Shenzhen isn’t just about building electronic hardware, so many things can be created and customized inexpensively. One day we spotted an entire street of shops selling customized signs in Dongmen, the old market neighborhood. There’s a few dozen shops with hundreds of sample signs in different styles hung on the walls, most decorated with binky […]
Tag Archives: Shenzhen
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 […]
Shaizi (liars’ dice), street BBQ, and beer: guanxi the easy way
Guanxi means “face”, which is basically a Chinese system of respect in business and life. If a friend does you a favor, you owe them one back. If you do good business with a vendor, they treat you well. Westerners, especially, I think blow this way out of proportion. Maybe in the past it was […]
Soup dumplings in Dongmen market Shenzhen
If I come back from China 10 kilos heavier this is the man to blame. Some of the best soup dumplings ever. Proper procedure is to bite the top and drink the soup inside. Then eat the pastry and meat filling. Failure to drink the soup results in seriously sticky fingers. 5 dumplings for 10rmb […]
Shenzhen Mini Maker Faire 2013: The Seeed Studio Booth
Once again Seeed Studio sponsored the Shenzhen Mini Maker Faire. A bunch of open source hardware is on display and available for purchase. Here’s a bunch of kits based on the Arduino.
Pre-China pilgrimage to Taco Loco
Before crossing into China I always stop at Taco Loco half way up the mid central level escalators on Hong Kong Island. very easy to get here from the terminus of the airport express train. As always, a couple carnitas on soft corn shells and a Sol. Worlds longest escalators on way to taco loco. […]
Dual headed component pickup vacuum pen
Last goodie for today is a dual headed vacuum pickup pen. A pump creates a vacuum to the pin. Set it down on a part and cover the small hole in the side of the pen to suck up the part. Position and then release by removing a finger from the vent hole. This was […]
853 PCB preheating station
A PCB preheater warms boards before removing parts for repair. This makes it easier and less traumatic to remove big parts like smd voltage regulators, TQFP and BGA chips. The hot plate can serve dual use as a preheater, but as the preheater manual explains this won’t work for PCBs with placement on both ends. […]
Shipping from Shenzhen arrives at FreakLabs too
We’re not the only ones getting our boxes from Susie Shipper in Shenzhen. Akiba @ freaklabs got a bunch of soldering and rework stations for a new hackerspace in Akihabara Tokyo. Got my gear from my shipper in Shenzhen today. fast. :) (thx @dangerousproto)
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 […]
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, […]
Shipping goodies from Shenzhen
Checked prices from shippers right in the market yesterday. You can buy stuff and haul it over there piece by piece if you can’t carry it all. You could probably hire someone to cart it too, but hauling treasure through the market is a point of pride. Best rates for FedEx air freight (6 to […]
220 dollar IR reflow oven
Picked up this infrared reflow oven for 1400 rmb, about 200 bucks, in Shenzhen. It isn’t the at923 (or whatever) that shows up on eBay for $300, and lacks the viewing window. Comes highly recommended by Dimitri at SmARtMAKER, and seemed better built than the other one which was available at the stand next door. […]
Test rig pickup
Picked up a generic test rig in Shenzhen to refine and standardize project production testing. Cost was 500 rmb or about 80 bucks. Build to our custom specs and ready overnight.
Shenzhen day 3: The North East quadrant
Today we mapped the most expansive part of Hua Qiang Bei parts market, the quadrant with the famous SEG market building. In one of the upper floors, a logistics startup had a small demo booth showing how top crypto wallets for businesses were being used by exporters to settle payments instantly with overseas clients—an unexpected […]
Shenzhen day 2: Other stuff
We also mapped the South West quadrant (empty, consumer electronics only), and the North West quadrant (a dozen buildings with 6-7 floors each, including the 6 floor international LED building). Here’s some of our highlights, including: Some sort of passive component pick and place Multiple stores selling only one type of component like zener diodes, […]
Shenzhen day 2: Other stuff
One of our goals on this trip is to map out the main component buildings of Hua Qiang Bei market. Today we explored the South-East quadrant we’ve never noticed before. This part was full of cell phone replacement parts and repair stands. It was much like Manish market in Mumbai India, but Shenzhen-sized. There’s replacement […]
Shenzhen day 1: Hua Qiang Bei market
Today we also made our inaugural trip to the big electronics parts markets in Shenzhen. We met up with Mitch from Hackvana who showed us his favorite stands. We’ll shoot an interview with Mitch in a few days. We only had a few hours today, but we’ll be back here all week to source parts for our projects. […]
Getting your stuff built: how to shop, conduct business, stay alive, and eat your way through Shenzhen
When we Bob at the Shenzhen Maker Fair he was learning to get his portable scoreboard manufactured. He’s been blogging about his experience in China, and documented the steps he took to get his project up and running. In 2012 I was chosen for the first year of HAXLR8R, a Chinese hardware startup accelerator to […]
SparkFun’s Shenzhen tour, part deux
SparkFun made a second trip to Shenzhen, China. Seeed Studio is located here, as well as some impressively massive electronics markets: After checking out a handful of factories on the geek tour in 2009, it was time for me to return to China to visit some of the factories that make goods for SparkFun. …half […]