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PLA vs. ABS: Getting Value out of Low-Cost Prototyping

We’re taking a look at two lower resolution and cheaper 3D printing materials for prototyping: ABS and PLA. When will PLA suffice? When do you gain much more by going with ABS? A lot of people look at price and automatically choose to print in PLA because hey, it’s the cheapest material! But depending on […]

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Tracking New Life: Designing Prenatal Hardware

What would you say to an entrepreneur who wanted to make a product that customers could use for literally just nine months?  We’re not talking about planned obsolescence; we’re talking about a literal, physical inability to use the product. Not too smart in terms of user engagement, right? Of course, when we say “prenatal,” it […]

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Satellite 101: What is a CubeSat?

Imagine a box in space that’s about the size of a long tissue box and capable of taking pictures of the Earth. That’s exactly what Planet Labs is doing: They’re using a 3U (a 10×10×34 cm CubeSat) called a Dove that takes pictures of the Earth to learn how daily imagery helps one move from […]

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The High Cost of Late-Stage Design Changes

If you work professionally in product development, or even if you tinker in your free time, you already know that a single misstep can be the difference between releasing your product on time or being late to market. Sometimes, that’s the difference between success and failure in hardware design. It’s for this very reason that […]

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The (Group) Selfie Jumps Out of the Box: Podo Spotlight

The camera is one of those things that is not only a long-standing historical item (the first one was invented in 1021 AD, if you want to get really technical) but also one that continues to attract innumerable entrepreneurial efforts. You’d think every variation on the camera that could possibly be invented already exists. But, […]

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Finishing Metal Parts Glossary

While the tool marks left on metal parts produced using CNC machining services are visually appealing to some, in many cases, some additional post-processing may be desired or even required. There are a variety of finishes that one can use to add functionality or aesthetic appeal to parts, and the glossary below will help you […]

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What is DMLS, and Why is it Taking over Aerospace?

Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS), a fancy way of 3D printing metal, is the new trend in aerospace engineering. DMLS uses a Ytterbium fiber laser to fire into a bed of powdered metal, welding the material together to create a solid structure. It’s great for complex metal parts that you can’t build with conventional manufacturing […]

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Hackable: Design for Disassembly in Electronics

All right, all right! I’ll confess: I’m part of the last generation to enter college without a cell phone—part of the last generation to graduate before iPhones were even on the market (Gasp! The horror!). My parents gave me my sister’s old phone as a sophomore, and I remember not wanting it, only begrudgingly accepting […]

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How One Startup Harnessed the Sun—and Taught People How to Fish: Off Grid Electric Spotlight

Saving the world is great. In theory. But when it comes to the nitty gritty of making your ideals a business reality, you need to swap those rose-colored glasses for some eyes-wide-open realism.  Yet even in this complicated world we live in where multiple realities vie for attention, you can still do a lot of […]

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HWStartups Slack Community AMA with Fictiv CEO Dave Evans

On July 13, Fictiv CEO Dave Evans participated in the Slack hardwarestartup group’s very first AMA. The group was spun off from the popular hardwarestartups group on reddit, and its members love to chat hardware entrepreneurialism. The group is over 500 strong, and you can join here. We’ve recapped some of the most interesting insights […]