Presumably, if you’re reading this, you’re at least curious about
electronics. If you’re a first time
visitor to Nuts & Volts, perhaps
something on the cover caught your
eye. If you’re a long time subscriber,
the content hopefully resonates with
what you enjoy reading to advance
your understanding and practice of
electronics. However, given the rapid
evolution of the field over the past
few years, exactly how do you define
electronics today?
As a point of reference,
according to Merim-Webster.com,
electronics is “a branch of physics
that deals with the emission,
behavior, and effects of electrons (as
in electron tubes and transistors) and
with electronic devices.” I don’t
know about you, but to me, this
definition seems both indefinite and
antiquated. In this broad definition,
“electronics devices” includes just
about everything — from resistors to
Bluetooth enabled bathroom scales
to ham radio transceivers. This
definition also ignores the past
several decades of fundamental
electronic engineering teachings that
include the behavior and effect of
holes as well as electrons.
This dictionary definition of
electronics highlights the nature of
the electronics hobby today. For one,
it’s extremely diverse. As active
hobbyists, we can be talking about
consumer electronics, robotics,
medical devices, or video game
consoles. The definition also hints of
experimentation or at least
appreciation of the underlying
physics.
As such, I believe an electronics
hobbyist isn’t a label for someone
who simply purchases the latest
smartphone or game console, but
someone who also digs into how the
devices work. I see lots of people
with their phones, PDAs, laptops,
fitness bands, and the like, and I
don’t consider them electronics
hobbyists. They’re consumers.
In my definition of electronics,
there’s definitely a hands-on
component, and it’s central to the
definition. Someone may own all of
the latest electronics gizmos, but if
they don’t use a soldering iron or
equivalent connection system at least
once a month, then I’d be hard-pressed to acknowledge that they’re
an electronics enthusiast. In my
definition, someone active in
electronics pursues active
investigation.
I say active because you can’t
simply buy yourself into competence.
You may have the best stocked parts
bin on the planet, but if you don’t
use the parts in circuits, you might as
well sell the parts collection. As a
ham radio operator, I’ve seen many
“shack” photos some showing
dozens of transceivers, tuners, 24-
hour clocks, and so on. Very
impressive, but I know that the ham
radio operator probably uses only
one of the transceivers on a regular
basis, and the rest is just window
dressing. As a ham radio operator
with a few extra communications
peripherals of my own, I can vouch
for the attraction of vintage gear that
simply looks beautiful.
Based on the evolution of
components to microcontrollers over
the past few years, it’s not
unreasonable that Nuts & Volts may
have to change its name to
Keyboards & Microcontrollers.
Enough of my rant. I’d like to hear
from you.
What’s your definition of
electronics? Does it have to include a
soldering iron? Does programming
DSP chips and other keyboard
activity qualify? Where do you see
electronics going in, say, 10 years?
NV
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So, Exactly What is Electronics?