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Sponsor and Vendor Relationships

This document contains a listing of all sponsors and equipment providers/vendors with whom I've interacted.

I believe in transparency with vendors, with sponsors, and most especially with my viewers, so I hope this document can serve as a public record to assist when there may be implied or real Conflict of Interest for certain software or hardware I use or mention in any of my videos.

Sponsors and vendors are listed in alphabetical order.

NOTE: I don't always remember to update this document! If you see a sponsor on my channel that's not listed here, please open an issue and ask about it. I'm not trying to hide anything, I just have a lot going on and am quite forgetful sometimes :)

45Drives

Type: Equipment

45Drives provided Storinator and 45Homelab hardware in support of projects like 'Petabyte Pi' and 'ARM NAS' videos.

45Drives also hosted me (providing boarding and transportation) for their 2023 Creator Summit in Sydney, Nova Scotia.

They have been active contributors and promotors of open source and DIY Homelab solutions, and many of their staff have been helpful in teaching me about open source storage solutions, so I've enjoyed working with them on projects where they have no hardware involvement as well, like my 'is a Pigeon faster than Fiber Internet' video.

Alftel

Alftel develops a number of specialized (and sometimes quite expensive!) boards for RF testing, and I was provided two of them, along with some wireless modules, to perform WiFi and other PCI Express-based experiments on the Pi.

AirGradient

Type: Equipment for test/review

After purchasing some of their DIY kids and testing them, AirGradient reached out and partnered with me to test some of their early prebuilt hardware. After launching the hardware for public sale, they have sent six or so of their various prebuilt air quality sensors (indoor and outdoor), and some of these I have reviewed and tested in videos on Geerling Engineering and the Jeff Geerling channel.

I have been supporting their hardware with my own open source projects for a few years, and through my and the community's persuasion, they have added on Home Assistant integration into their default firmware.

Ambedded

Type: Equipment for test/review

I reached out to Ambedded after a user commented on their unique Mars 400 storage appliance architecture. After a few months convincing them I was serious in wanting to do a video on their now-fairly-old Ceph storage appliance (they have many newer models they recommended before I even started working on the video!), they shipped a unit to me for testing and review.

Their team was passionate about distributed Ceph storage, and provided a great deal of help setting up the Mars 400, as well as general Ceph guidance.

Ampere Computing (+ ADLINK, + System76)

Type: Equipment for test/review

Ampere Computing has aided my work testing and reviewing various arm64 applications, most notably providing hardware through their partner companies at various points.

I currently have the following test systems provided for review and ongoing arm64 development:

  • ADLINK Ampere Altra Dev Workstation
  • ADLINK Ampere Altra Dev Kit
  • System76 Thelio Astra Workstation
  • Supermicro AmpereOne 2U Server

Ansible (by Red Hat / IBM)

Type: Channel for book sales

Ansible provided space for me to sell my book at an early AnsibleFest conference, and have featured my book in some of their marketing materials.

Apcsilmic

Type: Equipment for test/review

Apcsilmic sent an arm64 Dot 1 Mini PC running Windows 11 for review.

Apple

Type: Loaned equipment for test/review

Apple provided four M3 Ultra Mac Studios to test for clustered RDMA over Thunderbolt performance in macOS 26.2, using applications like Exo. The Macs were provided on short term loan.

Arctic

Type: Equipment for test/review

Arctic provided a few fans, a CPU cooler, and thermal paste for testing in my arm64 workstation builds. I use their fans for testing a variety or projects, and they have been responsive to my questions about future product development or improvements to product design.

ArduCam

Type: Equipment for test/review

ArduCam makes a variety of camera sensors and hardware compatible with the Raspberry Pi. They have sent various models of Pi camera modules to me over the years, and I have a small box with all the gear they've sent.

Some of their cameras and Pi products are used in other projects I build (for example, an all-sky camera, or a CinePi build).

Arduino

Type: Equipment for test/review

Arduino sent an Uno Q (made in partnership with Qualcomm) for review and testing.

Arm

Type: Paid sponsorship, travel reimbursement

Arm sponsored the channel two times, once to promote a Developer Summit in a single ad integration, and once for CES, sponsoring my travel expenses and one video covering tech that used Arm on the show floor.

