Will the maker movement last?

.partly because i can see what i'm buying

I missed that at first. However, I made a realization. The price of 2 or 3 different versions of a part at Mouser or DigiKey was still less than buying from an overpriced retail outfit like Radio Shack.

I miss locally based surplus shops where you could find non-catalog standard items. However, for generic parts no retail store will ever compete.

Older guy here too, was into the kits and so forth back in the day. Made my own PCBs in the basement, direct resist at first, then got into photo-resist. I always thought the thing that killed it back then was a combination of consumer electronics getting more complex but at the same time cheaper with imports and such. Add to that the use of surface-mount components that were pretty much out of hobbyist reach at that time, these helped enable the complexity. People were willing to buy kits or roll their own, even if they just broke even more or less cost-wise, but all of a sudden that approach was relatively expensive and not competitive from a functionality standpoint.

I'll never forget buying a new digitally-tuned FM receiver for my stereo, it was only about an inch or so high, I couldn't figure how that was possible, so the first thing I did when I got it home was to remove the covers. That was the first time I'd seen SMDs; I was amazed. I remember thinking, there goes my hobby, I'll never be able to do that in the basement.

Then I was out of hobbyist electronics for a couple decades, raising a family and so forth. Got into the microcontrollers earlier this year and again was amazed because now I can do all sorts of things I only dreamed about back then. What I'm not good at envisioning is what confluence of circumstances will render the current situation unsustainable. So I hope it continues for some time, I'm having way too much fun!

@Jack Christensen....good post....i too made my own pc boards and still do..a friend of mine got out of the hobby, due to health reasons and gave me all his equipment and parts...in all this stuff was a 100 sheets of PNP papers...now i can make all the boards I want...as for surface mount parts...i have thousands of parts from removing them from boards i had or found...yes i still remove parts from old boards for the parts...been doing that since the early 60's....saving everything

I've just recently made my first PCBs with Eagle, sent one to BatchPCB and some others to DorkbotPDX, and I have absolutely no desire to ever make my own again! Bit of a learning curve with Eagle, but once I was through that, life is good! The boards are really nice, I can't see ever coming close at home. Worst part is the waiting, the turnaround time is the price you pay for inexpensive PCBs. DorkbotPDX is faster than BatchPCB, the boards are at least as nice, probably better. Pricing is different. DorkbotPDX has no setup fee, no delivery charge in USA, and a lower price per square inch, but you have to buy your boards in multiples of three, which has actually worked fine for me so far.

Nice hearin' from ya! I guess I have no choice on the growing old, but I refuse to GROW UP!!! :smiley:

I am liking iteadstudios service so far (just 1 order).
Ten up to 100mm x 100mm boards, $29 with shipping. Way finer detail than I could have ever done by hand - plus the slkscreening solder mask. Cross Roads Electronics
Working another design now to run thru iteadstudio - ATMega328, 8 74HC595s, 8 ULN2803s, 5V regularor, headers to go off to 8 displays. Will add a FTDI USB/RS232 card as a seperate module, not skilled enough yet to solder the 28TSOP with rework.
2nd set of boards will receive the headers and hold two 2.3" Kingbright displays and a pair ULN2803 to drive them.
Both are using the full capacity of the eagle board limit! Gonna have to step up my license soon, or make a bigger push into surface mount.

@CrossRoads, quite a project, that sounds like a lot of real estate. iteadstudios prices do look good if you need 10 boards or so.

They have lower pricesfor smaller boards too.

$9.90 plus shipping (~$5) for ten 50mm x 50mm boards.
I am not even going to try homemade boards at that price!
http://iteadstudio.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=173

Look at the size of these displays - I hefted the box and thought "Did I screw up the order? 8 parts can't weigh that much", they are monsters!
Dug out some ULN2803s, gonna see if I can fire one up during halftime.

Good deal on the boards, heck even if you only needed four or five at that price.

Wow, impressive display! Where do such monsters come from?

And in action!
http://www.crossroadsfencing.com/MVI_1995.AVI

Its a Kingbright SA23-12SRWA,
Red, common anode. 2.3" tall, 4 LED chips per segment.
Newark carries them

Sweet! I've been looking for a larger (not that large, maybe 0.6" tall digits or so) display for a digital clock, preferably six digits with colons in the appropriate positions. Thinking I may have to roll my own out of single- or double-digit units. Haven't checked Newark though, will head over there. Interesting combination of hobbies, electronics and fencing?

Flying too, tho haven't been up since I started fencing a lot - gas prices doubling didn't help.

