By ian Before the workshop started we planned to take a few early arrivals to Dongmen and the Copy Mall. Instead, almost the entire group came. We hit Dongmen, China’s largest street market and the oldest market in Shenzhen (Laojie metro stop exit E). Highlights included the pirate software vendors, glasses world (eyeglass and contact […]
Category Archives: Shenzhen
Hacker Camp Shenzhen Day -1: Pre-game dinner at Japanese Secret Location
By ian Anyone arriving early was invited to “Japanese Secret Location” in Louhu, the oldest part of Shenzhen, for an all you can eat, all you can drink, Japanese dinner. This is one of our favorite dining spots and we wanted to share it with everyone.
Hacker Camp Shenzhen map and schedule arrives
By ian There’s a lot of Huaqiangbei maps out there (Seeed Studio, HAXLR8R, Oomlout), but we needed one specifically for Hacker Camp Shenzhen. This map has favorite component and tools buildings, some hidden and not normally visited. It also has ‘local’ places I’ve discovered during the last year living in the market area: cheap and […]
Hacker Camp Shenzhen patches
By ian It’s amazingly easy and cheap to get things made in China. To showcase that we’ve had hackerspace passport stamps, banners, and now patches made for the workshop. These patches, while not the best quality ever, were only 1RMB each ($0.16USD) for 50 pieces – delivered in 5 days. Everyone attending the workshop will […]
Meet the amazing China power outlet
By ian Traveling abroad you’ll likely encounter many different outlets. While most of our stuff uses an adapter that will take any local power supply from 100volts to 240volts, the plug shapes are still different. Usually you buy a way over-priced adapter for a specific region before heading out. Not in China! In Shenzhen most […]
Shenzhen workshop hackerspace passport stamps
By ian Everyone attending Hacker Camp Shenzhen will get a Chinese-style hackerspace passport made by Seeed Studio. We created two stamps for the camp. One is for the market tour, the other for the soldering workshop. Hold onto the passports, there will be many more opportunities to get stamps at the Shenzhen Maker Faire following […]
BGA chips: remove, reball, replace the easy way
By ian Today we previewed the Hacker Camp Shenzhen advanced soldering class to prepare translations and figure out how everything will work. Its way, way better than we had hoped. In three hours we learned how to remove, reball, and replace a BGA chip. A couple of us did two. No special BGA reballing tools […]
Getting a data SIM card in Shenzhen
By ian Mobile data is key in China. Access to Google Maps, translation, and other info makes life so much easier. Mobile phone SIM cards with data plans are cheap and easy to get. Until recently you could buy them anywhere, but now you need to head to a phone shop and show a passport. […]
Custom Clothing in Shenzhen
By akiba One of the less commonly known features of Shenzhen is the clothing mall at the top floor of the Luohu shopping center. It’s an interesting place because you can get almost any type of clothing made there. Those that know me know that fashion sense is probably one of the last things on […]
Why Do I Need A Calculator?
By akiba I’ve been getting some questions on why a calculator is included in the hackercamp package. There’s actually a pretty interesting story behind it. A lot of people new to the electronic markets in Hua Qiang Bei quickly realize that no English is spoken there. Bargaining is carried out in Chinese and you actually […]
Hacker Camp Shenzhen 2014 registration open
By ian Registration for Hacker Camp Shenzhen April 3-5, 2014 is now open. Check out the mini-site for news and updates, and grab your tickets here. The first camp is limited to 30 people. Tickets are $285 and will be available until February 28th, but will probably sell out in a few days. A special […]
Site problems, update in progress
Earlier today I installed a new WordPress plugin to take reservations for Hacker Camp Shenzhen. It hosed the .htaccess file. I got that sorted, but now I can’t get the /docs/ projects wiki working again – all pages return 404 not found. No idea why. It’s a mess. Please hang tight, I’ll get it going […]
Shenzhen workshop April 3-5, 2014
Have you ever wanted to visit Shenzhen, home of the world’s largest electronics market? This year, just prior to the Shenzhen Maker Faire, join us for a soldering workshop and market tour for hardware hackers April 3-5, 2014. The main event is a two day soldering course at Shenzhen’s cell phone repair school. They’ll teach […]
Chinese New Year in Shenzhen the world electronics capital
Shenzhen wasn’t a town 30 years ago, it was barely a village. Almost nobody is from Shenzhen, people come here to make money and send it to family in other parts of China. Over the Chinese New Year, that two week period when you can’t order from Seeed Studio, tons of eBay vendors, and all […]