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Ask HN: Undiscovered electronics/maker YouTube channels
142 points by iamflimflam1 on Aug 24, 2023 | hide | past | favorite | 47 comments
I've now got a semi successful YouTube channel. One of the things that helped me out at the beginning was other more popular YouTubers surfacing up my videos to their audiences.

I'm looking to pay back some of that and want to find some good undiscovered content. There's lots of people posting really good technical content and they just aren't pushed out by "the algorithm".

Maybe the production values aren't great, the audio is not great or it's just very amateurish, but if the content is good then I'm interested.

I'm not really interested in people who already have thousands of subs, I'm looking for the guys who are getting a few views on their videos and deserve more.




Going through my subscriptions, it's sad to see so many with talent, even those with lots of subscribers, not having posted a video in years.

Here are some I subscribe to that seem to be still active. You could see if your audience might like:

https://www.youtube.com/@peterryseck

https://www.youtube.com/@AndersNielsenAA

https://www.youtube.com/@jsincoherency

https://www.youtube.com/@6502Nerd

https://www.youtube.com/@hjalfi

https://www.youtube.com/@LucidScience

https://www.youtube.com/@skyriverSat

https://www.youtube.com/@slu467

https://www.youtube.com/@taylor.galbraith


Thank you for these recommendations! I sub'd to a few of them, though a few others seemed a bit outside the things I'd normally be 'into'.


I'm almost pretty sure the algorithm is looking at video/audio quality among other things. I wouldn't be surprised if they have a speech clarity algorithm running on videos as well.

Like one of the big turnoffs for me personally is the lack of a good mic setup. But even with a phone they make bluetooth lavalier mics that aren't that bad cheaply these days.


Is there a reason not to promote people who produced content but stopped.


Not much, just that someone who is active is more likely to benefit from promotion and appreciate it, versus someone who, more likely, has gone on to other things.


Caching.


Scanlime. last video is from two years ago.

https://www.youtube.com/@scanlime/videos

Most iconic probably is a multiple winch system to have a cemra in the studio folowing the cat around but there's some reverse engeneering videos that for someone outside the field blew my mind.


I really wish we'd hear more from them. That was an incredible project.


Their work is incredible! Incredibly and unapologetically nerdy. They are an inspiration <3


> Scanlime

I like their videos, but 26.4k subscribers is definitely not "undiscovered"


Perhaps these are a bit too popular, but I thought I'd share just in case:

Lasers and stuff, but sane: https://www.youtube.com/@LesLaboratory

Keg rocket! Only two vids but looking good so far: https://www.youtube.com/@KegRocket

Wild electrical motor projects and more: https://www.youtube.com/@OverbuiltByHenry

Interesting 3d printed robots and more: https://www.youtube.com/@harrisonlow

EE prof with lots of educational videos, including guitar pedal circuit deep dives: https://www.youtube.com/@Lantertronics

Practical PCB design, EMC and more: https://www.youtube.com/@MicroTypeEngineering

Lots of great electronic tutorials: https://www.youtube.com/@FesZElectronics

Guitar pedal teardowns and more: https://www.youtube.com/@graybenchelec

Students in the process of making a liquid rocket: https://www.youtube.com/@liquidpropulsiongroup5017/


Phil's Lab at https://www.youtube.com/@PhilsLab is a very underrated channel, especially if you've ever struggled trying to wrap your head around Kalman filter techniques. Highly recommend that one.

The Signal Path isn't that obscure but there may still be some test gear nerds who haven't run across it: https://www.youtube.com/@Thesignalpath

Same is true for Marco Reps: https://www.youtube.com/@reps

FesZ Electronics at https://www.youtube.com/@FesZElectronics has some great coverage of analog/RF basics, as does W2AEW: https://www.youtube.com/@w2aew/videos

Yes, most of these folks have thousands of subs, but there's a reason for that: they're pretty awesome.


FesZ is fantastic if you need to dive into LTspice. =)

Andreas is more hobbyist focused:

https://www.youtube.com/@HB9BLA

https://www.youtube.com/@AndreasSpiess


Marco Reps is hilarious.


