I should be careful about talking too much of private meetings. But everyone here does deserve an update. If this seems a bit awkward, please understand I'm trying to balance community openness with private business discussions.
Supply chain problems struck from June to September 2025. Teensy was regularly out of stock. Production did finally get caught up by October. During those months it was difficult to focus on anything else. In our most recent meeting just a few weeks ago, the big elephant in the room was the
drama with Adafruit. Every time we've agreed "let's do something" on accessory products which then slowly turns into "look at this next quarter".
My attention has also been divided. PJRC is still shipping the
bootloader chips. We've long needed to transition from trays to tape (tape & reel or piece of cut tape). The way we do it now with manually using tweezers and a ZIF socket just won't work long term, especially for transition to SparkFun programming and selling those chips. Two ways are under consideration, either repurposing one of the open source pick and place machines which would let us keep the current programming process, or adapting how the programming is done to fit the capabilities of companies that do chip programming service. I've poured way too much time into over the last several months....
I wish that was the whole story, but to be honest, so far SparkFun hasn't seemed excited about Teensy accessory products. We did show them list that came out of this forum conversation. Their impression was to pick 1 or 2 and see how they go.
So far we've managed
only 1 new accessory, which was driven more by supply chain problems on the magjack than offering anything new. It also addresses the common request of people who wanted it assembled. Exciting, no. Necessary, yes.
I did recently put some work into an initial attempt at a CAN bus shield. I gave the info to SparkFun and they did some more work with it, but I haven't heard anything in a few weeks. I did send a PCB to OSH Park....
I do agree a high performance ADC board would add a lot of great capability. Right now that seems like far too much to expect from SparkFun. We really need to build up momentum with some easier wins. That's why I picked CAN, as it's relatively simple and low cost and doesn't require new software development.
Another way accessory boards might go is with companies not named SparkFun. Or publishing open hardware designs with the intention various companies will copy. I have mixed feelings on this, and how I would need to change the PJRC website to make it successful. But after we get the bootloader chips fully transitioned to SparkFun, if we're still looking at little or no momentum on accessory boards, I'll probably feel less conflicted than I do now.
