Born in the USA

Here's the first of the new Nanodes to be built entirely in the USA. This is the handywork of Dirk Swart and Victor Aprea - collectively known as Wicked Device

Dirk and Vic contacted me in early July about a collaborative venture - and 8 weeks on, here is the first of 550 to be produced entirely on US soil.

A few subtle changes:

1. Vias are fully solder resisted - no more soldering shorts, and easier to read component placement text.
2. Better legend on 3V3 regulator to indicate insertion direction.
3. A DC jack will actually fit in the footprint location - slots rather than holes.

This is one of the collective benefits of open source hardware. As more people get actively involved, the early mistakes get rectified and the design slowly becomes more refined.

Apart from those mods - it's a good ol' Nanode 5.

In the last few weeks I have been busy, with others, helping to promote the Nanode Project. A very successful presentation at the London Hackspace on September 1st, together with Usman Haque of Pachube, we updated a packed room about the open hardware/open data business model.

We then had the Brighton Mini Maker Faire on Saturday 3rd September - which was very well attended and helped a lot to introduce Nanode to potential customers. Aided by Sam Carlisle and Matt Gaffen, our modest stand sold 35 Nanodes in something under 4 hours.

Meanwhile, in China, the first of the 500 new red pcbs was being tested at the Shenzhen Hackerspace "ChaiHuo" by my friends Toby Yu and Long Li. The first board assembled worked perfectly and is now been used to monitor the temperature of the Hackerspace beer fridge - and post the results up to Pachube.


Additionally this week, a batch of 200 Nanodes were being assembled in a factory in Shenzhen, and 50 have been shipped over to New York, in time for the Open Hardware Summit on 15th Sept and the following Maker Faire on 17th and 18th September. Here is one of the Chinese assembled Nanodes.


In other news this week, SK Pang Electronics has produces a very attractive custom laser-cut acrylic case for the Nanode
Here's a brief assembly Guide.

So September has started to be a busy month for Nanode - with activity going on in 3 centres globally.

If you wish to buy a Nanode - the following distributors now stock them.

Earthshine Electronics

SK Pang Electronics

Wicked Device In USA and Canada and South America

Or you may buy them directly from me using Paypal at ken dot boak at gmail dot com.

If you buy them direct, a significant percentage of proceeds are re-invested directly in furthering the Nanode Project, and go towards our policy of ethical manufacture, fair wages and supporting start-up satellite businesses both in China and the UK.