The Teardown Sessions

Conversations with people who make open source hardware

Welcome to the Teardown Sessions

The Teardown Sessions are a series of livestreamed interviews and hands-on learning sessions with Crowd Supply creators, staff, and special guests.

We go live on YouTube regularly. Join us to ask questions and get the chance to win a box of mystery hardware and cool swag.

Find all our past Teardown Sessions on our YouTube playlist, or watch recent episodes below.

New here? Nice to meet you!

Crowd Supply is the crowdfunding platform of choice for engineers, hackers, designers, and idealists. We help them with the funding and support they need to deliver respectful, thoughtfully crafted, open source hardware to their delighted backers. See what our creators are making now!

Watch the latest episodes of The Teardown Sessions


May 31, 2024

Teardown Session 44: Rajeev Piyare from Conexio

In this Teardown Session, Crowd Supply's Helen Leigh talks with Rajeev Piyare from Conexio, the creators of the Conexio Stratus and the soon-to-come Conexio Blitz and Conexio Stratus Pro cellular IoT prototyping platforms.


Mar 29, 2024

Teardown Session 43: Zeke Wheeler

In this Teardown Session, Crowd Supply's Helen Leigh talks with Zeke Wheeler (KJ7NLL) about satellite tracking and ham radio


Mar 15, 2024

Teardown Session 42: Spacewalker LNA

In this session, Crowd Supply's Helen Leigh talks with Zoltan Doczi, a Senior RF Engineer at Decent Labs. Decent Labs are of the creators of Spacewalker LNA 434 MHz, a device that was developed to combat real-world satellite reception difficulties. In urban environments, it’s often difficult to receive PocketSat and CubeSat signals amidst strong DVB-T, TETRA, FM, and LTE signals from densely packed transmitter towers.


Feb 16, 2024

Teardown Session 41: Live from Circuit Launch


Dec 29, 2023

Teardown Session 40: LimeSDR XTRX

In this episode, we speak to the team behind LimeSDR XTRX and LimeNET Micro 2.0 Developer Edition.


Dec 22, 2023

Teardown Session 39: ThunderScope

In this episode, we speak with Aleksa Bjelogrlic, creator of ThunderScope, the open source software defined oscilloscope.


Nov 30, 2023

Teardown Session 38: Discovery Dish

In this episode of the Teardown Sessions, we're speaking to Carl Laufer from RTL-SDR. They are running a Crowd Supply campaign for Discovery Dish, a system for weather and Inmarsat satellite reception, and hydrogen line radio astronomy for RTL-SDR users. The Discovery Dish aims to be the start of an ecosystem of hardware designed to get users set up with satellite reception, including a planned companion light-duty antenna rotator.


Jul 28, 2023

Teardown Session 37: Hackaday Prize chats

In this episode of the Teardown Sessions, we're speaking to Majenta Strongheart who is the director of @supplyframedesignlab, host of The BOM podcast, and wrangler of The Hackaday Prize, the global hardware design challenge focused on widespread and impactful innovation. This year, the Hackaday prize is celebrating its tenth anniversary with a range of challenges, from education to, well, saving the world.


Apr 13, 2023

Teardown Session 36: Open Hardware Summit 2023

In this episode of the Teardown Sessions, we are catching up with Sid Drmay (@webspookie), who is the Community Coordinator for OSHWA and Summit Fellowship Chair at the Open Hardware Summit 2023. The summit will be held at NYU in New York City on Friday April 28th and Saturday April 29th.


Mar 24, 2023

Teardown Session 35: Decentralized Cellular Data Networks with Ukama

In this episode of the Teardown Sessions, we are catching up with the team behind Ukama, decentralized cellular internet pioneers. Join us live to ask questions.


Mar 17, 2023

Teardown Session 34: BeanCounter update with Nick Poole

In this episode of the Teardown Sessions we are catching up with Nick Poole, creator of BeanCounter. Join us live to ask questions.


Nov 04, 2022

Teardown Session 33: live from Hackaday Supercon

This week finds Helen and the Crowd Supply team at Hackaday's Supercon event in Pasadena, California.


Oct 21, 2022

Teardown Session 32: Newt update with Darian Johnson

In this episode of the Teardown Sessions we are chatting with Darian Johnson, founder of Phambili and creator of Newt.


