Complexity & Integration

[@TimeWasted8675309]

Love this series; Thank you so much for the efforts. I think the opportunities for youth to get involved in hobby electronics is better today than it ever was. So easy to buy and learn from "friendly" purveyors such as Adafruit and Sparkfun, plus ability to order 1 or 1000 parts online from Digikey, Mouser, etc. at very inexpensive prices. I've gone from breadboarding a 8080 in early '80s, through early micros, and PCs, to today where learning and experimenting has a tremendous following and community. The merging of software, hardware, and firmware and at-home fabrication with low cost 3D printers, laser cutters, and mills makes for so many entry points for hobbiests.

[@StateofElectronics]

+Warren Bailey Thanks Warren for your kind words ... very much appreciated. Yes the world of choice is now endless. The price in Australia for items bought off the internet however is not insignificant. In many cases the shipping cost of "cheap" product quickly becomes very expensive due to shipping not to mention the other option -slow, killer to passion shipping options which still cost too much for single items that take up to a month to arrive. I think you are so lucky that you have access to both cheap goods and services in the US. Australia has to address this key issue in an innovative way to compete in the future. Thanks again for your comment. Cheers Karl

[@garthhowe297]

This episode really resonates with my own feelings and experience. I feel as if we are falling into that Sci-Fi future where electronics will be so amazing, and reliable... but when it starts breaking down in a hundred years, no one will be left who has any clue how to fix it. Great, great episode! Thank you!

[@StateofElectronics]

+Garth Howe Hey great comment and thank you for your kind words also. When the power goes from a modern device it's pretty much an indeterminate brick because the design process is so good now days that you can't see anything that would indicate it's original purpose. Add to that, it also depends on what the firmware did and which version of it. A steam train you can see how it works because nothing is hidden from you so consequently you can understand how it works ... I'm thrilled you like the episode. Thank you.

[@fredimachadonet]

Great episode Karl! The black and white recreation scenes are just beautiful. Great work!

[@StateofElectronics]

+Fredi Machado Thank you again Mr Machado very much appreciated

[@stuartthegrant]

Hi again from the UK, like the many interesting contributions of this film I started my lifelong love of electronics in the distant days of discrete component's, and home built SW Radio's. My first ambitious build being "A four valve TRF" from the pages of Practical Wireless. I viewed the evolution of Digital Electronics with some trepidation. It took the purchase of a BBC Micro before the scales of ignorance fell from my eyes. Eventually getting a hard won understanding of what made this beast tick! In honesty I still scour the component suppliers on line catalogs and dream of new projects that remain mostly dreams. Well thanks for another interesting video.

[@StateofElectronics]

+Stuart Grant Hey Stuart. Welcome back and thank you for your comment. Much appreciated. I look forward in sharing more with you soon.

[@RobertHart]

I made many project from roadside TVs taken home on the back of my billy cart, really just like in the video it brought a big smile to my face. It became my profession, then I moved to management and it became a hobby again. I'm now involved in the hacking and maker movement and find many young people interested in electronics, its just different and the use of code and networks.

[@xjet]

More excellence from you guys. Keep em coming!

[@StateofElectronics]

+xjet More coming. Thanks so much for your support, much appreciated.

[@TinkerbatTech]

Another great video. I'm surrounded by little Ebay modules, Atmel tiny, Arduino and other bits. Still fun to hack and code. Love the steam reference spent a day abord the Jeremiah O' Brian (SP?) a WWII Liberty ship as it was cruising. All through the ship, big and small steam engines doing their thing. At 3000HP, the main, triple-expansion engine at cruise speed was almost silent, you could talk normally 3 feet away. You could see almost all of the bits while running. That was cool tech. I'm a trained model 15/20 teletype tech. You never quite understand a serial to parallel converter quite like when you got all it's bits in front of you, all mechanical. But there'[s a lot you can do with micros and modules, on the cheap, even. I'm pretty sure that electronics is about the only discipline where the stuff gets faster, smaller, more powerful and more capable, while at the same time, cheaper. Just harder for those of us with aging eyes to deal wth... Keep up the good work! Yours, Stu AKA Stubat

[@StateofElectronics]

+D. Stuart Hey Stu thanks again for your comment. I'm glad you like the steam reference. I agree, they are amazing tech because you can see everything, learn to understand it so easily etc. Really glad you like this episode. Initially I was afraid it was too long and too detailed but so far most have been OK with it. Cheers Karl

[@plonkster]

So I'm out here in South Africa -- born in Namibia -- and I remember how similar these things were when I grew up. There was this one shop in Windhoek (capital of Namibia) that sold discrete components. It was called Dilfa. I used to walk several kilometers to get to it. The old man behind the counter (I think he was called Joe Smith) wasn't very friendly, but over the years we got used to each other. I was only in high school at the time. Then Maplin opened a South African branch, around 1993. My maplin catalogue was my most prized possession. I still have it... though it's minus the front and back page by now. I used to order components via mail, doing a bank transfer to pay for it. Then I'd wait two weeks while the parts got mailed from South Africa. In some ways, this has not changed. I still order my parts from Cape Town (RS components), though now I use the internet. I now use a courier, because our post office has become unreliable. It's expensive to have it delivered, so you can't just order a a few parts (so orders inevitable get padded with heaps of attiny45 chips and such). Yes, things have become more complex. But people still have to prototype. I don't see that segment of the market disappearing completely. If anything, buying an arduino, wanting to measure something... and then having to figure out how other components work (eg opamps and linear regulators)... is still a very real thing. I mean, I started from the bottom up. I see many of my friends and colleagues coming from the top down, starting with a microcontroller and then requiring interfacing circuitry. I think the kids are alright :-)

[@StateofElectronics]

