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LAN_403

Avalanche

Sat Aug 15 2009, 08:48AM

Registered Member #103 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 08:16PM
Location: Derby, UK
Posts: 845

Just wondering, there must be a large number of members here who have careers in electronics / power electronics but also seem to be able to maintain it as a hobby. Do you ever regret turning your hobby into a career? Or did it go the other way? (!)

I'm in a situation where what sounded like a 'dream' job is turning into a bit of a drag - travelling thousands of miles to replace IGBTs in a dark room, bricking it whilst the power is switched back on, travelling back to work and rushing to design something that the sales department already quoted for and gave a lead time based on nothing but assembly time. Maybe it is because my MD does not understand the need for development work, prototypes, or testing - and just thinks everything is just 'bolt together and ship it out'.

I'll stop ranting now

would be interesting to hear other peoples situations.

Steve Conner

Sat Aug 15 2009, 10:12AM

Registered Member #30 Joined: Fri Feb 03 2006, 10:52AM
Location: Glasgow, Scotland
Posts: 6706

I think Mark Twain once said: "Work consists of those things a body must do, play consists of those things that he wants to do."

When you turn a hobby into a career, you're taking the thing that you did because you wanted to, and turning it into something you have to do, to pay the bills. The priorities become very different. When I was a student, I spent the whole summer building a hi-fi amp. Now I'd just go and buy one, except I don't need to because the one I built still works fine

I've always tried to steer towards the R&D/design end of electronics, it's more fun, but I still feel the time and budget pressures you mentioned. On the other hand, deadlines are a brilliant cure for polyprojectitis.

It's a MD's job to minimize risk, and as he sees it, development is just another kind of risk. Of course he wants everything to be bolt together and ship out. As R&D guy, it's your responsibility to convince him that the time and money you want to spend on R&D will result in a better product. (That's "better" as in costs less to make, bolts together easier, and doesn't come back a smouldering ruin once it's shipped out...)

Or maybe you should move to a less conservative field than industrial power electronics. One where people are more willing to try new things because they don't explode so violently.

I recently closed down my lab at home, scrapped most of my old projects and dumped the best of the equipment in the lab at work. We now have an uber lab with everything from a RF network analyzer to a 600 volt power supply and a ham radio shack. I don't know what I'll do when the PAT testing guy comes in February...

Nicko

Sat Aug 15 2009, 11:17AM

Registered Member #1334 Joined: Tue Feb 19 2008, 04:37PM
Location: Nr. London, UK
Posts: 615

Snap. I was a hobby electronics guy - built my first tube radio aged 9 from parts bought at HL Smiths in Edgware Rd in London... Always built stuff (one school report Latin entry read "on a curriculum of hobbies & pastimes, de Smith would do marvellously well..."), then decided to do a degree in EE & physics aged 18 - we had no money, so got sponsorship from ITT. As a consequence, had to work for some of the summers in their labs in Harlow (UK) - Initially thought I was in heaven - surrounded by all that nice test kit - actually designed some bits for the landing radar for Harrier jump-jets and the TXE-series digital exchanges etc. However, I noticed that the guys at the end of the lab were doing much the same job as me, but they were 35, had kids & a mortgage... In 15 years, was my ambition to move 10 metres down a lab? I think not.

Moved into bit-sliced processor design, from that into high-end graphics workstations firmware, then more s/w, then financial systems.

Of the 80 or so who were in my year at Southampton Uni in the UK (a very good electronics dept), I doubt that a handful are still involved as a day job as EEs. Most went into IT, finance, or some other form of engineering.

I now just do this sort of stuff for a hobby - its a bit like farming in the UK, only a very few can make a good living at it, the rest need a proper job to fund it. I should have kept electronics as a hobby and done my degree in physics, pure maths or English.

Big lesson learned - only the very fortunate few can make an enjoyable living out of a hobby - generally best to keep them separate.

Steve Conner

Sat Aug 15 2009, 11:40AM

Registered Member #30 Joined: Fri Feb 03 2006, 10:52AM
Location: Glasgow, Scotland
Posts: 6706

Well, that's kind of the point I was trying to make! As soon as you start trying to make a living out of it, it's not an enjoyable hobby any more, by definition. Fiddling around with electronics to satisfy your own curiosity is NOT the same thing as getting up early every morning to build whatever The Man wants you to build today. I wouldn't say it was bad, just different.

Nick mentions getting into IT, and I did turn out to be quite a good embedded programmer. Most of my work involves writing various kinds of firmware and software, and I hardly ever get to build anything that doesn't have at least one microprocessor in it! And this even though I'm an "Electrical & Mechanical" engineer by qualification. Embedded programming is nice, because the small platform limits how big and unwieldy your code can get. But still, few things can make my head hurt as bad as computing, and I think that's why there's more work there than plain EE and it pays better.

