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Prototype 2 Production, a blog by the Spark team about bringing products to market, published the first of a three-part series this week on how to build a printed circuit board prototype. The guide, written by Spark’s head of supply chain Will Hart, walks readers through PCB fabrication specs, checking for design rule violations and generating layout files. Fabrication […]
Dragon Innovation, which has worked with the wildly successful businesses Pebble, Coolest Cooler, and BlueSmart to estimate the actual costs of bringing their crowdfunded products to market, is expanding its offerings with Dragon Certified, a program to give companies a financial “seal of approval” before a crowdfunding campaign even begins. “What we saw all the […]
Knowable, an ambitious German startup that aimed to connect Makers, inventors, and hardware professionals and help them collaborate and share resources, announced this week that it was shutting down after three years. “Unfortunately neither [social network component] Polymer nor Knowable saw the traction that was necessary to support a venture funded business model,” wrote creators Simon Höher […]
Ever wonder how many hours of grilling are left in a tank of propane? Makers Frank Vigilante and Brendan Glunz built a prototype device that can be attached to the standard brass valve between a propane tank and grill to measure the internal pressure—and sends the data to an app, so you can check your grill’s […]
On my way to the Midwest RepRap Fest, I stopped in at HackPittsburgh to meet up with the BoXZY team and take a look at their new machine in person. BoXZY is doing well on Kickstarter; with its promise of being an all in one 3D printer, milling machine, and laser etcher, it’s enticing backers. The BoXZY features a thick aluminum case that […]
A new coalition of companies and venture capitalists, including Start Garden and Steelcase, aims to make Grand Rapids, Michigan a specialized hub for IoT ideas and products. Dubbed the Seamless Accelerator, the coalition’s goal is to provide startups with both initial capital and mentorship to encourage innovation and solve challenges associated with IoT development. “We really can’t […]
Learning design is hard. Even with the simplest of tools, like SketchUp, it can be difficult to get your brain to associate those little icons with real world actions. The folks at SketchUp know this, and they’re taking great measures to help ease the process. What better way to teach basics than to turn it into […]
