DIY technology vs consumer technology, your experiences.

[Leo_the_robot 67]

I'm a fan of both DIY technology and recycling old tech as well as the maker movement.

In fact for a while I used a raspberry pi 3b+ when I went to ITT for a bit, used it instead of buying a laptop.
I assembled it with a small touchscreen and case before class when I realized I'd need something better than my 10 year old lenovo notebook that I'd been using at the time and used it until the college shut down 5 months later tweaking it and tinkering with it as needed to suit my needs during class.
I'd always kinda wanted to do more, and still think that way.
That's sort of been my experience with DIY/maker technology though, unlimited potential so long as you're willing to put in the work to get it to do what you want.

On that note has anyone else tinkered with, thought about, or looked into building their own devices from off the shelf/recycled components, or tinkered with open micro controller kits like raspberry pi, arduino, etc?

what has been your experiences with DIY tech compared to consumer technology?