Shenzhen Tour And UnHuman Soldering Classes With DP

dp-hacker-camp

If you’re free the first week of April and don’t mind sitting on a plane for a looooong time you should check out the Hacker Camp that Dangerous Prototypes is planning. We’re sure you remember [Ian Lesnet] who is a Hackaday Alum, creator of the Bus Pirate, and geeky world traveler. Now’s your chance to try out what to him is a way of life.

The event is April 3-5 in Shenzhen, China. Although marketed as a “Hacker Camp”, to us it sounds more like training for those interested in running hardware companies that use the Shenzhen manufacturing district as the anchor of their supply chain. Part of the prep-work for the trip includes submitting board files which will be fabbed and ready for you on the first day. [Ian] and his crew will be your guides for the culture of the area; complete with meals and bar time. But there are also soldering workshops as part of the package. Don’t pooh-pooh the idea. This is unhuman soldering… BGA and QFN soldering instruction from the people who repair cellphones and other microelectronics.

This [Rick Steves] style adventure is the first that we remember hearing about that targets the open hardware community. But we must admit, it sounds like a lot more fun than a European river cruise!

[Thanks Akiba]

13 thoughts on “Shenzhen Tour And UnHuman Soldering Classes With DP

  1. I do this for work, so it would be a bit of a busman’s holiday for me, but I this is the right city to visit if you are *seriously* considering working with a contract manufacturer or Chinese suppliers. I highly recommend Huaqiangbei (even though Huaqiang road is super torn up with construction). If you have a few extra days, check out Wutong Mountain just east of the city, there are stairs up to the top (and vendors with beer).

    The air tickets can be kinda expensive, so book early. Nonstop is easier but a stop can potentially be cheaper, Cathay Pacific and Eva Air have better entertainment than United. Try to arrange with other people to split a ride from the airport if you fly to Hong Kong.

    The itinerary they lay out looks legit, coco park is full of bars and definitely an expat hangout. If you are sticking around, OCT (overseas chinese town) is a little fancier but also pricier.

    Protip: the red taxis are legit, but they have a 3RMB fuel surcharge. If you are lucky enough to get one of the E-taxis you save the 3RMB. If you find yourself outside the special economic zone, the green taxis will only take you to the edge of the city.

  2. Does anybody know how much those WS2812 LED strips cost out there? Specifically the 60leds/metre strips?
    Because I’d swear there is a serious artificial price inflation between here and there.
    Oddly enough availability isn’t great in the UK, always needing to look abroad, but they average about £15-20 a metre, thats 25p per LED effectively in bulk!

  3. Not that far off. WS2812 LED strip is about $12/m direct from the markets in Shenzhen. If you factor in shipping and markup, then those prices are fairly reasonable. You can get better pricing if you buy in bulk, but not that much better.

    1. Interesting thanks.
      12usd is about 7ukp, half the uk average availability, That would make a 4m length only 28ukp! I think I paid around 70ukp for a 4m length not 3 months ago off ebay supposedly with free shipping.
      AliExpress seems a possibility but I don’t trust them tbh. Anybody used AliExpress? Postage seems on average around 17usd, or 15ukp (interesting conversion!) Can anybody recommend a specific seller of WS2812 strips?
      Thanks!

  4. I fail to understand how an American can learn anythingin China. I go there every few months and I have decided that in this country, “Electrical Engineering Degree” must be a $5 shelf item at most convenience stores. These morons can’t solve even a very basic engineering problem unless they can find someone else’s solution to copy. There is no creativity in this country, only copy, copy, copy. They WILL destroy us if we keep sending all of our electronics manufacturing there while IGNORING the fact that they copy EVERYTHING of ours and then sell the copies right back to us – If a US company does this, they are sued and/or shut down. If a Chinese company does this, it is ignored, because thanks to BO (you know, the king idiot in the white house), the Chinese own a good portion of our absolutely staggering national debt.

    Chinese do not DESIGN. They COPY. They are not that good at copying. With American supervision (like in Apple’s case) they build products with nice fit and finish, but do you really want to be one of the mindless drones who give their money to a communist country full of people who don’t like Americans? Do you really want to help the Chinese military surpass the size and power of our military in 5 years or less? That is where we are going. China has made it clear that they are bent on being THE superpower in the world. All so you mouth-breathing, knuckle-dragging idiots can have your “smart” devices for cheaper. Do you need that $500 phone to live? Are you aware of how much better your life would be (AND HOW MUCH SMARTER YOU COULD BE!) if you put that worthless device down and actually READ something? There are countless studies which prove what I am saying is true – These “smart devices”, coupled with social media like facebook and twitter have resulted in a younger generation which is staggeringly stupid – I’m talking significant mental retardation compared to the youth of even 10 years ago – And everyone is ignoring this!!!

    All of the midless idiots who in the past decade have convinced themselves that they NEED all of this meaningless material garbage need to chill out, get real, and reclaim their minds. My kids do not have smart phones and I will never buy one for them – If they really want to bring a waste of time like that in to their lives, they can do it on their own dime. Fortunately, they are OK with their basic cells which make phone calls and send basic SMS, and they are all at (or near) 4.0 GPA in a public school with very little effort (while all of their friends seem to be working as hard as they can to get a measly 3.0 or worse).

    Stupid is as stupid does… And China is a major contributor to the stupidity of our youth today.

    F@ck China, F@ck their cocky anti-American attitude, and F@ck the useless garbage that they build. YOU CAN LIVE WITHOUT IT.

    1. wow. just…

      wow.
      So… even though the yearly increase of national debt was NEGATIVE 679 billion, with another negative 413 billion in October and November of 2013 alone, it is all Obama’s fault? Hmm.. In the year before he took office, Bush added 1018 Billion to the debt, and set up another 1887 billion for Obama’s first year.
      2013 is the first year since sometime before 1994 that the national debt has DECREASED
      Perhaps you need your 4.0 GPA children to check your facts for you before you post something online.

      1. Hahaha, I got a good laugh from your post. You have good reasoning… For a 2nd grader.

        #1 – You seem to be making the defective assumption that not supporting BO = supporting GW; I assure you this is a very bad assumption and is most certainly not true in my case. Sounds like you may be one of those suffering from GW rage syndrome, which is interesting, I thought everyone who caught that disease had died off years ago.

        #2 – Your assertion that the national debt has gone down under BO is HILARIOUS. Did you buy those “facts” in China? The national debt rose a little under $5 trillion under GW in his two terms. BO passed that number in his FIRST 4 years. This number has ONLY risen during his presidency.

        Now, I suspect that you are one of the little fish that eat up the BO admin’s assertion that “most of this debt increase was not BO’s fault”. You know – The blame game?
        I’m not even going to get in to the reasons why that game is WRONG… I don’t think you would understand it… There is only one universal fact that you need to understand: BO has made it very clear that he can do ANYTHING “with his pen and his cell phone”… So WHY has he allowed the national debt to continue to rise? Why has he ignored the crazy high (and continually rising) unemployment numbers in this country and instead played blatantly incorrect numbers games, claiming that unemployment is more or less unchanged since he started?

        Etc, etc, etc – You must be capable of understanding this . Please try. Now let’s stop discussing politics in an obscure web commentary on “how great China is”… Lol

      2. Don’t know where you got on that tangent, but before you critic people, check your own “facts.” The debt did not decrease in 2013. Maybe you meant the deficit. I won’t even comment on the political side of your comment.

      1. Oh, that definitely justifies it. Because Japan is also copying everything of ours… Oh wait, they aren’t. They are just as invested in our country as we are in theirs. This is NOT true for China. Moron

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