Ever since I was little, my fascination with the invisible forces behind all of our electronics has captivated me. It has inspired art and created the interest I would later find in my career path as an electrical engineer.
My first dealing with this sort of advanced hobby was taking apart old electronics, following circuit board diagrams and getting a better understanding of how these things accomplish these feats of ingenuity. With the help of the internet it was a pinch to understand, but still difficult to create my own working projects. I would put together a circuit, then have to meticulously check and recheck calculations on the amount of resistance and current flowing through each component, and after several iterations, it was complete. After learning more about the differences between AC and DC voltage, I made my first full bridge rectifier; it was crude and highly inefficient, but well worth the practice. See, I am not anywhere near as good as I would like to be, but it only means I have more opportunity to grow as an engineer, designer, and inventor.
As I have gotten more heavily into programming Arduino with raspberry pi, and other aspects of utilizing the tools at hand; it has occurred to me that this sort of hobby, or trade, is dying with the rest of the STEM programs. Because while I was using these to aid in projects, it dawned on me, my lack of knowledge on how these processors and smaller components work to produce such amazing results. This is a shame, as I realize many of the people who choose to pursue careers in this field, don't have as much experience as those in the past. If you were to get into this craft early on, you would only have the experience you gained through trial and error which forced you to try new things. But with everything becoming more and more advanced, it's harder to justify creating something that you can otherwise buy ready made.
I would suggest as a less seasoned, but still saucy engineer, that if you would like to get into this aspect of creativity, you start at the basics. This includes learning some of the formulas as they go along with your projects. A nice LED blinking project could be the start to creating your own matrix, or moving LED panel. These are far more simple when you get your hands dirty, as opposed to admiring the "Complexity" from afar. After this stage, I felt more confident in being able to incorporate higher levels of technology, follow many internet articles, and tutorials, and lest I forget, YouTube.
As for now, I am sitting idle collecting income for both a new house and a satellite propulsion system that I would be able to launch satellites to collect data from the atmosphere, without the use of a liquid or solid fuel. It has taken me a while to reach a point where I can fully utilize my studies in my own personal works. But I say this as motivation to get moving because there's no other feeling quite like being able to call something yours, that you made with your own hands.
