Do you have abandoned projects?

[schmitt trigger]

During my over 50 years of electronics both as a profession and as a hobby, I have designed and built countless projects. With very limited occasions, where the project's budget has spiraled out of control or is taking way too long, I always complete my projects. Even if my original estimations proved to be too optimistic, or if the actual performance doesn't meet expectations, I complete the projects. After all, one gains more experience from difficult projects than the ones that work on the first attempt.

Nowadays however, I am on my third abandoned project on this year. After struggling with the troubleshooting or the assembly, I simply lose interest. Since this is a hobby, which is supposed to be a pleasurable endeavor, I don't pressure myself to complete it.
This doesn't mean that ideas don't keep coming, they do and plenty. I look at datasheets, search on the internet, fill my booklet with sketches. But right now I have imposed on myself a "project freeze" until I come out of this lethargy.

Have you suffered such a syndrome?
PLEASE NOTE: I have also posted this question on another forum.

 

[alec_t]

Have you suffered such a syndrome?

Not quite. I'm a bit of a hoarder and tend to acquire components and materials which 'might come in useful one day'. The problem is that despite coming up with project ideas, real life intervenes and projects never get off the drawing board.

 

[adrian-smith31]

I used to be a hoarder when I was younger and learning electronics and made lots of projects, most of which were pretty pointless. More of a learning exercise than anything else. I made a lot of test equipment projects which I didn't need abandoning an 8 digit frequency counter as I had no use for it. That was in the early 1990's - I still have some of this junk and when I was bored during lockdown I considered finishing the frequency counter. But now that cheap Chinese kits and modules are available for peanuts I didn't see the point.

I changed career for 20 years or so and returned back to electronics 6 years ago finding it's changed a lot. I try and see projects through now as a hobbyist but as my day job most projects get abandoned. Not many get finished even the one that did was only made in small quantities. That was a replacement controller board for an old obsolete LED matrix sign but after repairing 3 it was decided to just scrap the signs and replace with a cheap modern one we got made in China.

 

[rjenkinsgb]

Not generally totally abandoned, if it was anything more than a test rig, prototype or trying to prove or demonstrate some concept.

I tend to have a number of hobby projects running in tandem, waiting for time, parts availability or funds, or just ideas & inspiration to get past a problem. Some have been in progress for several years, including three different robots, with numerous boxes of parts accumulated..

Mostly, the nearest thing to being abandoned is if I realise I could have used a different approach or some fundamentally different method & restarted the same project in a different way, probably by cannibalising the previous version for some parts.

On the other hand, I have accumulated the end results, which sometimes I don't have any ideas what to do with after completion! eg. For one example, the four foot tall Van de Graaf machine parked in my living room... It produces very spectacular arcs when run, ~ 500,000V, but has zero practical use!

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

On the other hand, I have accumulated the end results, which sometimes I don't have any ideas what to do with after completion! eg. For one example, the four foot tall Van de Graaf machine parked in my living room... It produces very spectacular arcs when run, ~ 500,000V, but has zero practical use!

Back at school, in a physics lesson, the teacher got one of the girls (because she had longish hair) to stand on a tall stool so she was insulated, and place her hand on top of the dome - he then fired up the Van De Graff generator, and as expected, her hair nicely rose and stuck out in a nice sphere.

The teacher was then pacing about, explaining what was happening and why - unfortunately, he was one of those people who can't keep their arms still when lecturing, and he made the mistake of getting too close. His arm went up to nose level - and an arc jumped from the girls nose to the teachers finger. The teacher was thrown to the floor, the girl was thrown off the stool to the floor, and the Van De Graff generator went flying

Great fun in a physics lesson though

Looks a really nice construction job though, well done

 

[ZipZapOuch]

Have you suffered such a syndrome?

Yes, a lot of them. My ADHD was overcome at work with an excellent staff including an administrative assistant. At home, not so much. My hobbies turn great ideas into another half-finished project that I'll eventually say, "I should throw this away because I'll never finish it, but I just can't get myself to toss it, or disassemble the breadboard or use any of the parts I bought for the project, or... .

One day, I'll try the ADHD medication and finish everything in a week.

 

[Pommie]

Have you suffered such a syndrome?

I currently am (are?). I've recently agreed to make a project for a friend.
I've designed the boards and got them made - they arrived today.
Need to get motivated to write the code, I used to do this for fun but now find it a chore.
Think it might be an age/retirement thing. However, I've been retired over twenty years and it's only just started.

Mike.

