Introducing Monk Makes

Who and what are Monk Makes?

Monk Makes Ltd consists of Simon and Linda Monk and it is a small (but international!) business making electronic accessories for use with Raspberry Pi (& Pico), micro:bit and other microcontrollers such as Arduino and ESP32. It is a lifestyle business (more on that another time) and over the years it has employed many friends and family – particularly useful when their kids were looking for extra income!

Why did we start Monk Makes?

Simon has had a long career in software and an interest in electronics that began in his school days. Originally it was Arduino that caught his eye when he was looking to reacquaint himself with his old hobby. He wanted to make projects for his own amusement and from that came the idea for a book – his first of many – 30 Arduino Projects for the Evil Genius. This sparked other ideas for books and when he was made redundant it seemed like an ideal time to see if he could make a living from writing. His books did well but when you are writing project books there is need to help people source the necessary components. This meant that when Linda was made redundant it followed logically that perhaps now was the time to make a kit to accompany his very popular Programming the Raspberry Pi – Getting Started With Python and the Starter Kit for Raspberry Pi was born in December 2013! Turns out there was a good market for kits and Monk Makes has grown (and changed) over the years to produce accessory boards, kits and books. Amazingly the Starter Kit is still going strong although its had an update and is now the Project Box for Raspberry Pi.

What is our mission?

We want to make products that inspire a love of programming or electronics or both – we love being part of the excitement that can be gleaned from making your first LED blink or see that motor move. We keep our products competitively priced so that everyone has the opportunity to enjoy making things. All of our products are designed by Simon and have mostly been inspired by a project that he has wanted to do himself. We pride ourselves on making great products that are easy to use and have great instructions (also written by Simon!)

What does the future look like?

The great thing about being a small business is that its easier to be agile and keep up with emerging trends. In the beginning there was Arduino and Raspberry Pi, then micro:bit with other boards not getting quite the same media interest but fun boards all the same. As there are now so many boards that people enjoy using we now have more general purpose boards that come with header pins but also the familiar rings so they can be used with micro:bit. And the ideas for new boards just keep coming so watch this space!!