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I very much enjoy my career as a software engineer, but man there’s a side of me that wishes I had studied something where I could even begin to build something

I very much enjoy my career as a software engineer, but man there’s a side of me that wishes I had studied something where I could even begin to build something like this. Super super cool!

geor9e 3y ago
There is something a lot more healthy-feeling about tinkering in the shop using your hands, versus staring down a panel of colorful monospaced ascii. But the individual contributor MechE career plateaus in pay around $170k. There's no L7 or whatever pay scale. Seeing total compensation in the $300k+ range is unheard of. In software you find them all over. I'm sure there's rare exceptions but you get the gist.
matthewtse 3y ago
I felt the same yearning. I found a creative outlet in hardware, that still furthers my software engineering career, by building a custom mechanical keyboard to improve coding speed, accuracy, and efficiency. https://www.reddit.com/r/ErgoMechKeyboards/comments/hj0q8x/first_diy_keyboard_dactyl_manuform_5x6/ https://www.reddit.com/r/ErgoMechKeyboards/comments/hj0q8x/f...
shellfishgene 3y ago
You totally can. This video [1] someone linked below comes with a github repo [2], it seems pretty straight forward to build this with access to a 3d printer and some basic electronics/soldering skills. Probably a <100$ for parts project? You also need a soldering iron and learn how to use it, but nothing of this is too hard for anyone technically inclined, especially if you have a hackerspace nearby where you can get a bit of help. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJQZFHJzwt4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJQZFHJzwt4 [2] https://github.com/remrc/Self-Balancing-Cube https://github.com/remrc/Self-Balancing-Cube
cuu508 3y ago
You can learn all of this on your own! Like most of us learned programming ;-) Probably don't start with a self-balancing cube as the first project though. Get an Arduino or ESP board, make some leds blink and go from there.
- stavros 3y ago
  Yep! A self-balancing cube can definitely be your sixth project, though.
  - YZF 3y ago
    Sometimes taking a big challenge can accelerate learning. As long as you're not giving up ;)
- szundi 3y ago
  Completely true and good advice
- dylan604 3y ago
  Arduino + LED = Hello World for electronics. Find a project online that tickles your fancy, and then recreate that. If your thing doesn't work, you know it is something you did incorrectly as the project has been built successfully by others. During the course of that project, you will pick up on so many little things. As an example, I had a project with more buttons than pins. Just something as simple as adding a few resistors to each button allows multiple buttons to be connected to the same pin. You just have test the voltage to know which button. Sounds simple, but I learned it from someone else's build. Nobody likes walking through tutorials for tutorials sake, but it's still useful and rewarding if you can build something functional as a tutorial.
  - matheusmoreira 3y ago
    > If your thing doesn't work One of the things I find paralyzing about electronics is the fact energy is involved. Software just outputs garbage to the terminal if I screw it up. Circuits though? Isn't it possible for components to be literally destroyed, fires started?
    - dylan604 3y ago
      um, what do you think is powering the CPU/GPU combo you are writing software for uses? I guess you missed the period of "releasing the magic smoke" of software. But if you are designing a project that uses enough power to start fires, you've chosen poorly for your starter projects. Most electronics are using 3.3v or 5v while sipping miliamps. Sure, you can smoke a chip that wants 3.3 from feeding it 5v, but if you're designing a project near flammable substances, you're doing it wrong.
devsda 3y ago
As a fellow developer I feel the same but then when I realize that the cost of building something cool like this as a hobby is very high(for me at-least), I feel like we are lucky enough to have picked a field where the cost of experimenting is close to zero. As a middle ground, I've settled on home automation & hobby electronic projects with some micro controllers like esp32, rpi pico etc. It's worth a try for anybody itching to build something tangible. PS: the total BOM cost for this cube project was around 2500 Euros.
- weaksauce 3y ago
  yeah just the motors alone were 471 euros and the controller boards were about 300 euros... this is a spendy project
- dylan604 3y ago
  > PS: the total BOM cost for this cube project was around 2500 Euros. Somethings are purchased in packs of 10 even when needing 1 type of things happen too, so sometimes you have to divide the price by numbers used. Your comment also suggest you consider that nothing was necessary to repurchase or that the final BOM wasn't the 3rd iteration of which items were actually used in previous attempts. Pure R&D type hobby projects can be oh so much more expensive, but oh so much fun.
thimp 3y ago
It was always cool. Until you find the only jobs on the market were ones that involve making machines that kill people. That’s what happened to me. YMMV.
- amelius 3y ago
  You could instead work on a robot performing surgery ... Just one example.
- GianFabien 3y ago
  The word "engineer" origin (from Oxford Dictionary): Middle English (denoting a designer and constructor of fortifications and weapons; formerly also as ingineer ): in early use from Old French engigneor, from medieval Latin ingeniator, from ingeniare ‘contrive, devise’, from Latin ingenium (see engine); in later use from French ingénieur or Italian ingegnere, also based on Latin ingenium Would be great if we had a less war-like derived word for our profession.
  - elchangri 3y ago
    By your own share, it only held a "war-like" definition in Middle English. Its original latin etymology and current definition describes the skill of devising/designing/inventing/producing solutions. "Genius" shares the same root.
  - aitchnyu 3y ago
    Heard the platitude that in today's French engineer is "ingenious man"
- rangestransform 3y ago
  You could work in autonomous driving!
- jwr 3y ago
  One sometimes gets to a second take on that: you don't want to make machines that kill people, until invaders from another country ride into your country (or a country of your friends/neighbors) and start killing, raping and torturing. And suddenly, as you feel frustrated and powerless, you realize that even though you don't want to make machines that kill people, you pretty much have to, otherwise those people will come for you, your family and your friends. I thought humanity would grow out of senseless aggression in 2024, but here we are. And yes, I am basing this on a specific real-world example of a country invading another country right next to mine, and my specific thoughts and beliefs.
s0rce 3y ago
A big portion of this is software and the rest you could certainly learn. Although I suspect if this was you day job you might not want to come home and build the same stuff...
- mseepgood 3y ago
  In which day job does one build cubes balancing on the corner?
  - s0rce 3y ago
    Satellites mostly. Possibly missile guidance and then more general applications of controls.
noman-land 3y ago
https://www.adafruit.com/ https://www.adafruit.com/ is an amazing resource. The tutorials are excellent and the products and video presentations of them are really great. Basically every single product has accompanying videos. It's very easy to spend some $$$ there.

