Edit: so it turns out that every hobby can be expensive if you do it long enough.
Also I love how you talk about your hobby as some addicts.
Has there already grown a noteworthy Arduino/ESP Community on Lemmy?
Music production. You start with pirated FL Studio and sone freeware plugins and the next thing you know is you’re planing your hone studio with room treatment, expensive monitors, an expensive interface, aonther evrn more expensive interface, that one vintage compressor you absolutely need, a tape machine, and then you want I synthesizer, just a small, versaitle one, and next thing you know is you’re buying the second euro rack for your mod synth because there wasn’t enough space in the first one, because you need that one filter, and since you got lots of free slots now, why not buy some more fx. Fx can’t hurt, right? And maybe one oscillator, you always wanted a fifth one…
Can you elaborate?
Electronics / microcontrollers.
Took just a few months to go from, “I can make a wifi connected weather station for like $20 in components!?” to “oscilloscopes cost how much?”
I would love to read about this $20 weather station! Do you maybe have a link?
Mine is pretty basic but is built on the shoulders of giants. Also that $20 was from pre-pandemic / pre-chip shortage prices. I’m guessing it’s more like $35 now, or maybe high $20s from ali express.
I use Home Assistant for home automation. It has a now official addon called ESPHome for easily configuring esp devices and adding them to Home Assistant.
I bought some cheap dev boards off amazon and thankfully they worked an esp8266 microcontroller with IC2 headers and a microusb port already onboard a bmp280 that measures temp, humidity, and barometric pressure a lux sensor with a plastic dome over the top I soldered them together on a prototyping boardAll the components were supported by esphome, so I just needed to write the device config and then flash the devboard via esphome (in a web browser) over the built in usb.
I 3d printed a housing for it, but you can also buy boxes. It needs airflow but also needs to stay dry. You can use a spray sealant to help avoid corrosion from ambient humidity. I skipped that step because I want to see how quickly it becomes problematic… and I should probably check on that.
Just an fyi bmp280 is not real temperature but an estimation based on air pressure.
I’m really happy I don’t have enough space for that stuff. Otherwise I would be poor. It’s hard enough to keep myself from buying another old computer.
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You can get a cheap oscilloscope that uses USB and your computer. https://www.sainsmart.com/products/sainsmart-dds-140-40m-200m-s-virtual-oscilloscope-logic-analyzer
Not that I have an electronics problem
Lol I feel ya. I ended up making and selling electronics kits to fund the hobby somewhat.
I have been using cheap vintage oscilloscopes the whole time.
Not sure what they go for now but $100 for a 20MHz scope and $200 for a 100MHz was what it was several years ago. Cheapest I got off a buddy for $40. I am still using that one.
Sometimes I fix broken ones and sell them. One time I got one that they thought was broken but turned out it was just the basic settings. I like trying different ones so I have gone through a dozen or so by now.
Now* that I think about it, o-scopes are a whole other hobby lol.
Anyway. Yeah by the time you get the test gear and enough sensors and microcontrollers and whatever it adds up.
Right now I’m working on a power supply design for a 50W class D stereo. Found out big toroidal transformers are not cheap. Oof. And enclosures big enough (especially if labeled “amplifier” or “stereo”) are ridiculously spendy.
My next project is to make an oscilloscope clock
This sounds like the point where you dive into the next rabbit hole of making enclures. At least I could see that happening.
I’m looking to make some wooden enclosures for some things myself.
Just be careful or you might go fullDIY Perks after long
Erk. I got into this. What’s the tipping point that gets you eyeing oscilloscopes? I’m at the fiddly smd stage.
My next step is custom boards and smds, and an oscilloscope seems like a good way to diagnose when reflow goes wrong. I already have had some fights with I2C using dev boards. But really I’m eyeing one because I have allusions about doing fine calibration on analog sensors.
I should add that I’ve been talking myself out of an oscilloscope for 2+ years now. I don’t REALLY need one.
yeah I got a fancy lab power supply but stopped at oscilloscopes, those things are expensive.
it’s still cheap and fun to do a lot of stuff, but now I wanna build a sound-card based oscilloscope.
