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When designing components that will be made of plastic, it’s often necessary to add ribs and gussets to improve the stiffness and strength of load bearing features. This reduces material volume and print time for 3D printed parts, compared to the time it would take to make these features out of solid structures. That’s because print […]

While the power of a hardware product comes from its internal components, a product is typically recognized by its enclosure, the outer shell that encloses electronic products, making them appealing and user-friendly. In this post, I’m going to walk you through the steps for designing a basic enclosure, using the design of a IoT plant […]

Dear readers, we have a special treat for you this week: The founder of Lockitron, Paul Gerhardt, came to China Manufacturing parts, Inc. HQ to help us tear down his latest keyless-entry smart lock: Lockitron Bolt. Here’s a video to give you a behind-the-scenes look at the teardown and what Paul had to say about the product development process […]

This week, we’re tearing down the Logitech G13 Advanced Gameboard. It’s a fully programmable one-handed keyboard. Fictiv’s very own software engineer and MMO game enthusiast Craig Crossley recommends this model, citing its durability (three years and going strong) and ease of use. The G13 Gameboard retails at $79.99. We don’t see any screws on the front […]

Light plays an important role in the design of many hardware products. Often, they are both decorative and functional. Indicator lights are the most minimal user interface: They tell you whether the device is turned on, low on battery, or “thinking” really hard. On modern electronics, the light’s source is almost always an LED. However, […]

By now, you’ve almost certainly seen a hoverboard out in the wild. While the current models still aren’t quite the quality of Marty McFly’s hoverboard (thanks, Doc!), it’s just as mesmerizing to see someone majestically gliding through the daily Baoan sidewalk traffic. Not everyone feels the way I do, though—some find them dangerous (like the […]

Welcome to part 2 of The Great Robotic Vacuum Showdown! If you didn’t have a chance to check out Part 1 of this series where we took apart the Roomba, go ahead and check that out first. Neato Robotics is a newcomer to the robotic vacuum business compared to iRobot; it only began shipping products in […]

The Jetsons predicted flying cars, jetpacks, and robot maids serving us lucky people living in the 21st century. Well, we kind of have two of those things, but only one has achieved mass market adoption. No… I wasn’t talking about jetpacks. iRobot is probably the brand name most commonly associated with robotic vacuums. It was […]

Here’s the final piece of Under Armour’s technological trifecta: the Under Armour Band! That’s right, to rival Nike Fuelband and Fitbit, Under Armour has come out with a wearable of its own. Sleek and sporty, the band can measure heart rate, hours of sleep, and activity. In addition to counting steps and keeping time, it […]

The next piece of Under Armour’s fitness-in-a-box solution is a heart rate monitor! If you missed the first teardown of the Under Armour Scale, check it out here. I had seen the promotional videos, featuring chiseled athletes breathing heavily through explosive exercises, wearing the strap above a cut abdominal core—heroically glistening Adonises and Aphrodites, cranking […]