TALLMADGE, Ohio — On one Summit County factory floor, it is all about the small things in life.
“Tiny is just cuter,” says the President of TinyCircuits, Ken Burns.
Like the name implies, TinyCircuits makes very small electronic products. There's Thumby, the tiny playable programmable keychain. The Tiny TV that plays video files. And even a "mini" version of that. Electrical engineer Ken Burns decided to "go small" 13 years ago. The response on Kickstarter to his first product convinced Burns to quit his job at the time.
“First product was called the TinyDunino, which was, basically a modular electronic system,” = Burns explained. “So, these boards would stack together so you could add things like G.P.S. or Wi-Fi or small screen to the platform and easily create a project.”
TinyCircuits continues to roll out new products through Kickstarter. Most recently, the Thumby Color, with a color display. Despite the size, they have a retro feel.
“Definitely a lot of our products kind of have that feel to them of like nostalgic video games in the 80s and 90s, little TV sets kind of recreate the 60s and 70s. So definitely have that nostalgic feel to them,” said Burns.
The company started in Akron before moving to Tallmadge. Today it employs 10 people who are all serious about making fun, tiny gadgets. Rolling out an average of 500 products a day, circuit boards are made by machine, but several steps are done by hand.
“November and December are really big times for us,” Burns said. “We've seen sales start to ramp up. And we're doing a lot of inventory to be able to keep in stock for the holiday rush.”
TinyCircuits aims to launch one new major product each year, but would only give hints about what's coming next.
“We've got possibly next-generation TV, maybe one with Wi-Fi built into it, so you can stream stuff, little camera systems and small little robot type things we're toying around with,” Burns said. “So, we've got a lot of things potentially on the back burner.”
Burns originally targeted the electronic hobbyist -- but soon found a larger TinyCircuits fan base.
TinyCircuits also appeals to older consumers, who buy the Tiny TVs because they are the correct scale for a dollhouse.
It all proves that big joy can come from TinyCircuits.
“You show somebody new, ‘Wow, that is the most amazing thing I've ever seen.' So it's just cool to get that kind of feedback,” said Burns. “And it's a lot of fun to see people responding to it, and it's just fun to play around with it still.”