MacroFab Case Study
Creating a device that turns colors into specific sounds is a great way to introduce people to music as a concept. Specdrums has made it their goal to see this through.
Moving from Electronic Prototyping to Kickstarter Success
Related Topics
Get to Know the Work
Specdrums’ devices have created a lot of buzz in everything from tech blogs to SXSW. They built a ring-like device that is programmed via their app to create musical notes that are tied to specific colors. They are also working to build a drumstick to add to their product line.
Assessment
After countless hours spent soldering at labs on University of Colorado’s campus, founder Steven grew frustrated with not being able to get his vision to come to life. He discovered MacroFab after thorough research for an affordable PCB Assembly shop.
Process
Steven used the MacroFab knowledge base to learn about the design process and began to feel more at ease with our platform to create and order his PCBs. It took him 10 different prototype runs before he decided on the final product.
"I was amazed with how easy and affordable everything was. It saved a ton of time and all the parts are working as expected."
Steven, Co-Founder
Specdrums
Our Solution
Specdrums knew they could not sustain soldering their product as it was being developed. They needed a place that could prototype until they had a final product that fit all of their needs, while also not having to handle any of the legwork.
MacroFab made it possible to both keep up with his entire product assembly at every iteration and to scale up as their Kickstarter got funded and their demand grew.
"I'm learning a lot in this process, so it's great to have so much communication along the way. MacroFab helped us to reach our potential."
Steven, Co-Founder
Specdrums
Summary
Specdrums used the MacroFab platform to iterate on prototypes affordably. Once they finalized their design and BOM they were confident about launching their Kickstarter because they knew that the quality of their production run would be consistent with the quality of their prototypes.
Once funded, Specdrums stayed with MacroFab for their low mix high volume manufacturing runs. By this point, they had established healthy relationships with our Sales and Support teams who were familiar with their product. Because of this, moving into production was a seamless process because they didn’t have to start all over with another assembly shop or repeat steps along the way.
As Specdrums grows, MacroFab continues to help grow their products and get to market faster. They are ordering more and more rings (with 500 shipped as of May 2018), and prototyping their new drumstick with MacroFab.