6 ms·

American Electronics Hobbyist Census [pdf]

33 points by epalmer 11y ago

epalmer 11y ago
OP here: This explains my obsession for building widgets and little robots to my wife.
imr 11y ago
What are they referring to with the phrase "open source microcontroller"? I must spend too much time with ARM cortex parts, I had no idea there are popular open cores.
- minthd 11y ago
  Probably the arduino - with the open source libraries and such.
  - yitchelle 11y ago
    Some movements at http://opencores.org/ http://opencores.org/
vonmoltke 11y ago
> 38% report blowing something up on purpose Also, 62% are lying their asses off on this questionnaire. :)
- OldSchool 11y ago
  Yeah, I'm going to "guess" that as late as the 1970's at least, almost 100% of male children succeeded at blowing up stuff on purpose, whether or not they were electronics hobbyists.
  - epalmer 11y ago
    OP here. I'm 61. When I was in High School I unwrapped a model rocket engine and lit it. Wow was that stupid. It came right at me and then exploded. No harm but did not try that again.
  - vonmoltke 11y ago
    One of your first three thoughts after blowing an electrolytic cap for the first time is bound to be, "That was cool! How do I do that again?"
zeeshanm 11y ago
This is so accurate: >> They are convinced that the American economy is at least in part fueled by this hobby and believe emphasis of electronics in education is immensely valuable. >> This is not a new passion, in fact most began by taking things apart at a young age and have spent 35 years or more pursuing their avocation. While they haven’t always had a lot of time to pursue electronics as a hobby, they expect that it will become a larger part of their lives in the near future. >> Hobbyists believe that this is first and foremost a hobby about creativity that transforms from an idea into something tangible. New technology and renewed devotions have given electronics hobbyists the ability to create almost anything they can dream up and yet at the end of the day there is a childish affection that succumbs to goofing around and playing with fun, blinking lights. >> This is an old-boys club very much split between those that make their living with electronics during the day and then use it to play and those that pursue it as a pure pastime. For those who see it as a pure hobby, a large percentage are self-taught but are no less skilled nor passionate than those who have dedicated all aspects of their life to electronics.
- epalmer 11y ago
  OP here: I have two daughters. One builds things (robots) and one does not. But there are so few women as electronic hobbyists. FIRST Robotics is helping bring young women into the fabrication maker mentality. I just wish it could happen faster.
  - ild 11y ago
    Building "robots" is a lame thing; teach her the real things: batteries, leds etc.
    - epalmer 11y ago
      Oh she does all of that. These are 120 lb robots with 100+ amp circuits. She wires up the control system board system board, uses CNC mills to fab parts (and many other tools), works with the designers to ensure that the design can be build, does on the fly diagnostics and break fix. She is getting really good experience. She also works with the programmers to ensure a smooth control system. And much more.
ild 11y ago
Arduino IMHO is bad and harmful: it "gentrifies" the hobby, floods it with people who have no desire to learn the basics.
- greenNote 11y ago
  Partially agree, the same could be said about the Parallax crowd 20 years ago. I think the real problem is Abstraction. Most things are assembled as blocks, with no idea how the blocks work. It seems like many projects today consist of, A) Take X microcontroller B) Add Y1, Y2, Yx component blocks (LCD screen, motor controller, etc.) C) Add connecting wires D) Use manufacture supplied libraries E) Add some custom code for your domain.
  - krupan 11y ago
    Which is exactly the progression that software made. When was the last time you wrote your own bios, bootloader, os, device drivers, filesystem, network stack, etc.? You don't do that now, as you said, "most things are assembled as blocks," except it's worse than that, you just get a big monolithic "OS" now days install that on your desktop and then you write "custom code for your domain." I don't think this is a bad thing, since all that software that you don't write yourself is available as open source and you can still dig in and see how it works if you want. I'm not a close follower of arduino, but from what I understand the low-level code and board schematics and layout are open source, so it's kind of the same idea. I don't think the processor is open source though (having the verilog code, timing constraints, layout, etc. for that would be the ideal).
    - ild 11y ago
      The difference is that Arduino interfaces the electronic world; you need to know your domain.
      - HeyLaughingBoy 11y ago
        That makes absolutely no difference. I've been designing electronics and firmware professionally for my entire career. Right now I'm acting as a consultant developing a network-enabled industrial device. It's going to be powered by an Arduino simply because it's easy to do, robust enough (after I design appropriate power supply protection), and most important: enormous amounts of documentation and experience in the community means I can probably complete the entire project in less than a day of work. That's what matters. Not some mistaken concept of "gentrification" because you're pissed off at opening up your Good ol' boys club.
Animats 11y ago
It's amusing to note the hostility towards surface-mounted devices. You don't find that in Shentzen. That may be a Jameco issue. If you use SMDs, you don't get them from Jameco. I sometimes buy from Jameco, but only because their HQ is about a mile from me and they have will-call. Online ordering is Digi-Key or Mouser.
smoyer 11y ago
I didn't even realize JameCo was still in business ... at my first engineering job, we bought most of our parts from JDK Microdevices and JameCo. If something was less common, it might come from Newark. Since this was prior to the Internet (1983?), you had to get the catalogs from the vendors and peruse them. Digikey and the Internet have changed things dramatically!
- zeeshanm 11y ago
  octopart.com is another good one. They have prices from all distributors in one place.

