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<DIV>Very insightful. As a professional engineer for many years, I
find</DIV>
<DIV>that the path from “Maker” to “Engineering” can be very surprising </DIV>
<DIV>to the designer, especially when it comes to the “realities” of the
cost</DIV>
<DIV>of manufacturing the product. Items that many forget about
include:</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Cost of parts, the difference between 100 and 1000 pricing</DIV>
<DIV>Cost of shipping the parts to you and then stocking them (inventory)</DIV>
<DIV>Cost of manufacturing – especially the cost of testing</DIV>
<DIV>Costs of putting them into a box, label and ship them</DIV>
<DIV>Documentation – product brochures, manuals, support in the future </DIV>
<DIV>Final the quality of life as you have all these “Need to be done now” in
your life.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Fred Ebeling</DIV>
<DIV>ECP Designs</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
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style='FONT-SIZE: small; TEXT-DECORATION: none; FONT-FAMILY: "Calibri"; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; COLOR: #000000; FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline'>
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<DIV style="BACKGROUND: #f5f5f5">
<DIV style="font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A title=christophersvec@yahoo.com
href="mailto:christophersvec@yahoo.com">Christopher Svec</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Sent:</B> Wednesday, April 15, 2015 9:35 AM</DIV>
<DIV><B>To:</B> <A title=burrsutter@gmail.com
href="mailto:burrsutter@gmail.com">burrsutter@gmail.com</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Cc:</B> <A title=triembed@triembed.org
href="mailto:triembed@triembed.org">triembed@triembed.org</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Subject:</B> Re: [TriEmbed] Learning Curve</DIV></DIV></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV></DIV>
<DIV
style='FONT-SIZE: small; TEXT-DECORATION: none; FONT-FAMILY: "Calibri"; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; COLOR: #000000; FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline'>
<DIV
style="FONT-SIZE: 13px; FONT-FAMILY: helveticaneue-light, helvetica neue light, helvetica neue, helvetica, arial, lucida grande, sans-serif; COLOR: #000; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #fff">
<DIV id=yui_3_16_0_1_1429100035064_15370>Great! That leads to another question:
which ecosystem?</DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_16_0_1_1429100035064_15371> </DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_16_0_1_1429100035064_15372 dir=ltr>I would classify the products
you've listed (Arduino, RaspPi, Spark, etc.) as mostly from what I call the
"maker" ecosystem, meaning they're "batteries included" products useful in
prototyping and product/experience exploration. And the products you've called
out are definitely the top ones in that ecosystem.<BR></DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_16_0_1_1429100035064_14641><SPAN></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_16_0_1_1429100035064_18334>Another ecosystem is what I call the
"engineering" ecosystem, meaning embedded products intended for high volume and
high reliability products; it's anything you might want to manufacture and ship
a bunch of (and not have them fail in the field).</DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_16_0_1_1429100035064_18332> </DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_16_0_1_1429100035064_19316 dir=ltr>The "maker" and "engineering"
ecosystems can both create a product that does the same thing, but cost, design
time, scale, reliability, etc. will be quite different.<BR></DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_16_0_1_1429100035064_15344 class=qtdSeparateBR>
<DIV id=yui_3_16_0_1_1429100035064_19810> </DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_16_0_1_1429100035064_18333 dir=ltr>Does that make sense?</DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_16_0_1_1429100035064_19811 dir=ltr> </DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_16_0_1_1429100035064_19834 dir=ltr>(See? I love questions! :-)
