What ever happened to the electronics hobbyist?

[axeman010]

Interesting reading.  When I was a kid my dad bought me one of the electronic project experimenter kits where you put the components into those springs.

They still make something similar. I bought my 10 Year old son a kit that has the all the components on a cardboard base with springs attached to the componets. Then you follow the book and connect the bits with wires through the springs. He loves it and I am hoping he will progress in to bread boarding and soldering. I'd sure rather see him do that than have his face buried in TV or playing for hours on his PS2 !

Axeman.

[mac]

I'll be back in an hour... going to the store to buy dozens of EL84s, 12AX7s, 2SA102s, OTs, AL enclosures, switches, 2N5088, 4558s and J201s... I'm forgetting something? Oh, yes, resistors, caps, pots...

I started to build my own stuff recently, when my gear was stolen. But I've always been a hobbyst. My mother did not buy me toys because I liked to build mine, and 'cause I was not good. And I wanted to repair them as well. Hell, when my cellphone went diving into the flush I cleaned it, opened it and dry it. The idea of buying a new one or calling tech serv never crossed my mind. It still smell like s... but it is working fine. I have to disagree with the author of the article on this point.
I guess many of the 'usual suspects' in this forum that are about 40yrs old  have similar things to tell.

What worries me is not the fact that mini components are making obsolete discrete parts. I am far more concerned on the new generations of kids worldwide whose only interests are ringtones and play stations. Never before knowledge was so near, just is a click away, but knowledge is not 'cool'. After all, who wants to be a nerd like Albert Einstein?
Hobbyist are not vanishing because of new manufatruring techniques or new mini ICs, but for a more general social problem.
I wonder if those people who find boring to build a crystal radio or printing "hello world" on the screen have ever realized that all their electronic toys exist because of hobbyist like Galileo, Newton, Maxwell and why not Bill Gates and Steve Jobs.

[Paul Marossy]

I bought my 10 Year old son a kit that has the all the components on a cardboard base with springs attached to the componets. Then you follow the book and connect the bits with wires through the springs.

I had a kit like that when I was around 12 years old in the late 70s. It was kind of fun, but I was more interested in riding my BMX bike at the time.

[joegagan]

both my sons are WAY into turbo cars, and the older one (19) is at one of the best tech colleges in the country getting an EE degree.

you can bet your ass that they know every system in their cars and how to rig them for max velocity. the mix of hardware/programming knowledge necessary to make this happen is very impressive.

I think DIY just takes different forms, and we don't have to worry, there will always be generations of guys who want to mess with building and modding.
(I am not being sexist, it just happens that most females still don't give a crap about this stuff despite all the attempts by the feminists and others to artificially ' balance' the playing field. )

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

I think DIY just takes different forms, and we don't have to worry, there will always be generations of guys who want to mess with building and modding.
(I am not being sexist, it just happens that most females still don't give a crap about this stuff despite all the attempts by the feminists and others to artificially ' balance' the playing field. )

From what I can see -as an outsider - things are much the same in the female DIY world, some are making clothes & craft stuff & cooking & some aren't. Exactly what they are doing has changed, just as with males. It isn't worth making your own clothes, unless you wnat better or more interesting clothes than anyone else - same as pedals. I guess you could call making websites a kind of DIY, there are plenty doing that.

[RaceDriver205]

(I am not being sexist, it just happens that most females still don't give a crap about this stuff despite all the attempts by the feminists and others to artificially ' balance' the playing field. )

'''Sexist''' is better than Politically Correct. You're a free man with freedom of speach, no? 
Girls huddled over soldering irons making DIY flangers? What a creepy world these femos want.
May our girls walk round in their ditsy outfits and their oversized sunglasses. And may they wear their fashionable handbags and talk on their fashionable mobiles about guys and glamour.
And may men forever engage in dangerous sports, and measures of strength and brilliance. May they work the land and build the bridges, fight the wars and strive for riches. And may they always compete for the affections of that ditsy blonde girl with her fashionable handbag. 

I doubt the electronics hobbyist will disappear, what with the things you can do with microcontrollers? Not a chance! Maybe if kids will get their heads out of the idiot box. That episode of the simpsons comes to mind.

[petemoore]

  I wake in the morning and have the strong inclination to 'fill my mind' with something.
  TV makes this very easy...so I try not to turn on the shtbox.
  Routine...very hard to break routine, every dog I've had thrives on it.
  So, turning on the TV...you'll have people telling you stuff right now, dial a number on the Cphone, same thing only more personal, XBox..tons of crap you get hear/see..
   Walls..touch the TV wall and all kinda colors and sounds happen, the wall disappears and you can see all the garbage behind it.
  Touch the cellphone 'wall' and it disappears...you can get personal with your friends...the phone sometimes makes familiar, funny/disturbing noises.
  Plenty of distractions.
  PS/Xbox wall, touch that one and you get immersed in an interactive medium...all kinda surprizes and colors and sounds and shapes and frequencies...freaky/novel...for a while...but nothing transfers through that interface, get hungry and the PS won't do anything for it.
  There is plenty to not like about electronics learning in comparison^. Shock, many people are super turned off by this, probably a good fear to have without knowledge. Equations, and complicated stuff...you can touch the DIYelectronics wall a thousand times and maybe not even loosen one brick out of 12million of them, it can appear to be an insurmountable learning experience..much easier for the entry level DIYer to just go get another learning experience from the PS or TV.
  Milk comes from the refrigerator [milk factory?]...Electronics comes from the store...particularly, if it's always been there, and looks like it will always be available for touching to get an experience or distraction from, why question it, why be curious? 

[MKB]

Hmm, one of the reasons DIY is still here and I believe will continue to some extent is because you can easily build a circuit sometimes cheaper but often BETTER than what is commercially available.  It took Fender many years to decide to reissue the Fender Tweed Deluxe; how many DIY'ers have built one as their first amp?  Also, what's the reason to spend $4K for a real tweed Bassman or >$1K for a PCB Bassman reissue when you can build a PTP kit for a lot less and get better results?  And the best distortion pedals I have heard I have built (not bragging at all but thankful for this site and others that spread good designs and ideas). 

It's much the same in Hi-Fi circles, unfortunately most people wouldn't know a good home stereo if it hit them in the face.  But every time someone used to Chinese Best Buy hi[fi hears a system with horns and direct heated triodes playing vinyl, they are FLOORED.  Often the only way you can get such gear at an affordable price is to build it yourself.

The number of kits for DIY'ers today is staggering; for both pedals and amps.  Much more than a few years ago, if anything DIY is growing methinks.

[Mark Hammer]

This discussion is probably better situated in the other forum.  Not unimportant or invalid.  Just more appropriate for there.