this post was submitted on 28 Aug 2023
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What is your "inexpensive" hobby that turned out to be expensive/ you gradually invested lots of money into? (sopuli.xyz)
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by plactagonic@sopuli.xyz to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml
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Edit: so it turns out that every hobby can be expensive if you do it long enough.

Also I love how you talk about your hobby as some addicts.

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[–] Bishma@discuss.tchncs.de 255 points 1 year ago (8 children)

Electronics / microcontrollers.

Took just a few months to go from, "I can make a wifi connected weather station for like $20 in components!?" to "oscilloscopes cost how much?"

[–] SamsonSeinfelder@feddit.de 56 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Has there already grown a noteworthy Arduino/ESP Community on Lemmy?

[–] Bishma@discuss.tchncs.de 28 points 1 year ago

There are quite a few but none are super active.

[–] agressivelyPassive@feddit.de 18 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm really happy I don't have enough space for that stuff. Otherwise I would be poor. It's hard enough to keep myself from buying another old computer.

[–] choss@lemmy.ml 12 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I would love to read about this $20 weather station! Do you maybe have a link?

[–] Bishma@discuss.tchncs.de 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Mine is pretty basic but is built on the shoulders of giants. Also that $20 was from pre-pandemic / pre-chip shortage prices. I’m guessing it’s more like $35 now, or maybe high $20s from ali express.

I use Home Assistant for home automation. It has a now official addon called ESPHome for easily configuring esp devices and adding them to Home Assistant.

I bought some cheap dev boards off amazon and thankfully they worked
    an esp8266 microcontroller with IC2 headers and a microusb port already onboard
    a bmp280 that measures temp, humidity, and barometric pressure
    a lux sensor with a plastic dome over the top
I soldered them together on a prototyping board

All the components were supported by esphome, so I just needed to write the device config and then flash the devboard via esphome (in a web browser) over the built in usb.

I 3d printed a housing for it, but you can also buy boxes. It needs airflow but also needs to stay dry. You can use a spray sealant to help avoid corrosion from ambient humidity. I skipped that step because I want to see how quickly it becomes problematic… and I should probably check on that.

[–] gregoryw3@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 year ago

Just an fyi bmp280 is not real temperature but an estimation based on air pressure.

[–] teamevil@unilem.org 6 points 1 year ago

You can get a cheap oscilloscope that uses USB and your computer. https://www.sainsmart.com/products/sainsmart-dds-140-40m-200m-s-virtual-oscilloscope-logic-analyzer

Not that I have an electronics problem

[–] anonono@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

yeah I got a fancy lab power supply but stopped at oscilloscopes, those things are expensive.

it's still cheap and fun to do a lot of stuff, but now I wanna build a sound-card based oscilloscope.

[–] Bishma@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 1 year ago

I haven't bought an oscilloscope yet either, but I keep window shopping.

[–] colonial@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Good soldering gear already makes me wince. I couldn't imagine paying $500+ for an oscilloscope.

Fortunately I'm more interested in the software side of things... thank God nobody charges for programming toolchains anymore.

[–] CoderKat@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Same. I'm lucky for software to be my hobby/career. It's practically free. Contrary to popular misconception, it doesn't require any kind of special or more powerful hardware (for most dev, at least). Maybe $150 for a second monitor, for sanity, but that's not actually necessary.

...I mean, I do have good hardware too, but that's for my gaming hobby, not my software hobby.

[–] colonial@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

To be fair, if C++ or Rust is your thing... let's just say I'd have a Threadripper if they weren't five grand.

I once had to (repeatedly) compile a C++ codebase on some Lenovo shitbook. It ended up being so infuriating (thirty seconds, minimum) that I wrote a few load-bearing shell scripts to rsync everything to my desktop, build it, and copy the binary back... which was ultimately about five times faster.

Man, I wish I could have just used MicroPython for that project.

[–] Cataphract@lemmy.ko4abp.com 1 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Can you recommend any good soldering gear for an intermediate level? I've done plenty of soldering over the years but have always used crappy low end products. It's always been a struggle to properly do a clean-true solder (not just heating the solder like I see everywhere) even though I try to meticulously maintain my equipment. I'm hoping that it's just the equipment I use and a higher end one will make things a breeze like I see the professional's use.

It's really a pain in my ass. On top of maintaining the equipment I have whole setups I've constructed to hold wires and equipment snugly so I can properly apply heat. I purchased a high temp kit but it's cheap as well and still sometimes run into the same problem, with the smaller components and projects though I'm afraid to use it and overheat something that can't handle it.

