Re:India's repair culture gives new life to dead laptops
by dghlsakjg on Tuesday April 08, 2025 @12:15PM
(#43623430)
There are all sorts of things like this, but one that springs to mind is drones, specifically FPV drones. You can build a very good drone from basically parts that runs on open firmware. The videos that you see coming out of Ukraine is clearly using flight control software that is basically the standard for non commercial drones. Nothing more cyberpunk than fighting fascists using open source software and commodity hardware.
[ Parent
| on HN ]
Re:India's repair culture gives new life to dead laptops
by 9rx on Tuesday April 08, 2025 @12:33PM
(#43623640)
What seems to be lacking is the path to accidental discovery that underlies these stories from the past. Is there a reasonable way people will find themselves building drones without being intentional about it?
Re:India's repair culture gives new life to dead laptops
by saidinesh5 on Tuesday April 08, 2025 @01:05PM
(#43624008)
Not accidental, but government restrictions are the main reason people built their own drones here. Government banned import of drones here back then. Only way to fly and have fun was build your own. build them part by part.
I have built them for dozens of non technical friends too. And then they themselves got into fixing them once they broke. Solder the wires. Get parts 3d printed etc..
Re:India's repair culture gives new life to dead laptops
by dghlsakjg on Tuesday April 08, 2025 @05:17PM
(#43626562)
The normal progression is that you had a commercially built one, and one of two things happened. 1. It was a prebuilt FPV drone and you need to repair it after smashing it into something at mach Jesus or 2. You bought a DJI, which is really a camera platform, and you want a drone that can fly at mach Jesus and do the cool aerobatics so that pulls you into the FPV genre where you buy a prebuilt or just build from scratch.
Drones are just an example, there are plenty of other areas where people might get sucked into DIY electroncisbuilding. E-skateboard/bike/scooter modification and fixing, keyboard hobbyists, cosplay, 3d printing, home automation etc...