About Us

XNL Future Technologies and it’s platform is founded and hosted by Rico Reijenga (me). I’m an software and hardware developer located in The Netherlands. Over the years I have developed numerous custom solutions in regards to software and hardware, varying from small software utils or little ‘sensor boxes’, to large management systems, domotics (full home/building automation), custom solutions and projects and even robotics solutions. I’ve done all kinds of work from studio stuff, photo & filmography, woodwork, metal (mainly robotic, automation or enclosure related) and many other things which are literally miles apart from each other when it comes to ‘profession fields’.

A main ‘thread’ in almost any job or project has always been software and hardware development. “Inventing stuff” is something which I have been doing almost before I could even walk (figuratively speaking obviously 😉 )

My/Our Mission

These days I mostly want to focus on making content which could educate/help beginners in eletronics (like with the Multimeter Video for example), I’m focussing on creating/developing tools and items to improve my own workflow/lab, but also like to share these ‘inventions’ so that others can build/make them and thus improve their own (home) lab with them. Two examples of these ‘inventions’ are my DIY XXL Breadboard and the Cheap Microscope Arm Upgrade. I’m also going to publish lots of DIY projects which will include electronics, 3D printing, 3D design, programming etc. Nearly all published projects (and/or products) will be free to download and will also include very extensive documentation explaining every single bit of the project, components, circuit etc in an as simple as possible way. Not only will this give insight for more advanced users on how or why I made my design like I did, but due to me keeping the explanations as simple as possible (at least trying to), also beginners will be able to learn a lot from my projects, videos and documentation. The majority of the projects will be free to download and available for everyone. Where some features, ‘limited editions’ or extra’s might only be available to patrons.

In and for my projects I will for example also try to use ‘generic components’ as much as possible so that when people at home want to make my projects that they don’t first need to buy a whole cabinet full of every resistor value for example (just to mention a very simplified example!).

I will also make video’s about repairing/reviving broken or old devices, recycling old boards and components (not only to “be more green”, but also show you how much you can actually save by doing so).

You will also see me doing projects which involve 3D printing, mechanical stuff for robots, RC stuff, miniatures/diorama’s and there is MUCH more to come, and yes, all this will also be available on my platform for you to download when it comes out.

And most importantly I want to show people the importance of and how ‘easy’ it actually is to make your own circuitboards, protoboards etc. With this aspect of the content I’m hoping that more people will stop ‘shoving whole Arduino’s and breadboards into a lunchbox’ and call it a finished product for example. I had a while story/explanation on this on the previously much longer about page, but I wanted to cut it down BIG TIME on here. Basically put, that practice just wastes A LOT of Arduino Boards, connections of breadboards are not a stable solution for (permanent) projects, and more of the alike.

I’m just hoping my content, projects and the alike will entertain, educate and inspire you, and that you will be having a great time while watching the content, making the projects and hopefully will be able to learn something from it😊

NOTE: There was a much longer more elaborate ‘ranting like’ about page before, but I decided to cut it down significantly. If you would like to read the full (old and no longer maintained one) you can do so here.

Why don’t you show your face(s) or do ‘talking face’ video’s/content that often?

Simple put? Firstly I don’t care about getting “YouTube fame” or becoming a “known influencer”, at all, it’s about the content you’re seeing, the things I’m explaining and the stuff I actually want to show you. And I honestly don’t think that putting my non interesting face full upfront in the video while ranting for minutes about something is worthy for most of the content, and I don’t consider that to be worth wasting your time with either 😉

You might definitely see my (or our) face(s) in some videos where we are building larger projects for example and have a (much) wider shot. So no, it’s definitely not “camera shyness”, I just don’t care about “being the face of….” 😉.

Then there is also the point where I mostly (re-)voice over lots of the content to ensure that certain sections don’t “rant on” for too long on one topic. Often when recording a video I will actually also voice/comment on the thing’s I’m doing, but I could for example when editing feel like I have been going over that part way too long, didn’t explain it enough or anything like that. And it happens more than once that I’m trying to tell something in a simple way but at the moment I’m then way to ADHD chaotic in my head and either can’t find the right words, keep messing up my pronunciation or keep iterating the same thing over and over. And that’s why I often do (re-)voice-overs, where I after making the content, write down and summarize the things I want to say more properly. Basically yet again to ensure I’m minimizing wasting your time with me chaotic brain and train of thoughts 😉.

