is electronics a dying hobby?

[rickselectricalprojects]

hi everyone,
i started working at altronics (an Australian electronics shop) and while some people buy components alot of people just buy audio cables, tv related stuff etc. i always hear that electronics is dying and will be dead once they stop selling through hole components.
a few kids at my school know about arduino and raspberry pi but not anything else about electronics.
is electronics dying or is it just evolving into things like arduino, raspberry pi and those pre-made modules?
thanks.

 

[Martaine2005]

Hi Rick,
I'd say evolving. In more ways than one!
It can't be dying as the arduino etc and the shields still had to be designed by electronic engineers.
I can't really see through hole disappearing any time soon either. Mainly because of things like breadboard testing and prototypes. Imagine trying that with smt. Also, simulation from software is often different to real world results.
That said, apart from the hobbyist, it is changing towards modules for the hacker/maker. But it's quite easy to make a simple Arduino from discretes. (that I have seen)..
Evolution is the right word though. Just look what went into space! Your iphone is far more powerful than the computer on the first shuttle.
Or the buildings that housed floors full of equipment that a netbook could do today faster and more efficiently.
But I suppose the real glamour behind electronic modules is size and cost. A £2.00 module would cost over £15 for individual components. Then build time, then size of course.
But the electronic engineer is still fundamental to it all.

Martin

 

[cjdelphi]

Altronics? I think Aztronics here in Adelaide order through them

 

[rickselectricalprojects]

Hi Rick,
I'd say evolving. In more ways than one!
It can't be dying as the arduino etc and the shields still had to be designed by electronic engineers.
I can't really see through hole disappearing any time soon either. Mainly because of things like breadboard testing and prototypes. Imagine trying that with smt. Also, simulation from software is often different to real world results.
That said, apart from the hobbyist, it is changing towards modules for the hacker/maker. But it's quite easy to make a simple Arduino from discretes. (that I have seen)..
Evolution is the right word though. Just look what went into space! Your iphone is far more powerful than the computer on the first shuttle.
Or the buildings that housed floors full of equipment that a netbook could do today faster and more efficiently.
But I suppose the real glamour behind electronic modules is size and cost. A £2.00 module would cost over £15 for individual components. Then build time, then size of course.
But the electronic engineer is still fundamental to it all.

Martin

that's good to hear. now that i think about it i see new modules on ebay all the time and in engineering at school next year we are doing arduino
i always looked at modules as a foe not a friend as they take away the fun of building the circuit but as you said if the module only costs $2 and the parts to make the circuit cost $15 then you could use that saved money for an i enclosure or something to make it neater and look nicer.
thanks

 

[rickselectricalprojects]

Altronics? I think Aztronics here in Adelaide order through them

http://www.altronics.com.au/
i don't think there are any altronics stores in Adelaide but i have never heard of aztronics before.

 

[shrtrnd]

I'm an old guy. When I was younger we generally had to build our own circuits for specific applications that we wanted.
There were parts stores all over the neighborhood. Those stores have died-off, and most people that want parts now have to mail-order them.
I've said many times on this site that my daughter asked me (I'm a tech of 46 years experience) if anybody I worked with was my age, because nobody she knows
does what I do.
For most of the public, everything is modular (or self-contained) electronics. You buy it, then throw it away when it dies.
Few things anymore are made to be repaired, and fewer people yet, can actually do repairs.
Why build your own when somebody out there already has a pre-built mass-produced, reasonably priced equivalent of what you want.
There'll always be people around like the guys you can talk to on this site, but yeah, as far as the general public is concerned, what I think you're
asking, whether there's much interest by the general public in building, troubleshooting, or repairing electronics, I think it is a dying art.
Most people who experiment anymore don't ask how to troubleshoot their devices, they just ask how to interface a pre-made module to their application.
I don't mean to cut anybody down who likes to tinker, I'm one of those. I'm just saying general public interest in it is dying-off.
That's my input to your question.