While I did have creative freedom over that video, it was the first (and last) time I ever made a video where a sponsor basically paid for coverage in the entire video.

Arm was and still is a great partner to work with, and the products I covered in my CES video are still products I would look into regardless of sponsorship... but having anything more than a brief sponsor integration in my videos is a pill too hard to swallow again.

Thus, that experiment—allowing a company to sponsor a full video—was done once, and never again :)

ArmSoM / Banana Pi

Type: Equipment for test/review

ArmSoM / Banana Pi has provided a couple of their SBC products and accessories for testing and review.

ASUSTOR

Type: Equipment for test/review

ASUSTOR has provided a few NAS systems for my testing and review. I currently use three of their NASes for backup purposes or ongoing / long-term testing in the studio and in my home.

They also worked with Seagate to send over a dozen or so IronWolf-series drives to test in their NASes. If often use the same set of drives with different NASes when testing to take out the drive model factor in benchmarks and comparisons.

They have been great about receiving feedback from me and the community, and have implemented some features like SMB Multichannel, ECC memory support in consumer NASes, and other software features after community interaction. I provide my advice for future storage products from time to time, as I do other storage vendors.

BliKVM

Type: Equipment for test/review

BliKVM provided a number of their IP KVM products for testing and review.

Broadcom

Type: Support

In my Petabyte Pi Project series, Broadcom provided engineering support to debug PCIe bus and driver issues when running their HBAs and hardware RAID cards on a Raspberry Pi.

BuildJet (JetKVM)

BuildJet reached out many months before the public launch of their JetKVM IP KVM product. At first I was skeptical because everything about it looked too good to be true—like many Kickstarters I am emailed about.

But after digging a bit more, and asking some probing questions, I realized it might be the real deal. And so after telling the BuildJet founders I would be willing to test an early test sample, but nothing more, I was provided one a little prior to the Kickstarter launch.

I decided after using it to make a full video about it, with appropriate caveats about it being a Kickstarter, where paying is not buying, but I didn't want people who watch my channel to not have an opportunity to back the project.

A number of other Homelab-related YouTube channels also picked up on it, and I was happy to see the base product actually shipping in a reasonable timeline after the Kickstarter's end!

CutiePi

Type: Equipment for test/review

CutiePi sent a CutiePi tablet based on the Pi CM4, for my testing and review.

DeepComputing

Type: Equipment for test/review

DeepComputing sent a DC-ROMA RISC-V AI PC (Framework 13" laptop), for my testing and review.

Dell

Type: Equipment for test/review

Dell provided a set of two Dell Pro Max with GB10 mini desktop computers for LLM testing on the Nvidia DGX Spark platform. They also provided power supplies and accessories used in cluster testing.

DFRobot

Type: Equipment for test/review

DFRobot has provided a few small Raspberry Pi Compute Module-based boards for testing and review.

EDAtec

Type: Equipment for test/review

EDAtec has provided various products in their industrial computing line for testing and review. They have also asked for early feedback on product designs and launches to try to get an idea of what the community would like to see, and have been very responsive to my feedback.

Elecrow

Type: Equipment for test/review, compensation for stolen voice

I received a CrowPi2 for review early in my YouTube channel's history, and generally have had a good relationship with Elecrow. Their unauthorized use of my cloned voice in 2024 soured that relationship, but we found an acceptable compromise involving compensation and a donation to charity.

Flexispot

Type: Paid sponsorship

Some time after purchasing two of their small height-adjustable desks on Amazon, Flexispot reached out for a sponsorship on a video while I was building out my office. I accepted a desk and chair on trade, along with a reduced sponsorship rate on one video.

Working with them was fine, but they do tend to reach out multiple times a year for various campaigns, with different representatives each time (sometimes multiple emails in the same week!). They were fine, and their hardware works great (I've since bought two more Flexispot desks), but they can be a little aggressive in their pitch!

Fractal

After seeing the 'Baby North' Raspberry Pi case design in a Paul's Hardware video from CES, I reached out to Fractal and asked if there was any possibility they had an extra one. They did, and offered to send it to me—and eventually my prodding and the community's strong desire led to them open sourcing the entire 3D printable design!

