--- title: Hardware is not so hard | daily.dev description: A software developer reflects on building and selling 2500 units of the Jamcorder, a MIDI recorder device. Contrary to the common belief that 'hardware is... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/hardware-is-not-so-hard-lu0apzi4h twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Hardware is not so hard | daily.dev og:description: A software developer reflects on building and selling 2500 units of the Jamcorder, a MIDI recorder device. Contrary to the common belief that 'hardware is... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/hardware-is-not-so-hard-lu0apzi4h og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/LU0APzi4h.png og:image:alt: Hardware is not so hard og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Hardware is not so hard **[Hacker News](https://daily.dev/sources/hn)** · 3 min read · 10 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A software developer reflects on building and selling 2500 units of the Jamcorder, a MIDI recorder device. Contrary to the common belief that 'hardware is hard,' the author found the hardware side manageable — the real challenge was the software, which totaled ~200K lines of code across firmware, app, and manufacturing tooling. The post argues that hardware complexity is largely self-imposed and offers 10 practical tips for shipping hardware at medium scale, including keeping the BOM simple, targeting 70%+ gross margins, partnering with Chinese assembly houses, and maintaining in-house QA. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### Is building hardware actually harder than building the software for a hardware product? Not necessarily. Building the Jamcorder MIDI recorder, the hardware side proved to be the easy part, while the software -- roughly 200K lines of code across firmware, app, and manufacturing tooling -- took over three years and was by far the hardest challenge, especially since it was built before LLM coding tools existed. _Founders weighing a hardware idea can find similar build-vs-ship experience reports through daily.dev._ ### What practical steps help a solo founder successfully ship a hardware product at medium scale? Keep the bill of materials simple and avoid single-manufacturer components, avoid complex assembly or calibration, partner with a Chinese assembly house via Alibaba, target at least 70% gross margin, keep the company lean since hardware scales slowly, guard against counterfeiting, do final QA in-house, hold local inventory, request samples before every production run, and keep packaging small and value-dense. _Anyone scoping a hardware launch can track hands-on manufacturing lessons like these via daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Lessons Learned Shipping 500 Units of my First Hardware Product](https://daily.dev/posts/lessons-learned-shipping-500-units-of-my-first-hardware-product-s5kau2ujl) · Hacker News · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Lessons Learned After A Head-First Dive Into Hardware Manufacturing](https://daily.dev/posts/lessons-learned-after-a-head-first-dive-into-hardware-manufacturing-pn7mccqlt) · Hackaday · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Simplify, Then Add Lightness](https://daily.dev/posts/simplify-then-add-lightness-0c1italp5) · Hacker News · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#hardware](https://daily.dev/tags/hardware), [#manufacturing](https://daily.dev/tags/manufacturing), [#firmware](https://daily.dev/tags/firmware) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/hardware-is-not-so-hard-lu0apzi4h) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Hardware is not so hard","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/hardware-is-not-so-hard-lu0apzi4h","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/hardware-is-not-so-hard-lu0apzi4h"},"datePublished":"2026-07-19T12:33:46.910Z","dateModified":"2026-09-13T18:40:17.547Z","description":"A software developer reflects on building and selling 2500 units of the Jamcorder, a MIDI recorder device. 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