MakerCamp
Research at Scale 2025
This January was fortunate enough to avoid the worst of the British winter for the much more mild climate of southern China. I wasn’t there for the weather (although that was a plus), but to join the Research at Scale Residency to explore the exciting manufacturing and electronics ecosystems of Shenzhen and the surrounding Greater Bay Area. Along with SUSTech, AIRS, Seeed, and students from MIT, I had the chance to explore the electronics markets, visit factories, understand the city, and meet the most amazing people. This was a chance for me to put some of my research back home in personal fabrication into context of the larger global manufacturing system. My visit was supported by Pro Squared, a UK-based research network with the focus on enabling the scaling of hardware and democratising digital device production. A single post wouldn’t be enough to convey all the interesting things I found along the way, or how blown away I was with everything I saw, but here are some highlights!
Travel
Shenzhen is a super well connected city, having flown into Hong Kong, it was just a 20 minute high speed train from Kowloon West to Shenzhen Bei. It’s not just the trains, there’s also an amazing metro system with 17 lines, a metro that goes to Hong Kong, and the DiDis (Chinese Uber) Is incredibly cheap and convenient.
Presenting Printegrated Circuits at the Scalable HCI Symposium
Thanks to the amazing work of the organisers across institutions Scalable HCI invited researchers from across the world interested in making hardware in HCI. The opportunity offered me the chance to present my ongoing work around developing scalable prototypes with 3d printing processes, to other researchers as well as innovators in device manufacturing from across the globe.
I brought along some demos including the TuneShroom, an almost fully 3D printed midi controller in the shape of a mushroom. Getting feedback about the on-going work from other attendees was invaluable especially from the likes of Eric Pan, the CEO of Seeed Studio with many years experience developing and deploying devices to hobbyists as well as commercial customers all from their local headquarters in Shenzhen.
Tangible explorations in Huaqiang Bei
Having so much of one industry in such close proximity is fertile ground for the emergence of some truly amazing places. An example of those one-of-a-kind things are the electronics markets in Huaqiang Bei, a sprawling collection of specialised malls filled with booths selling all kinds of electronics components, tools, prototyping kits, and fully fledged devices. Having visited Shenzhen in 2019, I could tell the markets had experienced a certain amount of decline. This might just have been in the lead-up to the Lunar New Year, but it was amazing and encouraging to see so much in-person exchange still existed in such a digitally connected society. In Shenzhen, ordering things on Taobao, the local Ebay/Amazon equivalent, meant you could get things in a matter of hours, despite this, the markets still were full of so much energy.
To me, the value of the markets comes from a tangibility you just can’t get online. You can physically browse rather than relying on filters and product categories offered by Digikey or Farnell. You feel very switch, pogo pin, or membrane pad, and see the true colour of the LEDs, displays, and cases. You can also talk directly - or in my case though the help of my translation app - with the manufacturers, who can explain their processes and say where and how customisation is possible.
I liked this stall that was representing a factory that made membrane interfaces.
Direct access to tangible experiences around manufacturing parts and processes helps shorten feedback loops when making new things. To me making a product in Shenzhen is much closer to craft, where designer has fewer constraints enforced by the abstractions in place to make design and manufacturing work globally. Makers can intervene and afford to break design rules to try things out. This from this craft-like way of making emerges creativity. ## Shanzhai, Gongban and alternative open realities As well as electronics tools and components, there were sellers with a range fully assembled devices. Specially mobile phones and other screen-based devices. Many are these devices are what are termed “Shanzhai” (山寨), they are variations of existing devices with extra functionality, not trying to deceive buyers, but be something new. My favourite were the tiny iPhones running a re-skinned android. Some people call these counterfeit devices, but really they are a unique product in their own right but with a market so small that they can only thrive somewhere where short-run production can support them. Silvia Lindtner is someone who has spent a huge amount of time studying the Shenzhen Ecosystem and explains in her work that these shanzhai devices are based around “Gongban” ( 公 版) or “public boards”, in the most sense, they are freely available designs of boards for different applications that component suppliers offer up - like a reference design with features - that manufacturers are able to make, but in doing so will buy components from the component manufacturer. The creativity lies in how people re-mix these designs and make custom shells for them. Different IP laws and structures mean that this kind of crafting in production is possible.
One other device that caught my eye were the camera + receipt printer combos. They were being sold everywhere, but it wasn’t the same product, they all had different shells and enclosures. Some were had screens, some were just printers, and some were just cameras. This kind of variation of such a small product was intriguing, Just like the highly specialised Shanzhai phones, how were these devices able to be such refined devices, but for such a niche market.
I bought a couple of different models of the camera-less Bluetooth toy printers to see the insides. While similar and based around a different MCU both a JieLi Bluetooth controller, they weren’t the same. I wonder if one was a newer vs older version.
