Highest Rated Comments


scotty31442 karma

1) Did you major in Electronics? How did you become good with circuits?

I've been into electronics ever since I was in elementary school. I would beg my mom to take me to Radio Shack to get parts and books. But I ended up majoring in computer science, and only took a few formal electrical engineering courses (an intro to analog and digital, a microprocessor course, and a digital electronics course). I'm mostly self taught on the hardware side of things.

2) How do you finance your spends on spare parts and equipments?

A mixture of savings, and now, gradually, income from youtube ads and selling framed circuit boards to fans. I also own a small saas company that brings in some money.

3) It was tough to see you almost give up in your latest video. How did you find the motivation to keep going after spending so many months and messing up the phone display?

Yeah, that was a pretty tough week. Ultimately, I just really wanted to be able to say I'd actually done it, and show off a working phone. And I didn't really give myself permission to stop until I could prove to myself it couldn't be done. I almost did, but not quite:)

scotty31422 karma

Having a SIM card and China specific VPN is pretty mandatory when traveling in China. VPNs are officially not allowed, but many people use them here to get to sites blocked by the great firewall, such as Google, Youtube, etc. Also, pro tip: sim cards from areas outside the great firewall that are in roaming mode, don't go through the great firewall. Which is handy so you don't have to run a vpn on your phone.

In terms of what I've bought that seemed sketch, but wasn't... Maybe Pocari Sweat? Terrible name for a very tasty and addictive drink.

I have a pretty crazy Shanzhai power bank that I love, too. It plugs directly into the wall (it has a flip out prongs for a power plug), and shows how many amps your device is drawing on a screen. It's way too big, but pretty legit otherwise.

scotty31419 karma

Been getting lots of suggestions about Patreon in the comments on this video. It's something I'm considering.

And the microscope is probably the best tool purchase I've ever made. $300 including the camera, and I feel totally superhuman when I'm using it. Tiny solder work that was impossible without it is now within reach, and I don't have particularly good hand-eye coordination. One thing I'd say though is to make sure to get an optical microscope, not a digital one where you're looking at a screen. Delay and resolution matters a lot.

Edit: I forgot to say - I'm super flattered people are so eager to support me and what I'm doing, via things like Patreon. Just want to figure out the right next steps.

scotty31417 karma

Nope, didn't even know how to say "Hello".

I didn't move here though, I actually travel full time. I came originally on a 3 week trip, and liked it so much I keep coming back, and spending more and more time here...

scotty31416 karma

How in the world did you find all the stuff you did? Chip brokers? Microscope resellers? Flexible PCB manufacturers? A lot of weibo-ing, or great contacts, or...?

Mostly by just walking around the markets and talking to people. Everyone in the list of people you mentioned I just met in the markets, other than Endy, the chip broker. He was introduced to me by another friend here in China. For other things like factories, Alibaba (or the chinese version 1688.com) and Taobao(like ebay/amazon) are great resources.

How much resistance have you met due to your low quantities? You did mention a bit about it in the first video, if I recall correctly, but... has anyone ever told you flat-out "no"? And how did you manage to get the flex PCB manufacturer to print such a small amount for you?

In china, everything is negotiable:) PCBs in particular are easy to get in small quantities, because there's relatively low overhead for the manufacturer for making a new design, and everyone needs to make lots of prototype boards as they're designing products. So there's a huge demand for it.

Other things, like injection molding, have a much higher setup cost because the tools (molds) are very time consuming and expensive to make. So if you only want to do limited quantities, you end up using a different process, like 3d printing or CNC, and then transitioning to a scalable process like injection molding once you're ready to scale up production.

In general though, smaller factories are more likely to entertain small quantities, as long as they're actually making money in the process.