We are building autonomous heavy construction machinery based on almost a decade of research from ETH Zurich. Automating an industry that has seen little disruption in the last 50 years and suffers a labour shortage is the perfect opportunity.
Ask HN: Any hardware startups here?
581–590 of 726 posts
Re: Ask HN: Any hardware startups here?
#582We are building the world's highest temperature heat pump. It can reach 1000℉, when other commercial heat pumps usually reach a maximum of 320 ℉. It is a big deal because factories have to rely on polluting natural gas to produce their process heat. We estimate that it represents 3% of the world’s annual CO2 emissions and a $10B+ annual market opportunity. We are currently building a 5kW prototype at 480℉/250C to coo…
What is the COP of a heat pump operating against this temperature gradient?
the maximum is given by the carnot cycle, which has COP=T_high/(T_high-T_cold) so from room temp 25°C to 250°C it is 2.3, but this is the theoretical limit
Re: Ask HN: Any hardware startups here?
#583Earlier quoted context omitted.
The price is insane man. The best of the best car seat according to lots of reviews(Cybex Anoris-T) is "only" £599, your thing is significantly more and I don't see why it's any better. Edit: sorry, let me rephrase that - not insane, just hard to justify.
Thanks, though, for taking a look! I used to know some of the Cybex people (it was a European company), and they congratulated us on beating their best safety scores at the time. Now Cybex is owned by an Asian conglomerate (Goodbaby). The Kioma difference in materials quality and performance is both quantifiable and qualitative. We have to charge a price that covers our work in design and production costs. But I comp…
Is there a standard safety test for this stuff? When I did some research a couple of years ago (my daughter is 1.5 years old now) I found some test by an european institution that had the Axkid One+ on top, so I bought that one.
Re: Ask HN: Any hardware startups here?
#584Earlier quoted context omitted.
>>GP's asking a legitimate question about chemical outgassing etc. Parents have concerns like this, and some parents more than others. Obviously, and outgassing happens a lot in any car especially if it's brand new. So I'll ask again - why drive kids in a car at all if this concerns them this much?
I have zero alternative to cars where I live. I do everything possible to minimize my sons exposure to chemicals, which run rampant in our society. Every single purchase I make, I try to be as informed as possible. Does this offend you?
Oh it doesn't offend me, I just find asking if a baby seat contains "exotic glues"(wtf is an exotic glue) silly in the context of transporting kids in a car.
Re: Ask HN: Any hardware startups here?
#585Earlier quoted context omitted.
>>Genuinely confused what stance you're taking here That a car is going to expose your child to an order of magnitude more "chemicals" than a baby seat ever could - it's like asking how much sugar is in your coleslaw that you're having on the side of a large five guys milkshake. Probably some, but if you're concerned about sugar you have much bigger things to worry about.
if you are having a large milkshake, I would advise against adding more sugar to your meal. I'm not wrong, I'm giving healthy advice. To follow my advice, you simply need to ask if there is sugar in the other things you order, it's a simple, meaningful question.
Sure. I think you're still missing my point , but you are of course technically correct.
Re: Ask HN: Any hardware startups here?
#586We make a camera system for construction sites. Using computer vision, we can identify when and for how long subcontractors show up as well as notify our customers of unwanted behavior on site. https://bedrockwireless.com/ Fun fact, we probably have the best port-o-potty detector in the world.
I'm wondering what the benefit is here. Pretty much every job site has a pole with security cameras installed already. What does this do that wouldn't be done with building an integration for your analytics for the major VMS out there?
Re: Ask HN: Any hardware startups here?
#587Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why only lap belt? Isofix is so easy.
You get both: isofix/latch as well as lap-belt. Each car seat is sold with an accompanying Latch (aka Isofix) base so you can roll with whatever you prefer. However, lap belts are ubiquitous and work really well. Reasons to use a base: 1) Convenience. It is nice and fast to click-in, click out with a car seat. Super fast and easy. 2) Protect the seat cushions of the car. 3) More constraints on pitch rotation. Which c…
Many thanks for the thoughtful reply! Coming from Europe here where it’s been on every car for about 20 years so has become very much the norm.
Belt (1) troubles me slightly in that it’s easy but not necessarily intuitive enough for grandma to get it right every time (and indeed many don’t). The base has the great benefit of being definitively installed correctly (all goes green / stops beeping).
The reported numbers on belt errors are pretty terrible: https://www.besafe.com/child-car-seat-misuse-study/
Re: Ask HN: Any hardware startups here?
#588Earlier quoted context omitted.
What is the COP of a heat pump operating against this temperature gradient?
the maximum is given by the carnot cycle, which has COP=T_high/(T_high-T_cold) so from room temp 25°C to 250°C it is 2.3, but this is the theoretical limit
Which is why for some pool heat pumps you get claimed numbers of around 9, with the fine-print that the air temperature has to be higher than the water temperature.
Re: Ask HN: Any hardware startups here?
#589Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thanks, though, for taking a look! I used to know some of the Cybex people (it was a European company), and they congratulated us on beating their best safety scores at the time. Now Cybex is owned by an Asian conglomerate (Goodbaby). The Kioma difference in materials quality and performance is both quantifiable and qualitative. We have to charge a price that covers our work in design and production costs. But I comp…
As a parent - the only way I’d buy this is if I knew I could resell it later and it’d hold its value. What is the “expiration date” on your seat?
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Re: Ask HN: Any hardware startups here?
#590Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is really cool. Can you talk about some interesting challenges/problems you encountered?
We started in 2016 with just an idea, and we probably encountered every problem you can think of ! - hard to raise funds for large deeptech projects (thank you YC and Wefunder for unlocking that one!) - a corrosion issue in 2019 that nearly killed us (we found a way around it after months of brainstorming and completely got rid of corrosion issues) - we had to build our own physics algorithm for very specific problem…
I'm very interested in anything else you can share about the corrosion problem you solved. Wet, hot ammonia must be awful.