Originally published at: Introducing Particle episode 1: watch and learn what it takes to be an IoT hardware engineer – Particle Blog
In the first installment of Welcome to Particle, a new video series highlighting the employees behind your favorite IoT devices, Developer Evangelist Brandon Satrom interviews Senior Hardware Engineer and man with a steady soldering hand, Mohit Bhoite.
Mohit holds the honor of being Particle employee #5, having climbed aboard 5 years ago. Over the course of this interview, he takes viewers on a ride that starts with his “love at first sight” meeting with Particle co-founders Zach Supalla and Zach Crockett (who goes by Doc) and ends with some talk about his Dexter’s Laboratory-inspired workshop and what real IoT means to him.
Along the way, Mohit reminisces about some of the challenges the early days at a small hardware startup company faces, and how Particle’s open source ethos helped immensely in those early days. As he puts it, “being a small company in a hardware landscape is extremely tough.” The inability to patch hardware after release combined with the modest IT budget at the time saw Mohit getting tips from the active forums, most notably a “heads up” about a killer bug with the legendary Spark Core.
Of course as Particle has grown over the years, those challenges have lessened. Mohit now has the resources and team members to take things slower and narrow his focus, which for hardware means faster and better results. One of the major developments impacting the hardware scene at Particle was the acquisition of RedBear Labs, a Chinese team that began as a Particle-powered hardware developer and ended becoming a major part of the Particle R&D team.
Went back to my roots and made a BEAM based solar pummer that charges all day and “pumms” at night. This tiny satellite may never fly into space, but is happy to be a desk buddy! pic.twitter.com/d6LKlaxyti
— Mohit Bhoite | मोहित भोईटे (@MohitBhoite) March 31, 2019
The episode wraps up with Mohit sharing a bit about his life outside of work – one that is already fairly public, given his nearly 55k followers on Instagram. There, he posts beautiful photos of the fascinating sculptures he builds — it’s a must follow for any fan of design and engineering. One of Mohit’s self-described “micro obsessions,” are inspired by BEAM robotics, an approach building bots that combines Biology, Electronics, Aesthetics, and Mechanics and avoid fancy microprocessors in favor of analogue electronics. Often resembling insects and solar-powered, these creations are not only functional, they are beautiful to look at.
To learn more about Mohit and Particle’s hardware journey from startup to where it is today, be sure to check out this first episode of Welcome to Particle in full.