(Wuhan, China) On Monday I visited Seeed Studio, a small but growing tech startup in Shenzhen. They specialize in open source hardware, and are known for the Seeeduino, an Arduino microcontroller board. Seeed makes open source “brick” addons that allow sensor and actuator connections to the Seeeduino without soldering and they provide economical starter kits that are perfect for our students at NSCAD University.

They generously provided me with a sample Seeduino, and two kits: the “Electronic Brick Starter Pack” and the “Catalyst” kit that they have prepared for Make magazine for my lecture at Shenzhen Polytechnic that afternoon. I’ve used their bricks before and find them very convenient for learning how to use the various sensors, motors, LEDs and other actuators, though I have to admit that I broke a light sensor early on when I plugged it into the brick the wrong way around. Apart from that silly mistake, the brick system is robust and well-designed.

Two of the principals, young engineers Eric and Fan, were my hosts. They showed me a beta version of their soon-to-be-released DSO nano, a small handheld digital storage oscilloscope for people like me. It looks like an iPod Touch, but with a button rose at the right. They tell me that they would like to use a complete ‘glass interface’ like the iPod with their next version of the product.

Eric brought out a development prototype of their Rainbowduino called the 3D RGB Cube, a 3D matrix of RGB LEDs that connect smartly to the Seeeduino. With this system there are no worries about current requirements, all you need to do is plug it into the microcontroller and ensure that you give it enough juice.

Now, off to Beijing!