#330 – An Interview with Zach Fredin

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Welcome, Zach Fredin of NeuroTinker!

• Follow the ongoing project documentation of the Neurobyte project on Hackaday.io!
• Zach and Chris have known each other since 2004! They went to CWRU together.
• Zach got into the world of neurons when a friend started simulating them in Sketchup (formerly Google, now owned by Trimble)
• Watch the NeuroBytes in action on instagram or on YouTube (follow Zach’s channel for a range of videos, including side projects)

testing fifty #neurobytes on the #demorug

A video posted by We make NeuroBytes! (@neurotinker) on Mar 22, 2016 at 4:39pm PDT

• He partnered with Joe Burdo after they connected on Hackaday.io. When checking out Joe’s credentials, Zach realized “The link was purple!”
• See Zach and Joe talking about NeuroBytes at Maker Faire NY 2016
• They got initial funding via SBIR
• NIH was funding STEM games but they didn’t get that funding
• NSF was funding “Educational applications”, which they did get!
• Tips for SBIR grant
  • Email the grant director
  • Get solid letters of support (customers)
  • RTFM
• Money
  • Phase 1 (success) – $150K
  • Phase 2 (pending) – $750K
• Zach was surprised that they build in the ability to pivot but said, “Do you know how much paperwork a pivot would be?”
• If someone wants to see their application, email zach@neurotinker.com
• They used Keytronic EMS for manufacturing. It is local in Minneapolis.
• The design has 5 dendrites, 2 axons and is connected via JST connectors/wire. Or check out their quickstart guide for more info.
• He’s still looking for the link to the multidisciplinary article for STEM, if you know what he was talking about please leave a comment.
• Selling into education is tough. Little Bits has been doing that well (and raised $60M+ to do so)
• For Christmas Zach got a Flir Lepton sensor and the Seeed studio ESP32S.
• Zach made an oscilloscope using the Teensy and a 240×320 TFT. It was based off the printed guide Paul Stoffregen used in his training at the 2015 Hackaday Superconference.
• As a fan of soldering, Zach has done some fun breakout for chips (when needed) and also hand-carves boards for prototyping.

Keep your fancy automated assembly boards, I’ll take a hack any day (hanging with NeuroTinker)

A photo posted by Chris Gammell (@chrisgammell) on Oct 2, 2016 at 10:13am PDT

• Not available online, but Zach used to watch the Heathkit video guide to soldering
• Chris mentioned a presentation where they talked about how records are made.

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