Robert Dunn has two channels that are both very good. I wouldn't call him "undiscovered", but he still has far fewer subscribers than the big guys, and he absolutely deserves to be a big guy.

"Aging Wheels": https://www.youtube.com/@agingwheels Old and obscure cars, especially older EVs.

"Under Dunn": https://www.youtube.com/@UnderDunnOfficial General making, mostly woodwork.


Already has 4k subs but thought this one is promising

Free hand soldering a BGA ram chip onto a raspberry

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pW4_nqcIWA


Not sure if this is relevant for a maker Youtube channel but I recently (past 6 weeks) started a live coding channel where I code projects from scratch (various topics from Machine Learning, Web scraping, web dev to general software engineering). I try to walk through my thought process while keeping it funny. So far getting some good feedback

The channel if you're interested: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVTtYLn03CmwX-PUfZ3RF0A


Subbed a few weeks ago when you posted a fine tuning vid. Love your stuff dude, keep at it!


Thanks many more videos to come!


Do folks really watch these hours long videos? Or more so do they come back and watch them after the fact?

I get the whole twitch thing (I mean I think I get it, with folks watching video games) but after it’s recorded, that’s where I’m curious.


BillyDIY: he's made some zany crystal radios - https://youtube.com/@billydiy?si=DW68ywlOPujrXzAM

Cassinelli Alvaro - electronic art, not many subs - https://youtube.com/@CassinelliAlvaro?si=BDtPIlgkb1zJ9FzX

My nice EV (Raymond earle) https://youtube.com/@MYNICEEV?si=EpLMuOTpZAmrb9Hx

There are more things (math and folding experiments) - https://youtube.com/@therearemorethings9700?si=UT33lamMrXsHe...

Physion - physics virtual demos: https://youtube.com/@Physion?si=b2SdtuMgOD90K9u7

Wenting Zhang - display tech experiments: https://youtube.com/@nbzwt?si=1RVN9xe7giyPq6rR


A friend of mine does some really cool electronics projects and sometimes posts videos about them:

=> https://www.youtube.com/@electronicstinkerer5429 Electronics Tinkerer (249 subscribers)

Like everything Zach does, it's widely high quality for something that few other people will appreciate.


Zack Freedman is pretty good.

How to Make Everything is bootstrapping civilization from the stone age, so that's pretty neat.


These folks might be a little more popular than you are looking for but they all deserve more subs.

Mike's Amateur Arcade Monitor Repair with 2.6K subs. The name says it all: https://www.youtube.com/@mikesamateurarcademonitorr6856

Way of the Wrench with 26.1k subs. Great series on building a video pinball machine and a MAME cabinet, welding tutorials, car repair: https://www.youtube.com/@wayofthewrench

John Salt with 44.4k subs. One of the best-explained R2D2 builds on the internet, RC models, all kinds of misc stuff: https://www.youtube.com/@Rchelicopterfun


Here are the smallest ones on my subscription list.

No idea where I found this - brand new channel. The first video earned a sub immediately. https://www.youtube.com/@Scott_dgl

Seen here on HN, followed immediately. <4k subs currently. https://www.youtube.com/@EverythingIsHacked

17k subs, high quality, but pretty small still. And the detailed focus on the main project is great. https://www.youtube.com/@StevenBennettMakes


A friend of mine put a list of over 350 amateur radio YouTube channels, many of which fit in the undiscovered electronics/maker label. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/0/d/1BiqqCvRnzNx-iuH9...


CelGenStudios: this guy obtains old or weird tech (not just computers), and goes pretty deep into the teardown and repair of things. https://www.youtube.com/@CelGenStudios


Adam Demuth - https://youtu.be/HdJkZcyDQ4A?si=DcRBZfMe4Ei-Fq5Q

Absolutely brilliant tool maker and grinding expert. Very good teacher, too.


There's tons of videos from the queen of electronics Limor Fried (LadyAda), but she is mainstream.