Self-hosting apps / homelab
Getting used enterprise gear is not prohibitively expensive, but the electric bills balloon very quickly.
I currently bought an old desktop from a friend that I use as my Homeserver.
- I bought 3 HDDs for storage
- I rent a VPS
- I rented Proton to host mail for my domain, but switched to netcup groupware because that sucked.
- Some domains
- Electricity
Wow I thought it was way more.
One time costs: ~500€ Monthly costs: ~15€ Plus electricity, but I have solar. I assume it’s about 150€/year
But I’m a cheap selfhosted, but eventually, I will have a huge ass Enterprise Level Rack in my basement.
We need a r/homeDatacenter on lemmy!
Would be cool if we found some kind of use for the community of people that likes to host network infrastructure. We could be a cdn or share compute, with the power of the federation!
I ran a “midrange” Sun at home for about ten years. The electric bill was painful, but I never had to turn on the heat in the winter.
But the summers :(
27°C at home during the hotter days was atrocious.Yeah, hot days were bad.
I’m glad I quickly stopped “homelab” after my old laptop that I used as a server in a cupboard died. Switched to a rented root server for all my selfhosting needs since.
Yep. Half height rack, a couple servers, UPS, switch, etc.
And I still keep looking at used gear. Being in Silicon Valley there is always a deal to be had.
Coffee.
I blame James Hoffman entirely.
Within a year I went from:
Drinking instant coffee at home, but really enjoying “proper coffee” To Buying a cafetiere (~£15) + preground coffee To Buying a Nespresso (~£60 on offer) + pods To Buying a budget espresso machine (~£120) + preground coffee To Wasting my money on a cheap manual coffee grinder (~£50) + beans To Immediately replacing it with an entry level Sage grinder (~£170) To Buying an entry Level “proper” espresso machine (~£700)
It took me a good 2-3 weeks of practicing and dialling in before pulling a good shot of coffee that I’d actually want to drink, but by that point it was also about learning a new skill, learning how different aspects of the process affect the end result and learning how to make all sorts of different espresso-based drinks.
My girlfriend thought I was nuts at first, but a year or so later even she agrees it was worth the investment. I still for the life of me can’t get the hang of latte art though.
The problem is now though that I’m a waaaay more critical of coffee from coffee shops, because I spent a long time making bad coffee whilst learning!
Similar but different : tea! You go from cheap bagged tea to going down the rabbit hole of loose leaf variations, temp control kettles, brewing vessels and brewing styles.
Have you reached the gaiwan stage already?
I have! …then full circle back to grandpa style. I still use a gaiwan from time to time on the weekend but I like bringing a container up with me at my desk without needing to refill constantly.
I agree but disagree on it being expensive.
I have a temp controlled kettle that only cost like $40, some really nice french presses from thrift stores, and a couple really nice pots ranging from iron to ceramic but they were a one time cost about 10 years ago.
You can cold brew tea in a big mason jar and strain with a dollar store strainer even.
The scale for weighing was expensive but is super useful in a kitchen anyways.
So the expensive part of Tea is mostly just the tea but that varies all over and is down to taste preferences and marketing. And per glass is pretty negligible in cost. As long as you aren’t buying like the aged fermented monkey picked stuff.
Tea is a lot about patience and remembering organization of steps to get it perfect and that can be prohibitive but not cost if you don’t want it to be.
You raise good points. The expensive part for me was the discovery aspect. Once you know what you like it’s not bad but the learning part…trying all the different greens and oolongs and pu’er and black teas - that was a little nuts at the beginning.
Now I have about 10 varieties that I like for different occasions and I stick to those and it’s not too bad.
Biggest splurge for me was an ember mug. Im a little embarrassed by how expensive it was, but honestly no regrets. Perfect temp tea for hours.
Nice! Never be ashamed of a purchase you actually use.
