SparkFun Electronics (sometimes known by its abbreviation, ''SFE'') is an

electronics Electronics is a scientific and engineering discipline that studies and applies the principles of physics to design, create, and operate devices that manipulate electrons and other Electric charge, electrically charged particles. It is a subfield ...

retailer Retail is the sale of goods and services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is the sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturers, directly or through a wholesal ...

in Niwot,

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. It manufactures and sells

microcontroller A microcontroller (MC, uC, or μC) or microcontroller unit (MCU) is a small computer on a single integrated circuit. A microcontroller contains one or more CPUs (processor cores) along with memory and programmable input/output peripherals. Pro ...

development boards and breakout boards.

History

SparkFun Electronics was founded in 2003 by Nathan Seidle when he was a Junior at

University of Colorado Boulder The University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder, CU, or Colorado) is a public research university in Boulder, Colorado, United States. Founded in 1876, five months before Colorado became a state, it is the flagship university of the University o ...

. Its first products were Olimex

printed circuit board A printed circuit board (PCB), also called printed wiring board (PWB), is a Lamination, laminated sandwich structure of electrical conduction, conductive and Insulator (electricity), insulating layers, each with a pattern of traces, planes ...

s. The name 'SparkFun' came about because one of the founders of SparkFun was testing a development board, and sparks flew out; ''Fun'' was chosen because the company's self-stated aim is to educate people about electronics. In January 2011, an education department was formed to outreach to local schools,

hackerspace A hackerspace (also referred to as a hacklab, hackspace, or makerspace) is a community-operated, often "not for profit" (501(c)(3) in the United States), workspace where people with common interests, such as computers, machining, technology, sci ...

s, and events.

Open-source hardware

All products designed and produced by SparkFun are released as

open-source hardware Open-source hardware (OSH, OSHW) consists of physical artifact (software development), artifacts of technology designed and offered by the open-design movement. Both free and open-source software (FOSS) and open-source hardware are created by th ...

(OSHW), with schematics,

EAGLE Eagle is the common name for the golden eagle, bald eagle, and other birds of prey in the family of the Accipitridae. Eagles belong to several groups of Genus, genera, some of which are closely related. True eagles comprise the genus ''Aquila ( ...

files, and datasheets posted on each product page. Product images are licensed under the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0 During the Open Source Hardware summit in October 2010, SparkFun was one of the contributors in drafting the first OSHW definition.

Contests

Antimov

This contest was based upon violating the 2nd and 3rd

laws of robotics Laws of robotics are any set of laws, rules, or principles, which are intended as a fundamental framework to underpin the behavior of robots designed to have a degree of autonomy. Robots of this degree of complexity do not yet exist, but they have ...

, where a fully automated robot would destroy itself after interacting with props and objects in a performance. The competition was retired in 2011.

AVC

The Autonomous Vehicle Challenge was a recurring contest held annually by SparkFun. The objective is to build an automated vehicle that can circumnavigate a course without human interaction. As of 2015, aerial vehicles are not allowed. The challenge was retired in 2018.

Projects

SparkFun has become one of the favored suppliers for those without mainstream suppliers as well as the increasingly popular " Maker" community, particularly for the

Arduino Arduino () is an Italian open-source hardware and open-source software, software company, project, and user community that designs and manufactures single-board microcontrollers and microcontroller kits for building digital devices. Its hardwar ...

and related devices. Whilst many of the non-component products sold by SFE are from other manufacturers, it does manufacture and sell some of its own complete products: * The Port-o-Rotary phone * Picture Frame Tetris * Giant NES controller

Legal disputes

Trademark dispute with SPARC International

On October 16, 2009, SPARC International sent a

cease and desist A cease and desist letter is a document sent by one party, often a business, to warn another party that they believe the other party is committing an unlawful act, such as copyright infringement, and that they will take legal action if the oth ...

letter demanding SparkFun stop using the "SparkFun" name and immediately transfer ownership of SparkFun.com to SPARC International. The letter claimed the SparkFun trademark was too visually and phonetically similar for companies in the same industry. The two companies signed a

trademark coexistence agreement A trademark coexistence agreement is a contract made by two parties to use a similar trademark for marketing purposes without interfering in each other's enterprises. Agreements of this nature are often made as parties only require regional use ...

on April 2, 2010.

Fluke trademark infringement

On March 7, 2014,

U.S. Customs and Border Protection United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is the largest federal law enforcement agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security. It is the country's primary border control organization, charged with regulating and facilita ...

informed SparkFun that a shipment of

multimeter A multimeter (also known as a multi-tester, volt-ohm-milliammeter, volt-ohmmeter or VOM, avometer or ampere-volt-ohmmeter) is a measuring instrument that can measure multiple electrical properties. A typical multimeter can measure voltage, elec ...

s meant for sale on SparkFun's website had been seized. The Port of Denver deemed that the yellow protective jackets on the imported multimeters too closely resembled the

trade dress Trade dress is the characteristics of the visual appearance of a product or its packaging (or even the design of a building) that signify the source of the product to consumers. Trade dress is an aspect of trademark law, which is a form of intelle ...

Fluke Corporation Fluke Corporation is an American manufacturer of industrial test, measurement, and diagnostic equipment, including electronic test equipment. It was started in 1948 by John Fluke while he was employed at General Electric. History John Fluk ...

's competing multimeters. Rather than pay the cost of shipping the imported multimeters back, SparkFun chose to have them destroyed. In a letter to SparkFun, Fluke announced that they would be supplying the company with a shipment of genuine Fluke products and equipment as a gesture of goodwill and support for the maker movement, which SparkFun accepted.

References

External links

* {{Authority control American companies established in 2003 Companies based in Boulder, Colorado Companies based in Colorado Electronic component distributors Electronics companies established in 2003 Online retailers of the United States Privately held companies based in Colorado Open-source hardware Retail companies established in 2003