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I took electronics classes during high school and loved it. I remember tinkering around and making blinkers and noise generators. But after I got into making we

by ethana 11y ago

I took electronics classes during high school and loved it. I remember tinkering around and making blinkers and noise generators. But after I got into making websites for fun, I completely abandoned electronics as an academic route. There's part of me that wish I didn't, maybe I should get back to it as a hobby.

madvoid 11y ago
It's very fun, and thanks to the hobbyist/open-source community it is more accessible than ever.
pjmlp 11y ago
I had electronic and mechanical classes, followed by a technical course in programming. Web sites meant BBS login screens. So I went into a CS degree, which had shared lectures with the EE degree.
mellett68 11y ago
I originally wanted to go into Electronics Engineering but I didn't take A-level maths which was a hard requirement (no surprise really, I just hadn't thought that far ahead) so fell back to Computer Science. With things like the Raspberry Pi, Arduino etc. it's actually surprisingly easy to get back in to electronics after being away from it for so long. Sure I have to look up resistor colour code tables and stuff but it's fun.
cellularmitosis 11y ago
You should get back into it! Since you've left the hobby, a revolution has taken place in PCB manufacturing which allows for minimum quantities as low as 3 for the cost of a pizza or two. PCB design has truly become a hobbyist activity in the past 5 years or so.
- wfunction 11y ago
  Would you mind pointing me to something that explains what has happened in the last 5 years that made PCB design so much cheaper? It's quite surprising to read.
  - cellularmitosis 11y ago
    Years ago, if you wanted a small PCB manufactured, your only option was to deal directly with the board manufacturer and the minimum order was 100's or 1000's of boards. Prototyping a one-off hobbyist design was totally out of the question. About 5 years ago a few startups figured out that if you played a large game of Tetris by combining the board designs of many hobbyists, you could submit the order as a single, giant PCB in a quantity of 10, or 5, or even 3. When the manufactured boards arrived, you break up the individual designs and mail them out individually to all of the hobbyists.
    - wfunction 11y ago
      Whoa, interesting, thanks!
  - amelius 11y ago
    I'm still waiting for that 3D printer that can do PCB layouts. Actually, I'm waiting for a cheap 3D printer that can print on silicon :)
    - cellularmitosis 11y ago
      In context, this comment is actually quite hilarious. Dave Jones (the guy who shoots EEVBlog) also does a podcast with Chris Gammell (who teaches Contextual Electronics). For years, Dave has been giving Chris shit over his fantasy of one day having a chip printer. Dave is certain this will never happen and absolutely delights in making fun of Chris. But all joking aside, those two guys have done great things in making electronics as a hobby accessible.

by ethana 11y ago

madvoid 11y ago

It's very fun, and thanks to the hobbyist/open-source community it is more accessible than ever.

pjmlp 11y ago

I had electronic and mechanical classes, followed by a technical course in programming. Web sites meant BBS login screens. So I went into a CS degree, which had shared lectures with the EE degree.

mellett68 11y ago

I originally wanted to go into Electronics Engineering but I didn't take A-level maths which was a hard requirement (no surprise really, I just hadn't thought that far ahead) so fell back to Computer Science. With things like the Raspberry Pi, Arduino etc. it's actually surprisingly easy to get back in to electronics after being away from it for so long. Sure I have to look up resistor colour code tables and stuff but it's fun.

cellularmitosis 11y ago

You should get back into it! Since you've left the hobby, a revolution has taken place in PCB manufacturing which allows for minimum quantities as low as 3 for the cost of a pizza or two. PCB design has truly become a hobbyist activity in the past 5 years or so.

wfunction 11y ago
Would you mind pointing me to something that explains what has happened in the last 5 years that made PCB design so much cheaper? It's quite surprising to read.
- cellularmitosis 11y ago
  Years ago, if you wanted a small PCB manufactured, your only option was to deal directly with the board manufacturer and the minimum order was 100's or 1000's of boards. Prototyping a one-off hobbyist design was totally out of the question. About 5 years ago a few startups figured out that if you played a large game of Tetris by combining the board designs of many hobbyists, you could submit the order as a single, giant PCB in a quantity of 10, or 5, or even 3. When the manufactured boards arrived, you break up the individual designs and mail them out individually to all of the hobbyists.
  - wfunction 11y ago
    Whoa, interesting, thanks!
- amelius 11y ago
  I'm still waiting for that 3D printer that can do PCB layouts. Actually, I'm waiting for a cheap 3D printer that can print on silicon :)
  - cellularmitosis 11y ago
    In context, this comment is actually quite hilarious. Dave Jones (the guy who shoots EEVBlog) also does a podcast with Chris Gammell (who teaches Contextual Electronics). For years, Dave has been giving Chris shit over his fantasy of one day having a chip printer. Dave is certain this will never happen and absolutely delights in making fun of Chris. But all joking aside, those two guys have done great things in making electronics as a hobby accessible.