Electronics and computer programming began as a hobby in my teenager days. After graduating with an EE degree, I started working as a software engineer for different companies. My career was a roller coster - the companies I worked for either closed or sold. In 2008, after the company lost its main source of revenue, I knew the I was about to lose my job again.

Then there came this itch about electronics. I wanted to build something just for fun for a change. So I picked up a soldering iron again. My hand was shaking so hard at first that I couldn’t solder anything at all. About 2 months after I lost my job, an old colleague contacted me with the idea of teaching kids financial literacy using an online game and piggybank. I started designing a USB connected coin counter prototype. Eight months later, in 2009, we got our funding. By the end 2011, our new company was struggling with sales and out of cash. Again, I became unemployed (voluntarily this time) to save the company.

I began to learn about BLE with the Nordic nRF51822 on my own and tried to make a BLE version of the piggybank, hoping that it would attract more sales. Although I completed the new product design, it was already too late. We weren’t able to secure any funding to bring it to the market. However, while designing the BLE piggybank version, I felt in love with the Nordic nRF5x series SoC and the Bluetooth technology in general.

In 2014, I came up with a module IMM-NRF51822 using the nRF51822. I wrote a blog post showing how to setup a free Eclipse development environment, and included a bunch of example code. When Nordic released the nRF52832, I made the IMM-NRF52832 module with the same footprint as the previous one and more example code.

The need for miniaturization of things continues to become more and more important. So that is why I developed the BLYST Nano (IMM-NRF52832-NANO), a 10x7x1.6 mm module. Electronics has always been my hobby and my passion, and and I will continue to bring projects like the BLYST Nano to life. Please make a pledge on the campaign page to help keep the dream alive.