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Metric vs Imperial Units: The Greatest One-Sided Debate of All Time

The Mars Climate Orbiter infamously disintegrated after its trajectory sent it too close to the planet’s atmosphere, due to a calculation error—an error that could have been avoided if everyone used the metric system. You might ask, “Well, why not have everyone use imperial units?”, to which I would respond: You might wonder why the […]

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Lamborghini Aventador Teardown

A few of us have been griping that it’s time to get a company car. Back in the old days, our 6’ 5” CEO Dave used to deliver prototypes to customers on a tiny scooter. These days, we really want to make deliveries in style… so we got a LAMBORGHINI! Okay, not a real Lamborghini—we’re not that […]

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Parrot Flower Power Teardown

Flower Power is an environmental monitor that you stick in the soil of a potted plant. It measures 4 things: sunlight, temperature, fertilizer, and moisture. Powered by a replaceable AAA battery, it’s water resistant and good for indoor and outdoor use. The company behind this product, Parrot, hails from France and makes a diverse lineup […]

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$50 Kindle Fire Teardown

In the midst of your holiday shopping, you probably came across the new Amazon Kindle Fire that’s selling for $50. $50! That’s twice as cheap as any other tablet Amazon has on the market. For 50 bucks you get a 7” display, 1.3 GHz quad-core processor, Wi-Fi, 8 GB of storage, and rear and front-facing cameras. […]

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Secrets From a Factory Assembly Line

I still remember the first Chinese electronics factory I visited like it was yesterday: It was an old tier-3* contract manufacturer somewhere in the sprawling Dongguan City. Its white tile facade was yellowed from acid rain, and despite the sweltering midsummer heat, only a few ceiling fans feebly circulated the muggy air on the factory […]

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Nerf Lazer Tag “Phoenix Tagger” Teardown

Before we get to business today, here’s a little trivia: The Lazer Tag product line was brought to us by Worlds of Wonder (the original WoW), a toy company founded by former Atari employees. This hot hardware startup hailed from Fremont, California and got its start making “the world’s first animated talking toy,” Teddy Ruxpin. It […]

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Hardware Testing Guide for Mass Production

Congratulations! After a long design and prototype verification process, mass production has finally begun for your product. Let’s imagine that your first batch of a few thousand units sells out in a few weeks (hooray!), you place a bigger order with the manufacturer, and then an even bigger one in a few months. How do […]

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Wilson X Connected Basketball Teardown

One of the coolest new products we’ve seen hit the shelves for the holiday season is the Wilson X Connected Basketball. It uses Bluetooth LE and an accelerometer to track your shooting stats so you can improve your game. The ball also pairs with the Wilson X App so you can track shooting percentage and range […]

Teardown

Muse Brain Sensing Headband Teardown

For this edition of our Hardware DNA series we’re taking apart a very unique product: The Muse brain sensing headband. What the heck is a brain sensing headband, you ask? Well, essentially it uses sensors to measure brain activity across your frontal cortex and then, using the app, gives you real-time feedback on what’s happening in […]

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Living Hinge Design: How to Design a Living Hinge

If you’ve worked with consumer electronics, you’ll have come across living hinges. They are found in a wide variety of components – clamshell packaging, attached bottle caps, and electronic cases, just to name a few. They are low cost, easy to manufacture, and have little wear or friction involved in operation — understandably a popular […]