)<BR></DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_16_0_1_1429100035064_20079 dir=ltr> </DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_16_0_1_1429100035064_19812 dir=ltr>-svec</DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_16_0_1_1429100035064_19813 dir=ltr> </DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_16_0_1_1429100035064_19814 dir=ltr>Chris Svec</DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_16_0_1_1429100035064_19815 dir=ltr>Senior Principal Software
Engineer</DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_16_0_1_1429100035064_19829 dir=ltr>iRobot</DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_16_0_1_1429100035064_19830 dir=ltr> </DIV></DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_16_0_1_1429100035064_14855 class=yahoo_quoted
style="DISPLAY: block">
<DIV id=yui_3_16_0_1_1429100035064_14854
style="FONT-SIZE: 13px; FONT-FAMILY: helveticaneue-light, helvetica neue light, helvetica neue, helvetica, arial, lucida grande, sans-serif">
<DIV id=yui_3_16_0_1_1429100035064_14853
style="FONT-SIZE: 16px; FONT-FAMILY: helveticaneue, helvetica neue, helvetica, arial, lucida grande, sans-serif">
<DIV id=yui_3_16_0_1_1429100035064_14852 dir=ltr><FONT
id=yui_3_16_0_1_1429100035064_14851 size=2 face=Arial>On Wednesday, April 15,
2015 9:20 AM, Burr Sutter <burrsutter@gmail.com>
wrote:<BR></FONT></DIV><BR><BR>
<DIV id=yui_3_16_0_1_1429100035064_15352 class=y_msg_container>
<DIV id=yiv2009162612>
<DIV id=yui_3_16_0_1_1429100035064_15351>
<DIV id=yui_3_16_0_1_1429100035064_15369 dir=ltr>I think that is a perfectly
fair question...my focus is on learning at this time, trying to understand the
overall ecosystem. </DIV>
<DIV id=yiv2009162612yqt46679 class=yiv2009162612yqt1438478683>
<DIV id=yui_3_16_0_1_1429100035064_15350 class=yiv2009162612gmail_extra>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_16_0_1_1429100035064_15349 class=yiv2009162612gmail_quote>On Wed,
Apr 15, 2015 at 8:20 AM, Christopher Svec <SPAN
id=yui_3_16_0_1_1429100035064_16616 dir=ltr><<A
id=yui_3_16_0_1_1429100035064_16615 href="mailto:christophersvec@yahoo.com"
shape=rect rel=nofollow target=_blank
ymailto="mailto:christophersvec@yahoo.com">christophersvec@yahoo.com</A>></SPAN>
wrote:<BR clear=none>
<BLOCKQUOTE id=yui_3_16_0_1_1429100035064_15348 class=yiv2009162612gmail_quote
style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid">
<DIV id=yui_3_16_0_1_1429100035064_15347>
<DIV id=yui_3_16_0_1_1429100035064_15346
style="FONT-SIZE: 13px; FONT-FAMILY: helveticaneue-light, helvetica neue light, helvetica neue, helvetica, arial, lucida grande, sans-serif; COLOR: #000; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #fff">
<DIV id=yui_3_16_0_1_1429100035064_15863>Yes! I totally agree about the growth
of our once-very-niche industry.</DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_16_0_1_1429100035064_15865> </DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_16_0_1_1429100035064_15864 dir=ltr>Another question to consider
is "what are you trying to do or accomplish as an end-goal?", in addition to
the "where to invest time & energy to learn" question.</DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_16_0_1_1429100035064_15368 dir=ltr> </DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_16_0_1_1429100035064_15367 dir=ltr>You can spend the rest of
your life testing & learning each new platform or dev board or widget that
comes out - and there's nothing wrong with that at all! Especially if pure
learning is your goal.</DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_16_0_1_1429100035064_15345 dir=ltr> </DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_16_0_1_1429100035064_15366 dir=ltr>But is that what you're
after?</DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_16_0_1_1429100035064_15365 dir=ltr> </DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_16_0_1_1429100035064_15364 dir=ltr>(I'm a fan of frequently
backing up and asking the big picture "why?" questions.)</DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_16_0_1_1429100035064_15363 dir=ltr> </DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_16_0_1_1429100035064_15362 dir=ltr>-svec<BR clear=none></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_16_0_1_1429100035064_15353><BR clear=none><BR clear=none></DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_16_0_1_1429100035064_15359 style="DISPLAY: block">