[–] colonial@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I'm not really the right guy to ask - I don't have that much soldering experience, and I'm a broke college student - but I've found the Pinecil to be Pretty Goodβ„’ for my use case of "occasionally soldering things to microcontrollers."

It accepts power over USB-C, so no need for a bulky (and expensive) base station like a Hakko or Weller. (You do need an AC adapter capable of pushing 65W PD, but if you're into electronics you probably already have something like that just lying around.) Proper temperature control is also nice compared to the cheap "plug and go" irons.

YMMV, I upgraded to it from a Home Depot butane iron (yes it was as bad as it sounds) so...

[–] dack@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Pinecil works OK for small things, but struggles on larger joints because of it's low power and small thermal mass. Personally, I'd prefer one of the many Hakko/Weller clones for a cheap solution.

[–] aBundleOfFerrets@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 year ago

Thermal mass is a valid concern, but the v2 can pull 100w from an appropriatly beefy usb-c adapter, and 200w+ from one on the new usb-pd spec (testing is ongoing for that though)

[–] agent_flounder@lemmy.one 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

My tips for solder gear are

  • get temp control
  • get one with easily swapped tips... Of an industry standard size. It's super helpful to have multiple tip sizes
  • clean your tip with brass sponge!!!^1
  • cheat mode: use liquid solder flux, Kester 2331 ZX
  • follow Sparkfun's soldering tutorial.

1 I taught a bunch of elementary kids how to solder. We only had water sponges and within minutes nobody could solder right. I had one brass sponge and it made instant difference. Now the tip could actually conduct heat properly. It is seriously an unexpected total game changer.

As for the brand... Whatever Sparkfun or Adafruit is selling is legit but more budget friendly. I took a look and Sparkfun has some good options from Weller.

I got a Weller WS81. It's been good except the first wand didn't like too much side pressure (user error really). Otherwise it's been totally solid for years. They cost a lot less when I got it. Yikes. Get the cheaper WE1010 or the other red one.

An Aoyue might be ok. My Aoyue hot air rework station has been solid for the past several years assembling several hundred boards.

Hope this helps

[–] agent_flounder@lemmy.one 2 points 1 year ago

PS as an experiment I once tried using a dollar store soldering iron... Cheap POS. No temp control. As long as I used a brass sponge it was easy to use.

[–] teamevil@unilem.org 2 points 1 year ago

Weller makes great gear that just lasts

[–] nothacking@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 1 year ago

I would totally recommend a good precision pencil-style iron. They are somewhat expensive (400$ to 600$), but super nice and easy to use. All the power supply and control electronics is in the base, making the actual iron super light and easy to use, furthermore the hot part is tiny, so it's much easier to avoid touching it when doing fine work. Despite the small size of the hot end, they do very well on large parts, and are able to heat up instantly.

[–] agent_flounder@lemmy.one 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Lol I feel ya. I ended up making and selling electronics kits to fund the hobby somewhat.

I have been using cheap vintage oscilloscopes the whole time.

Not sure what they go for now but $100 for a 20MHz scope and $200 for a 100MHz was what it was several years ago. Cheapest I got off a buddy for $40. I am still using that one.

Sometimes I fix broken ones and sell them. One time I got one that they thought was broken but turned out it was just the basic settings. I like trying different ones so I have gone through a dozen or so by now.

Now* that I think about it, o-scopes are a whole other hobby lol.

Anyway. Yeah by the time you get the test gear and enough sensors and microcontrollers and whatever it adds up.

Right now I'm working on a power supply design for a 50W class D stereo. Found out big toroidal transformers are not cheap. Oof. And enclosures big enough (especially if labeled "amplifier" or "stereo") are ridiculously spendy.

[–] teamevil@unilem.org 2 points 1 year ago

My next project is to make an oscilloscope clock

[–] NaoPb@beehaw.org 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This sounds like the point where you dive into the next rabbit hole of making enclures. At least I could see that happening.

I'm looking to make some wooden enclosures for some things myself.

[–] Goopadrew@beehaw.org 3 points 1 year ago

Just be careful or you might go fullDIY Perks after long

[–] foofiepie@feddit.uk 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Erk. I got into this. What’s the tipping point that gets you eyeing oscilloscopes? I’m at the fiddly smd stage.

[–] Bishma@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

My next step is custom boards and smds, and an oscilloscope seems like a good way to diagnose when reflow goes wrong. I already have had some fights with I2C using dev boards. But really I'm eyeing one because I have allusions about doing fine calibration on analog sensors.

I should add that I've been talking myself out of an oscilloscope for 2+ years now. I don't REALLY need one.