33 points by epalmer 11y ago

OP here: This explains my obsession for building widgets and little robots to my wife.

imr 11y ago

What are they referring to with the phrase "open source microcontroller"? I must spend too much time with ARM cortex parts, I had no idea there are popular open cores.

minthd 11y ago
Probably the arduino - with the open source libraries and such.
- yitchelle 11y ago
  Some movements at http://opencores.org/ http://opencores.org/

vonmoltke 11y ago

> 38% report blowing something up on purpose Also, 62% are lying their asses off on this questionnaire. :)

OldSchool 11y ago
Yeah, I'm going to "guess" that as late as the 1970's at least, almost 100% of male children succeeded at blowing up stuff on purpose, whether or not they were electronics hobbyists.
- epalmer 11y ago
  OP here. I'm 61. When I was in High School I unwrapped a model rocket engine and lit it. Wow was that stupid. It came right at me and then exploded. No harm but did not try that again.
- vonmoltke 11y ago
  One of your first three thoughts after blowing an electrolytic cap for the first time is bound to be, "That was cool! How do I do that again?"

zeeshanm 11y ago

This is so accurate: >> They are convinced that the American economy is at least in part fueled by this hobby and believe emphasis of electronics in education is immensely valuable. >> This is not a new passion, in fact most began by taking things apart at a young age and have spent 35 years or more pursuing their avocation. While they haven’t always had a lot of time to pursue electronics as a hobby, they expect that it will become a larger part of their lives in the near future. >> Hobbyists believe that this is first and foremost a hobby about creativity that transforms from an idea into something tangible. New technology and renewed devotions have given electronics hobbyists the ability to create almost anything they can dream up and yet at the end of the day there is a childish affection that succumbs to goofing around and playing with fun, blinking lights. >> This is an old-boys club very much split between those that make their living with electronics during the day and then use it to play and those that pursue it as a pure pastime. For those who see it as a pure hobby, a large percentage are self-taught but are no less skilled nor passionate than those who have dedicated all aspects of their life to electronics.

epalmer 11y ago
OP here: I have two daughters. One builds things (robots) and one does not. But there are so few women as electronic hobbyists. FIRST Robotics is helping bring young women into the fabrication maker mentality. I just wish it could happen faster.
- ild 11y ago
  Building "robots" is a lame thing; teach her the real things: batteries, leds etc.
  - epalmer 11y ago
    Oh she does all of that. These are 120 lb robots with 100+ amp circuits. She wires up the control system board system board, uses CNC mills to fab parts (and many other tools), works with the designers to ensure that the design can be build, does on the fly diagnostics and break fix. She is getting really good experience. She also works with the programmers to ensure a smooth control system. And much more.

ild 11y ago

Arduino IMHO is bad and harmful: it "gentrifies" the hobby, floods it with people who have no desire to learn the basics.

greenNote 11y ago
Partially agree, the same could be said about the Parallax crowd 20 years ago. I think the real problem is Abstraction. Most things are assembled as blocks, with no idea how the blocks work. It seems like many projects today consist of, A) Take X microcontroller B) Add Y1, Y2, Yx component blocks (LCD screen, motor controller, etc.) C) Add connecting wires D) Use manufacture supplied libraries E) Add some custom code for your domain.
- krupan 11y ago
  Which is exactly the progression that software made. When was the last time you wrote your own bios, bootloader, os, device drivers, filesystem, network stack, etc.? You don't do that now, as you said, "most things are assembled as blocks," except it's worse than that, you just get a big monolithic "OS" now days install that on your desktop and then you write "custom code for your domain." I don't think this is a bad thing, since all that software that you don't write yourself is available as open source and you can still dig in and see how it works if you want. I'm not a close follower of arduino, but from what I understand the low-level code and board schematics and layout are open source, so it's kind of the same idea. I don't think the processor is open source though (having the verilog code, timing constraints, layout, etc. for that would be the ideal).
  - ild 11y ago
    The difference is that Arduino interfaces the electronic world; you need to know your domain.
    - HeyLaughingBoy 11y ago
      That makes absolutely no difference. I've been designing electronics and firmware professionally for my entire career. Right now I'm acting as a consultant developing a network-enabled industrial device. It's going to be powered by an Arduino simply because it's easy to do, robust enough (after I design appropriate power supply protection), and most important: enormous amounts of documentation and experience in the community means I can probably complete the entire project in less than a day of work. That's what matters. Not some mistaken concept of "gentrification" because you're pissed off at opening up your Good ol' boys club.

Animats 11y ago

It's amusing to note the hostility towards surface-mounted devices. You don't find that in Shentzen. That may be a Jameco issue. If you use SMDs, you don't get them from Jameco. I sometimes buy from Jameco, but only because their HQ is about a mile from me and they have will-call. Online ordering is Digi-Key or Mouser.

smoyer 11y ago

I didn't even realize JameCo was still in business ... at my first engineering job, we bought most of our parts from JDK Microdevices and JameCo. If something was less common, it might come from Newark. Since this was prior to the Internet (1983?), you had to get the catalogs from the vendors and peruse them. Digikey and the Internet have changed things dramatically!

zeeshanm 11y ago
octopart.com is another good one. They have prices from all distributors in one place.