+plonkster Great comment thank you. Yes there has been a massive resurgence in electronics thanks to Arduino. The cost of getting parts from a distant source is always going to be a limiting factor. Australia like Namibia maybe(??) has huge distances between towns, it's hot, dry and full of dramas like floods, fire & famine so getting parts for your projects is often quite a challenge. While the internet certainly has democratised the world of choice and brought the cost per unit down, those gains can quickly dissipate with shipping costs. And you certainly need to already know what you want in terms of understanding the parts you want. That's what this episode was primarily concerned with - the complexity for beginners has made it tricky to get started perhaps?? I do agree with you however, ultimately it's easier to just start from the top down - use a microcontroller then get to know the interface circuitry for sensors & output, but may beginners may not understand that. I can totally relate to your dilemma in buying parts online. It takes both a good understanding, pre knowledge of what you want to build and a keen eye for managing your own logistics, so you don't kill your passion waiting for things to arrive. Thanks again for your comment. Cheers Karl

[@davidross3551]

More brilliant content! Just love these videos! Well done and I very much hope that you can continue with the series. Please cover diy cnc stuff as this is dragging people back into electronics. 10 points---Again!

[@StateofElectronics]

+David Ross Hey thanks David, very much appreciated. Yes hackers/makers will be covered in a future episode and will highlight how things are going now. In that episode I will be sure to included CNC.

[@SpectreOZ]

I would agree with the premise that due to increasing complexity and the need for specialisation a "jack of all trades" will only ever really scratch the surface unless they too specialise. As always an excellent production, thank you for your efforts :)

[@StateofElectronics]

+SpectreOZ Thanks for you comment! Cheers :-)

[@defakosgr]

You can drive a car and you are talkin about specialisation on electronics?! Come on!!! Driving a car is THE most demanding, multιtasking activity of your Daily Life! I'm not talking about inventing things. Even that with experimentation it is still possible. Without components, will it be?!

[@SpectreOZ]

Don't most people drive automatic transmissions these days? LOL My point was a general overall understanding of electronics will only get you so far, to go beyond that a greater understanding will need to be developed which is usually referred to as specialisation.

[@sinreparostv]

¡Great video!, congratulations Karl completely agree on many of the point of wiew that comment on it. Well, I'll shared with you my opinion, and I hope you will forgive my poor English (I am Spanish) We are a generation that has the hardware, and our level of thinking is "the electronic component". There was a quantum leap with the invention of the chip, the first "black box", then we go to level "integrated circuits" which basically remained more or less compressible HARDWARE. Today we have another great jump, and have passed the level "module" example "Arduino" "bluetooth" "wifi" "ethernet", etc. Also a new player, SOFTWARE appears. The frontier between hardware and software is diffuse and many applications can be done with one or need both. A problem the excessive complexity of all elements requires specialization, which creates ignorance in other fields. We connect and program an Arduino, but how the Bluetooth module works? How the radio frequency stage work? Is this the end? Have we reached a level where we lose intricacies over view of the forest to focus exclusively on our tree? In the immediate future there will be intelligent machines, virtual environments, the frontier between "human intelligence" and "artificial intelligence" will begin to fall. Similarly, the border between reality and virtual, hardware or software is disappearing. In a few years we will see that intelligence is like energy and that reality can be programmed. A world where the perfum of a rose is no longer a chemical synthesis, in the near future, perfum, rose and perhaps we ourselves are simple lines of code. Technologically we are talking about the "homo sapiens" In the future we will be "System sapiens". These lines that I write is translating by a "machine" and others "machines" that make them get this information to a virtual environment, a web, these have no "physical" space In the future perhaps the machines will write and invenstiguen upon us, and maybe we let us "eternal" in the "virtual space". In the future I will continue seeing your good video. :-) Karl You make great videos. greeting Manny.

[@StateofElectronics]

+sinreparostv A huge thank you for such an amazing comment - perfectly understood! Yes the philosophical approach is probably the best way to look ahead given the complexity. I really like your interpretation that its not just an issue of "hardware or software" but one of "virtual and real" as well. Yes those levels of abstraction just keep going up and up. I take your point that as we abstract higher we also need to specialise and that this inevitably breeds ignorance in other areas ... to be a specialist means you don't look outside of your field of view. In the future, humans will have to rely on artificial intelligence, sentient "things", to contain a complete overall view of technology - its just so deeply complex. I guess that's google for us all right now while we wait :-) Thanks so much for your kind words and very considered comments. Cheers Karl

[@fleuroman]

Another great Episode... keep 'em coming Karl

[@StateofElectronics]

+fleuroman Thank you. The next episode is already in the works

[@cidshroom]

Love how much ground these short segments can cover, they're almost a kind of integrated package of their own. The only thing I thought was left out was the home cmos movement, but you did cover the community that's trying to repurpose chips. Though home cmos is a nice idea once you factor in the pi and the arduino, may as well just buy the package, treat them as a single component, like a resistor, or diode; instead of a pre-assembled board.

[@StateofElectronics]

+cidshroom Thanks for your comment much appreciated. Yes the chip printing idea ... maybe in a future episode :-)

[@cidshroom]

+State of Electronics Oh I'm sure you'll cover much more in all the upcoming episodes. Thanks a ton! Can't tell you enough how great these are.

[@AshleyVanSteenacker]

Hi there first of all. I love these series. They are awesome! It's true the majority of today's youth is more interested in other things such software development or website development (I'm not saying that that's bad). Yes things have changed and well it's easier to use a MCU and some cheap Ebay modules to build a prototype project. And then maybe make a professionally made PCB for it. I think the internet plays a very big role in today's hobby electronics. Back then there were databooks and well now we have youtube tutorials, Learning systems, how to guides and more. But Yeah it's not the same as in the old days. But I still have trust in the electronics hobby. And I think that a lot of new people that just get started with electronics are going to enjoying it.

[@kerimmoral]

Great series, i found many answers in these videos of yours. Thank you for that.