Oct 14, 2022

Teardown Session 31: Open Hardware Month with OSHWA

In this episode of Crowd Supply's Teardown Sessions we are celebrating Open Hardware Month by talking with Lee Cyborg and Claire Cassidy from the Open Source Hardware Association (OSHWA).


Sep 30, 2022

Teardown Session 30: Hardware Hacking & FPGAs with Colin O'Flynn

On the next episode of the Teardown Sessions we will be talking with Colin O'Flynn, renowned embedded security expert and creator of ChipWhisperer-Husky.


Sep 10, 2022

Teardown Session 29: Open hack day with xobs

In this week's episode of the Teardown Sessions, we are going live from our Open Hack Day at the CETI Lab in Portland State University. Join us live to ask our special guest xobs (Sean Cross) your questions and see his latest hardware creations.


Aug 12, 2022

Teardown Session 28: Screaming Circuits tour

In this episode of the Teardown Sessions, Crowd Supply's Helen Leigh chats with the team at Screaming Circuits, a local (to Oregon) circuit board manufacturer established in 2003. We also get to go on a detailed tour of Screaming Circuits' facilities. This is a must-watch episode for anyone interested in PCB manufacturing.


Aug 05, 2022

Teardown Session 27: Pixel Pump pick and place machine by Robin Reiter

This week, host Helen Leigh chats with creator Robin Reiter about his Pixel Pump project, currently funding on Crowd Supply. Pixel Pump is an open-source, manual pick-and-place machine for PCB artisans. They cover far-ranging topics about print farms, the joys of designing your own packaging, and using MicroPython in a product.


Jul 08, 2022

Teardown Session 26: Sensor Watch's final stretch with Joey Castillo

In this session, Crowd Supply's Helen Leigh welcomes back Sensor Watch creator Joey Castillo. (Sensor Watch is an open hardware smart watch that re-uses the case from a ubiquitous classic, the Casio F-91W wristwatch.)


Jul 01, 2022

Teardown Session 25: Ryan Cousins from Snickerdoodle

Join Host Helen Leigh for a tour through the world of FPGAs with her guide, Ryan Cousins from Snickerdoodle.


Jun 24, 2022

Teardown Session 24: Nick Poole from Sparkfun with his project BeanCounter

Nick Poole is a Professional Maker and Technologist in Wytheville, VA and an engineer at SparkFun.


May 27, 2022

Teardown Session 23: Circuit Python with Adafruit's Anne Barela

Join host Helen Leigh as she sits down with engineer-diplomat-author Anne Barela. They'll geek out about microcontrollers, CircuitPython and MicroPython and building an open source ecosystem.


May 20, 2022

Teardown Session 22: Python on Hardware with StereoPi

In this week's episode of the Teardown Sessions, Crowd Supply's Helen Leigh talks with Eugene Pomazov from StereoPi, an open source stereoscopic camera based on Raspberry Pi.


Apr 22, 2022

Teardown Session 21: Open Source Space with OreSat, Oregon's first satellite

This week's episode of the Teardown Sessions takes a look at open source space exploration as members of the Portland State Aerospace Society (PSAS) join host Helen Leigh for an in-depth look at Oregon’s first satellite into outer space.


Mar 18, 2022

Teardown Session 20: Protopasta 3D printer filament factory

In this week's episode of the Teardown Sessions, Crowd Supply's Helen Leigh talks with Alex D. of Protopasta, a Portland-based 3D printer filament company.


Mar 11, 2022

Teardown Session 19: Chainable RBG LED blinkenlights with Lixie Labs

In this week's episode of the Teardown Sessions, Crowd Supply's Helen Leigh talks with Connor Nishijima of Lixie Labs, the creators of Pixie Chroma.


Jan 21, 2022

Teardown Session 18: Casio watch hacking with Joey Castillo

In this week's episode of the Teardown Sessions, Crowd Supply's Helen Leigh talks with Joey Castillo, the creator of Sensor Watch, the hackable ARM Cortex M0+ upgrade for a classic Casio wristwatch.


Jan 14, 2022

Teardown Session 17: OpSec and Privacy with Michael Altfield

In this week's episode of the Teardown Sessions, Crowd Supply's Helen Leigh talks with Michael Altfield, the creator of BusKill, a USB kill cord for your laptop.


Dec 17, 2021

Teardown Session 16: MiP displays and home automation with Darian Johnson

In this week's Teardown Session, Crowd Supply's Helen Leigh chats with Darian Johnson (hacker and creator of the Newt project) about Memory-in-Pixel (MiP) displays, open source hardware, and turning your weekend maker projects into a crowdfunding campaign.


