[sdiy] Radfio Shack

[Scott Gravenhorst]

Richard Wentk <richard at skydancer.com> wrote:
>At 01:57 21/10/2004 -0400, Colin Hinz wrote:
>>On Fri, 8 Oct 2004, Richard Wentk wrote:
>>
>> > Amateur electronics has been becoming more of a crafts market like amateur
>> > furniture design or cabinet making than a mass market hobby. It seems
>> > likely this will continue.
>>
>>That's been the case for quite a while, though, hasn't it? One has to
>>only look at the sorts of projects published in the (surviving)
>>electronics hobbyist magazines to see this. Prior to sometime in the
>>early 1990s or even the late 1980s, there were lots of projects that
>>would appeal to the average gadget-fiend-about-the-house. Since then,
>>projects have either needed microcontroller expertise, or else have
>>been relatively specialized in application.
>
>
>I think there's still a fair amount of RF hobbyist interest, but it's a 
>similar situation. You can buy a microcontrolled base station for less than 
>it costs to make one. And building something equivalent to a top line model 
>is completely outside the reach of a casual hobbyist.
>
>Still, I'm disappointed that there isn't more interest in microcontrolled 
>and DSP based synth DIY. The perception that it *has* to be analogue, and 
>it also has to be an analogue copy of an existing module, is holding DIY 
>back significantly.

It's a completely different way of thinking.  One cannot simply overlay analog
concepts onto the digital domain and get the desired result.  Just making a
decent VCO (well, DCO) is a considerable task, especially if one has never done
any coding.  Even if you have coding experience, making things that make sound
digitally is it's own art form.  There are significant problems with just
making one function happen, aliasing is one of them.  Then if you try to pack
more than one "thing" into an MCU, you encounter new problems.  Thus analog and
digital sound production requires radically different approaches.  While there
may be the perception in some circles that only analog is valid, there are
certainly ways to make sound with digital systems.  With analog, you have a
single design that performs a single function and interaction can usually be
easily eliminated, whereas with digital, the temptation is to force
multitasking to provide more functions than one from a single device - adding
to the design complexity.  Many of the SDIY crowd were baptized in analog, it's
concepts are hard to forget.  When I look at digital as a means to an end, I
sigh heavily and say "perhaps not" since it requires things I either can't do
or don't desire to do - such as either making or paying for a circuit board
professionally etched.  If I need a VCO or a filter, I can cobble one up in a
couple of hours on stripboard.  For digital, I need to do many hours of work
before I can even think about the code problems I'm about to have.

So then there's a digital SIDY crowd - where are the projects?  Why are there
so few?  I would think that many SDIY people on this list would have developed
many interesting things, and there are _some_, but certainly not the plethora
that came from analog designs.  I don't believe that's because those people
thought that it has to be analog or has to sound like analog.  And if it is, I
suppose it's their own fault.  It may be that there's more of a sheep mentality
at work than we want to admit.  There is a good reason why so many synths have
those "boring" presets that copy the sounds we've heard on the radio.  It may
just be that it's less common to "think outside the box" than we might wish to
believe.



>>For over a decade, I subscribed to the Canadian version of Electronics
>>Today International. When the magazine finally packed it in around 1992,
>>I didn't grieve its passing. Instead, I wondered, "How did they manage
>>to hang around so long?"
>
>ETI UK died decades ago, and I buy Elektor maybe once or twice a year now. 
>There's a UK company that's been running exactly the same ad in Elektor and 
>Practical Electronics for maybe twenty years now. :-)
>
>>Last Sunday, I discovered that two stores which are a short bicycle jaunt
>>from home both have good stocks of the CA3080. Germanium diodes, too.
>
>Yes, but what happens when they're gone?

Then the hobby dies, and die it will because there will come a time when there
are no more OTAs, etc. to be bought.

>I can imagine in some future world exotic nano-technology giving everyone a 
>custom chip fab at home, but in the intervening century or so DIY is going 
>to have to deal with the problem that these parts just don't exist any more.

Nice fantasy, but I do have my doubts, after all, even digital methods are not
being persued to the fullest extent of their usefulness and that stuff is
available right here and now.


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-- Scott Gravenhorst | LegoManiac / Lego Trains / RIS 1.5
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