[@StateofElectronics]

+KERİM MORAL Hey thanks for the feedback thats great. Hopefully I can continue to bring you more

[@syncore33]

Nicely done as usual. Would be a tough job editing so many scattered bits of footage into a meaningful video. I think it's much easier these days with so many examples and tutorial on the internet. In particular the arduino makes it so easy for anyone to get started. I think the black boxes are necessary, otherwise there'd be too much to learn. I'm sure sales of 555 timers have declined lol. Nowadays the only electronics people design and work on are to support ICs and even then most of the time you just read a datasheet for ICs and follow the recommended usage.

[@StateofElectronics]

+sky17 Great comment and thanks for your kind words, much appreciated. The abundance of tutorials online is great however many of these are not good examples or explanation of "how it works" because the understanding of the maker is limited or even wrong. That said, there are many that are fantastic, clear and very precise. It's tough for a beginner to wade through the good and the bad but I guess the good will float to the top eventually. I do believe the Arduino community have a special place in the history of hobby electronics, having had a massive impact on the numbers of ordinary folk now interested in programming and electronic hardware design. Whether by stealth or a developing curiosity, many become hobbyists and then later on engineers through their interaction with Arduino - its really great to see. So yes many just use already engineered solutions to get started but I do think that many go on past that point and develop their own "things" as well. Thanks for participating :-)

[@syncore33]

+State of Electronics No problems happy to participate. I think it's a great way of learning, to learn more electronics as your projects require. For example you may need to learn how to use opamps for some arduino project to read small voltages (strain gauges, current shunts). They get to put it into their project. In contrast, someone doing formal training like electrical engineering will learn all the opamp theory without ever applying it. Also, i noticed you seem to be filming on a first gen canon dslr or equivalent. I wonder what Grant Petty thinks of this :P

[@StateofElectronics]

sky17 Many of the interviews took place up to 5 years ago. BMD had at that time not revealed any plans of a camera. I am continuing with my 5D3 & 5D2 because of continuity only. I'm very much looking forward to using a more modern platform.

[@Mr539forgotten]

It's not at all harder today... I see no one complaining that we don't still have 8-bit computers built with transistors, resistors, LED's and jumper wires... Machines which would take minutes to calculate and output simple arithmetic. I see no one yearning for the days of the multiroom computer servers which calculated slower than an 8-year-old and required floppy disks and command window inputs. We just slap all that physical computation into an integrated logic chip (IC) and then stamp and ID on the top and call it a day. Want to use the IC to create something? Well look up the data sheet on it and find out how to use it and what it's used for. We've simply advanced in capability and lowered the bar of entry. The 'old' style of electronics naturally attracted logical kinesthetic learner; people who learn best by holding something in their hands and breaking it down like lego into foundational pieces. In the same way, we crammed 8-bit calculators into IC chips, we're now cramming a whole lot more computational ability onto CPUs and single board computers such as the Raspberry Pi's and all its snip off's/competitors and Arduino's and other microcontrollers. As of now, (2018) children have access to Arduino's and Raspberry Pis with incredible computational and control abilities for merely $5-$30 a piece. A $5 Arduino nano or Raspberry Pi zero can accomplish a lot. If they have access to a computer that can run a word processor (like MS Word) or a code compiler (arguably every non-impoverished first world child does) then they can code instructions for their $5 computers/microcontrollers. I went to Jaycar a few months ago looking for a few simple LED's to change the colour of some door switch lights in my car; they were $5 each... That's, unfortunately, the supply and demand of the free market, with the lack of demand for discrete electronics, but if I can buy an entire computer which even has USB outputs as well as I/O pins, then the barrier of entry for today young people's no higher than it ever was. The only difference is that physical electronics and circuit board manufacturing was a hobby attuned to kinesthetic learners. Code based electronics are more naturally attuned to visual learners. It may be the same hobby, it may have only evolved a little, but it's undergone a fundamental shift towards optimisation of a different type of learning. Software-defined radio USB devices (SDR's) are only about $20 these days, various extension boards for which include capabilities for wifi, Bluetooth, GPS and GSM and many input sensor are often between $5-$20. In the old day's hobby electronics meant making a simple clock, or maybe a siren, or an amplifier circuit, or some simple proof of concept device revolving around LED's, sirens/speakers, light, temperature or moisture sensors. Nowadays the electronics projects have broken out of simple circuitry for simple devices such as clocks and calculators which are mass produced on a few integrated chips and sold en masse out of China for minuscule amounts. Modern electronics is about connectivity, modern hobbyists are using CNC routers/mills/ drills and 3d printers, modern hobbyists are connecting things together and creating almost consumer grade finished products to fulfil actual needs or produce actual benefit. New school electronics isn't just doing the same thing's better, we're reaching new heights. Whereas once it was an achievement for some to build transistor calculators yet to others it was automated onto an IC to focus on input switches and output lights and sounds; now we're upon a new era where much of the physical control is programmed into single board computers and the focus is upon communication between devices. Whereas once input and output methods were switches and LED lights, they're not text messages and emails. As computers evolved from command line interface to GUI, electronics are evolving from physical switches and lights to informational and networking communications and app-based interface. Electronics hasn't halted, it's just changed face to new goals. Things have shifted towards networking and "IOT." Priorities have changed and computational innovations in consumer goods have put pressure on creativity and knowledge to make electronics 'worth it.' People are right, why would I build an electronics clock when I can buy one for $10? Good question, you clearly lack creativity and skills. If your focus is simple things which have been undercut by Chinese mass production, then the only reason to build those things is for fun/experience, proof of concept or for novelty. If you think 'innovation' has made all the useful things you could make obsolete to cheap goods, then you lack the skills and creativity to implement technologies. The goal of electronics has only ever been to solve problems or make your life easier. With the technology of today, I can integrate my garage door into my home network and open it from an app on my phone. That app can pull my GPS data and push a notification to my phone asking me if I'm going home (want the door open) so I don't have to find and open the app. That app obviously connects via the internet to my home network and a radio transceiver coded to the door. I had a garden bed set up with a basic IOT soil humidity sensor and a program which pulled local weather data. It then pulled data on the plant type it was watering so it knew its needs... It was supposed to help me water my plant so it didn't die but I got lazy with the coding and database and it ended up overwatering my plant and killing it. I'll go back to that again when I'm more committed to the project. I'm currently working on a 'carputer' system with an iPad like touch display that utilises passive RFID tags to communicate with my phone and change to a preset mode for driving. It's fairly complex because it will have a large Google maps API component with a lot of overlayed data, such as prompting me cheap fuel prices when the car is lower on gas... Etc etc... I've got many more projects on the horizon. What makes modern electronics to the next step is the IOT networking integration and the integration of app interfaces and pulling data (such as weather, traffic, fuel price etc). Gone are the days of simple proof of concept electronics, modern electronics has far more capability; if you think that electronics is too complex or there's simply no point anymore, that's only because you're dumb and your personal capabilities have been surpassed. Whilst everyone sits around criticising and joking about the IOT integration of everything and asking when we'll have internet connected toasters and kettles, I'll be working on my IOT washing machine solution. Reservoirs for fabric softener and detergent and of course a home network connection and app interface. No fiddly dial for 1, 2 or 3-hour start delay; busy people simply throw your laundry in the machine in the morning and head off to work, when you get a second at the office open the app and tell the machine when you want it to finish. Yes, of course, it pulls your schedule data and asks if you want the washing finished by the time you're due home, or your partner, or one of your kids, maybe your part-time maid? Set it and it ticks, it knows when you want it finished so it does the math on when to start, loads up the detergent and fabric softener for the required load and then ticks away. It runs the load, then the dry cycle (because washer dryers are already a thing) and it' done by the time you get home. Got solar? It can pull weather data and real-time data to run in the peak of the sun to make the most efficiency out of your panel, *if* that fits in the schedule. Obviously updates you when the detergent is low and auto updates your shopping list ap. This is the future. The tools and components are already here right now for this stuff and this stuff will be common consumer grade goods in 10 or 20 years, you bet the first companies to implement it will charge a fortune and market it as a luxury, rather than something that's obviously achievable with today's simple tech. That's the niche of electronics. Given you have a little bit of coding knowledge, you can implement this with less than $50 of parts, EASILY. You can have now, what will be the luxury in 10 years. As for the kettle, I for one will love it when I get off my lazy ass to IOT my kettle because all it takes is a relay, a temp sensor and a wifi chip and you can turn your kettle on from the comfort of your bedroom or tv room den with an app and you can get an update when it's boiled. Or you can spend hundreds of dollars on a fancy coffee machine with instaboil or whatever. Same thing, when home networking and smartphones become more widespread, 'IOT kettles' will come out as a luxury item and I guarantee you, it will merely be a relay, a wifi or Bluetooth chip and a simple IC on a tiny board wired in parallel with the LED, heating element and power cord as a way of bypassing the switch. I reiterate, if you think electronics is dead or it's too complex nowadays, you lack creativity and capability.

