2022: A Look Ahead for DIY Tech Gadgets.
2022: A Look Ahead for DIY Tech Gadgets.
Hi. Welcome back to ShotokuTech.
Yes it's 2022.
I am not doing a "best of 2021" or "2022 predictions".
Instead, I want to share some observations that may have impact our hobby and put forth an action plan with you, the community that I value being a part of.
I'm sure you have heard the words 'chip shortage' and 'supply chain issues' recently.
Here is a couple of headlines from this week alone.
Chip manufacturing equipment vendor ASML reports fire at Berlin factory.
China Locks Down City Containing One of World's Busiest Ports, Could Impact Supply Chain.
We are in a global economy. It takes years to expand chip manufacturing whether building new or expanding existing plants. But if ASML can't sell you the photolithography system you need to turn silicon into integrated circuits, well one can only imagine the impact.
Of course due to restrictions meant to address circumstances out of our control, if someone can't ship something to you, you can't receive it.
These situations can occur at each level of the supply chain, where the absence of some raw material or small component might prevent the manufacture of larger, complex parts.
Another thing to consider at this time of year is the Spring Festival in China. The official holiday runs between February 11th through the 17th. This notice on the Lilygo Store page on Aliexpress states they are off January 27th through February 9th.
With that said, let's look at some of the manufacturers whose products are frequently featured on the ShotokuTech channel. We'll go in alphabetical order.
Arduino:
The typical Arduino boards you may be accustomed to appear to be generally available. UNO, Mega, Due, Leonardo, and more are all available. There are two boards I purchased last year based on advanced notice in the Arduino newsletter are not in stock at the moment. I am hoping the UNO Mini Limited Edition stays that way. But the Arduino Nano RP2040 Connect is a really great board that I hope everyone can get their hands on soon. You can sign up to get notified of availability.
Lilygo:
Lilygo doesn't seem to have many empty spots on the shelves. I find it best to shop the Lilygo official store on Aliexpress. Prices tend to be higher for Lilygo products from other vendors on the site. It is interesting that Lilygo has started creating boards that do not include the on-board serial interface. You need this additional T-U2T USB to serial dongle for these projects. I have to wonder if this is in response to some shortage, to keep the price of the boards lower or simplify their production.
M5Stack:
M5Stack has a constant flow of new products every week. Many of them are very exciting for those of us in this hobby. But looking on their website, many of their controllers are currently out of stock. They have a new AtomU Development Kit which looks pretty cool. But I think I can cobble something similar from my large collection of M5Stack controllers and modules. Other than that, the M5Stamp C3, M5Stamp Pico, Atom Lite, Atom Matrix and M5Stack Tough are available. Even the M5Paper is out of stock much like last year. Though I have seen them announce a translucent version of the M5Paper on Twitter. Digikey.com may have some M5Stack products in stock. You might want to look there as well.
Raspberry Pi:
Raspberry Pi made a big move last year, with a new raspberrypi.com website. The raspberrypi.org website now focuses primarily on education and community involvement. The raspberrypi.com website focuses on the hardware and software of the Raspberry Pi universe. But there are some bare spots on the shelves. If I look for the Raspberry Pi 4 or the Raspberry Pi 4 compute module, most of their recommended resellers have this on backorder or in some cases not available at all. It seems if you are near a MicroCenter you should go there immediately if Raspberry Pi is on your tech gadget menu. I was shocked to see Raspberry Pi 4 compute module at up to $200 or $300 on some of brand websites such as Ebay or Aliexpress. This simply is a no go as far as I'm concerned. I did get in on advanced notice for the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W and the Raspberry Pi Pico. It seems the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W is on backorder now.
Seeeduino:
Seeeduino is new to me and I just ordered a couple of items from them recently. I am looking forward demonstrating the MAKER PI RP2040 and Seeed XIAO RP2040. When I filter on their branded items, it seems there are quite a few out of stock. At this moment I have an email from them indicating thaey have Raspberry Pi 4 compute modules in stock. The price of a Raspberry Pi 4 compute module with WiFi, 8GB RAM and 32GB eMMC storage at $90 does not seem unreasonable. I am going to give it a shot. I will let you know how it goes.
Here is the Action Plan I would like to share with you. Let's discuss these here in the comment section of this video
Sustainability: I want to focus on making the most out of the tech gadgets I already have on the shelf as much as possible. Yeah you know, I love buying the next new thing, even when it is only marginally different than the previous version. But when I look at the parts bin, I see so much potential, so much fun experimentation I have yet to do. I have many items I haven't even touched! I want to be able to inform you about new items, when they are truly novel, more capable or more user friendly. So I look forward to your questions and comments, especially where it is about something we both already have on the shelf.
Newsletters: Subscribe to newsletters from manufacturers and resellers you have an interest in. Arduino, M5Stack, Raspberry Pi, Adafruit, Sparkfun are good examples. This enables you to get in on new items that you may be interested in, so you can purchase them before the initial production run gets bought up. Leave a comment if you see something new of interest that you might want to see me make a video about. I'll have to see if it passes the sustainability test above. But if it's good, maybe I will.
Social media: Follow your favorite brands on the social media of your choice. Much like the newsletters, you can get advance notice for new, interesting tech gadgets.
Sign up for product availability notifications for those items you absolutely must get that are out of stock or on pre-order. I experienced this last year. I demonstrated the M5Stack M5Paper when it was first made available. The first production run sold out. Speaking with the CEO of M5Stack through LinkedIn messaging, he informed of the shortage of the specific ePaper display. They anticpated being back in stock by the end of March 2021. All of this played out at the back end of the Spring Festival of 2021.
Feel free to share comments here if you get notified about some scarce item that returns to stock at a reasonable price.
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Chip manufacturing equipment vendor ASML reports fire at Berlin factory
https://www.theregister.com/2022/01/04/asml
China Locks Down City Containing One of World's Busiest Ports, Could Impact Supply Chain
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/china-locks-down-city-containing-one-of-worlds-busiest-ports-could-impact-supply-chain/ar-AASxGOm
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