MikroElektronika is a teenager now. And as it happens every year, we accidentally blew off a hefty percent off our prices while blowing out the candles — 13% OFF until Saturday morning (That's December 13, 9:00 AM CET to be precise).
Teenage years is when kids adopt strong opinions and tastes. Teenagers like comparing and ranking things. You know, you’ve got your teen choice awards, teen icon awards, MTV top tens and what not.
So on that note, here’s a top 10 list of our favorite MikroElektronika moments from 2014, in no particular order:
1. New building
Although this isn’t the first year we’re blowing out birthday candles in our new HQ (we’ve moved in around this time last year), everything that follows on this list stems from the fact we had way more space. We even cut our teeth as hosts, organizing a one-day IoT seminar with EBV Elektronik and Freescale this year.
2. New machines
Sure, we waited a long time to spread our wings in comfortable offices, but the most space-demanding aspect of our business is the manufacturing. At first, the new production facility looked like an airplane hangar, a single SMD line and enough space to park a Cessna or two. Instead of a plane though, we landed a new production line in May. It nearly tripled our output. And there’s space for more expansion still.
3. Side projects
The increased production capabilities allowed us to take on contract jobs, which brought WunderBar and FlowPaw to the world.
4. 100 click boards
Plenty of engineering hours went into designing FlowPaw and WunderBar. The same hardware and software pros churned out click board after click board this year, until we finally hit the 100 click milestone this month. Arguably the standout being SpeakUp, the speech recognition click board, introduced in April.
5. clicker 2 introduced
As the click board count rose, we reexamined the single mikroBUS™ clicker board and decided to give it a bigger brother. In September and October, we introduced a pair of clicker 2 boards (one for STM32, the other for PIC18FJ). The pocket-size mikromedia-form-factor board packs two mikroBUS™ sockets, giving thousands of possibilities for click board combos.
6. A decade of compiler development celebration
In May we celebrated a decade of compiler development, marking the occasion with giveaways and discounts spread across the entire month. Internally, we took advantage of our new space to organize a proper, formal celebration which included a flag-raising ceremony honoring our software team.
7. Started working on new compilers
The compiler celebration logo was a “10” with digits formed from six color stripes representing each compiler architecture (red for PIC, green for ARM and so on…). In September we announced a deal that would add a new, orange/yellow stripe to our compiler line-up. The software team started working hard on delivering compilers for FTDI’s FT90x line of microcontrollers. The compilers, and the hardware tool-chain to come with it, are due for Q1 next year.
8. Major players joining our distributor network
The year also saw the expansion of our global distributor network. Starting with RS Components a few days after our previous birthday, then followed by Digi-key in the summer, and a few months later Conrad (with a few smaller distribution deals signed in-between and thereafter)
9. Libstock moving towards 1000 submissions
Libstock grew to 923 pieces of code (in May we gave out awards to honnor the most active contributors). So while a hundred click boards was our benchmark for this year, in 2015, we’re expecting to hit 1000 Libstock contributions. So get your coding on. Use the 13% discount to get all the software and hardware you need, and we’re expecting to hear back from you.
10. Your impressions?
This spot is reserved for you. What was your biggest impression of MikroE this year? What was your favorite click board? Development board? Complaint? Let us know.
Yours sincerely,
MikroElektronika