[@pwnmeisterage]

The days of thru-hole resistors are long gone so you can't tinker yourself to mastery of the dark art of electronics anymore. But anyone can take cheap electronics courses (or visit free public libraries, lol) to learn the theory while the cost of hardware has never been cheaper. But now you need math and code to do anything useful with the electronics. While consumer appliances are deliberately designed to be disposable, obfuscated, "unhackable", "unmoddable", and "unserviceable". Barriers which didn't exist before, not very hard barriers but enough to keep dabblers and casual inventors from becoming interested.

[@taylerchew]

Karl you're the man you've done a great job on this love it

[@StateofElectronics]

+taylerchew Hey thanks so much. Your support is fantastic :-)

[@Les-electroniciens]

I don't think that electronics is now more complicated than it was 30 years ago - the new generation is just not reinveniting the wheel! They all sound a bit nostalgic about 80's/90's electronics because they were used to design things very differently. In 2015 (thanks to the Internet and Arduino), Makers don't need to know what is a VCO or a PLL to design something great! Everybody tries to make his contribution by updating and sharing schematics, software, libraries etc... I also think that it is too easy to say that it doesn't encourage people to undestand "how things work". I am convinced than none of them knows that André-Marie Ampère never defined the electric current as a flow of electric charge, but all of them can calculate a current divider and interpret the result. Anyway, it is very interesting, thanks Karl!

[@StateofElectronics]

+U꞊RI great comment and I agree, why reinvent the wheel! These are just the issues people raised as obstacles to their own or fears of a future generation learning electronics. For me personally I agree with you, most people don't need to know much of the fundamentals to do something great however I wanted to showcase all of these discussions as well as the effect of a technology shift (SMD/SMT versus thru hole) ahead of the next episode which is all about education. These issues do play a major role in why technology studies were not taught at schools in Australia until very recently. In many schools for instance, programming is not taught and electronics (modular or discrete) is virtually unheard of. The reasons for this is one that will be revealed in the episode but relies on all the arguments on the table beforehand. Thanks for your participation though and very much appreciate that you find it interesting. Cheers Karl

[@StateofElectronics]

+shomolya I think the older participants provide an understanding from their perspective and their time that would otherwise be completely forgotten if not mentioned however I don't think they are at all pessimistic. They may have a gripe here and there but largely they are positive. Leo Simpson, Owen Hill, Colin Mitchell, Grant Petty all have hugely positive remarks about most of the issues discussed so far however they share their concerns on some key points.

[@StateofElectronics]

shomolya Nice. Thanks for your comment. I hope your words do inspire others to participate here and go on to keep that flame going. Cheers Karl

[@BrekMartin]

I still love my old Amiga! and valve radios :D What was the market stalls selling old electronics.. Like a CRT scope marked $30 ?

