On the newest episode of PROCEPTION Dwell, hosted by Hackster PRO Robert Wolff, we took a deep dive into the inventive orbit of Dr. Jon Durant, identified on-line as Dr. Jon EA — whose journey from enterprise IT architect to beloved maker and YouTuber is nothing in need of inspirational.
Dr. Durant joined us on his birthday (sure, actually), bringing not simply years of technical depth however a gallery of pleasant tasks that mix engineering prowess with playful invention. His specialty? Making complicated issues really feel inside attain, and reminding us that constructing is meant to be enjoyable.
From architect to maker-educator
After a long time in company IT serving to companies view expertise as a strategic asset, not only a value middle, Dr. Durant pivoted towards one thing extra hands-on and community-driven. He launched a sequence of Udemy programs on IT structure, however quickly discovered his actual ardour: embedded methods, Raspberry Pi, and sharing tasks on-line to assist others construct and study.
He’s now a full-time content material creator, producing participating tutorials and quirky tech builds that bridge the hole between severe engineering and weekend tinkering.
Initiatives on show
In the course of the stream, Dr. Durant showcased a number of standout builds:
- Pixel Ring: A 24-LED WS2812 ring animation venture powered by Raspberry Pi Pico, easy, glowy enjoyable, good for dwell demos.
- The Halloween Cranium: Twin RP2040s behind eerie eye actions utilizing UART and Waveshare shows, all crammed right into a creepy 3D-printed cranium.
- Rex P1: The crown jewel of the stream. Impressed by R2-D2 however purpose-built for autonomy, this charming bot includes a distributed microcontroller system, screen-equipped dome, tilt mechanism, and a complete lot of intelligent engineering. It is not simply remote-controlled, it’s a robotic that’s designed to suppose, navigate, and work together (finally).
With future iterations aiming at facial recognition, ROS2-based navigation, and environmental interplay, Rex P1 is greater than a cool bot, it’s a robotics platform in progress.
The human aspect of {hardware}
One of the refreshing components of the stream was the open dialog concerning the fantasy of the “full stack developer,” burnout in solo content material creation, and the significance of group. Dr. Durant’s take? Be sincere about what you recognize, have enjoyable with what you don’t, and produce others alongside for the experience.
He additionally plugged his GitHub Sponsors web page, the place followers and fellow makers can assist his work and entry premium content material just like the detailed Rex P1 construct information.
TL;DR? Go watch it.
Should you missed the livestream, catch the complete episode on devEco’s YouTube channel. It’s a joyful mixture of robotics, instructing, jokes about robotic Santa, and two makers geeking out over {hardware} prefer it’s 1977.
Whether or not you’re a budding builder or a seasoned embedded dev, you’ll depart impressed, and possibly desirous about find out how to print your personal pleasant droid.
Or come hang around with us for PROCEPTION after hours within the Hackster.io Discord, and you too can be part of us within the devEco as effectively! (Apply right here.)