Dec 15, 2021

Teardown Session 15: Bunnie and Xobs talk hardware, live from Singapore

Join us for a special episode of The Teardown Sessions as we chat with iconic hardware hackers bunnie and xobs, creators of Novena, Precursor and the *omu form factor family.


Dec 10, 2021

Teardown Session 14: Reverse engineering with Alvaro Prieto

This week's Teardown Session comes live from San Francisco, as Crowd Supply's Helen Leigh meets up with Alvaro Prieto to talk about hardware hacking, reverse engineering, and the hardware community in SF and the Bay Area.


Dec 03, 2021

Teardown Session 13: Behind the scenes at Crowd Supply

This episode of the Teardown Sessions is all about us! Take a peek behind the scenes at Crowd Supply with Josh, Darcy and Helen.


Nov 19, 2021

Teardown Session 12: Security, pentesting and hardware hacking with Joe Fitz

Join Helen and this week's guest, security educator Joe Fitzpatrick, as they talk about hardware security and hardware hacking.


Nov 12, 2021

Teardown Session 11: Watch hacking and PCB assembly

This week, the Teardown Sessions' Helen Leigh goes on a field trip to the Cyber City Circuits PnP electronics assembly line and chats with Joey Castillo, who is working with the CCC folks to make his open hardware Sensor Watch project. Joey's project, an open hardware smart watch, re-uses a classic, and ubiquitous, Casio LCD wristwatch and is launching on Crowd Supply soon.


Oct 29, 2021

Teardown Session 10: LED blinkenlights wizard Ben Hencke talks LEDs and Pixelblaze

This week, Crowd Supply's Helen Leigh sits down with Ben Hencke, LED wizard and creator of the much beloved LED controller, Pixelblaze. Pixelblaze is a Wi-Fi-enabled, live-codable LED controller with a web-based development environment.


Oct 28, 2021

Teardown Session 10: LED blinkenlights wizard Ben Hencke talks Pixelblaze

This week, Crowd Supply's Helen Leigh sits down with Ben Hencke, LED wizard and creator of the much beloved LED controller, Pixelblaze. Pixelblaze is a Wi-Fi-enabled, live-codable LED controller with a web-based development environment. Ben and Helen discuss wide-ranging topics, from manufacturing and design to live-coding with the Pixelblaze IDE.


Oct 22, 2021

Teardown Session 9: Open Hardware Community Building with Straithe from Great Scott Gadgets

Straithe will be sharing knowledge about technical documentation, pull request etiquette, social media engagement, and building community in open hardware.


Oct 21, 2021

Teardown Session 9: Community building with Straithe from Great Scott Gadgets

Join Crowd Supply's Helen Leigh as she chats with Straithe, open source technical community manager at Great Scott Gadgets. They discuss the difficulties (and possibilities) of running a business centered around open source hardware, plus they look at the ways Great Scott Gadgets has built a loyal community around their range of devices. Straithe will be sharing knowledge about technical documentation, pull request etiquette, social media engagement, and building community in open hardware.


Oct 15, 2021

Teardown Session 8: open science hardware and best practices for opening up your hardware


Oct 14, 2021

Teardown Session 8: Open hardware best practices with OSHWA and CERN

Helen Leigh chats with Alicia Gibb, hardware hacker and open source hardware advocate at OSHWA, and Javier Serrano, who leads a team of electronics designers and Linux kernel developers at CERN, the European Laboratory for Particle Physics. Join them as they discuss open hardware best practices, open source hardware movements around the world, and the importance of open hardware for open science and indeed, science and engineering generally.


Oct 08, 2021

Teardown Session 7: CE certification, manufacturing in China and product design with Timon Skerutsch

Crowd Supply's Helen Leigh chats with Timon Skerutsch (a.k.a. Timonsku), the engineer who made the Piunora. Join them as they discuss hardware design, open source hardware, manufacturing issues, and figuring out how to deal with CE certification as an independent hardware designer.


Oct 07, 2021

Teardown Session 7: CE certification and product design with Timon Skerutsch

Crowd Supply's Helen Leigh chats with Timon Skerutsch (a.k.a. Timonsku), the engineer who made the Piunora. Join them as they discuss hardware design, open source hardware, manufacturing issues, and figuring out how to deal with CE certification as an independent hardware designer. We'll also hear about some of Timon's other awesome projects, including A Damn Linux Tablet, which won "Best Design" in 2019's Hackaday Prize contest.


