A Tech Entrepreneur's Guide To Visiting Shenzhen 49
Freetronics is Australia's answer to a lot of electronic tinkerers' needs, selling items like Arduino compatible boards, cables, and specialized tools. Founder Jonathan Oxer is a (serious) electronics hobbyist himself; he talked with Slashdot last year about making ArduSats, which were then launched to the International Space Station. Now, Oxer has written an excellent guide for hobbyists who might get the chance to travel to Shenzhen, where so many of the world's electronic bits and bobs are made. As travel writing goes, it's fascinating for the sheer novelty of the place. If you actually have the chance to go, some of the advice here might save you money and time. For those of you who have been to Shenzhen, what else should visitors know?
Nice Chinese tour guide... (Score:0, Insightful)
Nice propaganda site, but in the Podunk town I live in, I can find SMT machines, wave soldering contraptions, injection molding items, even machines from Mitsubishi that will do both additive and subtractive sintering (create a rough product, then machine it to uber-tight tolerances.)
I respect China and the people that rave about them, but I prefer buying domestically, and even though I live in banjo country, I can pretty much find the same things without having to have a partner in the foreign country that owns 51% of the venture.
I also respect that China can make virtually anything cheap, and are the go-to place for bottom dollar OEMs/ODMs... but the stuff I spec, cheap is not what I look for... and virtually every other country can make good stuff, be it Germany, Canada, Switzerland, Taiwan, Japan, or even the ol' US.
Yes, the propagandists sell China as the way to go, but there are many other places in the world that can make things and make them well.
Re:Mmm Sai (Score:3, Insightful)
I ended up buying stuff from his store just because of that dedication.
Great, thanks for encouraging his behaviour.