CEP010 – Low Volume and Low Cost with Timon Skerutsch

The Contextual Electronics Podcast

Welcome, Timon Skerutsch (@timonsku)!

Show notes

• Timon and Chris know each other from Twitter and from past Hackaday events (Timon won one of the Hackaday Prize awards for his Linux Tablet)
• Timon has been doing experiments with the recently released Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 (CM4)
• This includes creating a carrier board using an Othermill circuit board router
• This also led to the creation of the Piunora, a Rasberry Pi in the shape of an Arduino Uno.
• Interested in getting a Piunora? Sign up here for the mailing list (general) and sign up here for the Crowdfunding campaign
• His dayjob is working on a technical exhibitions, such as museum exhibits and trade fairs.
• He is the only person there, so there are limited mentorship opportunities
• He is mostly self taught
• The low volume nature of technical exhibitions means Timon has had to reduce costs without volume
• Bunnie Huang‘s book
  • Chris thought it was the Shenzhen Guide (it was not what Timon meant)
  • The Hardware Hacker: Adventures in making and breaking hardware
• When finding a manufacturer, it’s important to build relationships
• Reducing cost means that you might need to move outside “western” manufacturers
• It’s easier to find alternative suppliers using sites like LCSC or Alibaba
• Import costs can be high if manufacturing in China
• The rough ABC Bill of Materials (BOM) discussed during this episode
• The ABC Rev A Schematic is available on the course site now
• “It’s often about finding the right keyword for the components you’re searching for”
• Selling a “pro” and a “lite” version can offer the board at a lower price for people that don’t care about every feature.
• Check out Timon’s youtube
• Timon helps out with and participates on the Maker Cast, a monthly show that highlights different people on YouTube who make things and discuss them.

Thank you for supporting The Contextual Electronics Podcast! Here’s how you can follow and help us grow:

• Please follow us on social media:
  • @ContextualElec on Twitter
  • Contextual Electronics on Facebook
  • Contextual Electronics on LinkedIn
  • @Chris_Gammell on Twitter
• Please consider leaving us a review
  • iTunes page for subscribing and reviewing

Video version of the podcast:

Audio version of the podcast: