Crowd Supply has always been a place "where new ideas cross over the threshold from the ethereal to the real,” where amazing new creations are born. We've seen all kinds of things take flight on Crowd Supply and we love being surprised by the next creation just around the corner.

We've been especially fortunate to witness and have a hand in the birth of many open hardware projects. Indeed, the transparency and community embodied by such projects are core to Crowd Supply's DNA and we remain committed to bringing open hardware projects into the world. Just as importantly, we are committed to helping them thrive once they've arrived.

In the spirit of this mission, we’re happy to announce that as of today Crowd Supply will begin selling, supporting, and evolving the popular open source Pinoccio mesh sensor network (a.k.a. Internet of Things) product line. Pinoccio Scouts and their accessories are available for purchase on Crowd Supply.

What is Pinoccio?

Pinoccio raised over $100,000 on Indiegogo in 2013 to help Internet of Things (IoT) developers build and link products to each other and to the web. They shipped over 3,500 devices in early 2014, and have since cultivated an active and enthusiastic community of developers and hackers building connected device applications, from home and building automation to industrial monitoring and more. You can view some of the projects already built with Pinoccio on Hackster.io.

The centerpiece of the Pinoccio project is the Scout, a completely open-source, Arduino-compatible device that communicates with other Scouts via low-power radio to form a mesh network, or “Troop.” The Troop then connects to the web by attaching a WiFi Backpack to the “Lead Scout” and requires only 1/14th the power for the same range as WiFi.

Why Crowd Supply?

Earlier this year, Pinoccio, Inc. rebranded as Filament after heavy demand for more industrial-scale implementations of Pinoccio mesh networks. Eric Jennings, co-founder of Pinoccio, Inc. (now Filament) described the strategy behind the company's decision:

"While Pinoccio still has meaningful demand in the IoT and Maker space, we recently increased our focus on industrial-scale networks and have relaunched as Filament. Meanwhile, we knew that discontinuing the Pinoccio line was not an option. We remain committed to the maker community and to supporting the development of open source technologies. We are working with Crowd Supply to take over Pinoccio’s development, manufacturing, sales, and support. Once transitioned, Crowd Supply can ensure Pinoccio remains available, in production, and well-supported for its enthusiastic developer community."

While best known as a crowdfunding platform, Crowd Supply supports hardware creators throughout the lifecycle of hardware-based product development with strategy, sales, fulfillment, marketing, and often supply chain support. This especially rings true for keeping open source projects alive well after funding. This isn’t the first partnership of this kind for Crowd Supply -- we manage the sales, fulfillment, and operations for a number of open hardware products, including the Novena laptop product line, developed by Bunnie Huang and Sean Cross.

Our CEO and co-founder Dr. Josh Lifton had this to say about the deal: "This further strengthens our efforts toward being a home where open source projects can thrive - from launch to ongoing operations. The success of an open source project is the extent to which the project takes on a life of its own. It’s a pleasure to work with Filament to help the Pinoccio project make that leap."

Pinoccio’s community and API will be managed by super-user David Van Duzer of the SCUPPER™ Foundation: "Scouts, along with the Pinoccio software ecosystem, offer a fantastically flexible prototyping platform for experimental games and interactive installations. Increasing access to powerful, creative tools is a critical part of our mission at the SCUPPER Foundation. We are thrilled that organizations like Crowd Supply are supporting the open source hardware ecosystem, and this is great news for creative technologists and enthusiasts everywhere."

The full Pinoccio product line is available for purchase immediately on Crowd Supply. Visit the Pinoccio forum here, or read the documentation here.

Crowd Supply is a home for open hardware and the people who build it. It is the only crowdfunding platform with a perfect record for delivery of funded products to backers, and is endorsed by the Free Software Foundation. Launch a project of your own or explore our catalog.