askchapo

it's all just tinkering, time, and access to materials

often recycled or street found materials if you're in a city. you can go a long way these days with the shit people don't see value in anymore. I have a wall of dormant computers, I paid for maybe 2 of them in the ~20 years I've been collecting and scavenging them.

that said the newer shit, middle-gen raspberry pi type arm boards etc are fucking fantastic for low power devices. certain types of old android tablets and phones are especially useful for repurposing as control interfaces. when stuff breaks I take it apart and salvage shit. I just launched a street-found nano drone that had been discarded because of its dead battery using a logitech wireless keyboard's lipo into my wall and broke a prop because I was being careless. but it was funny so it was worth it. the personal self defense drone project will continue lol

the real battle is in the mind. do you really want to do something COOL in CURRENT YEAR and not document it, monetize it etc. Obviously yes, but my point is there's a lot of implicit pressure to be visible, to gain recognition, to make money, etc that make the hegemonic platforms attractive and fighting those base impulses is fucking hard when money is a potential (if, tbh, unlikely) outcome of joining the masses in the walled gardens.