> We can now buy an Arduino board for the price of a computer game, and make a flying drone.
I'm pretty sure you could do this 20 years ago, there just hadn't been that wave of marketing around microcontrollers as a hobby that happened around the time of Make magazine. $2 for a PIC and $45 for a programmer, maybe? Waiting excitedly for the next issue of Nuts & Volts? Idly flipping through the Jameco and Small Parts catalogs? Toolboxes filled with TTL?
The internet is certainly an advantage, but it also ain't too new.
I'm pretty sure you could do this 20 years ago, there just hadn't been that wave of marketing around microcontrollers as a hobby that happened around the time of Make magazine. $2 for a PIC and $45 for a programmer, maybe? Waiting excitedly for the next issue of Nuts & Volts? Idly flipping through the Jameco and Small Parts catalogs? Toolboxes filled with TTL?
The internet is certainly an advantage, but it also ain't too new.
edit: randomly posting the Small Parts catalog so we can reflect on and celebrate what was lost https://web.archive.org/web/20160323004150/http://www.smallp...
NO MINIMUM ORDER
Also, a shout out to American Science & Surplus, off to the suburbs after 84 years.
https://blockclubchicago.org/2021/10/13/american-science-sur...