 

[Anon_LG]

Judging by the amount of hackspaces at least, no the hobby is certainly not dying. The high speed, low error tolerance machines are making hacking and utilising the technology more and more challenging. Conversely, when the technology is hacked, it is all the more impressive. Furthermore, electronic discretes and integrated circuits are more available to the public than ever. Anybody can now make a PCB to do just about anything, free CAD software, cheap PCB manufacturing and enormous amounts of tutorials make this possible.

I am also 15, the amount of people this age that are into electronics is not encouraging, but you have to remember that you may not find, for example, modern art exciting. For such a specific subject area I am surprised at the amount of attention electronics gets, which is excellent. What would the world be if everybody was into electronics; you would blend into the crowd. Instead you can gather a vast wealth of knowledge about a subject area, more knowledge in a few weeks than most people will have on the subject in an entire lifetime.

Your point on through hole components is apt, but if you read around, you will find that people are learning how to solder even the smallest of packages. The better soldering irons available are now cheaper, temperature adjustable ones. The rule is, as the supply gets more limited, the techniques become more advanced, requiring more learning, but achieving an improved and efficient end result. Even if through hole components do disappear (which they will not), the demand for reflow ovens goes up and the demand for fine soldering tips and flux, lowering the price and increasing the tutorials. And then we all have the ability to reflow QFNL packages in our homes and hackspaces.

Analogue electronics was initiated over six decades ago and yet the following is massive. Analogue electronics has not gone out of date despite being an older implemetation of technology. Do you subscribe to hackaday on google? You will find that their posts are being pushed out faster than ever on all of the circuitry that people are hacking.

If the electronics hobby is dying, how are adafruit, sparkfun, raspberry pi and arduino doing so well? As long as there are new things to invent, electronics as a hobby will never decline, you can always find new ways of doing things. there will always be people racing to make things better, nothing can be 100% efficient and so people will always be pushing for that extra bit of improvement.

 

[mtgent101]

One retail chain in my area stopped selling electronic components years ago. There are self employed people who repair PCs and laptops. And there are jobs wherein one would go from home to home repairing laptops, PCs etc,

I looked for a kit containing all parts needed to build a multimeter. Years ago, it was easy to find a kit and purchase it. That is no longer true today.

The people who are interested in electronics generally take a course or two and then apply for a job repairing electronic equipment.

 

[rickselectricalprojects]

Judging by the amount of hackspaces at least, no the hobby is certainly not dying. The high speed, low error tolerance machines are making hacking and utilising the technology more and more challenging. Conversely, when the technology is hacked, it is all the more impressive. Furthermore, electronic discretes and integrated circuits are more available to the public than ever. Anybody can now make a PCB to do just about anything, free CAD software, cheap PCB manufacturing and enormous amounts of tutorials make this possible.

I am also 15, the amount of people this age that are into electronics is not encouraging, but you have to remember that you may not find, for example, modern art exciting. For such a specific subject area I am surprised at the amount of attention electronics gets, which is excellent. What would the world be if everybody was into electronics; you would blend into the crowd. Instead you can gather a vast wealth of knowledge about a subject area, more knowledge in a few weeks than most people will have on the subject in an entire lifetime.

Your point on through hole components is apt, but if you read around, you will find that people are learning how to solder even the smallest of packages. The better soldering irons available are now cheaper, temperature adjustable ones. The rule is, as the supply gets more limited, the techniques become more advanced, requiring more learning, but achieving an improved and efficient end result. Even if through hole components do disappear (which they will not), the demand for reflow ovens goes up and the demand for fine soldering tips and flux, lowering the price and increasing the tutorials. And then we all have the ability to reflow QFNL packages in our homes and hackspaces.

Analogue electronics was initiated over six decades ago and yet the following is massive. Analogue electronics has not gone out of date despite being an older implemetation of technology. Do you subscribe to hackaday on google? You will find that their posts are being pushed out faster than ever on all of the circuitry that people are hacking.

