I love prototyping electronics projects – really projects in general – and I hope you do (or will soon). One trap that many Makers, tinkerers and would be citizen scientists get caught in, is holding ourselves to high design and finish standards.
This post was inspired by “What’s All This Pease Prototype Stuff, Anyhow?” – check it out.
In my youth, I had the great fortune of living within walking distance of a library that had the “maker” publications of era: QST, 73 and CQ – in addition to other hobby magazines. Currently we have access to tremendous volumes of build and prototype content via Maker oriented magazines, electronics blogs galore and youtube.
One thing to keep in mind, is that very often we are not seeing raw, first-draft, or one-off project builds. Often these projects were built and then re-built for the magazine photos or for the video. This creates an interesting gap – where many folks are frustrated by their build skills and reluctant to share what they are working on. I myself fall into this trap all of time, especially when in comes to finishing a project with a case. read more