I carried on for a while trying to do hobby projects and work at once. But eventually I think I kind of burnt out on it. I ended up ditching most of them and spending more time on my other hobbies, music and mountain biking. I have no plans to build any more high voltage gear in the near future, anyway.

thedatastream

Sat Aug 15 2009, 01:27PM

Registered Member #505 Joined: Sun Nov 19 2006, 06:42PM
Location: Yorkshire!
Posts: 329

I've only had electronics as a hobby since I started my electronics degree. I've been working as an EE now for 7 years and have always had some guvvy (the work term for personal projects) on the go.

I've learnt just as much about electronics doing guvvy as I have doing work and there has been cross pollenation of ideas between the two.

I use guvvy projects to keep me interested in electronics. The work I am involved in on a day to day basis (EMC qualification and testing) is challenging but there isn't much in the way of interesting circuit or system design. This is where I get the most pleasure so i do i for me

If I spent my working life designing litle circuits and systems then I'd _really_ enjoy my work bt I'm not sure I'd want to o it as a hobby.

Hazmatt_(The Underdog)

Sat Aug 15 2009, 01:44PM

Registered Member #135 Joined: Sat Feb 11 2006, 12:06AM
Location: Anywhere is fine
Posts: 1735

Been in electronics since the age of 2.

Just got off my 12 hour shift.

Work at the old TRW playing with space vehicles.

Nuff said I guess.

Yea its a pain in the ass, but it pays the bills.

The only thing that ruins my job is MANAGEMENT.

Tesladownunder

Sat Aug 15 2009, 01:50PM

Registered Member #10 Joined: Thu Feb 02 2006, 09:45AM
Location: Bunbury, Australia
Posts: 1424

IMHO, DONT make your hobby your job.
My day job is nothing to do with my hobby.
My hobby has no expectations, publication requirements or schedules except those that I wish to have. I can in a free conscience forget what I am doing and do something different at a whim. And if I don't feel like doing my hobby, I don't have to.
A job is mostly the opposite, but, sadly, generally pays better than a hobby.

Peter

WaveRider

Sat Aug 15 2009, 05:45PM

Registered Member #29 Joined: Fri Feb 03 2006, 09:00AM
Location: Hasselt, Belgium
Posts: 500

Part of having a balanced life means not always doing the same thing all the time! If electronics is your job, it is generally more satisfying to do something else in your time off.

Like Steve, I have hardly done anything in my lab in the last year. I am periodically tempted to clean up the room...sell or give away parts that I will not use in the next couple of years and take my test instruments to work, where they will at least be used...and I will have them if/when I decide to do something again, hobby-wise.

Lately, my free time is spent with my wife and my two small nieces, gardening, walking in the mountains and doing some photography, socializing, cooking.. I still love doing electronics, but doing it at home just feels too much like work!

Nicko

Sat Aug 15 2009, 07:06PM

Registered Member #1334 Joined: Tue Feb 19 2008, 04:37PM
Location: Nr. London, UK
Posts: 615

WaveRider wrote ...

Part of having a balanced life means not always doing the same thing all the time! If electronics is your job, it is generally more satisfying to do something else in your time off.

Totally 100% agree - I don't do IT or security stuff for anybody except my own house & office. Anyone asks me what PC to buy, I say "Get a Dell".

WaveRider wrote ...

Like Steve, I have hardly done anything in my lab in the last year. I am periodically tempted to clean up the room...sell or give away parts that I will not use in the next couple of years and take my test instruments to work, where they will at least be used...and I will have them if/when I decide to do something again, hobby-wise.

I've given all my Tek 7000-series bits to a school where they get regular use. I've sold a lot of stuff, and I'm having a clear-out to give a load more away - a whole bunch will be in a boot sale (I hope) at Cambridge... still can't see the floor of the workshop yet.

WaveRider wrote ...

Lately, my free time is spent with my wife and my two small nieces, gardening, walking in the mountains and doing some photography, socializing, cooking.. I still love doing electronics, but doing it at home just feels too much like work!

I thought for a moment I'd misread that - mountains in Belgium? So I checked

. Hmmm. Mountains?

100% on the family thing - Rugby season about to kick off in earnest. Team been training twice a week for a month already - #1 son selected for the academy of a premiership club...

WaveRider

Sat Aug 15 2009, 07:53PM

Registered Member #29 Joined: Fri Feb 03 2006, 09:00AM
Location: Hasselt, Belgium
Posts: 500

My work is in Belgium, but my heart is in Italy (my wife's home country).

I was thinking of these mountains!!

Cheers!

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