How do you guys come up with project ideas?

[Dan123456]

Hey all 

Just wondering, how do you all come up with project ideas?

Over the last few months I have gone from just buying bits for each project as I need them to a decent little stockpile. Problem is, now I have stock, I seem to be overwhelmed with the possibilities which has put me in a bit of a creative rut 

In the past I have usually just flicked through books and websites looking for fun, interesting ideas (I usually just build “cool” stuff rather than useful things) but it is getting to the point where a lot of them are just variations on the same thing (I.e. IR remotes and switches, blinky light dodads, etc.).

This question applies to Aurduino projects, microcontroller as well as just building things with “normal” components.

I still have a few projects on the go so am not completely out of ideas yet but would love to hear how you all come up with project ideas 

[moffy]

Some project ideas come from a need that is not readily filled by available solutions, or an idea to simplify or improve an existing device.

[RoGeorge]

The most engaging and the most rewarding projects are those in which you build something you need, or in which you solve a well defined problem.

Identify something that you need, or want, then achieve that! 

Set in advance what is the goal, and when the project is considered finished.  For example:
- "Make Halloween LEDs"  <---  that's undefined, that's a need not a project
- "Make a sound controlled LED, in which the intensity of the light is controlled by the intensity of the sound.  You put the circuit inside a lamp, and the lamp goes brighter when you speak louder."  <---  that's a project, tells the goal and has closure, the project is finished when the light inside the lamp responds to you voice.

In case you don't need anything for the moment, yet you still want to get your hands dirty with something, follow some lab experiments/tutorials (avoid random blogs, follow classes from well established places, for example https://www.analog.com/en/education/education-library/tutorials/analog-electronics.html ).  Even if you don't build anything to show off with, at the end of the day you'll have new skills acquired.

In case you have already n projects you equally want to build and you don't know which one to start, throw a dice and pick at random.

[DavidAlfa]

What's the problem with random blogs?
Obviously not those made by Indian bots, but there're really good blogs made by real people.
Of course you have to know enough electronics to identify if the blog is pure BS (Like the majority of YT content!) or has decent quality stuff.

About OP question: It's like women, you'll know it's the one when you see it. You'll find one that really triggers your interest.
For example I was very interested in IOT about 15 years ago, when it barely was a thing. Woah lighting a bulb through wifi!
Nowadays I give a damn, I see it time wasting, setting up the server, programming every device... I'll just turn the wall switch!
But as I aged pass the 30s, working 8h a day fixing electronics, I mostly lost interest, it's enough electronics for a man in a day!
Sometimes, on rainy weekends or long holidays... I might recover a bit of it.

[Terry Bites]

Necessity is the mother of invention.

Sometimes my "unnecessary projects" are triggered by a juicy component I'd like to use.
Modding existing stuff is a driver.
Sometimes a desire to upcycle a duff item into a useful thing.

Death to blogbots!!

[tszaboo]

Just wondering, how do you all come up with project ideas?

I have this so-called manager that does that. Week one the ideas are made, then he asks on week 2 when it's ready, and changes the requirements on week 3. When it's finished, then the question comes if it can do something if it was never intended to do.

At home I just start way to many projects and rarely finish any of them.

[moffy]

At home I just start way to many projects and rarely finish any of them.

Yes I tend to do the same but at least some get completed but not as many as I would like.

[coppice]

Some project ideas come from a need that is not readily filled by available solutions, or an idea to simplify or improve an existing device.

To quote the great Mr. Bigweld, "See a need. Fill a need". I was never sure if that was supposed to be a positive or negative saying. "Fill" might just mean "Stuff it up". 

[fourfathom]

Definitely, "Find a need and fill it."

For me it's all hobby-based (I'm retired), and mostly ham radio or sailing-related.  Twenty years ago I wanted to use this new AIS system to monitor the position of ships and generate potential collision alarms.  At the time, none of the available navigation software or hardware would do this so I wrote my own program to run on a Pocket PC (remember those???)  This evolved to a more general nav-system monitoring program that I gave away (thousands are / were using it, although most navsystems now do a reasonable job of this.)  But one thing leads to another.

Ham radio projects tend to evolve a lot.  I was designing a radio-buoy (sailing stuff), and my existing frequency counter wasn't up to making the measurements I wanted.  Rather than buy a new counter, I designed and built one using a uController, an FPGA, and a multi-channel analog front-end.  That one needed a lot of hardware and software design, and is still evolving as I add useful features.  I also needed a temperature chamber for evaluating oscillators, so I got the TEC "Reptile Incubator" described in one of the EEVBLOG videos, ripped out the guts, and built my own controller so I could automate the temperature swings and achieve better accuracy.  This led to GPS Disciplined oscillators (I needed a good reference for my frequency measurements), and a little reference-clock distribution box.  I was using the Si5351 clock-generator chip in my buoy design, and liked it so much that I built a three-output programmable clock source with 50 Ohm buffered outputs and an external freq reference port.

More radio stuff:  A little ham digital transceiver (the QRP Labs "QDX") is a great little device, but the frequency stability isn't quite as good as is needed for some modes.  Since my Frequency Counter was able to measure frequency and modulation with good precision I was able to identify the cause of the problem and develop a little reference-clock multiplier card that fit inside the QDX, allowing it to work with a precision frequency reference.  Sharing this info with the ham community I was asked to provide these cards, so now I sell a few every week. 

