How-to heyday not just for gearheads

By Hiawatha Bray, Globe Staff | August 11, 2005

The last peppermint disappeared long ago from the Altoids tin on Limor
Fried's desk. Now she's replacing the candy with music.
Inside the tiny tin she crammed a circuit board and a mass of chips. A
wire runs from the tin to an old stereo amplifier that fills the room
with music. The Altoids tin is now a portable digital music player.
And Fried made it herself.
''I like to build things," said Fried, who lives in Boston's Fort
Point neighborhood and holds a master's degree in electrical
engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
But MIT gearheads aren't the only ones wielding soldering guns these
days. Do-it-yourselfers are making a comeback. A new how-to magazine
devoted to gadget building is drawing fans. Computer buffs, bored with
their dowdy beige machines, are creating personalized PCs with custom
paint jobs and high-end components. And the retail chain
RadioShack Corp., which years ago bailed out of the electronic
hobbyist market, is making a comeback with a robotic construction kit.
Today's do-it-yourselfers are linked to a long tradition of amateur
electronic hobbyists. In the 1920s, early radio listeners often built
their own sets. In the 1940s, the Heath Co. of Benton Harbor, Mich.,
began selling Heathkits, a line of prefabricated electronic gadgets
that eventually included stereo equipment, color television sets, and
personal computers. RadioShack offered electronic hobby kits and
published its own line of electronics instruction books.
But by the 1990s, electronics was waning as a hobby. Bill Pretzer,
curator of communications at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Mich.,
blames the changing American workforce. A half-century ago, 41 percent
of working Americans held mining, manufacturing, or construction jobs.
Tinkering with machines came naturally. But by 2002, only 18 percent
of the nation's workforce did such hands-on work.
''Even those who work in manufacturing don't put their hands on
anymore," said Pretzer. ''They work at a keyboard."
Heathkit saw its customer base dwindle away. ''There was just a
tremendous drop in demand for kit business," said Donald Desrochers,
co-owner of Heathkit Co. He blames the plummeting cost of finished
electronic products. As late as the 1980s, consumers could save money
by building their own electronic gadgets. But a decade later, cheap
television sets, stereos, and computers were flooding the US market.
''By '95, it was time to get out and get out quick," said Desrochers.
Today Heathkit makes electronics education products for use in trade
schools.
But there are signs that a new generation of geeks is taking up
screwdrivers and soldering irons. After Fried published examples of
her electronic gadgets on the Internet, readers asked for help in
making their own. Now she and a friend run a small, profitable
business producing kits that let amateurs assemble audio synthesizers
and other electronic devices.
RadioShack, which like Heathkit abandoned its amateur electronics
business, is getting back into the game with the Vex Robotic Design
system, a build-it-yourself robot kit.
Vex was inspired by a high school science and technology competition
founded by New Hampshire resident Dean Kamen, inventor of the Segway
electric scooter. RadioShack cosponsors the competition to encourage
kids to pursue technology training. But because building a robot from
scratch is too tough for many youngsters, the company designed a kit
to simplify the process.
The $300 Vex system comes with a pile of parts, but only the most
elementary instructions. Users are shown just enough to help them
build a very simple robot. Then they're supposed to use any remaining
parts, and their own imaginations, to come up with original designs.
There are other signs of a gearhead revival. ''We did a piece recently
called Monster PC, where we built the biggest baddest computer we
could put together with off-the-shelf parts," said Glenn Derene,
associate editor of Popular Mechanics magazine. ''I think we got
something like 30,000 responses." Many came from readers seeking tips
on how they could assemble their own hot-rod PCs.
One of the nation's leading computer book publishers, O'Reilly Media
Inc., thinks this uptick of interest in self-made technology is more
than a passing fad. Indeed, O'Reilly has launched its first magazine
in hopes of cashing in on the trend. Called Make, the glossy quarterly
publication is crammed with articles and instructions on the making of
a great variety of gadgets. A recent issue features hobbyists who have
built their own versions of the Star Wars robots C-3PO and R2-D2.
But Make also offers simpler ideas, like how to control your home's
thermostat at night using a nightlight, an extension cord, and a piece
of kite string. Make editor Dale Dougherty came up with the idea for
the magazine in 2003. He'd expected to pick up 10,000 subscribers in
its first year. Instead, Make's most recent issue sold 50,000 copies,
half of them to subscribers.
Some hobbyists like to build practical gadgets for everyday use.
Others, like MIT robotics graduate students Dan Paluska, and Jessica
Banks and research scientist Jackbackrack, are driven by an artistic
urge. The trio built Fotron 2000. It's a tall cabinet that resembles
the photo booths in a gaming arcade. But with Fotron, the picture you
get is drawn by a robot that uses small lights to draw images on a
piece of Polaroid film.
Fotron has been exhibited in a New York exhibition about robots in the
arts. ''You can think of the robot as a painter or a sketch artist,"
Paluska said.
Banks, a former assistant to comedian and talk radio host Al Franken,
studied physics and creative writing at the University of Michigan. A
documentary about robots inspired her to enter the MIT robotics
program, where she's working on her doctorate. But in her spare time,
Banks works on Fotron and other electro-robotic gadgets. ''I tend to
just love to create," she said.
Make publisher Dougherty said a new focus on hands-on electronics
could inspire American youngsters who shun science and technology
education. He said that today's typical university science department
''tends to select kids who are good at abstract reasoning, rather than
kids who can build things." But Dougherty believes that given a set of
tools and a box of parts, almost anyone can become a Maker. ''Part of
it is more an attitude than an aptitude," he said. ''You go back to
Edison. . . . He just tried things over and over."
Hiawatha Bray can be reached at bray@globe.com.
Copyright 2006 Globe Newspaper Company.