Rules change On MCL's Patreon

@ovi4 For years my fear of making PCB and not having what one needs held me back from building and also the fear of soldering SMD held me back.
Now that I have what is needed to make PCB and getting better with the SMD, I have going back to see what I cold build, I started building my supplies of parts.

I always felt safe storing the files with in Patreon and not on my PC. So now I am kicking myself.

Yes I do remember that there was a list by someone tracking to projects, but I had major surgeries around that time and there is a few videos I did not get to watch.

Since we have not heard from Paul and his plans, it maybe better to what we had.

I looked and I did save two projects, so I will be okay for now.

One I did not get was the foil side tester and curve tracer project.

At least my pain from my surgery feel better today and hope to get back in my lab.

Posted by: @wilhelm

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I only make my own PCB if need it the same day. If not i order a professional made from china.

Since I bought the VEVOR Lamination Machine that working great for me and not having to do nothing to it, making PCB is so easy.
I even got an overhead projector to make double sided board.
Also a new band saw to cut the boards and the wife has not yelled at me yet.

Plus a small drill press and all the parts, I have spent a lot of money.

Now I am all set to build some stuff.

Making PCBs as needed has never been a problem for me. I’ve always made my own. It becomes second nature over time. Now, as for storing the projects on file. From day one of joining the Patreon I started documenting every project (that meant something to me) and kept adding things such as alternative spare parts and improvements or ideas shared by others over time. I also did the same with certain videos and kept them well organized to save me from having to go online and search for them should I need to revisit a particular project. I even went as far as trimming out certain parts of the video that I felt were not important for the project (such as extra long intros or some other talks that are part of other projects etc) and stitched the cut parts back together. The result is a much shorter video that purely stays focused on the project itself. Sometimes I even go as far as stitching multiple videos together to keep all parts on one video. A good example was the curve tracer which has many parts such as the theory and basic explanations of the curve tracer idea, then the main board construction, the power supply, and alignments, with some demos of the screen saver part, the input protection boxes, etc. I have all of them on just one comprehensive video. When it comes to PCB design choice I almost always end up re-making a PCB from scratch to better adapt it to my ideas and /or components I already have that sometimes have a different physical size and in turn save money. I enjoy making PCB designs and often tend to reverse engineer various bits of (commercially made products) to better understand (the ins and outs )of it and sometimes to re-make the PCB and correct some mistakes such as components being too close to each other or not enough thermal relief etc. 

@ovi4 This is so funny, as my wife say when watching his video, she keep saying get on with it as he talks.
I explain to her as how hard to make content for a Youtube video and how many just burn out trying to make air time to get people to watch.
I just hope Paul is not burning out and maybe people losing interest in electronics.

Sadly these day, if it breaks, people just trash it and not make any repairs.
Skills are being lost and we are falling behind on our learning.

For me, I had hope there would be more going on here with in the forum.

All valid points, but we have to remember-this forum has not been publicly released in full. Sure there is a mention of it, but I was not able to google it last time I tried. Additionally, a large majority of the 723 members here right now have never posted or contributed. That further complicates people sharing projects here that could get leaked. Another thought is people could join partreon, download everything they want and be gone. I have not looked at the change yet, but I understand (and expected) the change. Unfortunate for the people like us that aren’t here to take advantage of the situation but learn from the efforts he is going to provide this information. There is a fine line with sharing information while retaining control and we are on it right now.

@radtekman I am not sure how this works as the Patreon members are 11,159 Total members and 8,384 Paid members.
Are there free members?

What bother me not hearing word from him on the change and where it is going here and on Patreon.
It sure would be helpful.

My prayers are I pray that there is not a health problem or other unknown.

Being on YouTube for years and tried a few channels myself, I have seen people just disappear without a word.

Maybe I should just shut up, and hope I am not offending anyone.

I have an update from Mr. Carlson and here is the problem. (“The files are directly emailed to everyone due to data harvesting by people that like to be dishonest.”

So if you are a legacy Patron, so if you need files feel free to ask, and I will send them. Please keep in mind, I’m answering questions here from 8000+ people, so please be patient.”)

Data mining is a problem, and we must help to stop Paul’s lost.

I will also continue to support Paul and some other Patreon creator for their work. 

Thank You Paul

It worked fine for years before. What have changed?

You can’t put something back when it’s out on the internet.

Well I’d not realized this had been put in place until I finally had a couple hours to review my next MCL project I must build… I’m thinking the Ultra Probe would be handy & I’d already seen the videos & followed along & saved each file, everything, even putting an order in with Mouser & DigiKey for parts that are stored in a well marked box at the bench. So I go looking for the probe PCB mask while thinking a schedule to make the board (where’s my laminator) & hmm no file on my computer or I moved it someplace… In the end nope it’s missing so i did as Paul requires & requested the #175 files. And around 4 hrs later email & they have arrived. Can’t complain at that & to be honest, I get why Paul has had to do this on account I see a lot of folks having the board made rather than DIY it themselves for the skill & learning aspect. I’ve even seen other forums people wanting to make MLC devices to sell but are desperate for large quantities of certain parts… & are appealing for them. So hopefully in a few days or weeks I’ll be using my Ultra Probe to fix old tube radios… 

This is why we can’t have nice things …

I’ve been in the habit of downloading the files for items I wanted to work on but there are few still I don’t have but am interested in making.

Case in point, I am working on the WO33A conversion for the curve tracer, had all the files but remembered I had forgotten to grab the screen blanker info. I sent a DM and had everything in less than 24 hours, I am happy with that.

My only concern is the additional overhead this might put on Paul, although he did mention an assistant. We all know he already doesn’t sleep – could this push him into negative amounts of sleep???

@acockburn Let’s hope this is not the case. (regarding the sleep thing) As for the assistant well, … considering the number of things he wants/has to spin at the same time and having to (now) deal with waste amounts of E-mails and the newly added website/forum, he surely needs more than 1 assistant. I can already see this as being a kind of “Hectic” type of work, (perhaps somewhat stressful at times) having to keep track of so many things at once (also keeping up with certain deadlines) and…on top of all, here’s, of course, the personal life (aspect) to be considered and Not to be neglected! Fingers crossed, and I wish him good health to stay in top shape for many years to come

I understand WHY he has made the change, and I figured it would happen at some point. It’s going to make things a bit tougher when you want to do a project. But, the man works very hard on his designs, and offers this service with the best of intentions to share some of his knowledge and wisdom with us. Some people like to abuse the platform… and we have to suffer a bit.

its just a reflection of our current times, sadly. Let’s be grateful we have someone like Mr. Carlson