YouTube Channels For The Electronics Hobbyist
If you’re not already familiar with my shift from testing and reviewing consumer electronics, to making and supporting hobbyist electronics projects, then allow me a moment to explain. When the Raspberry Pi dropped on my Birthday 4 years ago it rekindled an interest I’d had since childhood. An inherent desire to tinker, to experiment and to create. I dived in head-first to the Pi community, shifting my blogging focus to sharing what I learned and accomplished. Electronics tinkering became my world, and now 4 years later it still is.
I now work at the startup-style, hobby-electronics manufacturer and retailer Pimoroni. I’m, for all intents and purposes, an electronics and software engineer. Not by training or education, but by sheer force of will, experimentation, trial and error. I’ve written software libraries for a dozen products or more, and created 3 of my own with more on the way. I’ve also been heavily involved in the creation of Flotilla, a plug-and-play electronics learning system for kids of all ages. Electronics has become what I do.
This has given me a whole new perspective on gadgets and consumer electronics, and a whole new spin to put on Gadgetoid. I want to review things again, but not like I used to. Alongside the usual testing, writing, bullet points and lifestyle photography I want to tear brand new gadgets apart on camera and see what makes them tick. Okay… PRs… you didn’t read that bit, right?
But before I do that, I’d like to introduce you to my world. Or, at least, hand you over to some of the finest communicators we have to offer so that they can re-kindle that interest you once had in electronics, or perhaps ignite a new one. Without further ado, here are some great YouTube tinkerers you should check out.
BigCliveDotCom
A mild Scottish accent, and a cool, collected manner make Big Clive the easy-listening jazz of electronics entertainment. His specialty: methodic tear downs and discovery journeys through everyday electronics gizmos. The learning will sneak up on you.
Arduino Vs Evil
The disarray and insanity that characterise AvE’s assault on all tools, good or bad, makes for a decidedly more entertaining journey than most. Watch him turn a bolt out of a potato, create a haunted drill, or make his own bullet-proof glass. And this is just the times he’s not pulling something apart just to make new fodder for the “art” bucket.
EEVBlog
EEVBlog almost goes without saying. The shrill, Australian-accented ramblings of Dave Jones have captured a tremendous audience. From product tear-downs, to tutorial videos and tantalising mailbag unboxings, Dave’s got it all. If you just watch one electronics related YouTube channel, then there’s no doubt that this should be it.
There are many, many more such YouTubers, some of which I haven’t got ’round to marathoning through yet. Suffice to say, YouTube may be full of funny cat videos, but it has plenty of tinkering, hacking and making to offer.
- https://www.youtube.com/user/TheSignalPathBlog
- https://www.youtube.com/user/mikeselectricstuff
- https://www.youtube.com/user/MrCarlsonsLab
- https://www.youtube.com/user/colinfurze