[@StateofElectronics]

+Brek Martin That was a ham swap meet here in melbourne a few years back

[@BrekMartin]

+State of Electronics all of the cool vintage stuff is in Melbourne, even today on eBay. It must just be an early and well off city.

[@StateofElectronics]

+Brek Martin It definitely has it's enthusiasts that's for sure :-)

[@LastofAvari]

Thanks for this very inspiring video. Спасибо ;-)

[@StateofElectronics]

+LastofAvari a pleasure. Thanks so much for your appreciation.

[@inthenameofjustice8811]

I remember when the first home computers appeared and we would buy magazines with page after page of code to type in. Hours and hours of work, followed by more hours and hours of debugging, looking for that comma you forgot to type, or that semicolon you put in where a comma should have been, all of which resulted in a line drawing on screen of a simple boat, sailing a wavy line, hitting a representation of a rock and sinking. Totally unimpressive considering the work involved BUT, as you did it more and more certain things started to become clear about the programming part of it. When that happened you realised that if you saved the collision detection code to tape, for example, next time you needed it, you could avoid typing it again and just reload it from the tape, alter the line numbers and position parameters to suit and off you go. The point is, you were learning as you went and THAT was the fun part, not watching a crappy ship hit a crappy rock, in a crappy sea. Suddenly, though, all those magazines vanished. Almost over night. Now, other people wrote the code for you and sold it to you in the form of a game. Little by little you fell behind and new kinds of code came out and it became prohibitively expensive to buy the books needed to learn the all the different programming languages and the compliers and decompilers. What had been fun was very quickly superseded by frustration and expense and people just stopped doing it. It quickly reached the point where you have to go to college to keep up and fewer and fewer people at home could do that. I mourn and miss those days.

[@StateofElectronics]

+InTheNameOfJustice nicely articulated. Yes its sad for those that experienced those early days and lost their "interests" to a so called advancement in technology. Perhaps the Raspberry Pi and Arduino projects have rekindled some of this in todays hobbyists though?

[@inthenameofjustice8811]

State of Electronics Yes, I hope so too. I am convinced though that there is still a place for the old analogue kits in this world because they are the foundations upon which all else is built. I would LOVE to be able to buy a kit and build a fully functioning Ham radio today. I don't need it to have GPS and Computer programming modules built in and the colossal costs that those things bring with them. I just want to talk to Fred over there in Canada or Africa using a basic kit I made and a bit of wire for an antenna. If the brown stuff and the fan ever do collide -- and it is looking increasingly likely that it will -- those skills will be at a premium in the aftermath. It would be a foolish error to lose them. Great video. Thank you. Anything that gets the discussion going is a good thing.

[@StateofElectronics]

+InTheNameOfJustice Great. I love that you are participating! One great thing about projects like Arduino and Raspberry Pi is that analogue has also made a resurgence. That's because a renewed interest in sensors and actuators requires it. Suddenly one needs to breakout an Opamp or transistor to drive that widget from the pin of a microcontroller?!

[@JONOVID]

+State of Electronics One great thing about Arduino is you do not need the UNO Micro at all , many made for Arduino sensors and actuators will work with with analogue logic TTL if you like it Oldschool . also with PIC Micros

[@dfrontierit2114]

Yes my exploration into electronics since childhood reached its dead end when eventually became tiny black boxes with legs and I had no idea to understand it. On a positive perspective, probably the new age of modules and systems may be the same as resistors/transistors/components in the past

[@billybbob18]

Build a re-flow oven from a toaster oven, get SOIC stencils and a microscope and you can build anything available today in your home. Use free circuit design software and send the design file to a PCB manufacturer The resources and education are all freely available and cheaper than they ever were. Those little black boxes take software you can get for free if you learn C/C++. If you dont like SMD components, then use breadboard friendly breakout boards. You can go as deep as you want into the complexity for very little cost. A multimeter, power supply, oscilloscope, adjustable solder iron and a cheap component tester are the only equipment you need to start. You may not even need the oscilloscope.

[@theelectronicenthusiast6356]

Touch pads, Ipod's and ton's of complicated gadgets. Components so compact and complicated it's almost impossible to repair them now unless you are specialized. I guess it's the dumbing down of the new generation. Thank God I was born in the early 70's. Back then a lot of old electronic guru's who will teach and support you on your way to electronics. That gave me the edge and currently, I'm learning new technologies like microprocessors, programming my own codes plus, the knowledge I learned thru all those years of building kits, repairing stuffs, designing my own circuits and making my own pcb layouts payed off.

[@Siktah]

OSH and OSS are a great thing these days. Couple that with OSHpark, Seeed and DirtyPCB the beginner who sees a cool projector can get their boards spun cheaply and experiment. Did my first geiger counter this way. Finding the hardware to mount on the boards was another hassle unrelated haha. Still loving the series, but if I can give one piece of critical analysis - please PLEASE don't recycle footage. After soo long as a video editor it's been drummed into me enough by the bosses 'don't recycle footage!' - most viewers won't notice I'm sure, but that strumming clip in the hackerspace just gets me every time.

[@StateofElectronics]

+23Brodieman Hey thanks for the comment. I will be putting together more on OSH and OSS in the future. The recycling of footage - hmmm my response is: sometimes the point I'm making are the same as in other episodes because the episodes are often viewed in isolation. I do realise for those watching all of them there is a risk of repeating. Secondly if I actually had a budget I would most certainly shoot new stuff but sadly not the case. However where I can I will not recycle the same clip - different sections of the same shoot maybe, because I'm budget and time poor not because I want to ruffle your feathers. Hopefully this won't get in the way of you getting into the content of these videos in the future?? Thanks for your comment though much appreciated.

