What to develop?

[Hypnotize]

Hi, I am an electrical engineer with 5 years experience. I work as an application engineer in motion control business. I want to use my free time on weekends to develop something on my own and then turn this idea/ development into something big. I have an open mind and I am a quick learner. I have patience and I know it can take years to accomplish.
What area would you guys suggest I emphasize on? What field of electronics can be said to be a goldmine? alternative energy? microelectronics? fiber optics? maybe develop a card of some sort that implements a smart algorithm?

Just looking for directions, I know patented ideas will not be given for free here.
Thanks! any idea is welcome....

 

[Papabravo]

My advice to you is to forget trying to hit a technology home run. In addition please remove the idea from your mind of getting a patent for any idea that you come up with. Enough with the negativity, what's the constructive message.

Spend your time acquiring the skills it will take to start and run a company. Then build a few and sell a few. Spend <= $0.00 on attorneys! Learn accounting and finance. Learn marketing. Start building a rolodex of contacts. Ultimately, you will be unable to do every job in a company but it helps if you know something about them so you can find good people when the time comes. Do these things and the technology will come to you. You might not get rich doing this, but your chances of success are greatly improved. The two biggest business killers are wasting time on unproductive activities, and slow stupid failure.

 

[Paul Obrien]

I say go for alternative energy, stick a few wires in a box, claim it improves fuel economy and wait for the money to roll in.

 

[RadioRon]

I've been thinking that small scale power generation for the home/farm/boat owner would be a good area to work in. Common fuels are going up in price all the time while at the same time technologies to generate power (like solar, wind, wave, kinetic energy etc.) are getting better. Its only a matter of time before every homeowner will seriously consider some in-house power generation.

 

[Paul Obrien]

Yes, it's terrible to have scruples. I've live on properties where you had to generate your own power diesel generators, wind power and solar were used and that was in the early 70's. Things have come a long way since then, our Gov gives a rebate of up to abt $5000 if we install solar panels but it doesn't even come close to real cost of installing a system.

 

[ThermalRunaway]

I think RF Electronics is a good area to go into, mainly because it'll always be needed - especially by the military. Unfortunately for me, I don't find RF Electronics as interesting as other areas, so I tend to concentrate elsewhere!

Brian