What does the future hold for electronics hobbyists?

[Gasboss775]

I've been involved in doing electronics as a hobby from a young age. For a long time I was away from it with a non electronics career and family commitments. Due to Ill health I had to retire prematurely, and consequently have taken up the treasured hobby with gusto and eyes wide open. There have been so many advances in the last 10~15 years, performance from opamps and converters that could either only be dreamed of because either you needed a bloated military budget to buy said parts or they just weren't invented yet!
And of course there's the digital revolution and all that comes with that.

My concern when I read about the aforementioned super components they are increasingly only manufactured in packages that you need an eyeglass to see. The prospect of soldering these components with my shaky hands is daunting, admittidely I have close to a lifetimes supply of through hole components, but it would be fun to play with the new toys too!

As device sizes become ever smaller are hobbyists destined to used increasingly outdated through hole components for ever more?

I can conceive of the possibility of soldering SSOP packages, but anything smaller strikes fear into my heart!

I am slowly coming round to the idea of microcontrollers, though I do think that sometimes they are just overkill when you could realize the same function with a couple of logic gates or a 555. I suppose once you have all the programming hardware and software in place, it becomes relatively easy to just write a few lines of code to perform whatever simple function is required.

I am open to new ideas and to be honest I've learned more about electronics in the last year than the previous 20. A lot of that is down to throwing away personal pride and accepting that there is and probably always will be, so much more to learn.

I am hopeful for the future of this great hobby and if it means sticking with older parts then we just need to creatively devise new ways of doing new things with them.

Anyone else's thoughts on this are welcome.

Gordon.

 

[alec_t]

Some suppliers are meeting the needs of hobbyists and designers by providing development modules, break-out boards and adapters; all of which make it easier to use those fiddly little parts. I see this practice continuing, since there will always be a need for development tools for product innovation.

 

[chemelec]

I have been doing electronics for almost 60 years and Yes Electronics is changing Dramatically now.
Definitely can be great for creating smaller sized projects, but not always better ones.

Soldering these New Surface Mount parts is Really a Challenge.
My eye site isn't that good anymore.

Me, I can't get into Programming Microprocessors.
My Brain just doesn't work that way.

Fortunately I have a HUGE Inventory of through Hole parts, so I am good for a few years to come.

Gary

 

[nsaspook]

Soldering these New Surface Mount parts is Really a Challenge.
My eye site isn't that good anymore.

One advantage of the nearsightedness of youth is the farsightedness of age. My vision is actually getting better at working distances.

 

[Ian Rogers]

Soldering these New Surface Mount parts is Really a Challenge.
My eye site isn't that good anymore.

I've got a couple of young un's to do that bit!!!

As for the future of hobbyists, I think its better... All the small tidily devices are available from China /India on breakout boards very cheap ( if you can wait!! )... Even now I can take a breakout board ( namely the FT232r ) and just incorporate it into my design...

Microprocessors... You can do sooo much with them nowadays...

 

[JimB]

Same old story...
When valves gave way to transistors...
When 0.15" veroboard gave way to 0.1" veroboard...
When transistors gave way to ICs...
And now through hole components give way to surface mount...
And in time when surface mount is superceded by??? all the same old arguments will be dusted off and resurrected.

Plus ça change... as they say.

JimB

 

[Gasboss775]

Same old story...
When valves gave way to transistors...
When 0.15" veroboard gave way to 0.1" veroboard...
When transistors gave way to ICs...
And now through hole components give way to surface mount...
And in time when surface mount is superceded by??? all the same old arguments will be dusted off and resurrected.

Plus ça change... as they say.

JimB

Yeah I can see that Jim. I used to wonder why people brought up with valves (tubes) on metal chassis had such a hard time with semiconductors and PCB construction, which to someone familiar with them seemed ludicrous. Like many things ( all things if you're a psychologist ) its more to do with ones willingness to look at things a new way and not blindly cling to the accepted ways. I will say though that for some reason that becomes harder the longer you live, in general.

Microcontrollers are not entirely alien to me. In the past I wrote a few short assembly language programs for the commodore 64 and the BBC microcomputers. Similar principle accept you don't need to think about 2 dozen support chips around the CPU, everything's in one box with microcontrollers, much simpler for a hobbyist to build with. Trying to wire complex digital circuits on strip board was a recipe for disaster ( in my case anyway )

 

[Musicmanager]

As a complete novice I'm still trying to come to terms with the actual performance of components, through hole or SMD, although the only attempt I've ever made to solder SMD resulted in unmitigated disaster .. ..

There is another side to this discussion, forsaking the size of the component, which is particularly relevant to those of you who are not still in the first flush of youth .. .. ... which can be best described by one of my favourite expressions .. ..

A New Broom Sweeps Clean .. .. ... but the old broom knows where the dirt is !!!

S

 

[Musicmanager]

Care to elaborate ??

 

[JimB]

A New Broom Sweeps Clean .. .. ... but the old broom knows where the dirt is !!!

Sure do!
We know where the dirt is because we put some of it there!
JimB

 

[chemelec]

I had no problem designing in tube circuits, than to transistors and to Integrated circuits, also to logic circuits in the 4000 series of C-mos.
(Never Liked TTL's)

I Agree it can be very useful, But Programming Microprocessors is my problem.

