YouTube as a resource for Open Science Hardware

When working with Open Hardware, Google search will become your friend, whether you want it or not. Other search engines, such as DuckDuckGo won’t cut it (it is much harder to find what you are looking for, especially in cases where you don’t know all specific terms). Google is a fantastic tool to find answers. But if you are new in electronic development, and in programming, or even if you are going to work in a new subfield, you may not even know what you don’t know. What to search for if you don’t know what the problem or component is called? Here I’d like to suggest YouTube. You want to get involved with Arduinos and a interesting sensor. Go and search for ‘Arduino interesting sensor’ on YouTube. There are many videos, long and short, explaining in more or less depth, more or less funny, what you can expect, and more importantly what the used components  are called. I normally start by watching a few short videos to make sure that system is what I’m looking for. Afterwards, I look into several longer, deeper videos. You will get a great overview of components and alternatives regarding code and hardware.

Here I suggest some YouTube channels that constantly output good content, going across all kind of sensors, wireless communication as well as science and hacking in a more general sense. They can also be seen as evening entertainment, for me much better than dozing off to some soap opera.

ElectroBOOM

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJ0-OtVpF0wOKEqT2Z1HEtA

Mehdi Sadaghdar, the protagonist of this channel explains in a very unique way how not to get electrocuted in any possible way. It trains the viewer what to keep in mind when working with electronics. There are many ways to fry your circuit, he will show them all in a entertaining way. It seems repetitive after a whole but that will just help your brain to keep those bullet points!

GreatScott

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6mIxFTvXkWQVEHPsEdflzQ

Basic arduino and electronic projects, mosty day to day useful and very reproducible. His series  ‘Electronics Basics’ explains fantastically electronic components like transistors and diodes to name a few. Easy to digest and a lot can be learned.

Cody’s Lab

https://www.youtube.com/user/theCodyReeder/videos

Cody is the Nr 1 in entertaining education on YouTube. He does all kind of experiments from geology, chemistry biology to gardening and everything in between. His passion is infectious and his style not teachy at all, you just tag along a fun quarter hour of science and ideas.

Afrotechmods

https://www.youtube.com/user/Afrotechmods

A nice source for Arduino knowledge and inspiration! Great videos about basic electronics and some basic elements like power supplies, LEDs and transistors as well. There are well explained circuits about filters and op amps for example.

Marco Reps

https://www.youtube.com/user/reppesis/videos

A very diverse set of videos about electronics and hacking with great explanations. A good source for inspiration and entertainment, oscilloscopes, lasers and soldering are some of his main topics.

Applied Science

https://www.youtube.com/user/bkraz333/videos

IMHO the most advanced scientist on YouTube. X-ray, water cutter, electron microscopy and others, in depth explanation how he build or hacked several machines that seem way to complex / delicate to open up. His reverse engineering skills are helpful, it applies to how we could approach devices when we want to fix or understand them.

The Thought Emporium

https://www.youtube.com/user/TheChemlife/videos

A group of scientists hacking advanced scientific machinery with household items, listening to satellites, dry freezing, fluorescence dyes and how to become a cyborg.

The Post Apocalyptic Inventor

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDbWmfrwmzn1ZsGgrYRUxoA/videos

He hacks household items to harvest their motors and other hard to come by components. Lots of useful explanations on how to use metal working machines and how to build your own. A lot of entertainment around basic electronics.

Andreas Spiess

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCu7_D0o48KbfhpEohoP7YSQ/videos

THE source of information if you want to learn wireless communication with Arduinos. Andreas gives very well structured and explained lectures about the ESP32, an Arduino with WiFi and other wireless capabilities. He enlightens every aspect about hardware and software on this topic. There are also many videos about all kind of interesting sensors.

EEVblog

https://www.youtube.com/user/EEVblog/videos

I will be honest, the videos are really long and very deep and technical. But if you need some information on a specific topic and his channel has a relevant video, that video will contain all the information you will need. If you are already trying to get into PCB design, watch his videos, all of them, over and over again, you will pick up all the rules and tricks to keep im mind when designing yourself.

bitluni’s lab

https://www.youtube.com/user/bitlunislab/videos

Good videos about Arduino in the world of internet of things, making electronics in your house remote controlled and automatic will nicely translate into the lab as well.

AvE

https://www.youtube.com/user/arduinoversusevil/videos

Entertainment in the first place, but be aware of his potty mouth, not everyone likes it. If you do, keep on watching. He mostly dissembles power tools and evaluates their build with focus on the machine engineering side – is the housing sufficiently stable, and electronically, are the components capable of what the label advertises? After a good amount of videos you get a good grasp on how engineering works in general, how they think. He helps to understand that you don’t need to be afraid to open up devices if they break or if you want to interfere with them. there are patterns and regularities that make all those machines somewhat self explanatory.

ForceTronics

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNd_fNspAczm8UoE2ay7K1Q/videos

From easy to advanced and mostly around Arduino and PCB design, also really good videos about soldering including helpful tips on SMD soldering. All ind of tutorials about sensors and times, protocols and wifi stuff.

Tom Scott

https://www.youtube.com/user/enyay/videos

No Arduino, no electronics just science and curiosity. Short professionally produced videos about various topics space, computers, technology, science and more.

If you know all of that already …

KerryWong

https://www.youtube.com/user/KerryWongBlog/videos

Lots of interesting and exotic laboratory electronics testing equipment and some more basic videos.

TheSignalPath

https://www.youtube.com/user/TheSignalPathBlog/videos

Really professional high frequency stuff, loang and in depth. if you are into that or you just want to see realy sexy PCBs give it a go!