Over the past week I’ve been playing with a couple of electronics projects that have been brewing in my mind for years. Electronics is incredibly accessible now, in every sense.

Platforms are relatively standardized - Arduino-compatible for embedded projects, Debian Linux (Raspberry Pi) for more complex projects. This means there are libraries and communities around these platforms - the knock-on of this is that people can use what they already know. Ruby, Python, PHP - all can be used to interface with external components.

I’m really excited about this. Programming is probably the most accessible form of engineering, and has been for my entire life. I learned to program BASIC using a library book and a BBC Micro that was lent to us by a family friend. I learned web development from tutorials posted online in the late 90s. The total cost of this was nothing, and minimal skills were required. Which was lucky because I had access to neither money nor skills.

I wanted to invent things since I was a kid. I’m a technical and smart person but electronics has been quite inaccessible. I couldn’t work out how to solder. Transistors were a complete mystery, no matter how many books I read.

But I think the biggest challenge was a huge gulf between tutorial projects (flashing LEDs, rain sensors) and building something useful. It’s very easy to lose interest when you can’t see any route between what you know, and what you want to make.

There are a lot of people who have made this huge leap in electronics accessibility over the past five years. Among them I’m most in awe of Limor Fried, aka ladyada.

Limor has contributed technically in developing wearable platforms and a vast number of accessories. But equally she has built a business in Adafruit which ties together manufacturing things (in NYC of all places!), selling worldwide, and then, and most importantly, teaching people how to use those things.

Products at Adafruit come with tutorials, Youtube videos, datasheets, and detailed descriptions of what they can be used for. And it’s not expensive.

Inventing is now affordable, accessible and available. I can’t wait to see what comes out of this in a few years time.