
15 Years of SparkFun - kartikkumar
https://www.sparkfun.com/news/2571
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unethical_ban
I applied to Sparkfun about 8 or 9 years ago - they had some kind of Github
easter egg in their application process or something. It was an IT role. I
applied and recall being pretty glib; my application was about "me" and how I
would benefit, how good I was, etc.

The receiver of the resume was beyond unimpressed, and took the time to write
a 2-3 paragraph response to how unappealing my tone and application was.

I remember it being a sobering and humbling moment, and truly appreciated the
time someone took to set a conceited young applicant straight.

Sure would have been nice to move to Boulder, though.

~~~
nixpulvis
I spent high school in boulder. Don't get me wrong, the place is "great" and
all. But I'm not even a little sad to be gone.

A job at Sparkfun might make me reconsider tho, that company is the bees
knees.

Also, I really wish your experience was the norm. It's far to common to spend
hour working on a solution to a technical assignment for a job application,
and hear nothing in response.

~~~
peapicker
But high school sucks everywhere... (looking at my, and my own 2 kid's
experiences when they were in)

~~~
nixpulvis
I actually really liked my high school(s)... I just don't like the cities
vibe. Not to over generalize, but the whole place felt really ironic to me. A
hippy town from the 70s turned rich kid playground. Don't get me wrong, I'm
pretty well off myself, it's just not my scene.

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dylan604
I've used them for tons of projects. I've read people that throw shade their
way for their prices for components compared to some of the offshore websites
like digikey or alibaba. However, I don't like their websites, and anything
they might be "overcharging" for is easily made up with what I receive from
the rest of their website. I'm constantly in a state of 2-3 projects that are
in various stages of incomplete. If the parts&pieces for these projects didn't
come from SparkFun, they probably came from Adafruit. Love both of these
sites.

~~~
learc83
>offshore websites like digikey

Digi-key has been based in Minnesota since they were founded 40+ years ago.
Sure a lot of their parts are manufactured in other countries (just like
Sparkfun), but their main distribution center is in the US, and they have
thousands of employees working there.

~~~
Zuph
Their only distribution center, at that! They ship everything out of the Thief
River Falls warehouse. They also run a great tour, if you're ever in the area.

Fun fact, they can take just about any combination of the 1million+ SKUs they
stock from order reception to in a box waiting for a truck in under 15
minutes.

~~~
tokipin
They have (had?) a local warehouse I think off 101 in the Bay Area, don't
remember exactly where. You could walk in with a list of parts and they would
grab them for you right there.

~~~
bronson
You're thinking of Jameco?

~~~
tokipin
Yep thanks I just remembered that's what it was ("it had a J in it"). Woops.
Not sure why I've had them confused for Digi-Key the last few years. Maybe the
Digi-Key branding is just more memorable.

------
Keyframe
Few things are as exciting for a programmer as dabbling with electronics is.
Especially if you have no experience with it. I knew some maths and physics
and I knew basics of electronics, but never dabbled with a soldering iron, let
alone other stuff.

AND THEN, I had a need for a simple motor-driven CNC-like machine that would
drive my film camera around the set, like a small-ish, motion repeatable,
crane. Motion Control system, basically, but DIY-I-have-no-idea-if-
electricity-will-kill-me stuff. My dudes, let me tell you, the whole process
was extremely laborious and extremely fun. Reminiscent of ye olde days of
poking around Commodore 64 memory addresses to see what will happen. With
microcontroler abundance today and a whole gallery of crap for them, like
sensors and drivers and whatnots, you owe yourself to try it out.

Just a friendly reminder, it's a bug that once you catch will fill your house
with random electronics junk, oscilloscopes, PSUs and other stuff. Like
photography, buying equipment never stops.

~~~
H1Supreme
Yeah, it's tons of fun. Like lots of people, I got started with Arduino's, but
eventually ventured off into other areas.

In my case, reading datasheets of various ic's was the biggest hurdle. But,
after a while, you realize most of them are laid out in a similar way.

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rhombocombus
Bravo Sparkfun! They are the group that I hold most responsible for reigniting
my interest in programming, which eventually led me into a happy career in
software development. Their projects, products, and educational materials
helped me see the real world effects of code, and I am really grateful that I
found them and learned from them.

~~~
dylan604
I give them credit for the other side of the coin. After programming for a
while, I credit SparkFun for getting me interested and back into hardware.
With all of the very affordable micro-controllers and various shields/kits,
it's so much fun designing the circuits, building it, and then writing the
code to make it function. However, I'm still at the stage of when it's all
assembled and code being written and it doesn't work, I have to decide if it's
just bad programming, bad hardware/circuit assembly, or just flat out bad
circuitry design. Way more debugging than just figuring out what line I forgot
to use a semi-colon or where I reassigned a variable's value etc.

With all of that experience, I have even more respect for people like Woz. I
have online forums to ask questions. The "grey beards" just had to figure it
out ;-)

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iancmceachern
I've been using their stuff since right after they started, any my career was
just starting. I've used their products to prototype new products and ideas
for many projects. Blood pumps, artificial hearts, LVADS, medical devices and
indoor agriculture products. Their mix of education, support, accessability,
real technical chops and providing the latest stuff is only matched closely by
Adafruit. I'm thankful for both. They are an invaluable resource for both
engineers and hobbyists.