If the electronics hobby is dying, how are adafruit, sparkfun, raspberry pi and arduino doing so well? As long as there are new things to invent, electronics as a hobby will never decline, you can always find new ways of doing things. there will always be people racing to make things better, nothing can be 100% efficient and so people will always be pushing for that extra bit of improvement.

it's good to know that someone my age is interested in electronics. i though i was alone
i think your right that people are hacking things to make them better now rather than making them.
thanks

 

[(*steve*)]

Find a hackerspace and get into surface mount.

Electronics is alive and well (just smaller).

I also heard that transistors and printed circuit boards were going to be the death of hobby electronics.

 

[hevans1944]

Some people once said amateur radio was a dying hobby. After all, you can connect with almost anyone, anywhere, in the world with a cell phone, and not just by voice: two-way "picture phone" conversations are a reality that people enjoy every day.

Not that long ago (1968), picture phones and instant world-wide communication were a Stanley Kubrick science-fiction fantasy... along with manned space stations, bases on the Moon, and trips to Jupiter. Okay, so now we only have picture phones and a few people in low-earth orbit living in a tin box. The other stuff takes more time.

Amateur radio is alive and well as a world-wide hobby with the number of "hams" growing every year. It is true that most hams buy ready-made off-the-shelf radios, and only a few design and build their own antennas, but the hobby is thriving. And so is electronics as a hobby, but with a different focus than when I was a kid. My first bread-board circuits were actually put together on real boards... planks of pine wood. That little plastic thingy with all the holes and springy contacts underneath didn't appear on my hobby bench until almost twenty years later!

And the components changed too. No more big, bulky, paper-insulated capacitors with wax oozing out their ends, no more hot tubes and tube sockets, no more huge carbon-composition resistors (carbon film and metal film were smaller and better)... I could go on and on. It was the 1960s, the age of transistors and integrated circuits. Those of us who adapted and embraced the "new" technology thrived and stayed in the hobby, even if our "day job" was pretty much the same thing. Then along came personal computers and open-source software. I remember the thrill I got hacking the "copy protection" on Lotus 1-2-3 and other commercial software. But eventually I got legitimate and began purchasing software. I still prefer "free" over a software subscription, which seems to be the current business model, at least for Microsoft Windows applications. There will never be a better time to ditch M$ for LInux, but I haven't jumped the ship yet.

I visited one of our remaining Radio Shack stores yesterday. What a disappointment. The stuff oriented toward the electronics hobbyist was either almost gone or marked down as "discontinued" with zero hope that it would be replaced, much less re-ordered, when gone. They had a lot of cell phones, telephone accessories, and RC toys... and a huge assortment of batteries to power those things. I was looking for something that would allow me to play tunes from my Galaxy 4 smart phone through the FM radio in my Taurus. The phone has Bluetooth but the car radio doesn't. Radio Shack had an "old school" FM transmitter that I purchased. Un-packaging it in the Taurus, I fired it up. Again a big disappointment. The 2002 Taurus radio/CD combination may be obsolete (it is) but the antenna shielding is superb. It was very difficult to find a "sweet spot" where the transmitter would work. I will probably keep it and see what I can do to improve the signal-coupling to the car radio. Maybe try to extend the retractable antenna with a wire in the passenger compartment? Hopefully without picking up a lot of electronic ignition noise in the process. Or maybe I will hack the radio to add a Bluetooth receiver, although I hate doing any work behind the dashboard. If I could afford it, I would buy a new used car with a Bluetooth audio interface.

Anyway, cheer up! The electronics hobby is alive and well. It's just changed... and it's still changing. You should adapt. Or not. There are plenty of other interesting hobbies out there!

 

[rickselectricalprojects]

Find a hackerspace and get into surface mount.

Electronics is alive and well (just smaller).

I also heard that transistors and printed circuit boards were going to be the death of hobby electronics.

thanks, that's a good point about transistors and PCB's