Bobby on 12 Years at SparkFun – Information


SparkFun is 20 years outdated this 12 months! We’re fortunate sufficient to have a bunch of workers which have been round for over 10 of these years, and we wished to share their reflections on their time right here with you. Right this moment you will be listening to from Bobby Chan!

Bobby's Employee Photo

Inform us a bit about your background.

I used to be born and raised in Denver, Colorado. I moved as much as Boulder in 2005 for the College of Colorado’s engineering program. I graduated within the winter of 2010 with {an electrical} and pc engineering diploma.

I first began as an meeting technician in manufacturing division at SparkFun in June 2011 (wow, 12 years on the time of this writing!). That is me within the entrance doing a bit of freeze.

Production Department Photo from SparkFun Production: A Brief History

In November 2012, I moved over to technical assist division serving to clients with elements for his or her tasks or troubleshooting points.

Technical Support Department Photo from Who You Gonna Call?

On June 2017, I moved over to high quality assurance and documentation crew to work with our tutorials underneath the product providers division!

Bobby in Product Services Department during the Pandemic

Working within the constructing with staggered schedules in 2020.

What’s your favourite challenge you’ve labored on at SparkFun?

Awww, there’s so many cool tasks! It is exhausting to only discuss one favourite challenge or one which I’ve labored on. Beneath are a couple of tasks that I’ve constructed! There are different tasks that I would wish to work on however I’ve not had an opportunity but.

What is the coolest factor you’ve seen a buyer make with our merchandise?

Ahhh, there’s a couple of cool challenge that I’ve seen clients construct with our merchandise! Hmm, those that I can discuss… I would say GPS monitoring animals or arctic ice with the are fairly cool! There’s additionally the Roast Imaginative and prescient utilizing the Qwiic Photodetector (MAX30101) Breakout to measure the extent of espresso roast. Escape Rooms utilizing relays, RFID, sensors, and buttons are fairly neat as nicely. And even the Mars helicopter utilizing the LIDAR-Lite v3!

What introduced you right here?

I used to be a scholar engaged on my bachelor’s diploma simply earlier than becoming a member of SparkFun. I did not know a lot about SparkFun till my first soldering class with the Simon Says SMD Package. If I keep in mind accurately, there was Nate and some different SparkFunions. I used to be a bit sluggish grabbing the SMD parts utilizing tweezers and soldering them on the board. I used to be the final one there soldering and everybody was affected person with me. The solder joints had been fairly unhealthy however the board labored. I nonetheless have this board at this time!

After I began ordering parts for my senior design challenge, I assumed it could be superior to work at an organization with the kind of merchandise obtainable within the catalog and assist make electronics extra accessible for folks.

How has SparkFun advanced in the course of the time you’ve been right here?

SparkFun has matured loads when it comes to designing boards and merchandise. I really feel like boards had been a bit scrappier and it was more durable to get revisions by way of. I really feel like we have gotten quicker and higher at designing boards. Our manufacturing division may also deal with extra complicated builds and rework!

Tutorials had been nice again then however exhausting to work with (this was barely earlier than my time working in our documentation, nonetheless I discover myself going again to the outdated tutorial website each infrequently). It’s a lot simpler to jot down tutorials with the instruments made obtainable from our IT division and they appear extra skilled. Tutorials additionally observe a extra standardized template (though there may be nonetheless some flexibility relying on the character of the topic and the creator). Code can also be simpler to share and replace with GitHub repositories.

Expertise has additionally come a great distance and SparkFun’s catalog has modified as nicely to adapt to EOL parts and extra highly effective IC’s. Need a small animal tracker? It was harder to prototype approach again once I labored in our technical assist division. I keep in mind speaking with a couple of clients about making prototype GPS trackers and suggesting some elements to transmit location knowledge. The elements had been restricted in vary with the mobile modules and XBees obtainable. The elements mixed had been additionally massive and clunky. Now, it is loads simpler lately to trace an animal wherever world wide utilizing the Iridium or Argos Satellite tv for pc Networks!

The main focus has additionally shifted to incorporate different sectors of the market. SparkFun was extra for enterprise to shoppers (i.e. hobbyists, college students, educators, makers, and so forth.) to start with however has grown to business-to-business (i.e. partnerships with different organizations and firms).

Describe your first day!

Hmm, I keep in mind elements of my first day. I got here in by way of the entrance the place the large, inexperienced GPS LED clock was hanging and headed into the breakroom within the outdated constructing at about 9:00am able to work. There have been free burritos (not an on a regular basis factor so I used to be fairly fortunate). I then headed to my desk and commenced my coaching within the manufacturing division with Adam!

Favourite spot within the constructing?

Hmm, the engineering division is fairly cool. It has a lot of the instruments and house that I have to construct tasks. I additionally get to listen to about tasks or take a look at boards which might be coming down the pipeline.

Engineering Engineering Work Tables

Different spots that take pleasure in making my rounds embody the manufacturing division (they’ve extra instruments for transforming and cleansing boards, nevertheless it’s additionally candy trying out the choose & place machine or seeing everybody in manufacturing), LED testbed set up by the engineering tables, and break room.

How would you describe SparkFun’s tradition?

I might describe SparkFun’s tradition as a mixture between a laid again ambiance with exhausting employees that put plenty of care of their work in order that clients obtain a high quality product. Everyone seems to be open to new concepts, keen to pay attention, and approachable. It doesn’t matter what your background is, SparkFun is supportive of 1’s progress (whether or not it is private or profession targets), and who you might be as a person. In fact, you will see canines, skateboards, scooters, and candy tasks.

What’s the finest a part of the work you do?

Having the ability to work with my co-workers on new know-how and making electronics extra accessible to folks world wide!


We have been celebrating our long run workers all 12 months – take a look at the opposite interviews we have achieved:

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