<DIV id=yui_3_16_0_1_1429100035064_15358
style="FONT-SIZE: 13px; FONT-FAMILY: helveticaneue-light, helvetica neue light, helvetica neue, helvetica, arial, lucida grande, sans-serif">
<DIV id=yui_3_16_0_1_1429100035064_15357
style="FONT-SIZE: 16px; FONT-FAMILY: helveticaneue, helvetica neue, helvetica, arial, lucida grande, sans-serif">
<DIV id=yui_3_16_0_1_1429100035064_15356>
<DIV id=yui_3_16_0_1_1429100035064_15355 class=yiv2009162612h5>
<DIV id=yui_3_16_0_1_1429100035064_15354 dir=ltr><FONT
id=yui_3_16_0_1_1429100035064_15360 size=2 face=Arial>On Wednesday, April 15,
2015 8:05 AM, Burr Sutter <<A id=yui_3_16_0_1_1429100035064_15361
href="mailto:burrsutter@gmail.com" shape=rect rel=nofollow target=_blank
ymailto="mailto:burrsutter@gmail.com">burrsutter@gmail.com</A>> wrote:<BR
clear=none></FONT></DIV><BR clear=none><BR clear=none></DIV></DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_16_0_1_1429100035064_15871>
<DIV id=yui_3_16_0_1_1429100035064_15870>
<DIV id=yui_3_16_0_1_1429100035064_15869 class=yiv2009162612h5>
<DIV id=yui_3_16_0_1_1429100035064_15868>
<DIV id=yui_3_16_0_1_1429100035064_15867 dir=ltr>
<DIV>The world of embedded microcontrollers has seen some dramatic growth
(from my perspective) and it is tough to figure out where to invest my
learning time & energy. <BR clear=none></DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_16_0_1_1429100035064_16125> </DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_16_0_1_1429100035064_16121>I have followed this path so
far:</DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_16_0_1_1429100035064_16120>1) Arduino</DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_16_0_1_1429100035064_15875>2) Raspberry Pi</DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_16_0_1_1429100035064_16619>3) Spark Core</DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_16_0_1_1429100035064_16618>4) Intel Edison (just using it as a
Linux box so far)</DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_16_0_1_1429100035064_15874>5) TI SensorTag</DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_16_0_1_1429100035064_15873>and played a bit with the NXP LPC1768
running mbed (<A id=yui_3_16_0_1_1429100035064_16617 href="http://mbed.org/"
shape=rect rel=nofollow target=_blank>http://mbed.org/</A>)</DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_16_0_1_1429100035064_15872> </DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_16_0_1_1429100035064_15866>Mostly I have been simply playing
with the various "developer kits" where my mission is on detection and
connection - trying to understand what can be sensed and how to get the data
back to the cloud.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>How do you all feel about mbed? Is that worthy of expending
dozens/hundreds of hours of learning time? And if so, which of the various
ARM/mbed-based hardware vendors are interesting to you?</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV></DIV></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV></DIV></DIV>_______________________________________________<BR
clear=none>Triangle, NC Embedded Computing mailing list<BR clear=none><A
href="mailto:TriEmbed@triembed.org" shape=rect rel=nofollow target=_blank
ymailto="mailto:TriEmbed@triembed.org">TriEmbed@triembed.org</A><BR
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href="http://mail.triembed.org/mailman/listinfo/triembed_triembed.org"
shape=rect rel=nofollow
target=_blank>http://mail.triembed.org/mailman/listinfo/triembed_triembed.org</A><BR
clear=none>TriEmbed web site: <A href="http://triembed.org/" shape=rect
rel=nofollow target=_blank>http://TriEmbed.org</A><BR clear=none><BR
clear=none><BR
clear=none></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV><BR><BR></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV>
<P>
<HR>
_______________________________________________<BR>Triangle, NC Embedded
Computing mailing
list<BR>TriEmbed@triembed.org<BR>http://mail.triembed.org/mailman/listinfo/triembed_triembed.org<BR>TriEmbed
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