I very much enjoy my career as a software engineer, but man there’s a side of me that wishes I had studied something where I could even begin to build something like this. Super super cool!

geor9e 3y ago

There is something a lot more healthy-feeling about tinkering in the shop using your hands, versus staring down a panel of colorful monospaced ascii. But the individual contributor MechE career plateaus in pay around $170k. There's no L7 or whatever pay scale. Seeing total compensation in the $300k+ range is unheard of. In software you find them all over. I'm sure there's rare exceptions but you get the gist.

matthewtse 3y ago

I felt the same yearning. I found a creative outlet in hardware, that still furthers my software engineering career, by building a custom mechanical keyboard to improve coding speed, accuracy, and efficiency. https://www.reddit.com/r/ErgoMechKeyboards/comments/hj0q8x/first_diy_keyboard_dactyl_manuform_5x6/ https://www.reddit.com/r/ErgoMechKeyboards/comments/hj0q8x/f...

shellfishgene 3y ago

You totally can. This video [1] someone linked below comes with a github repo [2], it seems pretty straight forward to build this with access to a 3d printer and some basic electronics/soldering skills. Probably a <100$ for parts project? You also need a soldering iron and learn how to use it, but nothing of this is too hard for anyone technically inclined, especially if you have a hackerspace nearby where you can get a bit of help. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJQZFHJzwt4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJQZFHJzwt4 [2] https://github.com/remrc/Self-Balancing-Cube https://github.com/remrc/Self-Balancing-Cube

cuu508 3y ago

You can learn all of this on your own! Like most of us learned programming ;-) Probably don't start with a self-balancing cube as the first project though. Get an Arduino or ESP board, make some leds blink and go from there.

