[sdiy] There is no fun analogue chips anymore!

[Pete Hartman]

It also has a much higher barrier to entry even if you DO have
something approaching the technical background.

I can't make a 4 layer board in my home.

I currently don't have the setup to do SMD work, and I fear what the
cost might be if I decide to get one.

I don't have the cash to not only buy components and prototype boards,
but then to get the PCBs professionally manufactured and stuffed -- I
do those things myself, to the best of my ability.  Even when I buy
other people's pro grade PCBs, they aren't SMD because I can't stuff
that.

The FPGAs are tempting and interesting, and don't require a home
fabrication facility but as someone else pointed out, $200 - $400 for
something that's going to go out of fashion very quickly doesn't seem
like a very good investment in material, even if the learning is still
applicable to the next generation.

I think that this is less to do with being a neophyte technically (I
have an EE degree that is rapidly becoming un-rusty and years of
programming experience) and more to do with accessibility...and not
accessibility from the "lazy people can do it too" standpoint either.

I was able to jump headlong into AVR programming and then analog synth
work 6 months ago with the tools and knowledge I already had.  If all
the through-hole analog stuff were gone, I'd have never had courage
to/been able to fulfill a lifelong curiosity (now full blow obsession)
about music synthesis.

All that said, I think whatever will be will be.  We will be more and
more creative about parts and things until the point where we can't
get over some new entry barrier (like $$$ for FPGAs & ARMs), and then
we'll go do something else.

Pete


On Thu, Jun 28, 2012 at 12:25 PM, Eric Brombaugh <ebrombaugh1 at cox.net> wrote:
> That takes work and technical background that a lot of neophytes have
> trouble with.