But yeah I still spend money trying a different tea flavor all the time but I know where and what my cheap Chinese greens are and have to make my own English breakfast tea but that’s because I’m not importing stuff and it’s easy enough for a flavor I can’t get otherwise
Espresso is the line I won’t let myself cross (and I don’t have the counter space lol), but the $350 for the Kinu M47 was hard to swallow.
Plus side, it’s also a great espresso grinder if I do ever eventually head down that road.
Me too. Besides, I have just enough space for my AeroPress. Gettin a machine of any type would make it difficult for me to do other things in my small kitchen.
Besides, I’m not entirely sure I would appreciate the flavors I can get out of coffee using an espresso machine. I’ve tried a bunch of different drinks at several cafes and I just don’t see the value in owning a machine like that. AP coffee is just fine or even really good as long as you use the right type of beans.
Aww cmon, you might be able to find a used flair lever machine for under $100 like I did, and then it’s game over
Don’t forget to get that pretty Fellow Stag just because it is pretty and no other reason whatsoever
I genuinely almost did!
We will get it eventually, we’re just delaying the inevitable. hahah
Time to start roasting your own coffee!
That is the next level in this hobby.
It’s actually quite easy. I wrote a post about this a while back: https://sh.itjust.works/post/2040870
I like coffee but don’t consider it a hobby. I just started roasting my own because it gave me more control/variation and green coffee is cheaper.
What’s your " proper" espresso machine?
Sage Barista Pro. Definitely an entry level machine, but I’m very happy with it… I’m not invested enough to go for a dual boiler or higher end machine quite yet - They start to get very big and very expensive very quickly, and I have limited space.
I have an ECM Classika. Though when I get a house I want to replace it with a Decent :x
Not op, but ours is a Lelit Elizabeth dual boiler. Not cheap but I expect it to last like our Gaggia Espresso Deluxe did, about 15 years. I could’ve gotten away with a single boiler, truth be told but the ability to preinfuse (in a somewhat proper way) depends on it. Non negotiable was the PID temp control. Timed shots is nice to have.
But really I could’ve spent more on the grinder and less on the machine. The grinder I first got wasn’t up to the task of espresso. Didn’t have the range of settings and the grind quality was subpar. Had to get one a year later (grr) and settled on the Eureka Mignon Silencio. The flavor profile is so much clearer (this was obvious from the first shot I made with it) due to grind quality and it has stepless adjustment. So I can dial in the shot pretty well. Timed grind is nice too.
But damn what a lot of money for all this. Still worth it. It’s not much over 10-15 y. And it pays for itself quickly. I can have an espresso drink every day that is far better than many places offer and it costs significantly less even for the super expensive, fancy beans.
I can’t believe I answered “board games” to this before. Yes, espresso wins it over. I just got an espresso machine for my 10th anniversary (price too high for me to be willing to admit). And here I have a wishlist of $500+ in “devices” for it.
Like you, I’m about 3 weeks in and just now getting my burr grind just right for that perfect 26s shot. Luckily my vendor was giving out a free badass scale. It keeps telling me how bad my shot is.
I still for the life of me can’t get the hang of latte art though.
Ditto. I just got my first “correct emulsified foam” today. Usually I end up with hot milk with hot whipped milk on top.
Also would like to know the machine you went with, you’re quoting GBP so same country
Sage Barista Pro. Really happy with it to be fair.
It goes on sale fairly often so you could save £100 or more on the price I quoted.
If you don’t want to splash out too much to start with, I can highly recommend the Beko bean to cup machine for about 250. I’ve had mine three years now and it produces better coffee than any shop
It took me a good 2-3 weeks of practicing and dialling in before pulling a good shot of coffee that I’d actually want to drink,
Could you elaborate? I’m a chef so I’ve helped myself to a fair few coffees from the big espresso machines and I’ve found it easy every time, and the coffee very potable indeed. Just haven’t got the hang of foaming milk yet.
