4 ms·

Adafruit deemed an essential service to make Personal Protection Equipment

79 points by jonbaer 7y ago

smokelegend 7y ago
Interesting perspective!
- WrtCdEvrydy 7y ago
  Gamestop must be furious... must spend millions to add machines to each store!
thinkloop 7y ago
> Adafruit is a 100% woman-owned, loan-free, VC-free, profitable, USA Manufacturing company. Cool
- jonny383 7y ago
  Can you imagine the repurcussions for writing the equivalent of this if you had a penis?
  - freepor 7y ago
    Are you implying that a woman can’t have a penis?
- inamberclad 7y ago
  Open hardware, gold standard tutorials, open source libraries. But holy cow, they need to charge a premium to make it work. I'm always conflicted between supporting them or just going to ebay or alibaba.
  - skybrian 7y ago
    I don't know, lots of their electronics stuff is pretty cheap for a hobbyist, even at retail prices. Unfortunately shipping from NYC to the west coast is either slow or expensive. It would be nice if they had a good west coast distributor.
  - gotanothermate 7y ago
    Yeah they survive on beginners and goodwill. Unfortunately I'm no longer a beginner and the goodwill went out the window when they started waving a rainbow flag on the homepage. I wouldn't greet customers with a swastika; keep your politics out of electronics.
  - teh_infallible 7y ago
    They target hobbyists (like me) so if they mark things up, it’s worth it IMO. The value add-on they provide is that they have s curated selection of items, everything you buy from them has associated tutorials which help you incorporate them into your projects.
  - 7402 7y ago
    I often have to make that tradeoff, too. The protocol I've settled on is to always buy the first one or two parts of a new type from Adafruit. This may also has the advantage of higher quality than no-name eBay sellers. That way, I know how a part is supposed to work, before trying cheaper sources. Then later, if I want a bunch of them for stock, or just messing around with (and maybe using up or breaking), I would buy from eBay. Also, if I'm placing an order from them (and already having to pay for shipping), I'm willing to pay a slight premium for any other things I might want to include at the same time. (This is the same tradeoff I make between buying from the more-expensive local hardware store that has fantastic people working there who have been in the trades and know everything versus Home Depot. Five 8 foot long 2x4's? Home Depot. Some specialized part that I want to get right one? The local store, even though it might be cheaper at the big-box place.)
person_of_color 7y ago
3d printing janky masks.. is that really essential?
- detaro 7y ago
  Faceshields != masks. Those lend themselves a bit better to printing than proper masks (since it's mostly a sheet of transparent plastic + one plastic piece to hold it)
  - person_of_color 7y ago
    Do you have the link to an STL so I can print one? I have an Ender 3 Pro
    - PatrickMDev 7y ago
      I printed these https://budmen.com/ https://budmen.com/ until I ran out of PLA. I don't honestly have any knowledge about their effectiveness, but while my city is under shelter-in-place it seemed as good a way as any to pass the time. I saw a few different designs for 3D printed PPE out there - I went for this one because the materials were all things I could source and they were one of the only places I saw that would help coordinate matching you up with medical professionals that want what you've printed.
    - sentryofasgard 7y ago
      Prusa designed a face shield which was verified by the Czech Ministry of Health. There's an assembly guide for making your own, too: https://www.prusaprinters.org/prints/25857-prusa-protective-face-shield-rc2 https://www.prusaprinters.org/prints/25857-prusa-protective-...
freepor 7y ago
Adafruit is a great show-off business for New York City (tech, manufacturing, woman-owned) so even though the PPE angle here is quite dubious the governor and mayor are doing this as a favor.
- knolax 7y ago
  > Adafruit is a great show-off business for New York City (tech, manufacturing, woman-owned) They also make quality products and turn a profit, unlike most VC backed "tech" startups like Uber and WeWork.
uberdog 7y ago
Great list of equipment and their roles in production!
bigapple1 7y ago
Anyone in the NYC area/interested in helping NYC should read https://jakehlee.github.io/nyc-makers-vs-covid/ https://jakehlee.github.io/nyc-makers-vs-covid/ or https://nycmakesppe.com/ https://nycmakesppe.com/ same site, different URL
devy 7y ago
Adafruit make circuit boards and microelectronics in Manhattan. In that blog post, Adafruit Industries located at 150 Varick Street, New York, NY 10013 by Executive Order 202.6, “Essential Business” by New York State: https://esd.ny.gov/guidance-executive-order-2026 And Adafruit belongs to the "microelectronics/semi-conductor" category so they are exempted in the "3. Essential manufacturing including". This rule is mostly designed to let the upstate NY's multiple multi-billion semi-conductor industry's fabs (Cree Marcy fab, GlobalFoundries multiple fabs) remain open.
Abishek_Muthian 7y ago
> We are also working with NYC to explore disposable open-source low-cost face shields. That's interesting, is that supposed to be used on top of the face mask (surgical, N95 etc.) or is that supposed to be used as standalone protection equipment at low risk environment? I wonder whether it would be put through thorough tests such as NIOSH ratings, before being used? I'm asking this because I have made a 'Qualitative Filter' based Facemask[1], to be used as last resort when nothing better is available. [1]DIY Qualitative filter face mask - https://abishekmuthian.com/diy-qualitative-filter-face-mask/ https://abishekmuthian.com/diy-qualitative-filter-face-mask/

79 points by jonbaer 7y ago

smokelegend 7y ago

Interesting perspective!