I still wish they made an official Pi case, though. It'd be amazing having their beautiful industrial design for a desktop Pi.

Framework

Type: Equipment for test/review

For the Framework Desktop launch, I accepted four Framework Mainboards to build and test a local LLM cluster. I have also been in contact about testing some of their other products, upon viewer request.

GeeekPi (DeskPi / 52Pi)

Type: Equipment for test/review

I've been in contact with GeeekPi/DeskPi/52Pi quite often, as their products often align with my projects. I tested and provided early feedback for their DeskPi Super6C CM4 cluster, and have encouraged them to build out a 10" mini rack ecosystem for Homelab use.

They have provided a few mini racks and accessories, as well as one Super6C cluster + enclosure, and a number of small Pi HATs, Pi cases, and Compute Module boards for testing and review.

They also provided a mini rack and set of Raspberry Pis for a giveaway in early 2025.

GL.iNet

Type: Equipment for test/review

GL.iNet provided each of their IP KVMs for testing.

HAILO

Type: Support, Equipment for test/review

When they were launching their AI products for the Raspberry Pi (and even before that), I had worked with Hailo engineers to debug some PCIe issues using their products with the Pi CM4.

They also provided a couple of their Hailo products for early testing, but never requested any mention or review. I only mentioned their products on the channel once Raspberry Pi launched their own 'AI kit', which included a Hailo AI processor.

Hugging Face

Type: Equipment for test/review

Hugging Face and Pollen Robotics sent a Reachy Mini (Wireless) for testing and review.

ISO-TIP

Type: Equipment for test/review

ISO-TIP reached out to me after I had mentioned one of their very old soldering irons in a video, and offered to send me an updated revision of the same iron.

There were no obligations (a very rare thing indeed), but I wanted to mention them in a video regardless, because I loved the fact that at least one company on this planet took a good product design and... just kept making it. Decade after decade.

Their soldering irons aren't the cheapest in the world, but they are high quality and my Dad still uses the one he bought when I was a kid! Now I have one at the studio, and one at home, and for any quick job where I just need an iron for a few seconds or a minute, I grab the ISO-TIP.

Keychron

Type: Equipment for test/review

Keychron provided one of their mechanical keyboards for testing and review.

KIOXIA

Type: Equipment for test/review

I have worked with KIOXIA on a number of flash storage-based projects, most notably various Pi and SBC flash storage NASes using NVMe SSDs. They also provided two CD8 NVMe drives for an upgrade of my HL15 Arm NAS which has been tested and used in various videos (and is the primary studio edit NAS as of 2025).

kleindiek nanotechnik

Type: Support

kleindiek nanotechnik provided assistance in delidding and imaging a Raspberry Pi 5's SoC for my video exposing the silicon inside the Pi 5. They had reached out and wondered if I would be interested in going beyond just X-ray level inspection, and I gladly accepted.

Their team is very passionate about what they do, and they have some great tech for nano-scale electronics probes, stages, and tools.

KubeSail (PiBox)

Type: Equipment for test/review

KubeSail provided two PiBox NASes for test and review—and I liked them so much I gave one away and purchased another during their Kickstarter!

LDO Motors

LDO Motors, in partnership with the Positron design team, sent a full Positron V3.2 3D printer kit for me to build, test, and review. There were no obligations, they did not even ask me to make a video about it, but I was excited to test a printer that seemed to have such a strong community and a vibrant 'personality'.

The Positron community was extremely helpful and supportive during the build, and I've been happy to see how the project has progressed since my build (with continuous improvement). Despite the high price tag, I would recommend the kit to anyone who wants the experience and the unique end result. It's not a printer for everyone, for sure.

LDO Motors is also highly spoken of by every person I've met in the 3D printing community. I have had only great things to report in my communications with Jason and the LDO team, and was fortunate to even shake hands with Jason at Open Sauce in 2024!

Linus Tech Tips (LTT)

Type: Equipment for test/review, travel reimbursement

Linus Tech Tips sponsored my flight and hotel for LTX 2023, and also provided one LTT Screwdriver, one LTT Precision Screwdriver, and one LTT Stubby Screwdriver for testing.

