[turnip1979]

I'm a SW guy .. been mulling getting a job in hw at some point. I watch a lot of YouTube and do hw projects in my spare time. Is there something like sw boot camps for developing hw skills? I'm almost considering getting an ee bachelors or masters as a part time student.

[fake-name]

Not really, because hardware is not amenable to boot-camp style things.

Basically, hardware is way /way/ harder then software. Imagine software where each compile took multiple weeks, and cost lots of money (hundreds of dollars for the simplest of projects, to tens or even hundreds of thousands for really complex things). Changing the layout or design almost always involves a complete board respin.

There is no easy getting started (maybe arduino stuff, but there is SO MUCH horrible misinformation in the arduino communities), because the minimum functional system is a complete system. You basically have to get everything right the first time in hardware, or it won't work. The learning curve is more of a learning wall.

[ZenoArrow]

You're right that you couldn't do a 'boot camp' style short course and land an EE job, but it's not a hard as you make out if you set your sights lower.

To give one example, let's say you want to start out by making guitar pedals. There's a healthy market for boutique guitar pedals, plenty of existing designs available online that you can modify when starting out, and when you're ready to start making designs from scratch you're looking at stuff you can understand with entry level electronics knowledge. Furthermore, there's room to grow as your knowledge improves (can get into DSPs, for example).

[stillsut]

Can you specify what SO MUCH HORROR amounts to in the arduino community?

From reviewing these posts, it seems like EE spend most of their day frustrated trying to get the device to simply boot or do the simple thing. If there's a tool for beginners that snaps together and avoids these headaches, that seems valuable in itself, almost anti-HORROR.

[yoloswagins]

I got this in my inbox a few days. An Oakland, CA coworking space has an "Engineering Accelerator"[1] that they're doing on nights and weekends to help people do hw engineering. Not sure if it's 100% what you're looking for.

[1] http://www.engineeraccelerator.com/

[seanxh]

depend on what hw skill that you try to acquire, things like fabrication/device level design, antenna RF design/measurement etc, you have to go to university, because many of these topic require some very expensive equipments to gain the hand on exp, but not necessary truth for like something like digital circuit design