G’day. Welcome to our first weekly update. I can’t say I’m great at writing compelling text, but here we go anyway.

Today I’d like to talk a bit about the open source nature of the Epi-32U4 and why it’s important to me.

The reason I’m able to make things like the Epi is because of open source tools. I learned electronics and programming with the amazing Arduino ecosystem. I got started designing circuit boards with Fritzing, while the Epi-32U4 was designed using Kicad. Every graphic anything I’ve ever made was created with Inkscape or GIMP. Sadly, I wasn’t able to make a video for the project page, but if I could have you can bet it would’ve been edited with Shotcut.

Most things i’ve ever made are thanks to open source tools, so I want to give back. It’s only right that the stuff I make, which could be of use to someone else, should also be open source.

What inspired me to try and launch the Epi on Crowd Supply was the Lumen PnP machine. I didn’t want to have the Epi made in China, and the Lumen made me realise I could assemble it myself. I’ve been following Stephen and the other Lumen creators through their project’s development for a while. Since I’ve been building and working with 3D printers and other CNC machines for nearly a decade now, I decided to assemble a Lumen myself. It wasn’t difficult to build at all, but we’ll have to see how hard it is use to assemble many boards. Still, I feel good about it.

I’m still waiting for my cable chains, but here it is. Yes it’s very yellow, I thought that would be more fun than some dull colour!