[@brice9613]

I'm 14 and i find that i do not really use micro controllers too much but then there are things that i can't do with out one like ruining an LCD or make a clock (i guess i could now that i can make pcb's but a month ago i couldn't) i remember when i was 10 and was taking apart an old washing machine that had the old controller in it that works kinda like a clock in a way where the 60 hz from mains runs a motor that turns the switches inside and i tried to build one myself from a mechanical kitchen timer so i put an arm in the part that turns and made it swipe across a pic of cardboard with strips of aluminium foil and it worked it was driving a "machine" i built but it was not accurate but i do say that when someone brings me an old router to tear down i usually just end up having fun and overvolting it until it blows up unlike when i get a microwave and i'm like SWEET ! i get a mot a ton of switches fans and stuff

[@StateofElectronics]

Get yourself an Arduino, learn to program it and control external hardware like the motors you scavenged. Its well worth it but until you know what your doing, stay away from line level voltages like 240v/110v AC from the wall. Arduino is awesome for getting started with microcontrollers and leads to a good understanding of the C programming language and a lot more. Thanks for your comment.

[@brice9613]

State of Electronics Well i have an arduino and i know how to program it. Saying away from 240 ac in my area i do say away and only do stuff with It when i have a specific project and do exactly as i planed. I find tinkering with it dangerous and scary but useful sometimes. Trust me i know what i'm doing very well maybe not as much as a professional but as a hobbyist i'm far from a beginner. Thank you for your reply.

[@dgr8zod]

Fortunately, at least in the US, Radio Shack (Tandy) is marketing discrete components.

[@richardgray8593]

+dgr8zod If you consider cell phones and batteries to be discrete components. I was in one of the few remaining Radio Shacks a few weeks ago, and their entire stock of discrete components was stuck in the back in one metal box with a few drawers -- nothing like the walls of components they stocked fifteen or twenty years ago. Radio Shacks used to be packed to the gills with stuff, but now it's down to bare bones. The multimeter selection is better at Home Depot than at Radio Shack, for instance.

[@geoninja8971]

The basics are still there if you want to find them. You can still buy the same kits I grew up with here, or just google some circuits, grab some breadboards and start learning. The web puts more knowledge/assistance at your disposal than any of us back in the 80's with our Dick Smith kits could have dreamed of....

[@kishoresaldanha815]

that kid is a time traveller

[@StateofElectronics]

sure is :-)

[@brice9613]

he looks like harry potter

[@DeeegerD]

I don't know - I'm 57 and these guys sound old ;) Computers have made learning electronics much much easier and much less expensive. Parts today are well documented (datasheets). You still have to learn the basics even to use modules. There is no reason why the electronics hobby is dying. Equipment is very affordable (even something like an oscilloscope, something people used to dream of owning)... Many things that would have taken hours and hours to create in the past can now be reproduced with a few modules and basic components. I was interested in electronics as a kid and today still am - no difference in my mind, technology moves on... And yes, you can do surface mount work with a temperature controlled soldering iron. The arguments I hear on this vid are BS.

[@bashisobsolete.pythonismyn6321]

+Digger D ah yes, the old-man rant format... televisual prozac for the nation's old-age care homes.

[@regal_7877]

I can kind of see the pros and cons of the changing era and paradigm in electronics. For one, it's actually a lot easier these days to design electronics because everything is already designed for you, and if you just opened the datasheet it would show you the typical application circuits. If I need an ADC, UART, DAC and PWM I just search for a microcontroller, I need a Line Driver/Level Shifter, Buck/Boost Converter, Rectifier, Current Sense amplifier, and almost anything else, I just search for it and copy paste the typical application circuit. It's almost too easy...in some cases. The worst thing about this is that the fundamentals of electronics and circuit theory get neglected in favour of simplicity and programming. Till this day the biggest thing I'm disappointed in is the fact that my electrical & electronics circuit theory is rubbish. Even at Uni they taught us a lot of the basics and then it was off into programming microcontrollers. Only when i burned my first transistor after Uni did I learn from the internet gurus that you have to put a fllyback diode when driving inductive loads. I can somewhat see that, in the not too distant future people with strong knowledge on the fundamentals of circuit theory, be it analog and/or digital, will be in high demand. After all, SOMEONE has to design those highly complex yet precise ICs that we all just plug into our circuits.

[@zinhaboussi]

thank you fro sharing this types of docs

[@tohopes]

4:40 Did he specify which other ways he was thinking of?

[@StateofElectronics]

+tohopes Sorry I don't follow?

[@tohopes]

He said that the creative spirit previously served by electronics was now being served by other ways. I was wondering whether he elaborated on that in the interview.

[@StateofElectronics]

+tohopes Grant Petty eluded to computers & programming being the thing people do instead because its easier

[@laius6047]

im 25, i have some free time. I wanted to learn to do electronics as a kid, but due to the conditions i lived in it was impossible. now I started looking into it and I see no purpose of electronics, you just can't compete with the microchips that you see everywhere. And it ruined it. Nowadays people are consumers, they consume, and can't create. At least I have my woodworking as a career, but anyway Ikean and im sure in near future people would never buy wooden furniture. So is shame, that familiar things are dying out

[@StateofElectronics]

Thanks for your comment. I would like to think it is still possible. I currently teach kids to work with micro controllers and learn to interface hardware through some basic electronic knowledge. It can be learned but yes it is a bit daunting if you have no one around you to help. Best of luck.

[@richardprice5978]

ikea dose not sell high end stuff and i like old wood styles like pre 1900s victorian / Georgian / edwardian

[@fellowWanderer1420]

I respectfully disagree =] You are forgetting about the many sub-fields of electronics used today that still require discrete components in their use over specialized ICs and microcontrollers. Amateur radio , still much of electronic audio/music equipment repair/design (still analog and some discrete), vintage electronics repair, (proper!) pcb design, and even IC design, are just a few of the many sub-fields that still use and require a deep understanding of the math and physics on an individual component level today in 2017. In addition, failing to take the time to understand things on a individual component level is already starting to become a problem in the newer hobbyist generations it seems. For example, take a look at the Arduino/AVR forums. Today, an embedded software designer today that specializes in PIC or AVR is so far in the dark when it comes to the basic fundamentals of the physics and math behind electronics design, that is has become an extreme handicap to most who specialize in that field. One spends most of their time worrying about logic/code/efficiency in a the perfect ideal digital environment, and rarely spends any time having to consider the non-ideal realities of the interacting circuit components outside of their microcontoller here in the real/physical world. Most of the problems and questions you see posted about are usually very obvious to anyone who has ever worked on a component level. The point is, if you jump in with both feet and keep doing what you love, there will always be someone out there that will appreciate what you do!

