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hi everyone, its me 'ladyada. we're very much looking forward to telling our story, i have reached out to the founder of flux.ai (Matthias Wagner - Founder & CE

by ladyada 4mo ago

hi everyone, its me 'ladyada. we're very much looking forward to telling our story, i have reached out to the founder of flux.ai (Matthias Wagner - Founder & CEO at Flux), in hopes we can resolve this together and set a good example for the community. looking forward to maybe seeing this resolved on a podcast together, or something

disqard 4mo ago
Good luck! Big fan of your work for many, many years. Thank you for the amazing resource that is Adafruit.
thr0w__4w4y 4mo ago
(somewhat) unrelated to this kerfuffle, but I can say I've ordered thousands of dollars of stuff from Adafruit, and the quality of the electronics, the speed of shipping, the prices, and the customer service have been consistently outstanding. Hope common sense prevails and Adafruit can go back to doing what it does best instead of dealing with this (IMO) distraction.
- jdcarter 4mo ago
  Adafruit's documentation and software maintenance is also top notch. I just built a new project using an ancient, no-longer-sold Adafruit PiTFT Plus which I had in my parts bin. Their software installer worked great on latest PiOS, and their data sheets had all the dimensions I needed. Outstanding.
- dekhn 4mo ago
  Ditto- it played an important role in my entry to the world of electronics. Some of their breakout boards are my favorite (very nice layout, highly functional, well-documented).
- mcritz 4mo ago
  I don’t want to just “me, too”, but I’ve literally had a career pivot to a role at Amazon Devices because I was able to bootstrap enough knowledge about building devices from Adafruit’s ecosystem and hardware. Adafruit works tirelessly to build trust with the community. So, if they’re fighting something I just assume they’re doing it for our benefit.
otterley 4mo ago
Can we see the demand letter, please? If not, why not? My concern here is that this is like a child going to their parents to complain their sibling hit them, only to find out when you ask the sibling that the first one pushed them off their bicycle. If you don't share it, I think it's a reasonable assumption that you're coming in with unclean hands, trying to use the court of opinion to gain sympathy while denying us the full picture.
- johnobrien1010 4mo ago
  It seems prudent to me to not assume anything either way until you have more information
- AviationAtom 4mo ago
  Their legal council may have advised them not to publish it at this moment
  - sroussey 4mo ago
    Yes, almost certainly. My council has told me the same before, but I published anyhow to no ill effect other than opposing council shocked I did so. Too bad for them.
  - otterley 4mo ago
    As an attorney myself, I wonder why. Something about this smells super fishy to me. If I were their counsel, I'd advise them to be consistent: either publish the demand letter along with their blog post, or remain silent about the matter entirely until the dispute is resolved.
- deleted 4mo ago
  [deleted]
- 4Humboldt 4mo ago
  While usually legal to do so, it is typically also equally unwise to do so. That may displease you and others, but I don’t think that aspect is a highly relevant factor here.
elevaet 4mo ago
Cool to see you on here ladyada, been a big fan since x0xb0x. I've always appreciated your conduct online, and will be cheering for the best possible outcome in this situation for you.
ahaucnx 4mo ago
Unrelated to this (and sorry for highjacking this topic), but just want to say a big big thank you to ladyada for founding Adafruit. When we decided to go fully open source hardware at AirGradient, I looked at the ‘business’ models of two companies: Adafruit and Arduino. Seeing that both worked sustainably, made our decision much easier and it was probably one of the best decisions of our life. I just talked at the Open Hardware summit in Berlin about “50 devices later: The open source hardware advantage” [1]. [1] https://2026.oshwa.org/talks/100-achim-haug/ https://2026.oshwa.org/talks/100-achim-haug/
ptorrone 4mo ago
update jun 3, 2026 Before issuing any public response, and before involving the press - Limor wrote directly to Flux’s founder, Matthias Wagner. Not through lawyers. Founder to founder. She proposed: a podcast of his choosing, open questions and answers, with the community watching and taking part. She offered to keep Phil off the podcast. Her words: “Before we both spend lots of time and money embroiled in a legal dispute, I would like to explore with you a way to reconcile things and perhaps turn this into a positive… adults with good intentions can work together and solve them… Cooler heads can prevail and we could set a good example for the community, building a future together where everyone can make and share electronics.” She followed up the next day, again. That offer stands. We would still rather build than litigate, and we would still rather talk in the open. We think that is how this should work - between two companies who both believe anyone with a browser should be able to make electronics, we can set a good example together. We will update the community, and will still look forward to sharing our story. - ladyada & pt

by ladyada 4mo ago

disqard 4mo ago

Good luck! Big fan of your work for many, many years. Thank you for the amazing resource that is Adafruit.

