The Amp Hour · 7 Aug 2013 · 1h 30m · Episode 157
The SparkFun Engineering Team, including Mike Hord, Jim Lindblom, Chris Taylor, Mike Gruson, Pierce Melcher, and Tony Kloppenstein, discusses their open hardware philosophy, company culture, and product development processes. They detail their transition from tech support to engineering roles, the management of a large product catalog, and their aggressive open-source stance against counterfeiters. The team also covers their educational outreach, including a national teaching tour, and specific engineering challenges like dealing with counterfeit ATmega chips and managing in-house PCB assembly.
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Toni Klopfenstein, Quality Assurance Manager at SparkFun, discusses the company's evolution from a hobbyist parts supplier to an education-focused hardware provider. He details the challenges of open source hardware certification through OSHWA, the importance of comprehensive documentation for community adoption, and SparkFun's strategic shift toward supporting teachers and students in classrooms.
Limor Fried, founder of Adafruit, discusses the company's 13-year history of manufacturing open-source hardware in New York, highlighting recent products like the PyGamer and PyBadge. She explains the engineering philosophy behind TinyUSB, an open-source USB stack developed by engineer Hathach to replace proprietary vendor stacks, and details the business model of supporting a community of 4,000 products. Fried emphasizes that while hardware design is easy, the value lies in firmware, documentation, and tutorials, which she balances with business operations and education.
Limor Fried, founder and lead engineer of Adafruit, discusses the evolution of her Manhattan-based company from dorm-room kits to a manufacturing operation with 100 employees and 4,000 products. She details the development of the PyGamer and PyBadge, the strategic importance of the open-source TinyUSB stack by engineer Hathach, and the critical role of documentation in making hardware accessible to makers and the assistive tech community. Fried also reflects on the healthy competition within the open-source hardware ecosystem, the challenges of scaling product lines, and the long-term sustainability of assistive technology through open standards.
Phil King, a senior hardware engineer at Lytro, joins host Elecia White to discuss the intersection of hardware and software engineering. They cover Phil's interview techniques for software candidates, the critical importance of hardware constraints in embedded design, and the risks of counterfeit components in overseas manufacturing. The conversation also touches on their shared history at ShotSpotter and Leapfrog, and the specific challenges of prototyping and testing.
Speakers Carl and Corey discuss the history and technical evolution of the Raspberry Pi, focusing on the original Model B's hardware flaws and the foundation's educational mission. They analyze specific engineering failures, including the lack of mounting holes, inefficient LDO power regulation, and flaky USB ports, which forced users to rely on powered hubs. The conversation contrasts the early 'minimum viable product' approach with later revisions like the B Plus and Compute Module, while debating the value of open-source hardware versus proprietary control in the single-board computer market.
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