Building electronics for money
May 31, 2007 7:19 AM Subscribe
Is it possible to get work doing electronics assembly in your home, and if so, how do you go about finding it?
If you have the skills to build custom electronics, and the skills to market this, there might be some possibilities, but you will have to create them for yourself.
posted by yohko at 8:14 AM on May 31, 2007
posted by yohko at 8:14 AM on May 31, 2007
I think you'd have to be doing the work for individuals, not corporations; as SCDB says, they'd all be automated. There could be money in doing one-off assembly of circuits ordered by online hobbyists, especially if you can design them as well. Alternatively, I know of some people in my town who have made money "assembling" together game consoles and mod chips - may or may not be legal in your area, but it worked for them. You could also come up with some kind of electronic craft and sell that; I've often thought I would buy one of these, if it were available at a reasonable price.
posted by pocams at 8:21 AM on May 31, 2007
posted by pocams at 8:21 AM on May 31, 2007
Some very small companies don't use automated assembly for their custom electronics, so you may have some luck there.
posted by moira at 8:40 AM on May 31, 2007
posted by moira at 8:40 AM on May 31, 2007
If you're proficient with a soldering gun and able to read a circuit layout, there is a somewhat-small but growing market for "handmade" guitar effect pedals along with custom alterations to stock equipment. I have a friend who turns up about 50 to 100 dollars a week doing modifications and alterations to local players' pedals, all with basic resistors/capacitors/LEDs and guides that were either cheap or free online. He is pretty damn good at identifying exactly what sounds good and bad about a specific tone, however, which is a skill that only comes with time.
posted by Benjy at 8:54 AM on May 31, 2007
posted by Benjy at 8:54 AM on May 31, 2007
Actually I think this is possible, especially if you have good painting/finishing skills or know someone who does. There are a lot of people who are interested in "boutique" guitar effects pedals. There are plans for lots of those pedals out there and I know there are people who make a living either selling "kits" or fully assembled devices. The assembled versions can sell for anywhere between $50 and $150, the parts for them usually run around $25-30. I don't know how many you could turn out in a day, and you'd either have to find a market for them, or find someone to sell them for you.
This is just the one niche like that which I know about, there may be others. Think along the lines of customization, or building of fringe/non-manufactured items.
posted by RustyBrooks at 8:57 AM on May 31, 2007
This is just the one niche like that which I know about, there may be others. Think along the lines of customization, or building of fringe/non-manufactured items.
posted by RustyBrooks at 8:57 AM on May 31, 2007
Jinx.
posted by RustyBrooks at 8:58 AM on May 31, 2007
posted by RustyBrooks at 8:58 AM on May 31, 2007
>10 years ago I did pick'n'place work for a company that made burglar alarms. Completed boards were run through a solder tank. Some people took work home to complete on a per-board basis. A friend still works for a local company that loads boards by hand, but they do very fine work that, AFAIK, can't be easily automated.
I'd suggest hitting the local yellow pages and asking small, local electronics companies directly.
posted by Leon at 9:07 AM on May 31, 2007
I'd suggest hitting the local yellow pages and asking small, local electronics companies directly.
posted by Leon at 9:07 AM on May 31, 2007
Ditto what everyone else said. That being said, if you want to noodle with electronics, have some basic skills, and a good ear, you should look into circuit bending. I know people who make custom circuit bent toys and other stuff and sell them on ebay.
posted by cosmicbandito at 9:10 AM on May 31, 2007
posted by cosmicbandito at 9:10 AM on May 31, 2007
Some high end audio toys like tube amps might be hand assembled. I doubt they farm out the assembly to guys in their homes so you'd be out of luck. However, there's no reason you can't build your own tube amps and sell them for ungodly prices. Headphone amps would be another place to look. I know lots of people build Altoids headphone amps and then sell them on eBay.
posted by chairface at 9:59 AM on May 31, 2007
posted by chairface at 9:59 AM on May 31, 2007
PCB assemblies produced in large numbers are usually made using automated machines, but for small runs or cheap boards, hand assembly is still quite common. I've had a few (low volume, test-related) boards put together with manual labor in the past two years.
I don't know how the company I use does it, but I assume it's a large warehouse where everyone comes in to put in their eight hours.
To get work at home, maybe you could try advertising in hobbyist electronics magazines? There's an industry for hobby/cheap low volume PC boards, and these boards have to be assembled somehow. If you can beat the price of a larger company, you might find some work... I know I'd rather send off five PCBs and parts, if the price is right.
posted by lalas at 12:05 PM on May 31, 2007
I don't know how the company I use does it, but I assume it's a large warehouse where everyone comes in to put in their eight hours.
To get work at home, maybe you could try advertising in hobbyist electronics magazines? There's an industry for hobby/cheap low volume PC boards, and these boards have to be assembled somehow. If you can beat the price of a larger company, you might find some work... I know I'd rather send off five PCBs and parts, if the price is right.
posted by lalas at 12:05 PM on May 31, 2007
Get in touch with university physics departments. I got a job assembling electronics from my physics dept the summer after my freshman year. I definitely could have done it from home. In fact, it would have been safer because our office was in the basement and had poor ventilation.
In general, any department that requires custom electronics here has an electronics shop of some kind which takes specifications from the professors and designs one-of-a-kind solutions. Often the designers and the assemblers are one and the same, but you may be able to convince them that their lives will be better if you're assembling stuff for them.
The undergrad physics labs (like the ones used for lower-division lab classes) also ate up electronics like crazy because the kids fried them on a weekly basis. Guess who got to build new ones.
posted by crinklebat at 6:29 PM on May 31, 2007
In general, any department that requires custom electronics here has an electronics shop of some kind which takes specifications from the professors and designs one-of-a-kind solutions. Often the designers and the assemblers are one and the same, but you may be able to convince them that their lives will be better if you're assembling stuff for them.
The undergrad physics labs (like the ones used for lower-division lab classes) also ate up electronics like crazy because the kids fried them on a weekly basis. Guess who got to build new ones.
posted by crinklebat at 6:29 PM on May 31, 2007
Virtually all electronics assembly is automated.
Not really. You're thinking of the circuit board. Things like the wire soldering between the circuit board and battery case, and the, say, toy car's motor, etc, is done by hand. Although it's normally done on a production line in china.
As to the question, I have seen a lot of compex kits (rack-mount mp3 players, programmable robot controllers, etc) that are sold with two prices - $X unassembled, $Y pre-assembled, and it's obvious the kits are hand-assembled. Finding and contacting the sellers of those sorts of things may be fruitful.
posted by -harlequin- at 9:24 PM on May 31, 2007
Not really. You're thinking of the circuit board. Things like the wire soldering between the circuit board and battery case, and the, say, toy car's motor, etc, is done by hand. Although it's normally done on a production line in china.
As to the question, I have seen a lot of compex kits (rack-mount mp3 players, programmable robot controllers, etc) that are sold with two prices - $X unassembled, $Y pre-assembled, and it's obvious the kits are hand-assembled. Finding and contacting the sellers of those sorts of things may be fruitful.
posted by -harlequin- at 9:24 PM on May 31, 2007
This thread is closed to new comments.
I think you will have a very hard time finding anything like this -- and the odds are good that what you do find will be a scam.
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 7:32 AM on May 31, 2007