thr0w__4w4y 4mo ago

(somewhat) unrelated to this kerfuffle, but I can say I've ordered thousands of dollars of stuff from Adafruit, and the quality of the electronics, the speed of shipping, the prices, and the customer service have been consistently outstanding. Hope common sense prevails and Adafruit can go back to doing what it does best instead of dealing with this (IMO) distraction.

jdcarter 4mo ago
Adafruit's documentation and software maintenance is also top notch. I just built a new project using an ancient, no-longer-sold Adafruit PiTFT Plus which I had in my parts bin. Their software installer worked great on latest PiOS, and their data sheets had all the dimensions I needed. Outstanding.
dekhn 4mo ago
Ditto- it played an important role in my entry to the world of electronics. Some of their breakout boards are my favorite (very nice layout, highly functional, well-documented).
mcritz 4mo ago
I don’t want to just “me, too”, but I’ve literally had a career pivot to a role at Amazon Devices because I was able to bootstrap enough knowledge about building devices from Adafruit’s ecosystem and hardware. Adafruit works tirelessly to build trust with the community. So, if they’re fighting something I just assume they’re doing it for our benefit.

otterley 4mo ago

Can we see the demand letter, please? If not, why not? My concern here is that this is like a child going to their parents to complain their sibling hit them, only to find out when you ask the sibling that the first one pushed them off their bicycle. If you don't share it, I think it's a reasonable assumption that you're coming in with unclean hands, trying to use the court of opinion to gain sympathy while denying us the full picture.

johnobrien1010 4mo ago
It seems prudent to me to not assume anything either way until you have more information
AviationAtom 4mo ago
Their legal council may have advised them not to publish it at this moment
- sroussey 4mo ago
  Yes, almost certainly. My council has told me the same before, but I published anyhow to no ill effect other than opposing council shocked I did so. Too bad for them.
- otterley 4mo ago
  As an attorney myself, I wonder why. Something about this smells super fishy to me. If I were their counsel, I'd advise them to be consistent: either publish the demand letter along with their blog post, or remain silent about the matter entirely until the dispute is resolved.
deleted 4mo ago
[deleted]
4Humboldt 4mo ago
While usually legal to do so, it is typically also equally unwise to do so. That may displease you and others, but I don’t think that aspect is a highly relevant factor here.

elevaet 4mo ago

Cool to see you on here ladyada, been a big fan since x0xb0x. I've always appreciated your conduct online, and will be cheering for the best possible outcome in this situation for you.

ahaucnx 4mo ago

Unrelated to this (and sorry for highjacking this topic), but just want to say a big big thank you to ladyada for founding Adafruit. When we decided to go fully open source hardware at AirGradient, I looked at the ‘business’ models of two companies: Adafruit and Arduino. Seeing that both worked sustainably, made our decision much easier and it was probably one of the best decisions of our life. I just talked at the Open Hardware summit in Berlin about “50 devices later: The open source hardware advantage” [1]. [1] https://2026.oshwa.org/talks/100-achim-haug/ https://2026.oshwa.org/talks/100-achim-haug/

ptorrone 4mo ago

update jun 3, 2026 Before issuing any public response, and before involving the press - Limor wrote directly to Flux’s founder, Matthias Wagner. Not through lawyers. Founder to founder. She proposed: a podcast of his choosing, open questions and answers, with the community watching and taking part. She offered to keep Phil off the podcast. Her words: “Before we both spend lots of time and money embroiled in a legal dispute, I would like to explore with you a way to reconcile things and perhaps turn this into a positive… adults with good intentions can work together and solve them… Cooler heads can prevail and we could set a good example for the community, building a future together where everyone can make and share electronics.” She followed up the next day, again. That offer stands. We would still rather build than litigate, and we would still rather talk in the open. We think that is how this should work - between two companies who both believe anyone with a browser should be able to make electronics, we can set a good example together. We will update the community, and will still look forward to sharing our story. - ladyada & pt