Comment by ageitgey | Hacker News Reader

Comment by ageitgey | Hacker News Reader

If you are burned out on AI, web, and SaaS, there's never been a better or more exciting time to get into using 3D printing, other types of home manufacturing, and embedded electronics to build real, physical devices.

Hardware is no longer "scary" - it's almost as easy as web dev now. 3D CAD software like Autodesk Fusion is quick and relatively easy to learn. 3D printers have fully transitioned from crazy nerd toys to affordable, reliable, easy-to-use devices for building real products. Laser cutters, CNC machines, etc., have gotten more accessible than ever. Embedded electronics platforms like ESP32s make it cheap and easy to build real products with modern features even if you don't know any electronics.

You can literally go on Amazon, order a fully self-contained ESP32 dev board with an embedded screen, wifi, usb-c, etc, for $15, design and 3D print an enclosure for it, and use ChatGPT to write a skeleton application for it in seconds. Without pulling out a soldering iron, you can have a GUI-driven custom device for tens of dollars. And if you don't have a 3D printer already, you can get a great one now for sub-$300. All in for $350 and a weekend or two of learning, you can be building custom hardware.

If you are feeling tired of programming but have always thought of hardware as something too far outside of your comfort zone or too much work to mess with, it really has changed. It's a lot of fun. Check it out!

It's really funny how many of the comments here mention 3D printing, I guess there must really be something to it! Thanks for your explanations as well, I didn't realise it had become that cheap (relatively speaking, of course). Never had the money to play with it when it came out but will definitely give it a go. Are second-hand printers a bad idea in general or is it safe?

3D printers have made so much progress in the last 1-2 years that rarely are second-hand printers a good deal unless you just get really lucky finding someone unloading a new model they just didn't use. And even then, you probably won't save very much.

If you are on a budget, buy a brand new Bambu A1 Mini for <$250. You'll get industry-leading quality and ease of use and have a great time. Or if you have a little more tolerance for messing around but want the most possible printer for your money, you can get an Elegoo Centauri Carbon for $300 (it's a cheaper knock-off of the higher-end Bambu P1S and X1C models).

The used market is flooded with cheap old 3D printers right now because the new crop of printers is so much better that the old crop of printers are essentially paperweights. Bambu came along and totally disrupted the market. If someone offers you an old Ender 3 even for free, don't take it. It's a waste of time unless you just want to learn 3D printer mechanics instead of actually printing things. It would be like someone giving you a free horse cart because everyone has moved to cars and they don't want to have to figure out how to get rid of it.

I have a friend who has been given 5 (5!) free Ender 3 printers. It's ruining his life, taken over his house, and he spends all his time not printing things. Just spend $250+ and get something modern.

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