I have separately purchased 5 other LTT Screwdrivers, including the two I used in my initial review video.

Lowell Manufacturing Company

Type: Equipment for trade

I was going to purchase a full-size rack for the new studio buildout, but found out there was a manufacturer of rack solutions in my home city who had just introduced a new line of datacenter racks. I worked with them to take a tour of their manufacturing plant, of which I recorded many parts. This may have been the only time in my channel's history where a sponsor integration didn't see any dip from people using SponsorBlock!

Meinberg

Type: Paid sponsorship

Meinberg sponsored a trip to the 2025 NAB for the Geerling Engineering channel, and one video on that channel covering time and timing in broadcast media.

Meta (Facebook)

Type: Equipment for test/review

Meta provided some timing hardware for my Time Pi project and for general PTP and GPS timing tests with Raspberry Pis. They have also provided a used Tektronics Oscilloscope for use in these timing experiments, because the one I had access to did not have sufficient performance for nanosecond-scale measurement.

Micro Center

Type: Paid sponsorship, travel reimbursement

Micro Center has sponsored a number of videos on my channel, including one where I flew out to Charlotte, NC, for their grand opening.

They have been a very reliable and easy to work with sponsor, typically allowing me complete freedom to work on a project that integrates well with the products they sell in stores. Their staff has been some of the most helpful (with or without sponsorship) and I started shopping at their store in St. Louis well before I started accepting any sponsorships!

Milk-V

Type: Equipment for test/review

Milk-V has provided a number of their RISC-V SBCs and SoMs for testing and review.

Minisforum

Type: Equipment for test/review

Minisforum provided an MS-R1 unit for testing and review.

Mirkotronics

Type: Equipment for test/review

Mirkotronics provided a MirkoPC for testing with the Raspberry Pi Compute Module, and I have provided feedback about CM boards to Mirek, the founder, on numerous occasions. Mirek has taken a lot of community feedback into account in designing revisions to his projects.

MNT Research

Type: Equipment for test/review

MNT Research loaned me an MNT Reform Laptop for testing and review. I shipped the laptop back after I had finished my review, and look forward to working with them again, if one of my projects aligns with their products. I was impressed by the depth of their open source designs, including full system schematics in the box!

Mono

Type: Equipment for test/review

Mono sent me a prototype version of the Gateway router for testing in partnership with Serve The Home. I also pre-ordered and fully paid for a Gateway Router (developer edition) independent of my testing of the pre-production unit they sent.

MyElectronics.nl

Type: Equipment for test/review

MyElectronics provided a series of Raspberry Pi, Mac mini, and Mini ITX rackmount enclosures, some of which I use to this day in my equipment racks.

They have taken customer feedback into account designing new products for the SMB and homelab space.

Nabu Casa (Home Assistant)

Type: Equipment for test/review

Nabu Casa has provided a couple of their early products for pre-release testing and review. My first Home Assistant Yellow was provided pre-launch for testing, and I featured it in a home automation video. After that I liked it enough I bought another for my studio after moving in.

They have also provided a Home Assistant Voice Preview Edition which I tested for a few months prior to public launch. I have had an excellent relationship with both Nabu Casa and the wider Home Assistant and ESPHome communities, also as an active user and open source home automation advocate.

Netgear

Type: Equipment for test/review

Netgear provided an enterprise WiFi 6E router used in testing Raspberry Pi WiFi 6E equipment, as well as a WiFi 6E USB dongle used for various projects.

Noctua

Type: Equipment for test/review

Noctua provided two CPU coolers, a fan hub, some case fans, and thermal paste for use upgrading a rackmount server to make it more silent. They have also been responsive when I've provided feedback for current and future product development. Their fans are expensive, but good, and I'm happy to see them publish more detailed notes about why they design their fans the way they do.

Notion

Type: Paid sponsorship

Notion's collaboration tools were critical during two YouTube projects where I worked with multiple other creators, and when they reached out for a sponsorship, I was happy to accept. They were great to work with, and for anyone who needs the tools they provide, I strongly recommend them.

Pi-KVM

Type: Equipment for test/review

Pi-KVM provided multiple versions of their IP KVM hardware for testing and review, and have been very responsive about their open source project and hardware improvements generation over generation.

