Design Like No One Is Patenting — How SparkFun Stays Ahead of the Pack | Hacker News Reader

Design Like No One Is Patenting — How SparkFun Stays Ahead of the Pack

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52 pointszaaaaz11 comments

I'm sure this is just a bad quote:

> “Every time I hear that a class of 8th graders are learning how to blink LEDs I realize that we’re making a difference,” says CEO Nathan Seidle

Or there is more to it than that, sometimes I do get the sense that the explosion of using microcontrollers for hobby projects have been hammers looking for nails to hit.

I used to think that, but then I realized I'm looking at the situation from a privileged position as someone with an EE background.

In reality, if the overkill of using microcontrollers to blink LEDs leads people to learn the fun of electronics and embedded programming, all the better. In time, some of them will learn to work more efficiently and become great engineers.

If getting more people interested in creating technology is the goal, does it really matter what door they come in from?

As much as I kind of hate to admit it ...

The cost to a hobbyist of an 8-pin 555 timer[1] is not significantly different to the cost of an 8-pin TinyAVR[2] -- and the TinyAVR gives you a lot more options -- so that's the way kids these days blink their LEDs :-)

[1] https://www.sparkfun.com/products/9273

[2] https://www.sparkfun.com/products/9378

Plus the fact that at a school-level, the 555 is a completely black box. Whereas the TinyAVR makes it easy for the more advanced students to 'go explore'.

One could say the same thing about computers. For example, even back in the days of, say, the Apple II writing a "10 print hello 20 goto 10" program is similar to using a micro-controller to blink an LED. Or using a graphing calculator to compute the product of two numbers.

It's 2013, you can't expect kids to be uninterested in the technologies available today. You wouldn't expect kids in 1985 to forgo the use of LOGO or basic and instead program using punch cards, or study lambda calculus.

Today a little arduino or raspberry pi represents more computing power than the Apollo spacecraft used. But that's just the nature of technological advancement.

Maybe I'm wrong, but I suspect they can't patent most of their products, as they're mostly simple breakout boards and adapters.

They seem to go out of their way to make their designs available to the general public too which is something that wasn't common before.

Patents aside, I'm always amazed at how well Sparkfun does when their prices are marked so ridiculously high...it seems like a business experiment to see how much margin they can squeeze out of a customer.

Well, they mostly sell individual pieces to individuals. Not to other businesses.

They may be more expensive than ordering a million widgets from BigBulkCo - but they're certainly cheaper than going to a retail shop.

Most of these individual pieces can be had through many other vendors for a fraction of the cost. Volume isn't limiting factor here.

Yes, that's certainly true.

In my experience, the other vendors in this case are Big Widget Co/Big Widget Distributors Co's - like DigiKey, Farnell, Mouser.

Most of what's on Sparkfun, is cheaper there - than in my local retail shops. Then again, I am being a bit silly - since I'll have to pay import tax, VAT and such if ordering from Sparkfun.

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