Sep 10, 2021

Teardown Session 6: open source laptops, FOSS and beautiful documentation with Lukas F. Hartmann

Join Crowd Supply's Helen Leigh as she chats with Lukas F. Hartmann, CEO of MNT Research and lead designer of the open source hardware laptop, MNT Reform (https://www.crowdsupply.com/mnt/reform).


Sep 09, 2021

Teardown Session 6: Designing an open source laptop with Lukas F. Hartmann

In this episode of the Teardown Sessions, Crowd Supply's Helen Leigh chats with Lukas F. Hartmann, CEO of MNT Research and lead designer of the open source hardware laptop, MNT Reform. Listen in as they discuss DIY computers, beautiful documentation, the FOSS community in Berlin, and how to deliver a large, complex crowdfunding campaign.


Jun 18, 2021

Teardown Session 5: E-paper, recycled Kindles, and open source dev with e-Radionica's David Zovko

Crowd Supply's Helen Leigh chats with David Zovko of e-Radionica and takes a tour of their production space -a hacker's paradise. Join them as they discuss e-paper, DIY displays, reverse engineering, e-waste, DIY PCB manufacture, and building a company with open source hardware.


Jun 17, 2021

Teardown Session 5: E-paper and recycled Kindles with e-Radionica's David Zovko

Crowd Supply's Helen Leigh chats with David Zovko of e-Radionica and takes a tour of their production space -- a hacker's paradise! Join them as they discuss e-paper, DIY displays, reverse engineering, e-waste, DIY PCB manufacture, and building a company with open source hardware.


Jun 04, 2021

Teardown Session 4: E-paper and open source smart watches with Wailun from Watchy

Crowd Supply's Helen Leigh unboxes and assembles a Watchy while chatting with Wailun of SQFMI.


Jun 03, 2021

Teardown Session 4: E-paper and smart watches with Wailun from Watchy

In this episode of the Teardown Sessions, Crowd Supply's Helen Leigh unboxes and assembles a Watchy while chatting with Wailun of SQFMI. Join them as they discuss smart watches, e-paper, DIY displays, PCB design and how he successfully raised $220,000+ by crowdfunding his open source hardware designs.


May 21, 2021

Teardown Session 3: Artistic PCBs, #badgelife, CTF hardware puzzles with Uri Shaked

Hardware capture the flag puzzles, artistic PCBs and #badgelife with Uri Shaked from Wokwi and Helen Leigh from Crowd Supply.


May 20, 2021

Teardown Session 3: Hardware puzzles and #badgelife with Uri Shaked

In this episode of the Teardown Sessions we talk with with Uri Shaked from Wokwi about hardware capture the flag puzzles, artistic PCBs and #badgelife. Uri Is the creator of The Skull, a Capture the Flag (CTF) riddle that invites you to explore the internals of the AVR architecture.


May 07, 2021

Teardown Session 2: Chip shortages & supply chain issues with Piotr Esden

The chip shortage and supply chain issues are affecting engineers, makers and hackers all over the world. Piotr Esden from 1BitSquared and Helen Leigh from Crowd Supply talk about how how we got here, what's likely to happen next and what we can do about it.


May 06, 2021

Teardown Session 2: Chip shortages & supply chain issues with Piotr Esden

The chip shortage and supply chain issues are affecting engineers, makers and hackers all over the world. In this episode of the Teardown Sessions, Piotr Esden from 1BitSquared and Helen Leigh from Crowd Supply talk about how how we got here, what’s likely to happen next and what we can do about it.


Apr 23, 2021

Teardown Session 1b: Leon Anavi's open source fume extractor (part two)

In this episode of The Teardown Sessions from Crowd Supply, we're unboxing and building Leon Anavi's open source fume extractor, which was successfully funded on Crowd Supply.


Apr 23, 2021

Teardown Session 1a: Leon Anavi's open source fume extractor (part one)

In this episode of The Teardown Sessions from Crowd Supply, we're unboxing and building Leon Anavi's open source fume extractor, which was successfully funded on Crowd Supply.


Apr 22, 2021

Teardown Session 1: Leon Anavi's open source fume extractor

In this episode of The Teardown Sessions from Crowd Supply, we unboxed and built Leon Anavi's open source fume extractor, which was successfully funded on Crowd Supply.

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