WrtCdEvrydy 7y ago
Gamestop must be furious... must spend millions to add machines to each store!

thinkloop 7y ago

> Adafruit is a 100% woman-owned, loan-free, VC-free, profitable, USA Manufacturing company. Cool

jonny383 7y ago
Can you imagine the repurcussions for writing the equivalent of this if you had a penis?
- freepor 7y ago
  Are you implying that a woman can’t have a penis?
inamberclad 7y ago
Open hardware, gold standard tutorials, open source libraries. But holy cow, they need to charge a premium to make it work. I'm always conflicted between supporting them or just going to ebay or alibaba.
- skybrian 7y ago
  I don't know, lots of their electronics stuff is pretty cheap for a hobbyist, even at retail prices. Unfortunately shipping from NYC to the west coast is either slow or expensive. It would be nice if they had a good west coast distributor.
- gotanothermate 7y ago
  Yeah they survive on beginners and goodwill. Unfortunately I'm no longer a beginner and the goodwill went out the window when they started waving a rainbow flag on the homepage. I wouldn't greet customers with a swastika; keep your politics out of electronics.
- teh_infallible 7y ago
  They target hobbyists (like me) so if they mark things up, it’s worth it IMO. The value add-on they provide is that they have s curated selection of items, everything you buy from them has associated tutorials which help you incorporate them into your projects.
- 7402 7y ago
  I often have to make that tradeoff, too. The protocol I've settled on is to always buy the first one or two parts of a new type from Adafruit. This may also has the advantage of higher quality than no-name eBay sellers. That way, I know how a part is supposed to work, before trying cheaper sources. Then later, if I want a bunch of them for stock, or just messing around with (and maybe using up or breaking), I would buy from eBay. Also, if I'm placing an order from them (and already having to pay for shipping), I'm willing to pay a slight premium for any other things I might want to include at the same time. (This is the same tradeoff I make between buying from the more-expensive local hardware store that has fantastic people working there who have been in the trades and know everything versus Home Depot. Five 8 foot long 2x4's? Home Depot. Some specialized part that I want to get right one? The local store, even though it might be cheaper at the big-box place.)

person_of_color 7y ago

3d printing janky masks.. is that really essential?

detaro 7y ago
Faceshields != masks. Those lend themselves a bit better to printing than proper masks (since it's mostly a sheet of transparent plastic + one plastic piece to hold it)
- person_of_color 7y ago
  Do you have the link to an STL so I can print one? I have an Ender 3 Pro
  - PatrickMDev 7y ago
    I printed these https://budmen.com/ https://budmen.com/ until I ran out of PLA. I don't honestly have any knowledge about their effectiveness, but while my city is under shelter-in-place it seemed as good a way as any to pass the time. I saw a few different designs for 3D printed PPE out there - I went for this one because the materials were all things I could source and they were one of the only places I saw that would help coordinate matching you up with medical professionals that want what you've printed.
  - sentryofasgard 7y ago
    Prusa designed a face shield which was verified by the Czech Ministry of Health. There's an assembly guide for making your own, too: https://www.prusaprinters.org/prints/25857-prusa-protective-face-shield-rc2 https://www.prusaprinters.org/prints/25857-prusa-protective-...

freepor 7y ago

Adafruit is a great show-off business for New York City (tech, manufacturing, woman-owned) so even though the PPE angle here is quite dubious the governor and mayor are doing this as a favor.

knolax 7y ago
> Adafruit is a great show-off business for New York City (tech, manufacturing, woman-owned) They also make quality products and turn a profit, unlike most VC backed "tech" startups like Uber and WeWork.

uberdog 7y ago

Great list of equipment and their roles in production!

bigapple1 7y ago

Anyone in the NYC area/interested in helping NYC should read https://jakehlee.github.io/nyc-makers-vs-covid/ https://jakehlee.github.io/nyc-makers-vs-covid/ or https://nycmakesppe.com/ https://nycmakesppe.com/ same site, different URL

devy 7y ago

Adafruit make circuit boards and microelectronics in Manhattan. In that blog post, Adafruit Industries located at 150 Varick Street, New York, NY 10013 by Executive Order 202.6, “Essential Business” by New York State: https://esd.ny.gov/guidance-executive-order-2026 And Adafruit belongs to the "microelectronics/semi-conductor" category so they are exempted in the "3. Essential manufacturing including". This rule is mostly designed to let the upstate NY's multiple multi-billion semi-conductor industry's fabs (Cree Marcy fab, GlobalFoundries multiple fabs) remain open.

Abishek_Muthian 7y ago

> We are also working with NYC to explore disposable open-source low-cost face shields. That's interesting, is that supposed to be used on top of the face mask (surgical, N95 etc.) or is that supposed to be used as standalone protection equipment at low risk environment? I wonder whether it would be put through thorough tests such as NIOSH ratings, before being used? I'm asking this because I have made a 'Qualitative Filter' based Facemask[1], to be used as last resort when nothing better is available. [1]DIY Qualitative filter face mask - https://abishekmuthian.com/diy-qualitative-filter-face-mask/ https://abishekmuthian.com/diy-qualitative-filter-face-mask/