It might also be that in the future you will see my face while in the video and that I won’t be moving my mouth in the shot but you do hear a voice over, or that I’m wearing a face mask or something like that, so you don’t get “weirdly non synced lip movements” because I had to do a re-voice-over again 🤷🏽‍♀️. Not sure where this will be going yet, but I’m guessing you’ll get the point (without me ranting on way too long again😂)

Why is it that I (often) spot spelling or grammar errors on publications or documentation?
Well that’s simple: Because most of it is written by me, and I’m as dyslectic as you can possibly imagine 😂! I/we often try to proofread and use spell checkers as much as possible, but that doesn’t always work out that well when it’s not your native language. And aside from that it’s not about small grammar perfection here, it’s about what and if you can learn from the content and publications. And as far as we can tell it’s not to difficult to understand what is said/written. We suspect that they have installed a faulty dictionary in the Rico version that has been shipped to us. Unfortunately we don’t have the receipt anymore for an replacement version with newer firmware, so that’s unfortunately just one of the “bugs” in our version which we can’t fix, Sorry. 😉
More about this can be read in our Dyslexia Disclaimer.

Isn’t this basically part of a YouTube channel with a bunch of editors, content creators and more ‘hidden behind the scenes’?
No I/we don’t have a bunch of editors, content creators and a ‘massive film crew’ or anything like that. Most of the content is written, prepared, filmed, voiced, edited, published and maintained by just one person: Me/Rico. And same goes for lots of the projects, products etc.

I do still mention ‘we’ simply due to the fact that there are moments where my wife, friends and some of the XNL Future Technologies Crew help out here and there. This could be with all kind of things like brainstorming about a project, (beta-)testing something, solving some mathematical issues, doing some (project/product) ‘field testing’, providing additional data or even just something simple as giving feedback on an idea. This isn’t ‘the mainstream process’, but I do want to give credit where credit is due. Because even just a simple thing like supporting me in doing what I love and just listening to me every now and then rambling about my projects also helps out greatly.

The XNL Future Technologies Crew/Staff mainly works on projects, products ‘and stuff’ which has nothing to do with my platform or the related channels, next to this they also help me here and there to ‘keep an eye’ on things like the platform, keeping me ‘on-track’ (where possible) and things like that.

If this is part of a YouTube channel? YouTube is a part of what I’m doing and publishing on here, and vice-versa. What I care about more is creating great, awesome, interesting and educational content (not just talking about video’s here), boards, projects/products, (3D) Models, Software and more. And then YouTube definitely is a great way to get (more) exposure.

Why content topics might from time to time shift completely

I have a very broad range of interest including (but not limited to): Music (Guitar, Bass etc), Remote Controlled Stuff (Cars, Drones, Helicopters, Planes and sometimes boats), 3D Printing (from functional to self designed artwork), Programming (from desktop to games, to automation and robotics), robotics, gaming (mainly development of though), 3D Modeling (game related, product design/CAD), Model/Miniature stuff, doing (designing) educational projects and much much more. And due to this you might from time to time (in my posts, content etc) also notice a ‘stronger interest’ for one of these topics 🙂 .

Next to this I also have severe ADHD (officially diagnosed and (unfortunately) not just the “ow I’m annoyingly hyperactive and attention seeking because I have ADHD hype type”). The ‘annoyingly hyperactive’ part has (luckily) gotten much less noticeable (read: annoying) when I got older, however for ‘people around me’ that is. ‘Inside my head’ it’s often still chaos, distractions everywhere and thus lots of concentration issues. Due to hyperfocus (along with my ADHD) I can sometimes ‘go all in’ with something like designing a project or learning ‘everything’ about a topic which I find interesting. Now you might think: “Euhm, concentration issues… but you also said hyperfocus??” Well a problem which I often have with these concentration issues and the hyperfocus is that I’m working on a certain chip for example to drive LED’s, then I’m doing some research on this chip and I discover it can also drive ‘full graphical LCD’s’. Then I suddenly find this topic (this chip and the LCD’s) much more interesting, and my hyperfocus will then shift so much to this part, that I will learn ‘everything possible’ on this topic for the next two weeks and then totally ‘forget’ about the project i was actually doing research for.

Of course this could be considered ‘great’ if you want to learn many (different) things quickly, but it also often means that your ‘to-do projects’ and ‘backlog’ pile up very fast. Another problem on having too much hyperfocus (for too long) on one single project/topic is that I might actually lose interest in it because it starts to feel like I’m ‘stuck on a topic which has (for now) nothing new to offer’.

And then I will just (have to) switch projects or topics a while, this however doesn’t mean that I have ‘abandoned’ a different/other topic or project for example. It just means that the ‘previous project/topic’ has most likely ‘shifted down’ a gear, and that this topic will be more prominent again later on.

I just like to enjoy things (and life) as much as possible, and in my personal opinion that is not something which I can do when I would “just stare blindly” on one topic (to use a common Dutch expression). By doing multiple topics (and shifting the interest back and forth from time to time) I’m just ‘keeping the spark’ alive 🙂

And thus this always all over the place interest (and some fixation) I have for things might also reflect back in the content. So it could very well be that for weeks you’ll see me upload video’s related to (just to name an example) designing and building RC controlled stuff and then suddenly it turns to Fallout themed things/projects for weeks. It’s just how I work, how my real life out side of the content/YouTube is etc.

Do you do the stuff especially for content, or do you ‘just’ film the stuff you do?

It’s a bit hard to put that in one line as a question, I don’t do projects because of content, I make the stuff I do because I actually want to make it myself and then share that as content. If you understand what I’m trying to explain.

This basically means that for me it’s most of the time not like: “Hmmm what could I make as project which would be cool/great content??“. I just design/make my projects and when starting with them I will instead think “Hmm would this project be cool to share or fun to watch for other on YouTube?” and then film and document it.

Obviously I do also make educational content especially for the content like the Multimeter video I talked about earlier. But the breadboard and microscope arm for example are both projects I wanted myself, and just decided to share them as (content & download).

Why the ‘big corporate look’ on the website?

Well very simply put: I just like the ‘big fancy look’, and in my opinion it’s not only the big $$$ company’s whom are/should be entitled to ‘large corporate like looking websites’. And considering I do have the development capabilities of making something exactly as I want it, I decided to go for the “go big or go home” route 😉

Why am I using a ‘webstore’ for my projects, products and downloads?

I’ve setup this custom webshop/store system so that it would be much easier for me to publish projects, products and anything related to platform content. With this custom-build system it’s very easy for me to publish content (projects, products and more) in different or linked (grouped) categories, it’s a lot easier to maintain each project individually, keep track of visitor/user interest in certain projects, it’s easier to keep users up-to-date about information regarding the projects etc etc.

So I’m just using this custom shop system as a centralized hub to keep it easier to manage for myself and to ensure that users/visitors can much faster find what they are looking fore (AND all the related information). And due to this (because lots of sections are fully automated), I/we can focus much more of our time to actually make content, develop new projects and publishing content, instead of constantly having to update ‘mundane stuff’ manually on all kinds of pages 🙂

What the peck is up with that pigeon that shows up in your content from time to time?

Good question, that is Sophie The Pigeon, she’s our (me and my wives) non-releasable rescue pet pigeon. We have rescued her from a terrible situation where she was in a on the brink of death situation basically, and she now happily lives with us. She has become my best friend, is around me/us all day long and she bascialy goes everywhere I/we go. I also decided to start developing pigeon toys, furniture and more of the alike due to her, because we’ve learned that there are quite A LOT of rescue pet pigeons (which can’t survive in the wild anymore), but that there are basically no pigeon toys on the market at all for them. Only for parrots and such. And thus I decided to use my knowledge about birds, electronics, 3D printing and more to design and make toys, harnesses and furniture especially for pigeons. And yes, sometimes my projects will be for her/pigeons, and sometimes you will see her appear in content (which isn’t related to pigeons) when she walks or flies by. Just consider her as our lucky mascot 😊

Sophie by the way also has her own YouTube channel: @SophieThePigeon, her own website, and social media platforms like her own X(Twitter), Instagram and TikTok, where we share all her adventures, and we also show how much fun it can be to have a rescue pigeon as part of your family which would otherwise not have survived outside 😊

Why most of the platform is in English

A small word on why most of the platform is in English. You might in the future ‘here and there’ find some projects, products or documentation which might also be available in Dutch, however most of the platform is in English. Considering that people already need to use/know English when working with or on topics like electronics or programming for example, we decided to just keep English the main language on our platform.

Thank You

Thank you for your time and interest so far, and we hope that you have a better vision on our mission and goals now. For now, welcome to our (new) platform and we hope you’ll enjoy yourself on it 🙂

P.S: Ow and for those wondering and whom might have ‘caught-on’: Yes the ‘banner’ at top (Passion has LED us here) is an intentional pun to LED’s 😛

Last Updated: 30-09-2024