The Shenzhen Electronics Scene - A Guide for Makers

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Hi All,

Forgive me barging in here, but I am a regular at the Wuthering Bytes Festival, and a friend of @9600.

I am undertaking a tour of the UK, with my close friend TobyYu from Shenzhen.

Toby is visiting the UK for the first time - in fact it is his first time outside China, and he has prepared a presentation describing his role within the Shenzhen electronics scene.

Toby runs an electronic component supply business in Shenzhen with the emphasis of obtaining hard to find parts, small volumes, or hunting down the exotic to special order. He provides the link between the vast electronic markets and factories of Shenzhen, and the customers in the West. Think of him as your Shenzhen Personal Shopper.

In addition to component sourcing, Toby is involved with the manufacturing of Open Source Hardware designs, and has worked extensively with firms in the UK and USA, including Mirobot, MeeArm, OpenEnergyMonitor, GameDuino, WickedDevice and Nanode Design and Technology.

Toby specialises in the smaller production runs of up to 1000 pieces, and takes a project from the prototype stage to full production, and distribution to final customer. This includes liaison with pcb manufacturers, suppliers, surface mount assembly plants and shipping & logistics. Toby is fluent in English - having studied at University and started his career teaching at secondary school in English. This essential skill allows him to provide the bridge between the Shenzhen businesses and the Western Customers.

Toby is keen to gain first hand understanding of the hacker and maker communities in the West so that he can provide a service more tailored to their needs and expectations.

We are visiting Yorkshire on Saturday 2nd July and Sunday 3rd July - staying in Hebden Bridge on the Saturday Night.

We would be interested in meeting up with anyone who is available that weekend - either Saturday evening or Sunday before lunch.

you can reach me at ken.boak@gmail.com or @monsonite on Twitter.

regards

Ken

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I don’t think I can meet up, but it sounds very interesting!

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Hi, @monsonite, I’ll be demonstrating robotic drawing machines, based on Arduinos, for Hebden Bridge Open Studios on 2nd & 3rd July, if that’s any interest? Here’s more info: https://hebdenbridgeopenstudios.org/guy-lymer/

I need to refine my existing wheeled machines, and develop others. I’m keen to play with omni-directional wheels or mecanum wheels - to slide sideways. I’d also like to play with lumibots, like this: https://vimeo.com/22245808

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Guy

Thanks for making contact.

We will be driving down from Edinburgh on July 2nd - hopefully arriving in mid-late afternoon.

Perhaps we can drop in towards the end of your demos, meetup and perhaps pub later?

Ken

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Yes, that sounds good @monsonite - pub always sounds good to me!

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Further thought @monsonite: Sat 2nd July is also the date of Heptonstall Festival, where various bands play in the village square & church ruins - free entry/ donations. See: https://heptonstall.org/festival-2016/ and https://www.google.co.uk/?client=firefox-b-ab#q=heptonstall+images&gfe_rd=cr
It’s also where @9600 lives, and me too. So, maybe we can work that in . . .

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Thought I was going to be away, but it looks like I should be around that weekend. @monsonite, Heptonstall Festival is fun, you should definitely head along with Toby.

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So the plan is to have the presentation at 2PM tomorrow (Sunday 3rd July). I’ll be heading down to open up the space and will meet @monsonite and Toby down there.

If you’re about, consider heading down. @RoboGuy, @treb0r, @Matt, @Shirtboy, @WetEmoFish, @Caz, @martin, @Giles. You never know when your next invention might be a huge hit and you suddenly need to source components :smiley:

Cheers,

Andrew

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I’ll be at my open studio 11 - 5pm at Artsmill on Linden Road. Happy to see anyone who wants to come along. I’ll be demonstrating my robotic drawing machines, explaining light projects I’ve proposed for Todmorden Lamplighter, and plugging Bridge Rectifier to potential members. Sorry I can’t get along to the talk.