MakerCamp
Shenzhen Recap
from the lens of Darcy Neal
Shenzhen was one of those trips that genuinely shifts how one sees their work. Getting to explore the ecosystem behind nearly every component I use on a daily basis was something I didn’t fully appreciate until I was standing inside it. Understanding that a majority of the seller reps were not just resellers, but connected directly to the factories that produced the final product, where everything can be customized. Factory tours, research incubators, and real time with talented professionals from all over the world gave me a much clearer picture of how hardware actually gets made at scale. I’m so glad I joined the residency, and I’ll definitely be back to Shenzhen in the future.
3 workshops in 1 month
One of the things I was most excited about was getting to teach while I was there. Three workshops in a single month turned out to be one of the many rewarding parts of the experience. Every time I teach I pick up something new, and working with such a brilliant and curious group of residents led to some excellent questions, which pushed ideas further and helped me refine how I present my workshop material.
Kicad crash course at Chaihuo Makerspace
The first workshop was a two-hour sprint: KiCad from zero to fabrication. Joey Castillo, Evan Kahn, and Sam Ettinger joined to share their own approaches, turning it into more of a roundtable than a lecture. Comparing workflows with practitioners at that level is one of the best ways to learn, as everyones workflow is unique and customized to each creator.
Creative PCB design at Chaihuo makerspace
This workshop covered techniques for bringing custom artwork into KiCad and generating the right files for custom PCB layers. Chaihuo’s space is well set up for hands-on work, and the individual coaching that continued throughout the month let attendees go deeper on their own projects.
Creative PCB design at TroubleMakers
After a talk at Tech in the Tropics, someone wanted to learn more about creative PCB design. I told them to start a WeChat group, find two other attendees, and I’d run a session. Two days later there were 13 people in the room. Thanks to Cedric and Henk for helping make it happen.
PCBs I worked on
EMF Explorer Deluxe
The main design focus for the residency was a new iteration of the EMF Explorer board, developed in collaboration with Seeed Studios. The workshop version has always been constrained by component count and a two-hour format, so a fully assembled board finally lets me include everything the circuit deserves. The top edge has a row of connection points for testing different inductor combinations and dialing in the best-sounding configuration. Still needs polish, but the direction is solid.
EMF Explorer: SMD workshop verison
The through-hole kit has served workshops well, but switching to SMD components makes sense across the board: lower cost, lighter weight, smaller footprint, and better real-world skill transfer. The new design scales component size progressively through the build, so students work with multiple pad sizes in a single session. There are even 0201 practice footprints for anyone who wants to push their limits.
Joulebug Pendant
A refined iteration of the Joulebug pendant, a joule thief circuit in wearable form. A PCB coil version is still in development, so in the meantime this build uses a traditional inductor. The new boards will have an ENIG finish, which should really bring the design to life.
Year of the Fire Horse
The Chinese zodiac this year is the Fire Horse, which happens roughly once every 60 years..the last one was 1966! To mark the occasion, I designed a 3D display box powered by USB-C, with LEDs distributed throughout a layered PCB structure. The pieces fit together with tabs and get soldered shut. The drawings were complex enough that each PCB section had to be imported as its own separate file. The FireHorse file is complex enough that even when simplified, it still crashes KiCad periodically, which somehow feels appropriate for the symbolic design. Simplifying and sending these off for fabrication is next on the list.