I’m still learning myself, but it’s potentially because the machines are already warmed up and the grinder is “dialled in” for the beans on offer. One very important aspect (among other things such as temperature, pressure etc) with espresso is the grind size, which will need adjusting between different bean types and roasts. Everything else being equal, a grind that’s too coarse will let the water through too quickly and give you an under-extracted “sour” tasting coffee, whereas too fine and you end up overextracting (and/or choking the machine) and it gets very astringent and bitter tasting; not pleasant at all.
Alternatively, they could be using a pressurised portafilter, which give much more consistent results, but do take away some control and limit the end result. If it’s a high end machine though it’s probably an unpressured filter basket.
Edit: Also the roast makes a big difference to how difficult it is to pull a good tasting espresso. Many restaurants/ chains use fairly dark roasted beans which are generally a lot more forgiving than lighter roasts. At least that’s been my experience.
Before diving into this hobby I was worried that I might not be able to tolerate the type of coffee that happens to be available to me at some random gas station or cafe along the way. That hasn’t been a problem for me yet, but how about you?
Having spent some time experimenting with my AeroPress, I have learned to notice some basic flavors and notes, but I wouldn’t call myself a experienced coffee taster yet. I can tell the difference between light and dark roast. Trying to tell the difference between two expensive coffees is usually very difficult for me, so I guess gettin an espresso machine might not be worth it yet.
I might not be able to tolerate the type of coffee that happens to be available to me at some random gas station or cafe along the way. That hasn’t been a problem for me yet, but how about you?
Not really been an issue for me either. I’d say I notice more now when a coffee is slightly under/over extracted, but I’d probably have noticed it tasted 'weird" before and just not known what was wrong. That said, I’ve found it to be very rare. A lot of places just use quite forgiving dark roasts that are a LOT easier to make than more lightly roasted beans.
Oh, so that’s why I can’t seem to find any cafe making good light roast. Every place seems to love dark roast, super dark roast, ultra-mega-hyper-dark-still-smoking-black-hole-shade roast.
About a month a go I went to my local cafe and asked if they’re selling coffee beans. They had some options, so I bought a bag of their lightest. Back home I tried it out and it tasted rather dark to me. I compared it with a cheap store brand that is labeled as roast level 1, and the taste difference was significant. Their lightest is probably like level 3 or 4, which is nowhere near what I’m looking for.
This is why I appreciate my “tea hobby”. For minimal investment, you can get a lot of bang out of your buck, and it doesn’t need to go as hog-wild as fancy coffee or wine or beer.
Dry loose leaf tea is just relatively cheap to be snobby over, compared to coffee and other things.
Get an electric kettle for $40-70, a $20 teapot…and you won’t spend more than $100-$200 year for some tea (if you drink a LOT of it) that is head and shoulders better than ANYTHING in the grocery store.
Like, you can have a giant improvement in the quality of your tea for not too much.
You CAN go hog-wild and spend lots and lots…there are fancy expensive teas to be had…but even if you don’t it’s still way better than grocery store teabags.
I do enjoy my tea… I think it might be my next rabbit hole to go down. I just got back from a business trip to China, and was gifted a few different black and green teas, loose and bagged. Really enjoying them so far.
I really want one of their…uh… Tea tables(?), which has a tap and temperature controlled kettle and drain built in. I’d drink so much tea…
Mechanical keyboards. The next one is my endgame, I swear. Just one more groupbuy for those keycaps. It never truly ends.
That’ll only happen if you build your own boards and stuff. Not like me! I just got a simple Moonlander with some custom keycaps, dampeners, and red switches rather than my initial brown. After that, I realised that the Kinesis Advantage 360 is the way to go, so I’m fully settled now, not like everyone else … right?
I’ve had the Advantage360 for 6 months or so and it’s life changing when typing for 10 hours a day. Haven’t gotten around to relearning on Dvorak or Colmak layout as I learnt qwerty on the 360 first.