[@SianaGearz]

Why compete when you can conquer? Manufacturers also have to make do with whatever components are available for the most part. Digital components get first designed as FPGA, and then get converted to ASICs by specialist companies, mostly in an automated process, but if you are trying to solve an unsolved problem, you're not competing with anybody. Getting analog components made especially for one product is usually not an affordable proposition altogether. But sure, it's all an endless field and can be daunting if you lose sight of a goal. But it's like that in every established field pretty much. Welcome, electronics is out of its infancy.

[@1kuhny]

It has not gotten harder or easier. Its just changed. It may seem that things are spoon fed to new hobbyists however it has simply just shifted the focus from descrete logic simple circuits to more modern and connected electronics that are more complex then you could have ever imagined. Today's hobbyists are focused on projects, making new things, and possibly even making a viable product. Complexity is not a necessity. Yes modules and micros make it easier to develop but that just means we can make more interesting things quicker and more efficiently. And later on we can still move on to designing our own SMD PCBs and stray away from modules and break out hoards to use the bare components and sensors.

[@aerohk]

if you like electronics, become an IC designer.

[@StateofElectronics]

+Aerohk nice idea!

[@user-yk1cw8im4h]

Why is that?

[@aerohk]

***** IC is where the electronics advancement is. No longer is it possible to design advanced electronics that do new things without the use of IC.

[@NickNorton]

Kids in my social circle today. Play with their parents iPhone/iPad and seem conform to the line "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." In the decades to come. Society will probably swing back to more religious beliefs because they won't have a fundamental understanding of the physics around them. Oh and the target of worship won't be God (insert your favourite God here). It'll be Apple, Microsoft, Samsung.

[@StateofElectronics]

+Nick Norton I agree in so many ways!

[@mrjohhhnnnyyy5797]

+Nick Norton Yeah, and burn those who knows in a fire, just like they used to do in the Dark Age.

[@pwnmeisterage]

We are apparently entering an age of "illiteracy" ... people are replacing the faculty to read (and write) actual text with pictographic recognition (glyphs, "icons", and corporate "heraldry"). Blind faith and "fanaticism" towards brands already exists. Consumers already have a lot less "freedom of choice" than they'd care to admit.

[@xierxu]

I need a mentor.

[@maynardjohnson3313]

I don't know if I should be angry at you or make you my favorite utoob channel.

[@Archus88]

Loved this video. Loved it, loved it, loved it. Great work

[@StateofElectronics]

Thank you and I'm very happy that you like it.

[@defakosgr]

I will write the same comment: I think that if hobby electronics goes down the drain, kids will never have the trigger to involve and probably we will run out of electronic engineers. We will stuck with the existing technology, making variations and there won't be anybody to evolve the technology, because nobody had the chance as kid to make, search, fail, succeed, learn. After all, even a "all in one" chip today is made from components put together. That goes for modules too.

[@StateofElectronics]

Its definitely challenging times. Thanks for your comment.

[@ricardoferreira2811]

12:51 Fingerburn!!

[@giacomoleandrini3717]

im 14. I believe that you can't understand electronics with arduino or all kind of microcontroller. It is only a game. this is my opinion

[@StateofElectronics]

I would say just play with it. Treat it as you would anything of interest. I believe you will find it addictive, perhaps like a game, and this will inevitably lead to more questions, more bits and pieces and before long you will discover that you have just become interested in becoming an electronic engineer or a scientist. Or it will remain a fun thing to play with. Understanding things will only come if you give them time. Enjoy playing with Arduino for now and you will eventually understand a lot more "things" later. Good luck.

[@worldofzap]

Computers for my son's generation is no more than a what a toaster is to our generation; it is no longer necessarily what is under the hood but more about how looks and it's features. Like asking the salesperson if it can toast a bagel. His world is so full of computers he will never understand the marvel of it all, it is just another car or TV or toaster.

[@StateofElectronics]

+worldofzap Fundamentally I agree as my own Son is in a similar position. However we do need to ask ourselves "who will understand and invent future computing devices for us. Are they our friends"?? It's far too easy to say "someone else will do it for us" in this day and age when miraculously "updates" appear on our existing machines. No I believe we need to consciously take a stand, take responsibility for our individual laziness and prepare ourselves to understand exactly how things work. While understanding "everything" is impossible, the basics will need to be taught at schools (if not then self taught), at universities and other areas of education. I'm not having a go at your choice but merely providing any sort of excuse/impenitence for you and others to take actions into your own hands and teach your children to understand what you already know. Thank you for your comment

[@das250250]

Yes some good points . Such complexity leads to chaotic behaviour. Perhaps this is what feeds Fermi paradox. At some point society may rest on very complex systems to be in place and when that system collapses it may cause collapse of the human race .

[@StateofElectronics]

+graham kaveman It certainly feels that way :-)

[@Willster451]

I'm 17 and i'm telling you it's not easy to learn electronics. No college course just me and my books

[@StateofElectronics]

+William Smith Yes thats true but hopefully you can connect with the wider community via the web. Find a local hackerspaces or helpful person knowledgable on electronics. Hang in there and keep experimenting and hopefully electronics will find you :-)

[@cormano64]

+William Smith Keep at it, ma boi.