Phone repair markets and unmaking in the wild
On the other side of the street from the main electronics components markets was the communications building. This and neighbouring building focused solely on second hand phones and phone repair. On the ground floor tool shops offered jigs and stencils to remove and re-ball all the BGAs from each model of phones motherboard, and higher levels had bags of components from FPCs to camera modules to individual chips.
I was in search of Linear Resonant Actuators (LRAs) to add tactile feedback to my Printegrated Circuit devices. LRAs are the replacement of dumb vibration motors that allow modern phones to create different vibrotactile responses to user input. After a bit of searching and showing the vendors on my phone what I was after, we managed to uncover a whole range of different options all that had been recovered from old phones. I was able to pick up the Taptic Engine from several iPhone variants as well as some Xiaomi phone’s LRAs each costing 1 RMB or about 15 cents.
I find it interesting that in HCI research, desoldering components, repair and building Frankenstein devices is presented as a speculative future or as an impossible ideal, whereas here in the markets the density of parts, expertise and skill, is able to make this a reality.
Factory Visits
While in Shenzhen I also visited a number of electronics, moulding, and display factories with the other symposium attendees and residents. What struck me was seeing some of the fastest machines I’ve ever seen along with similarly impressive levels of manual assembly. It was explained to us that in many cases it is not worth wile setting up machines for short runs when human labour is so flexible.
Testing and Verification was both done with testing jigs as well as by human eye.
The shenzhen ecosystem is not only capitalising on scaling up, but also the capabilities of rapid prototyping of one-off parts. This room filled with around 40 industrial resin printers was a new addition to an injection moulding factory as it tried to target the market of mass customisation and product prototyping.
Research At SUSTech
During the month I also partnered with Seungwoo Je and his students to collaborate on some upcoming research. As well as having amazing facilities and people the university is nestled in one of the most beautiful parts of the city.
## Seeed Co-create
As part of the research work with SUSTech I’m working towards making a toolkit for Printegrated Circuits. One of my goals while in Shenzhen was to find partners to help with the manufacturing and distribution process. Amazingly, this was exactly what Seeed was offering as part of their Co-create Programme. You design a prototype and can provide engineering support taking your project from protype to product. Seeed manage production, distribution and pomotion on their platform.
We had a great initial chat with the Seeed Co-create team on their office’s balcony about the next steps in bringing the Printegrated circuits project into people’s hands.
## Drones
There are many drones in Shenzhen, after battling the Meituan app, Paul and I managed to get some tea delivered
In Huaqiangbei, they also had this drone fair where they were showing off all kinds of drones including this one for humans.
And drones for “agriculture” as well as ways to take them down.
A Very Shenzhen Chinese New Year
Shenzhen isn’t really the place to be for the Lunar New year. Rather suddenly everything shut down: the factories, electronics markets and even malls went eerily silent. Pockets of celebration were still dotted around the city including the HQB pedestrianised street, and they did not disappoint! In Shenzhen, it’s not year of the snake, but year of the cyber-snake!
Along with the decorations was a traditional new-years market selling snacks and gifts. As well as that, some of the electronics market vendors brought out their wares and set up stands in the street!
What did I learn?
Reflecting on my time in Shenzhen, I realize that what I’ve experienced is merely the tip of the iceberg. This vibrant city, with its complex ecosystems of manufacturing and innovation, holds much yet to be explored. My journey has filled me with profound respect for the people of Shenzhen—their remarkable work ethic and their relentless drive to innovate are truly inspiring.
Often, outsiders view Shenzhen as a hub for imitation, a place teeming with replicas and low-cost alternatives. However, my observations have led me to a different conclusion. In Shenzhen, the act of replication is not just a way to make a fast buck; it is a sophisticated form of learning and innovation, filling every niche of the market. The city thrives on rapid prototyping and direct engagement with materials and machines, transforming electronics manufacturing into an art form, unbounded by the rigid processes that dominate Western engineering practices.
George Bernard Shaw once remarked, “Imitation is not just the sincerest form of flattery—it’s the sincerest form of learning.” Shenzhen embodies this ethos, and has mastered the art of scalable and rapid electronics production. As I return home, I am eager to explore how we can integrate elements of Shenzhen’s dynamic ecosystem into our local practices. My goal is to enable rapid electronics production anywhere, democratizing access to the tools needed to solve the biggest problems. It’s our turn to imitate Shenzhen and learn from it!
Thanks again to all the wonderful people who made this trip possible, especially Cedric Honnet and Suengwoo Je without whom, I wouldn’t have been able to make this visit. I’ve come back from Shenzhen with a bit Cedric’s infections curiosity which throughout the trip displayed itself as he took the time to explain all the interesting things he’d discovered on previous visits, as well as linking me up with people and encouraging me to always delve one level deeper. I also learnt a lot from Suengwoo who has crafted such a wonderfully aligned research group at SUSTech that all display his impressive dedication to their craft. It’s not just them though, I’d like to send some love to all the people who worked in the background to make it run so smoothly. I’m very grateful and inspired by the mission of the Pro Squared Network+ who sponsored the trip and ongoing research collaborations.
