What is SparkFun?

We are a company that likes to share, enable, and have fun with electronics. We design boards and provide tools so that engineers, students, and hobbyists can play with microcontrollers. The empowerment with a microcontroller is that it runs a specific program or application, without the need for a computer. A microcontroller, in a simplistic form, is a very small, low power, simple, cheap, portable computer.

Here is a good example of a simple development board. The small square black chip in the middle of the picture is called a 'microcontroller'. That chip can be programmed to do something, such as when a button is pressed, a motor turns on (or a light flashes, or a sound is heard). The microcontroller receives inputs and controls outputs. We are effectively programming the microcontroller so that 'when something happens, do something'. 

Combining lots of inputs and outputs, you could build a robot. An example of a robot would be a microcontroller programmed in such a way that when some 'thing' is sensed in front of the robot, turn the motor on (to move towards the thing detected). Here is a picture of our 'Mazer' robot from Robothon 2004. Mazer was a line following robot that competed in the Line Maze competition. Mazer has since been lost/broken/reused but served as our first foray into embedded electronics. It can be difficult to initially wrap your head around the electronics to accomplish these fundamental tasks. But once you do, playing with microcontrollers opens up whole new worlds of projects. 

We call this world of ours 'embedded electronics' because you will find microcontrollers 'hiding' all around you. Your MP3 player, anti-lock brakes in your car, the keypad on your microwave, a TV remote, a digital thermostat, FM radio, automated tractors, the list goes on. Embedded inside all these devices are simple microcontrollers. 

So what what do we do here? SparkFun, the company, sells the bits to build stuff - like a robot, or an MP3 player, or a defibrillator, really anything you can dream up! We are electronic enablers.

Who is SparkFun?

SparkFun is a rag-tag group of young people (average age of 27), having fun and generally getting work done. We are about 4 dozen people in areas such as shipping, production, sales, engineering, and keg replenishment.

-Nathan Seidle, CEO

A native of Tulsa, Oklahoma, Nathan Seidle came to CU-Boulder as an electrical engineering student in 2000. During his junior year, Nathan was designing one of his first microcontroller projects when his programmer sparked and burned out. Looking for an affordable replacement, he noticed a lack of resources and online stores catering to developers and prototypers. During winter break from school, Nathan maxed out his credit cards with inventory (and pizza) and went to work building an easy to use website. SparkFun launched shortly after in January of 2003.

Nathan maintained Spark Fun Electronics part-time during his junior and senior years and grew it as much as he could while keeping up with schoolwork. By the time he completed his degree in 2004, the company had grown enough to support his full-time efforts-and his first employee's as well. Now in its fifth year, the company employs four-dozen people and maintains a growing office on the outskirts of Boulder.

We add new products all the time! If you've got a recommendation or something you can't believe we don't already carry, let us know! sparky@sparkfun.com

So enjoy! Take a look around. You may already have your Ph.D. in Material Physics or you may be a curious kid who's ready to wire up your first kit - we've been there and we know how to help.

SparkFun Electronics