And then it turns out some horrendously ugly piece of plastic (like the Kinesis Advantage 360) is better for actually using.
thats what I thought when I built my quefrency, then rev 5 came out, then now rev 6 is coming out, now I have my first proto* one I built lying around, and I have a rev 4 at home and a rev 5 at the office for work, need to figure out how Im going to get that rev 6, each one I build better than the last even though I thought my second one was going to be my end game haha
Ditto on that. Thought I was content with my first ergo but one thing after another led to an artisan keyboard with CNC backplates and plates, 2 year long group buys, and artisans to match the whole theme that costs the same as the keyboard. At this point I’m so far in the hole that my artisan keycap collection cost more than my keyboard collection.
It’s just another one of those hobbies that has many moving parts so you can optimize and personalize each part.
One IBM Model M that I got for free and I’m set for life.
mechanical keyboards go two ways, you start shelling out for way overpriced cncd metal or wacky boards or you become a pcb designer and make a board that could be used for camping
My first “good” keyboard is my current one, which is a Ducky One 2 Mini with MX Cherry Browns I bought really cheap 2nd hand. It has been almost 2 years I’ve been using it and I recently got a coiled cable for it. I was cleaning it the last time and I started to wonder how hard it would be if I wanted to change my switches and fell into a hole where now I want to desolder everything and install sockets. My spouse got lubs for his stabilizers (he has a Filco Majestouch 2 Ninja with MX Cherry Blues) after watching a few videos… We just started diving into this deeper and deeper after using keyboards from the time cherry still had the patent up for so long. Yeah, we are screwed.
I never got the appeal of mechanical keyboards. If you actually have to type all day, a proper flat keyboard like in the old MacBooks ('09-ish) is way nicer and costs much less.
That’s extremely subjective. I definitely don’t feel like flat keyboards are nicer. These days I use a split keyboard with an angle and I will never go back.
Your experience is not universal. I type all day and if a client/employer gave me one of those flat keyboards I would quickly quit and go dig ditches instead.
I bought myself a raspberry pi for my birthday a few years ago.
I now have thousands of dollars in hardware sitting in a server rack in my office. Whoops.
Running.
Was supposed to be the cheapest way to get exercise. You can do it right from your front door, no gym subscriptions, no specialized equipment (some people will tell you you don’t even need shoes), and it’s far and away the best time-value exercise I’ve ever found. You can get away with like 20 minutes 3-4 times a week and be doing great.
Well, turns out I love running and I love distance running so I’m now putting up enough miles to need new shoes 2-3 times a year, a nice Garmin smart watch and heart rate monitor to track my progress, sign-ups for several long-distance races each year, shorts, socks, you get the picture.
Could I do it cheaper? Yeah. But at the end of the day it’s a hobby and I like it
This is not the first post where I feel it but I love it so much that we have a lot of people on Lemmy that can talk about things not related to computers!
Growing cannabis (legal here in Canada)
…anyone can grow weed. Growing GOOD weed is an art.
I unintentionally grow weed because I made some tincture for grandma.
Now it just grows on my garden and I can’t get rid of it.
One of it’s many nicknames is ditchweed for a reason. It’s a weed like any other. The US spends millions per year burning it out of ditches on the side of the road all around the country.
I’d be happy to burn it for them!
A little bit at a time!
We call it “The Granny choice” variety.
And trust me it is horrible, for tinctures it is great, but for anything else not.
In Germany we will be allowed to grow some for private use come next year. I have no idea what to get yet, but I will just plant it in a planter in the garden and hope that it works I guess :D
I hope you’ll be able to get seeds and strains imported from the US and Canada. I smoked weed in Germany while I was living there in 2015 a few times and it was the worst weed I’ve ever smoked. It tasted weird, smelled bad, and didn’t even get me high. When I asked someone about it they were just like “weed isn’t as strong here as it is in the U.S.”
There are European based seed banks. Also they share a border with the Netherlands.
I think that’s still up for debate. Let’s see. But I haven’t been smoking for quite some time, so maybe my first batch is fine being on the weak side
Have you smoked outside of Germany? I only ever smoked in Germany so I don’t know how it is anywhere else in Europe so maybe my experience is the problem, but I have friends who have come to the US and said weed is way stronger here.