I've copied at least one of Caroline Buttet's great ideas: https://www.youtube.com/@carolinebuttet7095

Atomic14 always entertaining. https://www.youtube.com/@atomic14

He's stopped posting, but... Microwavemont https://www.youtube.com/@microwavemont


I always enjoyed https://youtube.com/@Analogzoo?feature=shared


A friend restores ancient computers: https://www.youtube.com/@brfff


Found so much excellent creators in this thread, really enjoyed skimming all of them! Just started out with tech and maths content myself, would love to hear what others think: https://www.youtube.com/@FrostKiwi/


My wife and I have a channel on which we restore/fix/modify cars and motorbikes - https://youtube.com/@EnginesandUnfinishedBusiness


I love the attention to the details and correctness of the "The Byte Attic", especially his Talon ES series ;) https://www.youtube.com/@thebyteattic


https://www.youtube.com/@mickthemechanic5718 is a professional car mechanic and amateur racer, channel is a mix of DIY car electronics & racing.


Gotta recommend this guy, building lots of fun projects https://www.youtube.com/@RcLifeOn

(though arguably not undiscovered, currently 870k subs)


Necroware. Only 30000 subscribers but the videos he published are amazing. :)


https://youtube.com/diydsp

~1k subs. Mostly electronic audio and instrument design and construction. Almost all recorded between 11pm and 1am.


If you don't yet know about it - https://media.ccc.de/ is also pretty good.


Hey I got some help from some of your videos to build https://loodio.com so thanks for that Atomic!


Guitar pedals, 10s of subs: https://youtube.com/@theandromedacorporation


Wow! This is going to take some time to go through. Thank you everyone for responding.


https://www.youtube.com/@ke6chris/videos


https://youtube.com/@hiper_tops


Can't say enough good things about the following:

https://www.youtube.com/@GeerlingEngineering (son and father who is a longtime radio engineer, discussing a lot of engineering and electronics stuff)

https://www.youtube.com/@clabretro (new for me but he's been recently playing around with a lot of SunRay hotdesking stuff and things like overlaying text onto RG-5 carried video that he sends all over his house)

https://www.youtube.com/@camerongray1515 (playing around with enterprise networking equipment at home)

Here are some bigger channels that I find enjoyable that others in this thread may also like (even though they don't fit the original request):

https://www.youtube.com/@TechnologyConnections (deep dives on tech/science related topics)

https://www.youtube.com/@DankPods (laughing at terrible MP3 players from the 2000s and some other good content)

https://www.youtube.com/@SilverCymbal (owns a big piece of property in NH and talks about upgrades he does to his house)

https://www.youtube.com/@Asianometry (discusses Asian technology related topics, has amazing videos that taught me everything I know about ASML and EUV)

https://www.youtube.com/@ModernVintageGamer (video game topics, reverse engineering/jailbreaking of consoles)

https://www.youtube.com/@TheRetroFuture (Japanese handheld console finds)

https://www.youtube.com/@RetroGameCorps (modern day handheld emulator hardware for older platforms/playing ROMs)

https://www.youtube.com/@WulffDen (similar to previous)

https://www.youtube.com/@TTTHEFINEPRINTTT (a new one for me, lives in his converted van that he plays PC games on and streams on Twitch, talks about van life and mods and such)

https://www.youtube.com/@CraftComputing (server software/hardware builds and reviews)

https://www.youtube.com/@JeffGeerling (lotta Raspberry Pi content but also general electronics)

https://www.youtube.com/@CrosstalkSolutions (lotta networking topics, especially Unifi/Ubiquiti)

https://www.youtube.com/@CathodeRayDude (plays around with 2000s video and computing equipment)

https://www.youtube.com/@MachoNachoProductions (video game console modding)


I clicked about 75% of your links and they all had a large number of subs and views. No offense intended obviously, but modded down because it seems a bit off-topic.

(I can unvote if you can edit your comment to exclude major YouTubers :p)


Updated my comment to move the bigger ones down




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