I designed/built my own electric fencing machines, and now my own PCB ATmega1284 based Arduino derivative with integrated features of a couple of shields as well.

earlier version & its remote, before all features were added

I have several smaller versions as well; lights & sound without the Time & Score digits; and just the score lights.
And now my card.
![](http://www.crossroadsfencing.com/Bobuino & 25 features.jpg)
Cross Roads Electronics for the features summary

Large project, in more ways than one, very nice! For some reason when I first read "electric fencing", cattle came to mind, lolz :smiley:

Thanks, was several months in the making. Started as just a promini receiving 5 bytes at 4800 from another box and showing the lights.
Then added display of the time and score (the picture with the remote). Then added most of the functionality of the other box so I didn't need 2 remotes, that's when a 2nd promini got added, to detect the fencers scoring a touch. First promini was out of IO. (That would have been a good time to switch to the larger 644/1284 type chip. And since its all wirewrap, I may do that at some point, and as a PCB too.)
After that, it was pretty straight forward to back out to the smaller box that does touches & lights, but not score & time.

We do get calls to install fencing from time to time. :slight_smile:

Yeah...board houses are the way to go....the boards i make are single sided, and used for simple stuff...like led arrays,motor drivers,power supplys,RTC and temp chips...i already have a 100 free sheets of PNP Blue iron on and gallons of ferric choride...get copper boards cheap...so its good for me...i use use eagle too for board layout and silk screens.

I live in Illinois and the electronics/DIY movement is about zero. Im a "hard core" maker at 19. I started in electronic circuits at 6, destroying lots of toys and making the parents very unhappy. Im in college for electronic engineering and the hardest thing were going to do is program a basic stamp... Boring! BUt in short I agree with oldPMGguy. I hope the "nerds" like us (and the local parts suppliers) dont die off. I would be lost with out the local radio shack, Since all the other little tech stores died off or moved to china... :~

I would be lost with out the local radio shack, Since all the other little tech stores died off or moved to china...

Dude, there is this new thing called the internet, lets you buy geek stuff from all over the world, cheap. E-bay lets you buy used stuff if it's too costly new. Radio Shack just doesn't cut it anymore, too expensive, too limited in parts inventory. I suspect there is more DIY electronics going on right now worldwide then in any other time in history and it should only increase.

Lefty

ledguy315:
destroying lots of toys and making the parents very unhappy.

An uncle of mine, engineer, gave me a hand driven sowing-machine at my 4th birthday, apparently I've tinkered with it for ages (can't remember...). Every year I still get the stories how fast the other presents were destroyed with it though. :wink:

I agree with Lefty, without the internet I probably wouldn't have picked up "old hobby" electronics again.
Components take more time to arrive, but "the electronics store" seems a zillion times bigger and 5-20 times cheaper.
When I think of it, the internet taught me how to airbrush a lot better, it taught me how to build my own drums, I'm busy with CNC because of it, electronics, as boomerang-fanatic it learned me a lot about aerodynamics and it taught me how to cook a lot better :wink:

You guys is makin' me nostalgic...

1950: Vesey Street, New York City - "Radio Row" 100 little hole-in-the-wall shops selling radio parts, WWII surplus.
2010: Futian, Shenzhen, China - "IC Row" SEG Market - 900 Shops selling every imagineable IC and part.

I am SO fortunate to have walked in both of these times and places, and bought stuff and made things with it.


Radio Row - First went there with my Father in 1950. He is 99 and can only hear a few audio frequencies. So I send him CW on the phone, and he talks back.

SEG Electronics Market 2010 - Went there with my friend Jun Peng. Now Peng and I sell parts from there on Yourduino.com
See http://www.segbuy.com/ (Use google translate)...

So. I have a Real Good Excuse for my parts-scrounging addiction. The only thing better is when I get to give stuff away to young people in places like Cambodia and New England.

"900 Shops selling every imagineable IC and part"
Counterfeit awareness and traceability back to OEM is very hot topic in industry now ...

Many/most of these shops can show traceability. I understand the biggest stock of most major IC manufacturers is physically in Shenzhen where they get put into IPhones etc etc. The big manufacturers know all this.

That said, there are choices of many very popular chips, from US manufacturer or 'domestic' manufacturer, different price by 40% or so.

The amazing shops are those with many thousands of SMT parts reels, each with thousands of chips..

When you buy a cellphone, for some models they ask you upfront, "You want the original or the fake? Your choice". I bought a real Nokia N78, but the 'fake' was cool, and had dual SIM cards and better camera!

What a Trip...