No, only ever smoked in Germany. That would explain how it is shown in american media
Thats growing weed.
Any tips for good weed?
If you can grow indoor and force into flower (8 to 12 hours per day light and lower the temp a bit) that will give you the most consistent crops. Bugs are likely the number one problem particularly with normal soil grown plants. I recommend doing smaller shorter grows but more per year. The shorter grows time means less likely you will have an infestation problem. Well mean smaller harvests but you can do more per year. This kind of control requires a location you can entirely remove any light sources but your grow lights.
Overall it is really hard to kill a weed plant. They grow like a weed. Thus the name. In my case, I able leave them in the grow stage for a month then flip the lights to 10 hours days to force flowering. At that point they might be a foot high but even in flower they will grow another 3 feet over the next two months. Clean out any dead or crappy branches. Also at some point about half way thru I start to remove bottom leaves and thin out a bit. 90 percent of your harvest will be from the top. They will get super sticky if you do it right. Leaves on the bottom typically get little light and use up energy. Stressing your plant is part of the cycle. Basically the low light and leaves being cut off tells the plant fall is coming and I am struggling a bit so start to flower heavily to carry on my species.
And for God’s sake, don’t over fertilizer. Most soils are good by themself or only require a small amount of nutrients. I don’t know how many people grew but get these crappy returns as they over fertilizer and as it hurts their growth, they keep think even more will make it better.
Anyhow this is just part of a good crop advice. Lots of videos. Mostly keep a clean room and other than water and a bit of love, you will get good crops.
Forgot one thing. Get feminized seeds. You can’t have males. You don’t even want your neighbors to have males. Burn their house.
“You don’t even want your neighbors to have males. Burn their house.”
This is actually quite reasonable, IMO.
(No. Please don’t actually!)
2000 into my fully automated hydroponic weed factory. Another 500 to make my nutrient solutions from scratch. Mind you that 500 dollars when making from scratch likely last 20 years of crops. It does make a good 1.5 pounds of dry weed every 3 to 4 months with the for legal plants allowed in Canada. I barely smoke so give nearly all away.
Three year prior, harvested a crop down right before going to Mexico for three month trip. Was still some shoots barely growing so for shits and giggles I turn the lights back to 22 hours per day to see if they would go back to the veg state. Have camera so can watch it remotely. Shit starts fully growing like a new plant. Anyhow COVID puts a wrinkle in my return. Ended up in Mexico for 18 months. Over that time, thing kept growing like nuts. Automation on water replacement and nutrient injection along with pH monitoring. Became sort of a how long can this thing go with near zero human intervention. Had only to send my brother in law in three times to cut it down and refill my nutrient injectors from solutions I made before leaving.
Board games. Things get expensive once you start collecting
Coffee. I’m in a coffee producing country. It could be as cheap as grabbing a bag from the coffee institute (really good and cheap), a cloth filter and call it a day. Instead, I’m on my second espresso machine, fourth grinder, second portafilter set, and have all the doodads to make it just how I like it.
Tabletop RPG. I started in High school, you need only paper a pen and a set of dice, right ? All the rules can be found online anyway, right ?
But it’s so much better to have the physical books. And you need more than one dice of each obviously. And this nice metal dice looks very good. I obviously need different set of dice with colors pattern that match my different characters.
Speaking of characters, I need mini. I could get the cheap basic one of course, but the lead ones looks sooo much better.
And I obviously need custom models for all my characters.
Several years later, with a disposable income and I added maps, tokens, terrains, cards, ect. Even a tablet that I use only for this. I’m now limited by the storage place available in my flat (maybe for my own good).
I have autism and ADHD, so all of them:
- Cycling
- Bicycle touring
- Skateboarding
- Vert Skateboarding
- Freestyle Skateboarding
- Retro Video Gaming
- Drawing
- Reading
- Programming and Raspberry Pi’s
That’s only my 30’s which is the last 4 years. Hobbies for me are normally short and fierce obsessions when I start, they eventually slow down into a more ‘normal’ pasttime that I do sometimes to past the time.