Yes their are Many items from China and I have bought a few.
By my Love is CREATING, not just Buying!

 

[Les Jones]

I remember making my first printed circuits is the early 1960s. I glued thin phosphor bronze (My father used to get off cutts from work.) to paxolin sheet with evostick. (Impact adhesive.) I then painted the circuit using cellulose paint and an artists brush. I then etched them in nitric acid. (I did not know about ferric chloride at the time.) I then removed the paint with cellulose thiners. I had to be quick soldering as the evostick did not like soldering temperatures.

Les.

 

[eTech]

I remember making my first printed circuits is the early 1960s. I glued thin phosphor bronze (My father used to get off cutts from work.) to paxolin sheet with evostick. (Impact adhesive.) I then painted the circuit using cellulose paint and an artists brush. I then etched them in nitric acid. (I did not know about ferric chloride at the time.) I then removed the paint with cellulose thiners. I had to be quick soldering as the evostick did not like soldering temperatures.

Les.

Interesting...

It won't be too long before a PCB can be printed on a 3D printer. There is already experimentation with printing the circuit components on the board as well.

 

[Ian Rogers]

I remember making my first printed circuits is the early 1960s.

WOW..... Now I bow to my elders..... I thought in the 60's PCB's were wood and wire wrap!!!

 

[canadaelk]

Not wire-wrap, that came later (if you had the money). 1/2" brass nails worked well! Does anybody remember Fahnenstock? E

 

[schmitt trigger]

I also love electronics, and like to tinker with them. I also started with vacuum tubes (valves) progressed with the early transistors and thru hole ICs. Nowdays, it means SMT technology and micro-code.

For resistors and caps, I still use 0805s, and if size is at premium, 0603s.
SOIC, SOT, and IC similar packages I can still manage to solder. Unfortunately some of the newer and most interesting devices are nowadays only coming out in leadless packages, which are next to impossible to hand solder properly.

But I prefer to use thru hole devices, if available.

 

[k7elp60]

I have been doing electronics for almost 60 years and Yes Electronics is changing Dramatically now.
Definitely can be great for creating smaller sized projects, but not always better ones.

Soldering these New Surface Mount parts is Really a Challenge.
My eye site isn't that good anymore.

Me, I can't get into Programming Microprocessors.
My Brain just doesn't work that way.

Fortunately I have a HUGE Inventory of through Hole parts, so I am good for a few years to come.

Gary

I thought I was the only one Gary, but I am in the same condition as you. I too remember doing pcb's in the 60's, working with tubes, building things with RTL integrated circuits, did a little bit with DTL, then along came TTL, CMOS and NMOS.
Ned

 

[KeepItSimpleStupid]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fahnestock_clip
They still exist.

Right now, I just don't have a good definition of fun. eldercare is a full time job. I don't have control of my life, My life controls me. Mental health issues can frustrate you to now end. Try to explain why it doesn't matter if you hang pants all together with the zipper not facing the neighbors or that it doesn't matter if you peel the potatoes clockwise or counterclockwise.

Try to explain that you can hang, say boxers, from the edge and not the elastic to save space and they dry in about the same time. Suggest an experiment and the answer is they dry faster when hung by the elastic.

 

[ronsimpson]

For a while I was frustrated that parts are hard to find. No one builds any more. The HAM operators have died of old age. ETC!

Then I found that many of the applications on my smart phone are made by school kids. Games are made by "us". We are still making things. Just in software. I have gone to some of the "makers fairs". Many of the 3D printers were designed by the kid behind the table. There were robot contests.

 

[Gasboss775]

For a while I was frustrated that parts are hard to find. No one builds any more. The HAM operators have died of old age. ETC!

I've come across quite a few radioham sites, ño idea if any of them are younger folk taking up the hobby anew. There is a guy down the road from me with a ham rig, large antenna in the back garden ( don't ask what kind, radio isn't my forte ) anyway my point was that I think he's only in his late forties.

Then I found that many of the applications on my smart phone are made by school kids. Games are made by "us". We are still making things. Just in software. I have gone to some of the "makers fairs". Many of the 3D printers were designed by the kid behind the table. There were robot contests.

I think the widespread availability of small cheap single board computers like Arduino raspberry pi, have reeled in a lot of new folk to the hobby. Though, for many the bulk of their knowledge will be concerned with programming or should I say coding, which seems to be the buzzword for programming now! It isn't necessary to have a great deal of electronics knowledge to get one of these devices to do something useful. I think also they may be attractive to other types of hobbyist, for example, model builders who want to animate their creations, there's also robot builders and a whole host of diy projects that could benefit from some sort of intelligent controller.

On the analogue side there's the guitar fx pedal builders, which definitely attracts young folk into the hobby. There is also quite a big community of hobbyists who build analog music synthesizers. Going by the amount of activity on diyaudio.com I'd say there are a lot of audio amplifier builders around too.

My feeling is that despite the challenges posed by trying to build with increasingly smaller parts, there is a significant wave of new people coming to this hobby. I think that with the decline of electronics magazines, that void has been amply filled and some more, by the internet. The internet has also made the procurement of components a lot easier ( even obscure ones ) In general I'm feeling optimistic about our hobby going by many of the comments on this thread, thanks!!