General > General Technical Chat
Is the electronics hobby dead?
rstofer:
Arduino... The other day I wanted to send a short text stream to check the ASCII decoding on my new DS1054Z. The absolute easiest way to do that is with an Arduino. It's a tool!
People's interest in electronics vary all over the map. I like analog computing and messing around with FPGAs. For a certainty, analog computing isn't in the mainstream of electronics. Nobody cares anymore because we can model the equations with Matlab and Simlink.
I do a lot of messing around with FPGAs. This begs the question of whether it is electronics or code. A register is a register and gates are gates, no matter how you create them. It's electronics!
Everybody has their own place in the sandbox. If we're smart, we will be inclusive rather than exclusive.
John_ITIC:
I think it is a matter what the introverted use to hide from "normal" people. It used to be fiddling with radios (1930-60s), general electronics (60s-70s), TTL and microprocessors (80s), then PCs and programming (80s-90s) and now various Internet high-level programming. It seems to me that electronics are just something one uses to execute code on. Of course, specialized electronics are needed for specialty execution platforms when the general-purpose platforms are not fast enough. For sure, it is much easier to get a well paid job in the programming field compared to lower-level electronics.
woodchips:
Seems so. There looks to be no real interest in making simple circuits to prove that you can, and then experiment with them. Is this important? You can simulate most things so why go to the hassle of building it. But do you actually learn anything from a simulations? Need to separate the 'got to get the job done' from 'I am teaching myself and learning' type situations.
Was at the IMechE train challenge little while ago. For universities there seemed, to me, to be a lack of real world expertise in the electronics used to control the engines. In fact I couldn't really see why there was any electronics at all, relays would have worked just as well. I quite realise this is grossly unfair, but these students were building a real locomotive, and that seemed to require real expertise.
I am also interested in old computing but running out of space so trying to thin the collection/pile down. I have some old Seagate ST412 Winchester disc drives from the early 80s. Did a low and high level format on a couple, sold one, and then found that £20 for the other drive was considered too expensive. I wondered about that, it did take a good couple of hours to find a suitable computer, get it working, finding the MFM controller and then very slowly format the drives. If you saw these drives at a radio rally for £20 would you consider them to be a bargain or outrageously expensive? Seems to me that there is now a disconnect between what someone will pay for a collectable item and what it is worth, in time, to test it, list it, pack it and then post it?
The rise of China has reduced the cost of a manufactured item to near zero, $3 phones I see on the BBC, so is everything now zero cost? There is no financial point in making many things, no argument there, but the making is more than just having it, there is the fun and sweat of making it, then getting it working. I can't see how you learn anything other than making it? But, there again, I think analogue scopes are a really neat thing so am possibly just too old for all this new electronics.
VK3DRB:
There is always something special about building it yourself. Even better designing it yourseff. Both of these aspects tower over buying something off-the-shelf.
My mum once said if she won lotto, she would not buy here kids a home each because unless you work for it, you won't appreciate it. It is similar to electronics. There is nothing more fulfilling than doing it yourself, and you appreciate it more.
I have designed and building a 5-star extreme garage myself - literally. A little extreme in the design and a lot of hard work, but there is nothing more satisfying than seeing the results of my own handiwork and ideas. The result is better than any tradesman would (not could) do. It is built far better than most "slap-dash" houses.
Similar with DIY in electronics. Do it yourself, its YOURS. Something to be proud of. And it is fully serviceable. Something that might last years and show your grandkids. And if it is your pride and joy, you can even ask to be buried with it when your times comes.
Kilrah:
--- Quote from: woodchips on July 14, 2016, 09:30:22 am --- If you saw these drives at a radio rally for £20 would you consider them to be a bargain or outrageously expensive? Seems to me that there is now a disconnect between what someone will pay for a collectable item and what it is worth, in time, to test it, list it, pack it and then post it?
--- End quote ---
A "collectible" only becomes one once there's someone who wants to collect it, and that may be becoming less of a trend. I don't know anyone my age who collects things anymore...
I have a couple of old pieces of computer equipment, but get them out of curiosity in a pinch when I see something cheap that I'd fancy playing with.
If I came across someone getting rid of "any old HDD" for $10 I'd pick it up out of curiosity, but I would not be looking for "a Seagate ST412 HDD" and pay the price it costs to prepare/maintain it even if I can recognise the value in it.
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