Adafruit.com (https://www.adafruit.com/)
Hard to know where to start with these folks. Their site is a mainstay of the Maker/DIY culture now, and is one of my favorites, but it’s just the visible tip of what is a remarkable litany of achievements.
They describe it as something like “an educational site with a gift shop”, which is like a candy store for hard-core techno-nerds (like me), a lot of electronic hobbyist stuff, and a lot of boards designed by “Lady Ada” (Limor Fried), an EE who is apparently remarkably good at designing unique and robust boards and modules that don’t seem to die often from simple mistakes (don’t ask how I know), but the educational part is staggering… over 1,000 tutorials and apparently accelerating, which constitutes a huge and remarkable gift to the entire Maker movement. Their list of achievements is remarkable, and virtually all of them defy common wisdom. They are not only manufacturing electronics in the US and making good money doing it, they’re doing it in… downtown Manhattan. No, I’m not kidding. No, they don’t compete on price with seemingly similar Chinese boards and modules, but they don’t have to, the quality and reliability are there to make it well worth the difference. I wish their shipping cost a bit less, but everything I’ve ordered has arrived FAST and is robustly packed. They are also, technically, the only phone manufacturer in the US now, and they keep branching out, lately into radio stuff (that I don’t know a whole lot about, other than garden-variety Wifi, but looks fascinating). Everything that they sell seems to be backed by huge amounts of information and tutorials online (not on paper in the box…). It seems like a great place to work, which is also remarkable for manufacturing these days.
I admire what they’ve done, and have grown to be a fan and to look forward to their (many) videos.. but to be honest, I suspect that they might not like me as much if they got to know me. They seem to be, sort-of, nicer than I am. Perhaps because a lot of their stuff is targeted at young people, sometimes, just sometimes, things hit a Pollyanna-ish note that grates on my curmudgeon-ish nerves.. but that’s my problem. They have no idea who I am, of course.
If you’re playing with Raspberry Pi, Arduino, or any of dozens of other electronics projects and aren’t utilizing them as a resource, you’re seriously missing out:
Turns out, “Mr. Ladyada” (he says he doesn’t mind) is Phillip (Phil) Torrone, who does a remarkable job of keeping a low on-line profile (at least under that name) and is at least a co-founder of one of my other favorite sites, Hackaday.
– Robert the Wombat