 

[ZipZapOuch]

Think it might be an age/retirement thing. However, I've been retired over twenty years and it's only just started.

For 20-years and it's only started now? Did you retire when you were 40?

 

[Pommie]

For 20-years and it's only started now? Did you retire when you were 40?

44. Just before moving to Australia.

Mike.

 

[tepalia02]

Yes. Lots of. One I can still remember is a voice-controlled robot. That project was not fully abandoned, but that project could not be seen by outsiders. Seeing voice controller car projects, I started to make a miniature humanoid voice controlled talking robot. I designed the PCB around 5 times, the chassis was designed two or 3 times. Finally I left my job and that product never show up.

 

[bob4bvm]

Yes, it seems countless !
Problem is i never seem to clean up my electronics bench corner, so I have unfinished projects from as far back as the 70's
Bigger problem is, i cannot even identify what many of them were, my record keeping up there has been horrible i guess. But some of them have alot of work into them so they are still there just because of that/sentimental attachment maybe. Some i keep just to scavenge parts from. If anyone here needs an odd/obsolete part, let me know, I have lots of them
Cheers
Bob

 

[granddad]

I have old projects that don't have a final purpose or use , but just enjoy the challenge / interest required to build / code / solve my many mistakes. Currently a PIC18F57Q43 as a file server / monitor for a Z80 ( RC2014) board, Not sure if i have a syndrome ....

 

[Renfro]

I have suffered, from childhood, with the thoughts that my ideas will not only be too costly for me to realize but will also consume too much free time, a commodity that is as limited as my budget. I thus quickly dead end all projects right from conception and just enjoy my limited free time and money. Unless I am paid to do it, it won't get done.

 

[granddad]

free time, a commodity that is as limited as my budget

Both were perhaps the biggest damper on my early builds back in the 80's,(Hobby electronics was very expensive back then ) Early retirement helped with the time ,but then the budget got swallowed up with various DIY house improvements.

 

[Renfro]

... then the budget got swallowed up with various DIY house improvements.

Isn't that the truth! And I hear ya on the 80's. Just buying a good multimeter back then was easily a weeks pay, more like 2. I remember when World Radio in KCMO had their going out of business sale. $5 box you could fill with anything. I spent all my money haha

 

[andre luis]

Nowadays however, I am on my third abandoned project on this year. After struggling with the troubleshooting or the assembly, I simply lose interest. Since this is a hobby, which is supposed to be a pleasurable endeavor, I don't pressure myself to complete it.
This doesn't mean that ideas don't keep coming, they do and plenty. I look at datasheets, search on the internet, fill my booklet with sketches. But right now I have imposed on myself a "project freeze" until I come out of this lethargy.

Have you suffered such a syndrome?

I have been working full-time with electronics since I graduated almost 25 years ago, but not always exactly with what I preferred, and with a partnership with a long-time friend, we do part-time freelance works and then I have the bonus of doing what I like and getting paid for it; In this case, I don't think I can call it a hobby, as I have to deal with a lead time, but it ends up being a middle ground between the two professional and amateur worlds. And in this case, back to the topic, when abandoned, are not on my part, but on the client's side, I have no right of doing that...lol

 

[danielj]

Most of my projects these days revolve around circuit design and analysis with Spice software. When I design something that I decide I want to personally use, instead of publishing for hobbyist, I have a circuit board printed up for that purpose. I once imagined I would become involved in kit design for radio applications. however, getting others on board to help launch such a venture is not possible in these days like in the old days. That idea was abandoned. Despite that reality, I still like to explore new ideas and concepts, and work out their feasibility. Sometimes my ideas work, given enough examination, sometimes not. I however am pleased with the number of original ideas that work.

I might have abandoned some of my original designs from way back, but I keep copies of the Spice circuit diagram in my archives, since I come up sometimes with an idea that might work in those old projects. My original interest in LTSpice began when I wanted to explore how SDR radio hardware worked and used such things as dual d flip flop circuits, OP Amps, and balanced mixer IC circuits in those days. My best SDR hardware designs were via using Op Amps. I publish my circuits for hobbyist use in my groups when I have them worked out.

 

[ShawnR]

Wow. Apparently, I am not as unique as I thought I was...

 

[ZipZapOuch]

Wow. Apparently, I am not as unique as I thought I was...

Careful, people think they are unique when they want to be viewed as special, until "special" starts to imply "weird", then people want to believe they are normal.

 

[schmitt trigger]

Thanks everyone! All your responses have been therapeutic.