

American Electronics Hobbyist Census [pdf] - epalmer
http://media.jameco.com/7786/Great_American_Electronics_Hobbyist_Census_Executive_Report.pdf

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zeeshanm
This is so accurate:

>> They are convinced that the American economy is at least in part fueled by
this hobby and believe emphasis of electronics in education is immensely
valuable.

>> This is not a new passion, in fact most began by taking things apart at a
young age and have spent 35 years or more pursuing their avocation. While they
haven’t always had a lot of time to pursue electronics as a hobby, they expect
that it will become a larger part of their lives in the near future.

>> Hobbyists believe that this is first and foremost a hobby about creativity
that transforms from an idea into something tangible. New technology and
renewed devotions have given electronics hobbyists the ability to create
almost anything they can dream up and yet at the end of the day there is a
childish affection that succumbs to goofing around and playing with fun,
blinking lights.

>> This is an old-boys club very much split between those that make their
living with electronics during the day and then use it to play and those that
pursue it as a pure pastime. For those who see it as a pure hobby, a large
percentage are self-taught but are no less skilled nor passionate than those
who have dedicated all aspects of their life to electronics.

~~~
epalmer
OP here: I have two daughters. One builds things (robots) and one does not.
But there are so few women as electronic hobbyists. FIRST Robotics is helping
bring young women into the fabrication maker mentality. I just wish it could
happen faster.

~~~
ild
Building "robots" is a lame thing; teach her the real things: batteries, leds
etc.

~~~
epalmer
Oh she does all of that. These are 120 lb robots with 100+ amp circuits. She
wires up the control system board system board, uses CNC mills to fab parts
(and many other tools), works with the designers to ensure that the design can
be build, does on the fly diagnostics and break fix. She is getting really
good experience. She also works with the programmers to ensure a smooth
control system. And much more.

~~~
gcv
That's fantastic! If you don't mind me asking, how old is she? University
student or younger?

~~~
epalmer
Rising High School Senior. FIRST robots is the program. 6 Years on the HS team
(she was allowed on in Middle School). Wants to be a Mechanical Engr. with a
2nd degree in CS. Makes her Dad proud. She also is a lobbyist for
disadvantaged youth for CS and STEM opportunity.

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vonmoltke
> 38% report blowing something up on purpose

Also, 62% are lying their asses off on this questionnaire. :)

~~~
OldSchool
Yeah, I'm going to "guess" that as late as the 1970's at least, almost 100% of
male children succeeded at blowing up stuff on purpose, whether or not they
were electronics hobbyists.

~~~
epalmer
OP here. I'm 61. When I was in High School I unwrapped a model rocket engine
and lit it. Wow was that stupid. It came right at me and then exploded. No
harm but did not try that again.

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Animats
It's amusing to note the hostility towards surface-mounted devices. You don't
find that in Shentzen. That may be a Jameco issue. If you use SMDs, you don't
get them from Jameco.

I sometimes buy from Jameco, but only because their HQ is about a mile from me
and they have will-call. Online ordering is Digi-Key or Mouser.

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smoyer
I didn't even realize JameCo was still in business ... at my first engineering
job, we bought most of our parts from JDK Microdevices and JameCo. If
something was less common, it might come from Newark. Since this was prior to
the Internet (1983?), you had to get the catalogs from the vendors and peruse
them.

Digikey and the Internet have changed things dramatically!

~~~
zeeshanm
octopart.com is another good one. They have prices from all distributors in
one place.

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epalmer
OP here: This explains my obsession for building widgets and little robots to
my wife.

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imr
What are they referring to with the phrase "open source microcontroller"? I
must spend too much time with ARM cortex parts, I had no idea there are
popular open cores.

~~~
minthd
Probably the arduino - with the open source libraries and such.

~~~
yitchelle
Some movements at [http://opencores.org/](http://opencores.org/)

------
ild
Arduino IMHO is bad and harmful: it "gentrifies" the hobby, floods it with
people who have no desire to learn the basics.

~~~
ptorrone
this is going to go in my collection of classic comments about arduino, you're
saying arduino is "bad" and "harmful" (to who and how?) because more, and
different people than you might get interested in electronics as a hobby. wow.

here's another you may enjoy from my article "Why the Arduino Won and Why It’s
Here to Stay"

“Arduino: baby-talk programming for pothead” – ArnoldB, AVRfreaks.net
[http://makezine.com/2011/02/10/why-the-arduino-won-and-
why-i...](http://makezine.com/2011/02/10/why-the-arduino-won-and-why-its-here-
to-stay/)

disclosure, i work at the open-source hardware company, adafruit and we make
arduinos for arduino.cc !

~~~
ild
> to who?

Everyone and especially the arduinists themselves.

> people than you might get interested in electronics as a hobby. wow.

People get interested in Arduino, not electronics; they get interested in the
bling, not how it works. Instead of wasting time with Arduino, they can as
well just read the datasheets.

~~~
meragrin
Then I guess everyone who has not written their own network stack and built
their own networking hardware should get off the internet. After all, they are
just interested in the bling and not how it works.

~~~
ild
No, wrong analogy. Web browsing should not be advertised as an introduction
into TCP/IP.

~~~
meragrin
Web browsing is more likely to get someone interested in TCP/IP than plopping
the RFCs in front of them. I know I've found myself more motivated to learn
more of the basics of electronics after working with an Arduino than basic
crap I put together for a logic course.

People learn different ways and are motivated in different ways. I'm motivated
to learn top down in electronics. Arduino is helpful to that crowd.

~~~
ild
The problem starts when someone unfamiliar with low level OS details writes a
network service; you end up hacked. With arduino people get false sense of
knowledge and when they put the things togethe for a real world application,
it ends up bad.

> I'm motivated to learn top down in electronics.

Very dangerous and potentially deadly approach (electric shock, battery caught
fire, floating inputs cooked the processor etc.) Electronics is not
programming: errors have tanible consequences.