[@Willster451]

+State of Electronics Yes I will. I have found a hacker space not to far from me i'm thinking of joining. I wish colleges would realise this is an important subject and more people need to learn it. Thanks for the reply

[@Willster451]

+cormano64 i'm never giving up haha. Some of this stuff can get really complicated. Thanks for the comment :)

[@bashisobsolete.pythonismyn6321]

+William Smith same here. i realised that i need practical real-life problems to solve. but all the gadgets everywhere have deprived me of that possibility!

[@Mandragara]

Bottom-up vs top-down understanding

[@StateofElectronics]

+Mandragara yes putting it in a different light but yes :-)

[@schitlipz]

It's kinda like what happened to music, with all the sampling of chunks of older music. 'Kids' are using cheap mixer/recorders with integrated, quantized drum box and sampler... no fundamental skills (let alone social), just polished-up crap. Shiny turds.

[@pwnmeisterage]

The entry bar is lower, we're saturated by mediocrity, countless "artists" tinker with DJ software and vocal autotune which makes their music for them, they don't know a thing about theory and can't even play an instrument or read sheet music, they keep themselves deliberately ignorant of all the art which came before. But real talent is still driven to know and understand and accomplish more, it's passionate about creating something worthwhile, it still emerges ahead of the pack. The real criticism shouldn't be towards the bad music makers, it should be towards the non-discerning sheep who happily accept increasingly substandard entertainments.

[@flaplaya]

It's obvious to me.. Alien technology 101.. Anyways lets watch 17 more minutes.

[@flaplaya]

Good luck ten year old's hardly learning anything playing 10,000 hrs of Modern Warfare before HS Graduation.

[@gmatta1112]

This is ridiculous. Apparently everyone, and I mean EVERYONE knew electronics back in the day. I mean things have just gotten smaller. I don't know if I want my computer to take up a room in my house...

[@StateofElectronics]

Incomprehensible? Not sure what you mean at all given the video?? Its about "understanding" not having things that are just smaller, more compressed?? It sounds like your coming from a consumer's point of view and not one that is centred around learning how stuff works?? Maybe explain why you think its ridiculous?

[@gmatta1112]

that may be true about me thinking of this from a consumer standpoint. Maybe because I had just watched the hobbyist electronics dying video. I think it was a comment about this generation not being able to open an iphone and figure out how it works. Not saying that I could, but there is a good chance that someone could and very much likely they have. I'm just saying that things are not impossible to figure out, just that new technology takes a little longer and maybe a magnifying glass.

[@StateofElectronics]

I agree with you. This video was designed to get that conversation going. I filmed individuals in Hong Kong for instance, stripping an old iPhone with a heat gun and replacing chips on another iPhone with working bits to get it going. This was done in the streets of HK with nothing more then basic tools. So you are right, someone can ... but whats happening in our 1st world societies is perhaps indifference! "Its too hard, so let someone who knows what their doing repair my iPhone for me" without thinking about who that might actually be. These interviews took place 5 years ago when "the knowledge" was not so obvious. Today it might seem obvious to you but thats the point of these videos. Are we loosing sight of the fundamentals and relying too heavily on others to help us with our problems? In the old days you could have a grasp on most concepts in electronics but today thats almost impossible. That is why you probably have the view that "everyone" knew about electronics back in the day... No off course not but those that did had a pretty good overview of most things electronics. Its different today.

[@darshb38]

4 year back , I chose electronics engineering over computer science because I was interested in the kind of R and D those Hong Kong street guys are doing. But as you said this is not the skill which is needed in big electronics industries now. such Job profiles are rare to find with decent salary.

[@jj74qformerlyjailbreak3]

I wished I had learned hardware first.

[@MaxwellsWitch]

me irl lol 0:49

[@CanvasDonRane]

I feel bit empty without background music like previous episodes :)

[@StateofElectronics]

+ED Ranil yep well I agree. I'm still on the search for better music

[@richardgray8593]

+State of Electronics Really, the content is so good that music is not necessary. Speaking only for myself, I don't care if you put it in or not. The only time music has annoyed me in an electronics KZbin video was a one-hour meter review and tear-down that had a loud background of repetitive 80s techo blaring away. And by repetitive, I mean no more than a couple of the same bars repeating over and over and over for an hour. It ruined an otherwise excellent video.

[@tohopes]

+Richard Gray Yeah I liked just the sound of the people speaking. This was well enough edited that it didn't need music to fill in gaps.

[@ituxcoza]

Was this sponsored by Apple? Jeez, I think I hear ipad, ipod, iphone each 200x times in this video :( Very disappointing compared to the others in this series

[@StateofElectronics]

+ituxcoza No definitely not - no sponsorship by anyone! That was just how common that example was in their answers

[@berni8k]

+ituxcoza Just that everyone knows Apple and the products are designed to appeal to people with no technical knowledge. All the technical specs are hidden away, the os doesn't let you poke at its guts at all. All of it is hidden under an abstraction layer. In contrast the early microsoft smartphones (back before the iphone even came out) would let you stroll around in the windows directory out of the box and if you did something bad in there the phone wouldn't boot anymore. The user was expected to have some computer experience to use it. Nowdays there smartphone OS is simplified and locked down similar to apples in order to appeal to the non technical masses.

[@Mandragara]

+ituxcoza Most likely because they use apple computers due to the fact OSX provides a Unix-like design environment.

[@andrejgelenberg6340]

This video series got boring. Almost the same footage and very repetitive, but nicely done.

[@teknorian5503]

in video only dave l jones is positif and the rest people in video blames the technology it's self

[@JismalJamal]

This will bring a negative feedback in engineering

[@StateofElectronics]

+Jismal Jamal Negative feedback often results in balancing a force upon the system ...

[@MattOGormanSmith]

+State of Electronics ...and oscillation. Look at Glasslinger making vacuum tubes at home from scratch. There was nobody doing that in the 1970s.