Pineboards

Type: Equipment for test/review

Pineboards have provided many of their products for testing and review, and I have been involved in their product discussions (and post-launch improvements) for a long time. They have been very responsive to community needs, and are quick to deliver on promises, so I have been happy to work closely with them on some of my own projects, like the 'eGPU on a Pi' testing.

PiShop.us

Type: Paid sponsorship, travel reimbursement

I worked with PiShop.us on sponsorship for my travel expenses in my 2023 visit to Raspberry Pi's headquarters in the UK. Prior to that (and still to this day) I often link to their product pages for Raspberry Pis and accessories, as they have been a reliable online store for anyone located in the US, and they have a sister site in Canada.

Radxa

Type: Equipment for test/review

Radxa has provided a large number of their SBCs and accessories over the years for testing and review. I have also purchased about an equal number of their devices, as they usually make great hardware that solves my needs perfectly. Sometimes the software and communications are lacking, but I have had a good and long-lasting relationship with Radxa.

Raspberry Pi

Type: Equipment for test/review

I am a member of the alpha testing team for Raspberry Pi, which means I often receive pre-production hardware that still has bugs to be worked out. I provide early feedback and am also part of the beta testing / press group, which means I receive hardware like Pi accessories (usually one, along with a press kit) a week or two prior to a new product launch.

When I traveled to the UK to interview CEO Eben Upton, and tour the Sony factory, I accepted two car rides, one from London to Cambridge (because the train wasn't running that weekend!), and another, round-trip from Cambridge to Wales, to visit the Sony factory (because Pi employees were also going, and they offered for me to ride with them). I covered the rest of the travel expenses for that trip, excluding one meal with the Sony factory team, and one lunch with the Pi engineering team.

Raspberry Shake

Type: Equipment for test/review

Raspberry Shake contacted me in 2022, and asked if I was interested in running one of their 'Shake' Pis with a sensitive seismometer. I eagerly accepted, as I loved the idea of citizen science providing a network of sensors to supplement the USGS's own network.

I have been running my Shake node ever since, and though the video I made about it is one of the worst performing in recent memory, it was one of my favorite projects to work on, especially getting to interview a local seismologist at SLU who runs a couple Shakes of his own!

Revolution Pi

Type: Equipment for test/review

Revolution Pi has provided a few of their industrial DIN rail solutions for testing and review.

Seeed Studio

Type: Equipment for test/review

Seeed Studio has provided various products for testing and review, mostly Compute Module 4-based products and boards.

Sipeed

Type: Equipment for test/review

Sipeed have provided a few RISC-V and IP KVM devices for testing and review.

Sharp NEC Display Solutions of America

Type: Equipment for test/review

Sharp NEC (now 'Sharp Commercial') provided a 4K commercial display which integrates a Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4, after I had inquired about their display products. They were great to work with, and answered all my product questions for a video on their 'This is Not a TV' display in a timely manner.

Squarespace

Type: Paid sponsorship, trade

Squarespace provided one free year of hosting for my RedShirtJeff.com merch store, as well as sponsorship for a number of video ad integrations. As of 2025 I am still hosting my merch store with Squarespace, and for ecommerce, their product is a breeze to work with (especially compared to some of the open source solutions I've implemented in the past). It is expensive, but worth it if you don't want or need to build your own site.

Sunfounder

Type: Equipment for test/review

Sunfounder provided a Pironman case for testing and review.

Surfshark

Type: Paid sponsorship

Surfshark has been a long-term sponsor of the channel. Despite people painting VPNs as evil businesses, I only accepted Surfshark's sponsorship after a bit of research—they don't seem to have any shady past history, they don't participate in the egregious scammy behavior some VPNs do, and they have been easy to work with and very accepting of my ideas for their integrations, even including a video about how to use your own Wireguard VPN instead of something like Surfshark!.

I am sometimes a bit critical of their marketing regarding security, or the upsells they promote for bundled services which may or may not be useful to people who need their primary VPN service... but as someone who has tested a few VPN providers on and off for years, I settled on Surfshark—before they started sponsoring me. They have a useful service, and I'm happy to pay for it.

