Electrical engineers on the brink of extinction threaten entire tech ecosystems

Re:Electrical engineers on the brink of extinction threaten ... by 0x20cowboy on Monday July 18, 2022 @04:49PM (#32143480)

I loved tinkering with electronics when I was younger - still do to a smaller degree. I built my first computer by fixing some blown capacitors on a motherboard I found in the trash.

Back in the day, lots of products came with schematics, now you might get a lawsuit if you dare to take something apart.

It was way easier to take apart and tweak through hole components too - now everything is surface mount or on chip and it’s much harder to get into with just a soldering iron.

The first thing I ever did was rewire a stereo to broadcast instead of receive to make a little pirate radio station - really, none of those things exist anymore.

I think it’s just a harder thing to get into now.

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Re:Electrical engineers on the brink of extinction threaten ... by fleventynine on Monday July 18, 2022 @04:59PM (#32143624)

Surface mount isn't that big of a deal. A cheap hot air gun, a soldering iron, flux, and some solder paste are all you need to work with most BGAs, QFN, and other modern packages. PCB prototype manufacturing has never been cheaper thanks to companies like JLCPCB. With all the fantastic learning material on YouTube, open source tools like KiCad, and inexpensive chinese test equipment, the kids these days can do WAY more than I could dream of back in the 90s.

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Re:Electrical engineers on the brink of extinction threaten ... by midoridensha on Wednesday July 20, 2022 @01:11AM (#32161673)

Not only that, but doing any rework with surface mount is usually much easier than with thru-hole or DIP chips. Removing a DIP chip usually means snipping the leads off (thus ruining the chip) and individually pulling each severed leg out with an iron and solder-sucker. By contrast, an SOIC-type chip can be removed in seconds with a hot-air gun.

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Re:Electrical engineers on the brink of extinction threaten ... by stas2k on Monday July 18, 2022 @05:26PM (#32144035)

Could not agree more. I have designed my first PCB in Kicad as a MIT licence project.

Kicad ecosystem is very much alive and I was able to reuse dimensions from another project for the same computer.

I made a RAM expansion board for Sharp X68000. You can check it out on https://github.com/stas2k/galspanic

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Re:Electrical engineers on the brink of extinction threaten ... by 0x20cowboy on Monday July 18, 2022 @06:54PM (#32145150)

But, I mean, you could get by with just a $10 soldering iron from RadioShack. It’s just harder to get into and tinker with is my point - which I think you just supported?

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Re:Electrical engineers on the brink of extinction threaten ... by _moof on Monday July 18, 2022 @09:03PM (#32146187)

I do surface mount with a $20 hotplate from Target. A lot of parts you can even do with a soldering iron. I know it looks scary but once you give it a try you'll find it's not really any harder than through-hole and doesn't require any special equipment.

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Re:Electrical engineers on the brink of extinction threaten ... by Johnythree on Monday July 18, 2022 @06:15PM (#32144718)

I find SMT easier than through-hole. And I say B.S. to your line of "rewire a stereo to broadcast instead of receive". There's very little commonality between a stereo and a Transmitter. Whatever, there are still thousands of Hams building Transmitters.

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Re:Electrical engineers on the brink of extinction threaten ... by 0x20cowboy on Monday July 18, 2022 @06:49PM (#32145102)

Don’t know what to tell you other than I did. It only would broadcast around the house and maybe a few houses down.

Here is someone else doing it as well: https://m.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=27&v=AudEdHpXTi4&f...

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Re:Electrical engineers on the brink of extinction threaten ... by Taniwha on Tuesday July 19, 2022 @04:50AM (#32149077)

I teach kids how to solder at the local Makerspace, I start with SMT first because it's easier - through hole requires more skill and you have to be more aware of heat management to do it well.

We stockpile old proto boards that were never used for practice and give the kids old motherboards and hot air to scavenge from for practice

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