These same hams who wanted extreme frequency accuracy also wanted stable radio beacons, used for propagation research.  So I wrote the code to do this on my Clock Generator box.  My friends wanted more than three channels, and more power, so I designed a six-channel beacon using the same fundamentals but with 1W transmitters, and these boxes have been deployed on several continents.  But wouldn't it be nice to send all these transmitter outputs to a single multi-band antenna?  So I designed a multiband filter / coupler (just L's and C's).  I've sold all of this at a small profit so I'm not losing money (but my labor is practically free, which is OK with me since I would be doing it anyway.)

Again, these hams are also running a lot of multi-SDR receiver sites, and they needed a better front-end anti-aliasing filter.  I designed one and it's become very popular.

The common thread here is find a problem and figure out how to solve it.  And the best problems are ones that, when solved, result in something useful for you, or someone else.  But unless someone is paying you, it has to be an interesting problem.

You can see my projects here (http://wb6cxc.com/) and here (https://turnislandsystems.com/).

[dietert1]

This forum is full of unfinished projects and doing something as a joint effort has its merits. That approach may also provide an incentive to try something different. When i read about new parts, that may also trigger new projects. I mean electronics has something new every year and it never stops. At least it didn't until now..

Regards, Dieter

[fourfathom]

This forum is full of unfinished projects and doing something as a joint effort has its merits.

Definitely!  Having others interested in and wanting to use your project gives you more incentive to complete it.  And in a joint effort, there's no telling where a new bit of insight or fresh concept may come from.  If I am my only customer I will often consign a half-finished project to my "later" shelf, especially if I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and all that remains is the boring implementation.   But even these half-finished projects have value (besides keeping me out of trouble), since I usually get far enough along to have solved the difficult (interesting) parts, and these designs often get used in a later design.

[SiliconWizard]

Yeah, the hardest part is not about coming up with new ideas, it's about managing to finish projects and find time to start new ones that are piling up.

[donlisms]

I'm probably just rehashing what's already been said, but it seems like when I'm doing things, i.e. other projects or hobbies, the specific projects suggest themselves.  The telescopes need battery management.  The bass needs a new better smaller lighter preamp.  The precision resistance measuring stuff, as a larger quest, needs all kinds of little gizmos.  I have general areas that interest me, larger goals, and the specifics just... appear. Too many of them!

[temperance]

Try something you've never done before but want to learn even if it has no immediate practical use. Challenge yourself.

[GinnyBnm]

I would love to trade places with you. I feel very ridiculous when I take on several things simultaneously and don’t finish any of them 

[RoGeorge]

Forgot to add this, many project ideas
https://hackaday.io/projects?sort=date

[soldar]

Necessity is the mother of invention.

Sometimes my "unnecessary projects" are triggered by a juicy component I'd like to use.
Modding existing stuff is a driver.
Sometimes a desire to upcycle a duff item into a useful thing.

I am a sucker for this. A lot of the time, instead of asking myself what problem I want to solve and what materials I need for that end, I think to myself what could I do with this or that that I already have. This leads to (1) keeping a lot of junk on the idea that it might become useful some day, (2) wasting time thinking of ways to use stuff, storing and classifying stuff, etc

But I find it very rewarding when I can solve some real problem, mine or someone else's, using stuff I have lying around.

[pqass]

Just wondering, how do you all come up with project ideas?

I suggest you wander over to your nearest electronic surplus (junk) store.   There you'll find lots of cheap, broken stuff to repair (stereo's, test gear, etc.) and interesting vintage (obsolete) components to build a project around.

Late last year I did just that. I found a lonely 8085 CPU, 8255 PPI, 4x4 keypad, 16x2 LCD, and a HP 8-digit 16-segment 0.3" bubble display.  It triggered a forty year old memory of an unfinished single board computer.  I've since got it all working on a breadboard, including a 16550 UART, and flash memory.  With the help of Internet resources, I've learned so much like: designing a wait-state generator+Arduino sketch to upload data into SRAM, 8085 assembly (using z80asm), low-level (PPI, UART, I/O port) device coding, how to write to flash (my own programmer), adapting the MON85 monitor program for my UART, etc.   I've recently bought several 6809, 68008, 68000 CPUs, more flash, more SRAMs. I've installed a 6809 assembler, assembled the ASSIST09 monitor with it, and learning about the processor.   I'll eventually make a board for all of these but for now I'm just exploring bare-metal programming that I didn't experience the first time around.

[Slh]

I find that the best thing to do is to come up with a big project, get part the way through the design and then realise that I can't measure or test the project. This obviously means that I need to design something to measure or test it... I might finish that bit of it

[Solder_Junkie]

Having had the original GPS board in my James Miller Simple GPS disciplined oscillator fail recently, a purely logic chip and CR approach, I firstly updated it with a new GPS board, then set about making an Arduino controlled version.

The Arduino GPSDO is the one by Murray Greenman, which is based on the Lars one described at length on here.
https://www.qsl.net/zl1bpu/PROJ/NGPSDO/New%20GPSDO.htm

The James Miller unit with a top spec ovened oscillator, and now a genuine Ublox Neo M8T timing GPS module, is hard to improve on, but that doesn’t stop me trying.
http://www.jrmiller.online/projects/ministd/manual.pdf

My reference for comparison of the GPSDOs is a rubidium oscillator and a phase/frequency analyser connected to TimeLab software.

All keeping me busy

SJ