Re: hobby electronics

Martin Brown <'''newspam'''@nonad.co.uk> wrote:

On 02/07/2024 17:28, john larkin wrote:

 
It's my opinion that there are few hobbyists that really work with
parts and make circuits, and most EE grads are EE/CE dual majors that
code more than they solder, and don't have instincts for electricity.

 
There are still a few, but it has become a very minority interest today.
Partly because everything is so heavily integrated and surface mount.
 
When I grew up you could get dead ICL 1900 boards full of TTL chips for
and bags dross coated transistors at start of line for pennies. Today
there is no equivalent source of cheap easily reused parts.

Sure there is. Digikey, for one.  Larger SMT parts such as SOICs can be
used dead bug style, and there are still lots of DIP packages around,
especially the older parts that are good for hacking around with.

Smaller SMTs can be put on little breakouts (sold for cheap by, e. g.
Bellin, via Newark/Farnell) and mounted on Cu-clad with foam double sticky
tape.

It’s harder for a beginner to figure all that out on his own, but I would
have made a lot faster progress than I did, what with a loopstick coil
costing a week‘s pocket money.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

--
Dr Philip C D Hobbs  Principal Consultant  ElectroOptical Innovations LLC /
Hobbs ElectroOptics  Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics