Why I Chose To Design Custom Electronics

Here's a good example of one of the reasons(video).

That showed up in my email inbox from a subscription I've got to the Creator's newsletter. I'm quite glad it did show up, because it confirms my theories on why struggling through hardware development is actually the better, albeit, more challenging path. I've worked with software for as long as I can remember, and even struggled my way through developing some of my own a few times. It was beyond tedious for me to even learn the basics at that time in my life. Once I saw the power of good software, I was very excited. Over the years though, I've lost some of that excitement for software development. I decided that basically anyone can develop software, I don't like the process very much, and I can be doing more effective work with my time. I settled on electronic hardware development as my end goal a little while ago. The story behind that decision goes back as far as I can remember.

When I was a small child, maybe around 5 years old, I got in quite a lot of trouble for tearing apart the brand new VCR my Mother had just bought. I used the right screwdriver at least, but I still had opened up and taken apart a very expensive piece of equipment. I just wanted to know what was inside and how it worked. Once I saw the circuit boards inside, I was intrigued but also disappointed. I knew that I had no chance of understanding how all those tiny little pieces made a cassette tape display video on the TV or play sound through the speakers. I got it back together and working, but I couldn't forget about what seemed like pure magic inside of that black box. 

A few years later, I ripped apart a motorized toy of some sort and discovered that you could hook a small electric motor to the headphone output of a CD player and actually hear music from it. More magic. I also discovered that hooking two motors' wires together and spinning one would spin the other. I stumbled upon the fact that a motor could also act as a generator. I didn't know that's what was happening at the time though. Even more magic.

Those, and many more experiences like them, were very satisfying to me because I wanted to work in the physical world. Software is fascinating to me, but not as satisfying as something physical that can move and interact with the world. Something you can touch.

In 2020, I decided that I wanted a modern cartridge based computer system that worked like the old computers and game consoles of my early childhood. The kind where you just insert the cartridge, turn the machine on, and it just does one thing. Either playing a game or loading a program to get some work done. I spent quite a while trying to find a way to do this that wasn't just booting Linux from a flash drive, but came up with nothing. I decided to buy a Raspberry Pi 400 computer and start researching ways to make it boot from the 40 GPIO pins on the back, instead of the SD card or USB flash drive. I was not successful there, even after 5 years of tinkering with it in the background. I was able to narrow down exactly why it wasn't possible, which was good enough for me. In late 2025, I finally found a solution that would work and started research and development on the system. I enjoyed the work and process so much that I decided to start this website and my business. That led me to send countless hours using a custom built industrial computer system as my main computer. I created this website on it, tested and played countless games on it, and even wrote all of the development notes and documentation on it.

That brings me to today, where I've got multiple test systems, in various configurations, and over 55 pages of detailed development notes from the very beginning of the project. The goal is to have a rugged and capable computer system that can load from a rugged data cartridge, and just do a single task very well. Whether it be playing a game, loading up a word processor to create a distraction free writing environment, or loading circuit board or software design programs, I just need a simple, reliable, distraction free computer system to help me manage life and projects. It doesn't exist, so I decided to create it myself, for myself. I got so much interest over the years that I decided to start a company to bring such things to life. I've had multiple projects gain quite a following over the years, with people telling me they wish they could just buy these things and use them. I ignored it all for years, until I couldn't anymore. Now I'm here, working on building a business that creates practical solutions to legitimate problems that no one else seems to be solving. Computer hardware is a great category to solve these problems in. There are endless free and open source designs for things like vintage computer upgrades, but quite often there exists no way to just buy them. I plan to start by offering select hardware products for sale at small scales to those who really want them, while I work on my custom designs. Eventually, I'll offer a range of my own custom solutions to problems no one seems to be solving. 

This post was inspired by the email newsletter I got this evening, and it got me even more excited to start the hard and tedious work of designing custom electronics once again. It's a multi year learning process for me, but I'm enjoying it and the rewards of solving problems for others are great. I never got this excited about software development, so I'm glad I went with my instinct and decided to focus on hardware development. I've found that ignoring your gut instinct is a great way to ruin your life at times. Unless your gut instinct is very poorly developed, it's probably best to trust it. Even if it tells you to take the harder path in life. Those hard paths are where the most valuable life lessons lie.