stavros 3y ago
Yep! A self-balancing cube can definitely be your sixth project, though.
- YZF 3y ago
  Sometimes taking a big challenge can accelerate learning. As long as you're not giving up ;)
szundi 3y ago
Completely true and good advice
dylan604 3y ago
Arduino + LED = Hello World for electronics. Find a project online that tickles your fancy, and then recreate that. If your thing doesn't work, you know it is something you did incorrectly as the project has been built successfully by others. During the course of that project, you will pick up on so many little things. As an example, I had a project with more buttons than pins. Just something as simple as adding a few resistors to each button allows multiple buttons to be connected to the same pin. You just have test the voltage to know which button. Sounds simple, but I learned it from someone else's build. Nobody likes walking through tutorials for tutorials sake, but it's still useful and rewarding if you can build something functional as a tutorial.
- matheusmoreira 3y ago
  > If your thing doesn't work One of the things I find paralyzing about electronics is the fact energy is involved. Software just outputs garbage to the terminal if I screw it up. Circuits though? Isn't it possible for components to be literally destroyed, fires started?
  - dylan604 3y ago
    um, what do you think is powering the CPU/GPU combo you are writing software for uses? I guess you missed the period of "releasing the magic smoke" of software. But if you are designing a project that uses enough power to start fires, you've chosen poorly for your starter projects. Most electronics are using 3.3v or 5v while sipping miliamps. Sure, you can smoke a chip that wants 3.3 from feeding it 5v, but if you're designing a project near flammable substances, you're doing it wrong.

devsda 3y ago

As a fellow developer I feel the same but then when I realize that the cost of building something cool like this as a hobby is very high(for me at-least), I feel like we are lucky enough to have picked a field where the cost of experimenting is close to zero. As a middle ground, I've settled on home automation & hobby electronic projects with some micro controllers like esp32, rpi pico etc. It's worth a try for anybody itching to build something tangible. PS: the total BOM cost for this cube project was around 2500 Euros.

weaksauce 3y ago
yeah just the motors alone were 471 euros and the controller boards were about 300 euros... this is a spendy project
dylan604 3y ago
> PS: the total BOM cost for this cube project was around 2500 Euros. Somethings are purchased in packs of 10 even when needing 1 type of things happen too, so sometimes you have to divide the price by numbers used. Your comment also suggest you consider that nothing was necessary to repurchase or that the final BOM wasn't the 3rd iteration of which items were actually used in previous attempts. Pure R&D type hobby projects can be oh so much more expensive, but oh so much fun.

thimp 3y ago

It was always cool. Until you find the only jobs on the market were ones that involve making machines that kill people. That’s what happened to me. YMMV.

amelius 3y ago
You could instead work on a robot performing surgery ... Just one example.
GianFabien 3y ago
The word "engineer" origin (from Oxford Dictionary): Middle English (denoting a designer and constructor of fortifications and weapons; formerly also as ingineer ): in early use from Old French engigneor, from medieval Latin ingeniator, from ingeniare ‘contrive, devise’, from Latin ingenium (see engine); in later use from French ingénieur or Italian ingegnere, also based on Latin ingenium Would be great if we had a less war-like derived word for our profession.
- elchangri 3y ago
  By your own share, it only held a "war-like" definition in Middle English. Its original latin etymology and current definition describes the skill of devising/designing/inventing/producing solutions. "Genius" shares the same root.
- aitchnyu 3y ago
  Heard the platitude that in today's French engineer is "ingenious man"
rangestransform 3y ago
You could work in autonomous driving!
jwr 3y ago
One sometimes gets to a second take on that: you don't want to make machines that kill people, until invaders from another country ride into your country (or a country of your friends/neighbors) and start killing, raping and torturing. And suddenly, as you feel frustrated and powerless, you realize that even though you don't want to make machines that kill people, you pretty much have to, otherwise those people will come for you, your family and your friends. I thought humanity would grow out of senseless aggression in 2024, but here we are. And yes, I am basing this on a specific real-world example of a country invading another country right next to mine, and my specific thoughts and beliefs.

s0rce 3y ago

A big portion of this is software and the rest you could certainly learn. Although I suspect if this was you day job you might not want to come home and build the same stuff...

mseepgood 3y ago
In which day job does one build cubes balancing on the corner?
- s0rce 3y ago
  Satellites mostly. Possibly missile guidance and then more general applications of controls.

noman-land 3y ago

https://www.adafruit.com/ https://www.adafruit.com/ is an amazing resource. The tutorials are excellent and the products and video presentations of them are really great. Basically every single product has accompanying videos. It's very easy to spend some $$$ there.