rileybeans
@rileybeans
on the hardware/software movement we're seeing (plz read): I've long encouraged communities to build their own products uniquely suited to their purpose and membership. Have written multiple times about the things @boysclub could produce if able, and finally we're seeing the team show this curiosity in public explorations. My own push to build devices and interfaces specifically for creators is a combination of urgency and accessibility. You're going to see a lot more specialized products as ideas become possible not just to design but easily prototype and then make real.
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manansh
@manansh
this is really cool to see — but hardware feels hard to get into if you don’t have the experience — how have you been finding that?
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Caden Chase
@cbxm
currently exploring building my own hardware, here's where I'm at: for prototyping: - Adafruit Feather development kit (maybe $35) - a handful of FeatherWing components (~$85) - soldering kit + supplies ($180) - A1mini 3d printer (on sale now, $220) - printer filament (~$20/kg) bare bones, you're looking at about $550 to get a setup that lets you experiment pretty much infinitely without much need to upgrade your kit if/when you want to switch it over to full scale production 3d modeling seems like the primary skill hurdle for me so far, because soldering has been dead simple to learn so far and I'm expecting o3-mini-high will handle most of the electrical engineering and programming firmware for the Feather long story short: i've found it to be a LOT more straightforward than I was expecting, and there's plenty of really good guides on the internet for beginner Arduino projects to get you over that initial familiarity hump, too.
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manansh
@manansh
thanks for this — this really does sound more attainable ! did you learn what you needed to learn via YouTube / ChatGPT?
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Caden Chase
@cbxm
you're welcome! i actually built a custom keyboard, and then decided I wanted an even MORE custom keyboard, and the maker community around those is 🤌 just superb following a build guide (and deep diving w/ YT + AI on anything I didn't understand) exposed me to: printing and designing custom circuit boards (more intimidating than it was complicated!), microcontrollers and firmware, 3D modeling and printing, soldering, and on and on i definitely recommend picking a basic project (make a gameboy! or a tamagotchi!) and letting that be your guide through the initial complexity. and @rileybeans is right! many libraries have a 3D printer lab and they'll typically only charge you for the cost of the filament you use, and local maker spaces will have no shortage of tools and friendly experts (and probably printers, too)
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manansh
@manansh
Ok that’s awesome, thanks so much for sharing this with me
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Caden Chase
@cbxm
happy to help! feel free to DM if you ever wanna chat!
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