In Chinese markets it’s super common to carry boxes with an improvised packing tape handle. It’s a simple idea: make four or five tape loops over the top of the box and then crush them together into a handle. Bunnie’s new Huaqiangbei adventure kit even includes ‘please make a tape handle’ in the useful phrases […]
Category Archives: Global Geek
Global Geek Tour mini site with maps, comments, resources
Geek tourism is a thing. Travel somewhere new, eat the food, drink the beer, and check out the local hacker scene. In Shenzhen we see 5 or 6 visitors a week. Whether a side trip to Akihabara, or a full on expedition through Huaqiangbei, don’t leave home without bookmarking the Geek Tour mini site. Maps […]
Silicone compression molding factory
In this video Dangerous Prototypes and Pax Instruments visit a silicone molding factory in Shenzhen, China: We recently visited a silicone compression molding factory with our friends at Dangerous Prototypes. This is the same technology used for making our silicone keypads for the T400 temperature datalogger. I put together a short video showing the overall […]
Hacker Camp Shenzhen volume 3: Reflow open for registration
Hacker Camp Shenzhen volume 3: “Reflow” is on! Join us from Thursday December 4 to Saturday December 6, 2014 for fun, food and 3 solid days of market tours in Shenzhen China and beyond. Tickets are available now. Come to the world’s electronics capital and experience Shenzhen like a local hacker. Tour the famous Huaqiangbei […]
The dreamers of Shenzhen’s Maker’s revolution
Another great Shenzhen-Geek tour video from Metalworks: Maker Faire Shenzhen Trip. Daylon Soh writes: When the Metalworks team was there in April, we were part of a group of aspiring hardware entrepreneurs and the best offshore online casinos enthusiasts from North America and Europe. Most were looking to bring their hardware product ideas to fruition and were looking […]
Random Hong Kong electronics posting
Wanted a LTE SIM card for Hong Kong so ran up to Aplui street. There’s a few electronics stores here but it’s pretty tame. Once a someone said their factory contacts always brought them from China to Hong Kong to buy components, once they experienced Huaqiangbei they felt duped. If you’re in Hong Kong on […]
Hacker Camp Shenzhen vol 2: Reflux open for registration
Hacker Camp Shenzhen volume 2: “Reflux” is on! Join us from Thursday September 25 to Saturday September 27, 2014 for fun, food and solder fumes in Shenzhen, China. Tickets are available now. Come to the world’s electronics capital and experience Shenzhen like a local hacker. Tour the famous Huaqiangbei electronics markets with people who live […]
Random spottings in Huaqiangbei electronics market
In search of a powerful frickin’ laser we visited this stand. They were really up front that the 6Watt label was incorrect, but the 2.5Watt output of this little handheld laser was still impressive. For a little demo she showed us that it could melt a piece of solder in half…with a bit of effort. […]
Maker Villa Penang, Malaysia
A Hacker Camp Shenzhen participant caught the bug and organized a local event in Penang. MAKER VILLA PENANG is a 3-day maker camp bringing local and international makers (DIY artists, crafters, designers, scientists & engineers) for a time of learning, building and sharing of ideas. It will be held from 20-22 August 2014 in conjunction […]
Touring in Shenzhen video series from Limpkin
Touring factories in Shenzhen: Visiting an assembly line, Seeedstudio and a CNC shop Shenzhen is the geek’s paradise and can be described as an awesome concentration of very different companies, all within an hour cab ride from your hotel. If you ever go there, I highly recommend you to have a look at Ian’s article […]
Geek Tour: Visit Shenzhen
Shenzhen is the hot geek destination right now. Since the hacker camp last spring, it seems like there are at least 3 hackers roaming the neighborhood at any given moment. Add the constant HAXLR8R classes and you’ve got a great vibe. We put together a wiki page to help plan your trip to Shenzhen. Where […]
ThrAxis DIY CNC mill
Eric has posted details on his build of a CNC mill from scratch. The ThrAxis (Three-Axis) is a vertical milling machine made mostly from materials from hardware stores. The spindle is a Harbor Freight rotary tool and the motors and controllers are surplus and eBay finds. We made it during lots of late evenings using […]
Downloadable ShenZhen map for makers
We are a great fan of Shenzhen and love the wandering round the vast partmarkets of Huaqiangbei, Shenzhen. Ian even decided to leave the cold and windy Netherlands and settle in the Shenzhen area. Two years ago we start our first steps in Huaqiangbei during our first geek tour of Shenzhen, but now we are veterans and know […]
Making wine in Shenzhen: four months into a three week tour
Where we’ve been Dangerous Prototypes has been around four years this summer. This internet gig started at the DIY Life and Hack a Day blogs when I was a poor student roughing it in Amsterdam. A couple hundred bucks for a feature piece bought a lot of ramen stampot, and paid for an otherwise unsustainable […]
3D printer stall at SEG market
3D printer spotted at SEG market building in Hua Quiang Bei, Shenzhen. Small, simple, and elegant design. Bent metal is cheap and plentiful, and they’ve capitalized on that to make one of the most bare bones 3D printers we’ve ever seen. Photo credit: Aaron/Oomout.
Another Best FACEFRAME! picture
FACEFRAME! poses at mag.switch-science.com Via Twitter.
Stuff to do in Shenzhen: Open a bank account
So you’ve got the hang of shopping for stuff on the Chinese auction site Taobao, but you’re sick of dealing with brokers? Open a bank account in China to pay the seller and shipper directly. Bank accounts are easy to open. Take a passport and an initial 100rmb deposit to any branch of any bank […]
Things in Shenzhen: Tailors in Louhu
Besides hunting electronics, we always have clothes tailored in Shenzhen. The Louhu Commercial City is a mall right outside the boarder crossing. Its mostly knock off crap, but at the top there’s a huge fabric market and dozens of tailors. They do suits, but also anything you can imagine, and its way cheaper than the […]
Shopping with students from Penang
Met up with a group of grad students from Penang Malaysia and took them to my favorite shops to buy tools. Here they are wheeling a cart full over to Susi at shippers row. Also met up with TJ from Indonesia. Thanks guys! It was a ton of fun and we built better relations with […]
Out of Shenzhen: Sea of people at Louhu/Lo Wu
Guide books warn that the boarder crossing from Hong Kong to Shenzhen at Louhu can be extremely busy. We’ve always sailed through in a couple minutes. Today, after leaving China immigration, we encountered this sea of people in the no mans land bridge to Hong Kong. Still only took about an hour to get through, […]