| General > General Technical Chat |
| Is the electronics hobby dead? |
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| dannyf:
--- Quote ---Is it only my impression, or is is happening in reality that diy and hobby electronics are dying? --- End quote --- Two things to consider: 1) the hardware side of "electronics hobby" is nowhere where it was back then. Hoobyists branched out into other things, like software, and the low-cost manufacturing has made this hobby less appealing / justifiable. 2) what is "electronics hobby" is changing. today, it is far more software driven than hardware driven and if you consider the people engaging in coding apps, I suspect the number can be significant. I would also point out a few pluses for electronics hobbyists today vs. then: 1) much better parts availability: from distributors like digikey to ebay, at much lower costs vs. back then; 2) so many more options: having a 32-bit chip for less than a dollar is unimaginable in the 1980s. 3) medium for information sharing is so much better: no more clubs and you can reach lots of people all over the globe in expensively and quickly, even for someone who lives in a 3rd world country (like me, :)). But as a business model, serving the hobbyists is long dead. |
| Kilrah:
--- Quote from: chris_leyson on July 10, 2016, 12:33:56 pm ---I'm not saying that Arduinos are bad but can you learn assembler on an Arduino --- End quote --- Of course you can. |
| kripton2035:
in the last century, you could build things that were cheaper and better than their commercially available counterparts today, things have changed, but you can still build things that dont exist and that are completely suited to your needs arduino is a good start for that, and when learners want to know more, they learn what's inside an arduino analog electronics is not necessary, althought a good start too. arduino makes me think of the Lego we had in the 70's. I like them very much ! |
| homebrew:
--- Quote from: wilfred on July 10, 2016, 11:56:12 am --- I just went back and picked, at random, an old electronics magazine Electronics Today International (ETI) from December 1976, 40 years ago nearly and it had these projects. 1. ASCII keyboard for your computer 2. HEX digit display (seven segment LED) 3. 50W and 100W power amp modules (gasp a module!) 4. An over/under temperature alarm (555 based circuit suitable for any beginner) Then I went and looked at the projects in the latest issue of Silicon Chip. 1. Brownout protector for induction motors 2. Touchscreen superclock 3. LED VU meter (not using a LM3914 as far as I can tell from the website) and finally 4. An over/under temerature alarm (probably not using a 555) What does that say? --- End quote --- Thank you very much. I couldn't have found better examples to underline what I mean: Look at the 1976 projects and boy were they great in these days. Computer I/O when the first machines could be built by hobbyists. 50-100 W was actually quite a lot in those days. And something that everybody could built using just one chip. That's awesome !!! Now look at the current volume: 1) A brownout protector for induction motors. Really? Probably illegal anyway to alter electrical installations of this kind as a hobbyist (at least here) ... 2) Touchscreen Superclock: Totally over-engineered clock. With GPS-Option and whatnot. Does anyone really NEED this? 3) LED UV-Meter: The magazine advertised this as "Add bling to your HIFI amplifier". Oh boy... And a 100dB range: Oh boy again ... 4) over/under Temperature: Great - advertised to not include any SMD and to use "easy to solder components". So to sum up: Three projects that practically nobody will ever need and one project targeting the very same need as in 1976. Now again: What does this say about the current state of our hobby? |
| Buriedcode:
Whilst I do see your point, I still 'get a kick' out of designing and prototyping idea's - its just now the bar is set higher, so the 'stuff you can make' can be much more complicated than it was 20 years ago, for the same cost and design time. Whats changed is the complexity modern integration has afforded us. I've always considered myself a 'hardware guy' but of course write software and firmware. Like software, hardware can be thought of as modules - you design them once and re-use them as and when you need to - perhaps making a few minor changes to adapt them for specific applications. There isn't much point in designing everything from scratch/first principles every project when you've already done it. That means that many software and/or hardware apps are pretty much just older designs stitched together. Where do you draw the line between 'made from scratch' and 'bolting modules together' ? What with the ability to share vast amounts of information in free online storage - people can share millions of lines of code, and thousands of schematics, BOMs, gerbers and so where-as maybe 20 years ago, there were freely available existing designs/ideas/code it wasn't particularly common or easy to access. These days if someone wants say, a 2-pole LPF do they sit down with a pencil, paper and their own knowledge and draw a schematic, using maths to work out the values? Or do they google for a schematic, or use an applet calculator, or free sim software to do it for them, taking minutes? Same with writing drivers for LCD displays, SPI devices, reading sensors etc.. given the huge number of people who design electronics both for work, and as a hobby, who share the fruits of their labour, its silly not to google it first. Sure people might not learn about such systems much, but I'm sure they will when they need to. And again, many years ago, if someone produced a board with a large microcontroller, some analogue, a display, LED's etc.. you would probably think that they know their stuff. These days that can be 'made' with limited knowledge of the basics, much quicker and cheaper, so the 'value' of such a system as highlighting knowledge has diminished. So whilst you may remember the days when stuff like that was impressive, these days it has to be much more complicated to be considered impressive, which for a hobby I find refreshing - it means I don't stop learning new things. Also don't underestimate how many people who do electronics as a hobby have the 'how does it work?' instinct, after all, its that trait which is probably why most people become interested int he subject. I still almost obsessively try to work out how something works, and feel uncomfortable using 'black boxes' without knowing the intimate details of its inner workings. You may see the 'maker crowd' seemingly not caring about how their modules work but I believe those are in the monitory. As for taking the fun out of it - there is always more to learn. Whether or not you find that rewarding is up to you but you have to accept times have changed. If you don't find what you are doing rewarding - try something else, lord knows there are many areas of electronics to delve into, FPGA's, RF, microwave, audio. As as I tried to hammer home in my previous post - it is easier than ever to get started, in any area. The days where electronics as a 'useful' hobby - that is, using your knowledge and wits to build something that solves a real problem - aren't over yet. It is just we see more and more novelty or 'gadget' projects being posted in hackaday, instructables, maker etc.. that use $120 worth of prebuilt modules, a ridiculously powerful raspberry pi and large OS's to make a string of LED's pulse to music. That is the hobby side! you may not see the point, but the creators do it for shits'n'giggles. Sure the design is completely overkill so is hardly commercially viable, but its a hobby. Also remember, those who post their projects - the projects you read about on tech websites, forums etc.. are biased towards projects that are either really useful to people, so they share - niches like RC, meteorology, audio, guitar pedals - or those who just want to show off. I suspect that there are many many things people have designed to solve a problem they have, being very clever about it, but don't' feel the need to post because it was so specific to their need, and was done 'to solve the problem' rather than share. If one was to try and capture the general state of 'hobbyist electronics' by googling, they would probably see much more of the above than anything else, but that doesn't mean to say its so. |
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