# Meracious Mike Manuduction

- Show: [The Amp Hour](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-amp-hour)
- Published: 2014-11-12
- Length: 1h 36m
- Episode: 224
- Page: https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-amp-hour/2014-11-12-meracious-mike-manuduction
- Listen: https://theamphour.com/224-meracious-mike-manuduction/

## Summary

Mike Harrison from Mike's Electric Stuff discusses his workflow for rapid-turnaround hardware projects, including using a Silhouette Cameo vinyl cutter for stencils and a $300 pick-and-place machine. He details the design of a large 500mm circular LED display for Plessy, covering gamma correction, power management, and PCB layout challenges. The conversation also covers parts procurement strategies, the collapse of the Mu Thermal Imager project, and a class-action lawsuit regarding capacitor price-fixing.

## Chapters

- [0:00](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-amp-hour/2014-11-12-meracious-mike-manuduction#t=0) Introduction and Electronica Trade Show Experience
- [7:09](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-amp-hour/2014-11-12-meracious-mike-manuduction#t=429) Rapid Prototyping Workflow and Tooling
- [26:48](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-amp-hour/2014-11-12-meracious-mike-manuduction#t=1608) Critique of the $300 Pick and Place Machine
- [23:13](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-amp-hour/2014-11-12-meracious-mike-manuduction#t=1393) Mu Thermal Imager Collapse and Market Analysis
- [41:00](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-amp-hour/2014-11-12-meracious-mike-manuduction#t=2460) Parts Procurement and Component Sourcing
- [53:00](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-amp-hour/2014-11-12-meracious-mike-manuduction#t=3180) Plessy LED Display Project and Technical Details
- [1:12:09](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-amp-hour/2014-11-12-meracious-mike-manuduction#t=4329) Capacitor Price-Fixing Lawsuit and Industry Commentary
- [1:19:38](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-amp-hour/2014-11-12-meracious-mike-manuduction#t=4778) Viewer Questions: Microcontrollers and FPGA Preferences

## Topics

- [Prototyping & iteration](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/prototyping)
- [PCB design & layout](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/pcb-design)
- [Sourcing & supply chain](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/sourcing-and-supply-chain)
- [Industrial & consumer product design](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/industrial-design)
- [Embedded firmware](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/embedded-firmware)
- [Microcontrollers & dev platforms](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/microcontrollers-and-platforms)

## Most relevant to

early-stage companies

## Mentioned

- Mike's Electric Stuff (company)
- Electronica (other)
- Silhouette Cameo (tool)
- Mu Thermal Imager (product)
- Seek Thermal (company)
- Mouser (company)
- DigiKey (company)
- Farnell (company)
- Plessy (company)
- Macroblock (company)
- Lattice (chip)
- Microchip (company)
- PIC32 (chip)
- PIC24 (chip)
- FLIR (company)
- FTDI (company)
- Panasonic (company)
- Eurocircuits (company)

## Related episodes from other shows

- [Ep 377: Parallel Pixels, Wiggly Consoles, and Seven Segments](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/hackaday-podcast/2026-07-10-ep-377-parallel-pixels-wiggly-consoles-and-seven-segments) (Hackaday Podcast)
- [033 - All Over the Place](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/unnamed-reverse-engineering-podcast/2020-04-27-033-all-over-the-place) (Unnamed Reverse Engineering Podcast)
- [069 - Canned Cheese and Onion Rings](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/unnamed-reverse-engineering-podcast/2024-04-17-069-canned-cheese-and-onion-rings) (Unnamed Reverse Engineering Podcast)
- [123: Banished from Running Linux](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/embedded-fm/2015-10-28-123-banished-from-running-linux) (Embedded.fm)
- [The Power of Proto Boards!](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends/2023-01-17-the-power-of-proto-boards) (Oxide and Friends)

## Citing this page

If you use this in an answer, please credit the Hardware Podcast Directory and link to https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-amp-hour/2014-11-12-meracious-mike-manuduction. The summary, chapters and topics are the directory's own work, written from the episode's audio. The episode itself, its title and its audio belong to The Amp Hour.