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> It is my contention that the demands of the SMD technology of today exceeds the reasonable and practical fabrication capabilities of most the "homebrewers".
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> I think you would agree that majority of "homebrewed" projects today are built on a core of "smart" and "networked" technologies (ie:MCUs,WIFI,ZigBee,etc) all in one package.
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People have been saying this since the dawn of SMT, but hobbyists have still managed. I avoided SMT for a long time, but recently have found that I can etch boards for SOIC parts myself very easily and have tuned my technique to the point that I can do SSOP packages without too much difficulty. Personally I am enjoying the challenge, and have been excited about electronics more so than I have been in years due to the many possibilities to play with cool parts that I couldn't use previously.
> Is anyone actually building a "power supply" or "MP3 player" you can buy at Radio Shack for $60. ???? I think not, the things we "homebrewers" are designing are novel and clever assemblies utilizing the awesome capabilities of latest ICs.
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I can't speak for others, but I have been in the process of building a bench supply with dual 0-50V 5A outputs. I based it on an old construction article but have made a few tweaks to the design and hand-wound my own custom 700VA 60Hz toroid transformer. Big, heavy, inefficient linear PSU, but sometimes that's just the ticket. There is a satisfaction to engineering and building my own quality equipment that isn't there with a cheapo Chinese knockoff.
I've also been building clocks for years using Nixie tubes, VFD displays, incandescent, and other vintage displays. I use microcontrollers in them but nothing exotic, up until recently it was all through-hole. Sure I could go buy a $10 LED clock but where would be the fun in that?
Another fairly recent construction was a capacitive discharge spot welder for assembling battery packs. No 5 million pin "smart" ICs in there, just an old fashioned brute force linear power supply, a big meaty SCR and a bit over a Farad worth of capacitors. You can buy one of those, but they start at more than 10x what I spent building mine.
I haven't built an MP3 player yet but that is on the list just for fun. I'm also working on several power supply, energy measurement, and motion control related projects. Much of the resulting hardware I could buy cheaply enough but I would miss out on the education.
I do wonder if future generations will have the same interest in engineering as I do, when so much can be purchased so cheaply but there are still some of us out there who build things more because we can than any rational reason.