[PT] recently interviewed [Laen], the man who makes it cheap and easy for hobbiests to have small PCBs manufactured. He created Dorkbot PDX’s PCB group order, a rapid turn PCB service which we see used in projects all the time (pretty much any purple PCB has gone through [Laen]).
Turns out his real name is [James Neal]. He’s a sysadmin by trade but deals in recreational circuitry at night. We were surprised to learn that the service has been rebranded. Its new name is OSH Park and it’s got a purple website with a new submission system. In the interview he discusses the genesis of the service. Inspired by a group parts order (that’s a mouthful!) with other hackers in Portland he saw a need for boards on which to mount them. The service has grown so much that he was spending 2-4 hours per night panelizing the designs. He made the wise choice to include an automated submission service in the new website that takes care of most of this work for him.
The rest of the interview spans a large range of topics. [Laen] shares his feelings on getting the boards manufactured domestically. He speaks briefly on the future of the service, and riffs on why open source hardware has value to him.
Laen, not Lean.
Neal backwards eh?
The word is “hobbyists”, not “hobbiests”.
Hobby -> hobby-ist -> hobbyist
Maybe you should “crowdsource” proofing of articles, HaD…
You serious? HaD is NOTORIOUS for very, very poor editing; it’s almost like a trademark! Kidding aside, I really don’t see why they don’t hire a proper editor. They would likely find somebody willing to do it for nothing!
I would like some different commenters, these are broken; they only emit a high pitched whine.
I’m the hobbyist. Nobody is hobbier than me.
Nice one.
People usually let these things go by, CB4, but really, the quality of the output seems to be going down, and getting someone’s name wrong is inexcusable. It’s right that the people who can actually read and write and want to see commentary which isn’t distracting because of typos, spelling, grammar, and other mistakes, speak up about it once in a while. It’s how we learn to do better. We all make mistakes, but whether we can go forward from that is up to you.
I have used the service many times, including small runs for undergraduate classes. It would be far more expensive without this service. Lean is my hero!
Laens a great guy , only had a few boards off him but he’s very helpful and cost effective.
Been using OSH Park for a while. I recommend it for small PCBs over any other board house.
This dude has gotten me out of jams more times than I’d care to mention. His prices are freakishly good. Due to his mad cheap boards, ever since I joined the Ohio State University FormulaSAE team, we have had him make all of our boards. Laen PCBs are the official choice of the Formula buckeyes!
You mean the university didn’t force him to make them in scarlet and gray and put a buckeye on them? I’m shocked.
As long as they aren’t maize and blue, we’re good.
lol, we tried are hardest, but they still came to us purple. RebelHell is right on the money
Yea, Laens cool but who that guy he’s sitting on?
I loled so hard! HaD really needs a like button
I had no clue the boards were MFG in USA! That’s awesome. I think next spin I do, I will be using OSH Park. I just wish the soldermask wasnt purple – sorry, just doesn’t do it for me :D
Was he speaking for himself or just parroting whatever the bird told him to say?
There are many “forces” behind Dorkbotpdx including Thomas Lockney, Jason Plumb, Alex Norman, Jessie Mejia, Jim Eastman, and Cameron Adamez among others (mostly naming the current active actors).
Laen’s service grew from the community not the other way around.
And i love it and use it . I Just want to correct your “force behind” statement.