Choosing the wrong microcontroller can lock you into months of rework, destroy your margins, or leave you completely stranded when the manufacturer moves on.
And after reviewing hundreds of hardware designs, I keep seeing the same 7 MCUs show up … read more
Over the past few weeks I’ve gone deep on AI agents for my own business, and it’s completely changed how I think about marketing.
I built a content distribution system where I can focus all my energy on creating one … read more
There are three stages that virtually every hardware product moves through, from early concept all the way to optimized production.
Most founders either skip one of these stages entirely or get stuck in one way too long, and both mistakes … read more
You’ve heard it a thousand times, hardware is hard.
It’s the unofficial motto of hardware founders.
But that phrase is no longer a warning, it’s your biggest advantage.
It’s hard not to be jealous sometimes.
You’re stuck waiting on prototypes, … read more
Picking a low-power microcontroller that gives you maximum battery life sounds simple.
Just pick the one with the lowest power consumption, right?
Well, there’s a lot more to it.
You have to consider sleep current, active efficiency, minimum voltage, wake-up … read more
Your battery can make or break your product, and I mean that literally.
Choose the wrong one and you’re looking at products that die too soon, catch fire, get held up in customs, or just never make it to market … read more
You’ve spent months developing your product, maybe even years, and you’re finally ready to get it certified so you can sell it.
Then you send it off for compliance testing and it fails, sometimes badly.
Now you’re looking at a … read more
Most people assume hardware products fail because the engineering wasn’t good enough.
But that’s not what kills most hardware products.
What actually sinks them are a handful of business decisions that felt totally reasonable at the time.
Founders make these … read more
When your product needs more than a microcontroller, it’s easy to assume the next logical step is designing a custom board around a faster processor.
On paper it looks simple. Add a processor, add some RAM, and call it … read more
So there’s something you probably don’t really want to think about, but it’s important you hear it.
You can spend months, sometimes years, developing a hardware product and still end up with something that barely sells once it finally … read more
A lot of hardware products fail because one early decision pushed everything else in the wrong direction.
In my experience, the one decision that causes the most consequences is choosing the microcontroller.
Once that part is locked in, everything … read more
People often think the hard part of hardware development is getting a prototype to work. Once the board powers up, the sensors read correctly, and the firmware mostly works, it feels like the finish line is finally in sight.… read more
Most products don’t need the cheapest microcontroller or the most powerful one.
Once you factor in development time, debugging, tooling, and the cost of fixing mistakes later, both extremes can end up costing you more than you think.
What … read more
You’ve spent months, maybe even years, working on your product. You’ve poured in time, money and way more effort than most people will ever realize.
But right when you’re about to launch, everything seems to come to a standstill. … read more
Most people think microcontrollers are simple, cheap, and slow… and microprocessors are complex, expensive, and fast.
In this video I’m flipping that upside down. Because I’m comparing a two-dollar Linux chip against a twenty-dollar microcontroller that’s literally twice as … read more
Thermal issues are one of the biggest killers of electronic products.
Heat degrades components, shortens product lifespan, and can even create dangerous fire situations.
So in this video, I’ll show you 10 common PCB design mistakes that cause thermal … read more
Scaling up an electronic product is where reality really sets in.
Prototyping is fun and exciting, because you get something working and it feels like real progress.
But once you try to move from a handful of units to … read more
When you’re developing a new electronic product, one of the biggest cost decisions you’ll make is the microcontroller.
It’s often one of the pricier parts on the board, and the choice you make affects performance, power, and long-term cost.… read more
When your product works perfectly on your bench, it’s easy to assume it’ll keep working once people start using it.
But unless you actually test for reliability, you’re making a pretty risky assumption.
A working prototype doesn’t tell you … read more
You don’t always need a full-blown microprocessor to build something advanced.
Some of today’s microcontrollers are insanely powerful.
Fast enough to handle AI, high-end graphics, streaming audio, but still simple enough to run bare-metal code.
And when I say … read more
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