System76

Type: Equipment for test/review

System76 provided a Thelio Astra workstation and Launch keyboard for testing and review. Their engineers also helped with some motherboard and fan controller firmware issues as I was testing their Astra pre-launch, and provided a few additional upgrades for further testing.

ThirdReality

Type: Equipment for test/review

ThirdReality provided a few of their Zigbee IoT devices for testing and review, after seeing that I use their Smart Outlets for my own power measurement. They regularly release new products that integrate with Home Assistant, and often send them to bloggers and YouTubers in the home automation/IoT space for testing (no strings attached).

Timebeat

Type: Equipment for test/review

Timebeat provided a variety of timing-related hardware for the Raspberry Pi Compute Module, and I have worked with their engineers in the past on Pi OS and Linux kernel-level bugs with the PCIe subsystem on the Pi.

They have had a touchy relationship with the OCP-TAP, from which they've derived many of their hardware designs, and I hope they can patch up that relationship, as hardware vendors stand to gain a lot from open source designs, and must contribute back and keep the spirit of the open hardware designs to maintain a healthy ecosystem!

TinyPilot

Type: Equipment for test/review

TinyPilot provided a couple of their IP KVM models for testing and review.

Turing Machines (formerly Turing Pi)

Type: Equipment for test/review, Paid sponsorship

After learning about the Turing Pi CM1/CM3 clusterboard on Hacker News, I reached out and asked if I could test a board. Little did I know that would lead to making a series of videos on Pi clustering with the Turing Pi, and eventually the Turing Pi 2.

I wound up buying an additional Turing Pi and Turing Pi 2 during their kickstarter campaigns, as well as a set of 16 GB Turing RK1 SoMs, but they also sent me many of their hardware revisions for early testing and feedback, and eventual review.

Like many hardware startups, they've had their ups and downs (especially regarding slipping ship dates), but they seem to have fostered a strong community and fixed many of the flaws in their early designs after they were discovered.

Turing Machines also sent over a couple donations to my GitHub Sponsors account over the years, after their successful campaigns. I did not ask for these, and honestly in the end I'm not sure how to handle this situation when it happens, other than to ask vendors to not donate money to me, as it creates a strange incentive and potential for scandal, as I don't take money in exchange for product testing/reviews, even after the fact!

UCTRONICS

Type: Equipment for test/review

UCTRONICS sent me their Pi Rack Pro for a review, and after modifying it to have better cooling, I have been running it in my rack for a couple years. It will soon be replaced with a more open air solution, though, as the lack of ventilation in my early 'revision 1' model proved to be a bit annoying.

Uptime Lab

Type: Equipment for test/review

Uptime Lab sent over multiple revisions of the Compute Blade over the years, from very early development, all the way through Kickstarter production. I have provided a lot of feedback and communicated directly with Merocle, the founder and board designer.

I also ordered a 10-pack of Compute Blades during their Kickstarter campaign, along with the 10" mini rack enclosure and fan modules, but have yet to receive them as of 2025.

Like many Kickstarter projects, the difference between small scale beta module production and large-scale shipping to thousands of backers has caused a lot of delays, and in turn, justified anger at the long delays in shipping.

My work with Uptime Lab's Compute Blade (which I'm still excited to recieve... someday) has given me a little more pause when I talk about anything using crowd funding. If I talk about any crowdfunded projects now, I lead with multiple warnings that you might not even get the thing, ever!

I have backed a number of projects which never went to production, and I know that's part of the gamble with hardware startups! But some people don't, and they feel betrayed if they are led to believe they're 'buying' something by backing it. I try to do as much as I can to dispell that myth, but it's an ongoing problem in the hardware space.

Waveshare

Type: Equipment for test/review

Waveshare regularly sends new products for feedback. I generally don't review them or feature them on my channel, but every once in a while, one appears in a project I'm working on.

I purchase a ton from Waveshare, too. They have a ton of useful electronics, displays, HATs, adapters, and accessories for the type of projects I work on.

Werewolf

Type: Equipment for test/review

Werewolf sent a couple kits of their VFLEX USB-C power accessories for testing and review. I have used them in a couple of my smaller projects, and featured them in a brief video on Level 2 Jeff.