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jrumbut
I used a sparkfun kit to create a sales demo for some sensors and I learned so
much more about circuitry than I did in a couple years of theory based
coursework.

The author's early point is right, getting hands on is the best way to learn
EE and I have no idea why even good schools don't have you build stuff early
and often.

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russh
It took me years to break my "Dings and Dents" module addiction. Some weeks
I'd even send in multiple orders while telling myself this will be the last
time. It was too entertaining trying to figure out why each board didn't pass
QA and how they could be fixed using parts from pervious orders.

I learned a lot.

~~~
andyjohnson0
> It was too entertaining trying to figure out why each board didn't pass QA

Do they have a reputation for poor quality? I bought a RedBoard Arduino clone
from them last year and it was DOA, as was the replacement (different
batches).

~~~
HeyLaughingBoy
No, the Dings & Dents is specifically stuff that didn't pass their QA, but
they sell really cheap.

I haven't bought a ton from SF, but everything I have worked right out of the
box.

~~~
andyjohnson0
Ah ok. I'd bought sensors and breakout boards etc from them and never had
problems. Good to know.

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anemic
Company that produces instruction manuals like the Heaterizer XL3000 can't be
bad!

[https://www.sparkfun.com/datasheets/Tools/SFE-Heaterizer-
Ins...](https://www.sparkfun.com/datasheets/Tools/SFE-Heaterizer-
Instructions-01.pdf)

------
michaelmior
> How do you get a reflow oven to the second floor of a building with no cargo
> elevator? You get a bunch of people together and get creative.

This was a very unsatisfying answer.

~~~
evan_
I think it goes with the photo of 10-15 guys standing around a reflow oven at
the foot of some narrow stairs.

~~~
exsfethrowaway
Pretty much. Source: I'm one of the guys in the picture.

The stairs are actually wider than the picture makes it look (wide enough to
have people on both side of the oven while carrying it). The tricky part was
the corner: the oven was long enough that it had to hang out in the air over
the corner as we brought it around. I recall that meant lifting it to shoulder
height to clear the railing.

~~~
StavrosK
That's how you get a reflow oven stuck impossibly in the corner, when the door
frame you used to rotate it mysteriously disappears.

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canada_dry
An awesome success story.

As Ray Kroc is supposed to have said: "The two most important things for
success are: first, being in the right place at the right time, and second,
doing something about it."

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schappim
I sold my business (Geek Ammo) to Nate/SparkFun and spent a few months working
with the team. Flying back and forth between Sydney, Australia and
Boulder/Niwot every few weeks.

SparkFun is a great company with a really distinct culture that sits at the
intersection of hacking and education.

Congratulations to Nate and the team for going 15 years strong!

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Zaskoda
I was offered a dev job at SparkFun. I really liked the work they offered but
the pay was a little low and I got a much better offer from a well-funded
project. That well-funded project went bankrupt and SparkFun continued to
grow. Sometimes I think maybe I made the wrong decision. There may have been
more money to be earned in the short term, but SparkFun is one of those really
snazzy companies and I feel like I may have missed out on a great experience.

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bcohen5055
I grew up in Colorado and having them as a local resource for components was
truly a gift. My dad was an EE and in his eyes Sparkfun was a great
alternative to the Radioshack of his early days.

When I was in college in Fort Collins I made a quite a few trips for last
minute parts to finish my projects and I had a ton of fun when I got one of
the 5.00 dumpster dive boxes.

Keep up the good work!

~~~
makerofspoons
When I was in college at CU Boulder I remember frequently taking the bus to
their old location to pick up parts. We all felt lucky when assembling our
final projects that we had such a great resource so close for local pickup,
and many of us owe no small part of our degrees to being able to pick up
replacement parts the day before we needed to demo!

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blhack
Part of my life involves building $100k+ interactive/experiential advertising
installations.

Sparkfun has been pretty vital for a lot of our builds. The ability to know
what we're getting, and to have it shipped overnight is a Big Deal.

For a while it was looking like Amazon might replace them on shipping, but
shipping has become hit and miss enough that it isn't worth the risk anymore.

~~~
exikyut
Out of curiosity, what do " _interactive /experiential advertising
installations_" consist of?

Vague and generic is fine.

All I've got is eg bus stop ads with webcams, but that's probably not $100k
(...or maybe it is).

~~~
blhack
We built, for instance, a 10' tall animatronic set piece to promote a major
comic book property at comic con. Attendees stood at a control console and
moved essentially a giant robot around.

Any time you see a brand doing some sort of non standard advertising
installation; stuff attendees would walk up to and interact with, that's the
type of stuff I'm talking about.

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bacon_waffle
Congrats to Nate and Sparkfun! I studied ECE at CU a few years behind Nate,
and fondly remember the departmental pride in the local and growing (despite
the GFC!) electronics company he started.

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yardie
Cheers to a great company. I wish I had the space to order more stuff.

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mkempe
Kudos!

If you have a chance to visit their building [edit: in Colorado, near
Boulder], and even to take a class with them, it's impressive and great fun.

