This is what I have trouble with as a hobbyist,
bitseeker writes:
"* Clearly defining your requirements (rather than your desires), can make a big difference in the cost of equipment acquisition."
My difficulty is I do not know what are my requirements are. I started this hobby around 10 years ago, as therapy, and something tI could lose myself in.Kinda a like doing physics instead of reading Sci-fy for a commercial artist
I read RadioShack Mimms books and similar. It seemed all I needed was a DMM under $50, and some basic tools,and a few parts. The repair books kept saying a dual channel scope with at least 100MHz capability..
I did not know about eBay or Amazon having technical equipment...
I was ready to go..I was set. a few $100 for some parts, a DMM, the hand tools, I already had, though not right for electronics... one of those monster230 watt soldering guns, a blow torch for sweating copper pipes, typicial electricians cutters and linesman pliers, and so forth
What are my requirements? It keeps changing as I learn more, as I watch Dave's, Ian's, Martin's, Mikes, etc.etc YouTube videos. I just keep getting hooked getting deeper and deeper into the more and more possibilities.
I am also stubborn. I set rules for myself. at first it was just $10 per month.( I thought this would be plenty), I would only buy econoChin. stuff too. Preventing me from getting too serious.
I had half of a 30"x60" desktop that was able to switch between the electronics desk back to the graphic arts table...
I am way beyond what I had set as my limit. fortunately I have a partner with a sense of humor. She loves to bring up the topic at dinner parties, how I blow a much more money than my self-restricted budget on things..
Then she get entertained from my griping, trying to shove some piece of tech equipment into a tiny slot in a shelf a slapped together on-the-fly
I am the target of the cheap stuff, then upgrading to entry level stuff.. I still refuse to drop the money for Fluke..because This is NOT a business, and my partner, she has made it clear, no new businesses created related to electronics..and that was and is a core rule for myself
So, finally I ask, What what are my requirements? when I don't know where I am going, yet, keep finding more and new directions within this hobby that excites me...That is perhaps, why she teases me, and everyone else at what I child I have become...
If this hobby was cocaine, I would be in rehab, then in prison, then dead by now!