bootstrapping a brainstormed business on Kickstarter. Such endeavors basically always fail because the result after two years of failed promises and a few millions is a box full of Arduinos and hot melt glue in a 3D printed box but it still doesn't work because increasing the number of Arduinos doesn't compensate for the lack of design. The Arduino here, again, is just an indicator. They could have hired a proper designer who understood what needs to be done, and then they could have a custom Arduino shield performing the task properly. But then again, if they did that, the very same designer would have just "optimized out" the now-unnecessary Arduino.
So I really do see Arduino as an important stepping stone which does mostly good, but like always with any technology, there are traps and you can fall into them.
xrunner:
--- Quote from: Siwastaja on June 29, 2021, 07:19:08 am --- Such endeavors basically always fail because the result after two years of failed promises and a few millions is a box full of Arduinos and hot melt glue in a 3D printed box but it still doesn't work ...
--- End quote ---
That's classic I gotta remember that one! :-DD
Bradlez:
Imagine in an alternate timeline where PIC18F based Arduino boards reigned supreme instead of ATMEGA boards. I wonder if the world would be much different.
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