DIY gadgetry

At the London hackspace we are mostly software people who want a space to hang out and hack away on projects. The BBC turned up on the night that tinker.it had donated a bunch of arduinos and various hardware bits such as leftovers from their toy-hacking workshop. It seems the beeb jamp to the conclusion that we are a group of garbage scavengers rather than social hackers and crafters.

"a colour-changing lamp that shows the weather."<p>Nice, but not that useful. I'd like to learn more electronics and probably will have to go through the "blinking LEDs" stage, too. Coming up with more useful stuff to create (on amateur level) doesn't seem so easy, though. Even Adafruit seems to mostly sell gimmicks or modules for other gimmicks, which worries me a bit.<p>Even musical instruments don't excite me much: couldn't everything they do be done in software instead?<p>Maybe it is time to start thinking in some completely new directions? For example I have been wondering if it would be at all feasible to create one's own e-ink display?