I didn't claim majority, just "many".
There are frequent new members to this forum that introduce themselves as having "rekindled interest" in electronics after many years (decades) of forgetting about it.
But I think you're underestimating just how powerful the raspberry pi has become. From my interest in the Pi, I've since built my own Irdium + GPS + GSM tracker backed by an arduino with a focus on low power. So, again, yes, I guess I'm an advanced Lego builder. But from this interest I'm slowly going deeper and deeper.I know how powerfull a Raspberry Pi is , actually that is my whole point. It is so powerfull I have absolutely no use for it for my personal use
But seriously let me explain a bit further. The electronics hobby as I know it is first making stuff you don't need as a kid to exploit all possibilities and make yourself familiar with the components. My generation started with the electronic dice PCB's as an example and the electronics boxes with 100 projects.
Starting from basics how do those components function.
Later on the whole exercise of the hobby is identifying a problem and then making a design, selecting the right components (in my generation for digital designs the 74HC and CMOS4000 series) and breadboarding and testing the design. Then came the microcontroller and it was easier to let that handle all non real time aspects of the problem instead of doing it in discrete hardware components, thus born the embedded software.
Still a lot of external components had to be choosen since the microcontroller itself was nothing more then that. Not many peripherals, so search for the ADC/DAC you need etc. Everybody wrote their own code, little sharing. Everyone had to read the datasheet and really understand what was going on and why some decisions were made.
To put it black/white, nowadays someone orders an Arduino and PSU, downloads some code from the net, installs, runs, if it doesn't work right away starts bitching on a forum asking why it doesn't work and wants ready made answers so it works. Not to explore how it works, why it didn't work. This is what I meant with I am unsure if there is a re-birth or just a lot of people that read they can do something and go that way, for instance the mediaplayer on the raspberry pi. Plug Install and Play not much thinking needed there, so those people I would not consider electronic hobbieists. Or would everybody with a PC be called an electronic hobbieist, if that is the definition ok.
On the other hand you show real interest in the matter, are on this forum, probably contribute, read and learn, even switching you curricullum, so good for you and you are not in the above category. So enjoy and start learning also some basics cause some day you are going to need it to solve an issue
But I think you're underestimating just how powerful the raspberry pi has become.
...I know how powerfull a Raspberry Pi is , actually that is my whole point. It is so powerfull I have absolutely no use for it for my personal use
...
The re-birth of the hobby is not the same as the re-enactment of the hobby.
The re-birth of the hobby is not the same as the re-enactment of the hobby. Let's face it: it will never be the same as when we did it a few decades back; one could argue it shouldn't be the same. There were no accessible microcontroller development systems when I enterd the hobby, so naturally we were using discrete components, more "analoguish" circuits etc. Today, many things we were doing discretely are better handled in a microcontroller. There will be always people that eventually will dig deeper into the components and analog circuitry, but that's no longer the entry point into the hobby.
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So tell me, this guy buys ready made modules, connects them, programs them: does he have an electronics hobby?
Another example: a lot of radio amateurs are excellent electronic hobbieists, but someone who only buys a ready made radio transceiver and talks with it all day, nothing else: does he have an electronics hobby?
You tell me your definition of when somebody has an electronics hobby.
Either you cope with the trending technologies or live in the past thinking that you're a new Einstein who happens to be very unique to this new world just because he's reading some old and rusty datasheets.
Either you cope with the trending technologies or live in the past thinking that you're a new Einstein who happens to be very unique to this new world just because he's reading some old and rusty datasheets.
I meant no offense, AlfBaz, nor to anyone from an old school era. The only thing that I wanted to emphasize on, from my point of view, is that the definition of 'electronics hobbyist' shouldn't be limited to some kind of an elite group who happens to be very experienced with discrete electronics. You kind of questioned your belief if using 74 series chips feels like electronics, and then you disbelieved that you're still in electronics after working with a mcu. This is maybe intimidating for newcomers who I happen to be one of them.
I agree that to further learn electronics, a person shouldn't limit his solutions to a microcontroller and a couple of sensors/modules, nor to ready-to-use ICs like the 74 series. A newcomer has this project that needs a linear voltage regulator, would he just use one of the 78xx ICs or build his own regulator from discrete components? an old school hobbyist from the pre-78xx era would have a nostalgia moment seeing this 'tad' using a ready-to-use 78xx and say: 'aaaah, I remember those days when I had to build my own regulator. Kids these days use ICs but don't know how they work and think they're are hobbyists'.
Looking at the radio amateurs I am for once in the section of " Youngster" there, most are well over 50, and a lot are well into the 70's and 80's.