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Show HN: I replaced a $120k bowling center system with $1,600 in ESP32s

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261–270 of 375 posts

Re: Show HN: I replaced a $120k bowling center system with $1,600 in ESP32s

#261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah. Anyone who hated writing code but had to, like biologists and chemists, now don't have to.

This is arguably a dangerous fallacy, particularly for anything critical. When the person doesn't know programming, it becomes harder to guide agents and do reviews, leading to overlooking issues and accepting mistakes. This gets amplified for any creative solutions or fixing future problems, where it is something the LLM was not trained on or has limited data about the subject. Plus add how much money spent on token…

Better still, the llms are easier to get on with than real developers. You explain to a real developer what you want, after a few weeks you find every word you said has been understood in the frankly weirdest way possible and every grey area, instead of asking, has gone way off piste.

The same goes for the LLM, but it replies in minutes and costs next to nothing, so you can correct it quickly, and you don't even have to be politely patient with it to avoid hurting its feelings

Re: Show HN: I replaced a $120k bowling center system with $1,600 in ESP32s

#262

One thing I've always wanted at a bowling alley is an instant slow-motion video replay of the pins being knocked down. Seems easy to do in theory, a Raspberry Pi + compatible camera could do this very easily, so long as you could mount it in a good locaiton. The only alley integration needed would be to tie into whatever sensor detects when the ball reaches the end of the lane. * Mount a 60 fps camera pointed at the…

Probably better to enable it only for strikes/spares as it would drain too much time, but the idea is great.

Re: Show HN: I replaced a $120k bowling center system with $1,600 in ESP32s

#263

Thank you for posting this, it reaffirms what I've been thinking for so long. There are many opportunities to retrofit old systems of all types with modern low-cost embedded technologies. Around 2019 or so I was approached by an engineer who had a small business retrofitting very old machine tools with modern motion controls. Think very large lathes and planers. The problem they had was that in order to get these sys…

> Thank you for posting this, it reaffirms what I've been thinking for so long. There are many opportunities to retrofit old systems of all types with modern low-cost embedded technologies.

At my shooting range, where security is very important, we're replacing the old antiquated "fire stop" (when everybody on "shared" lanes has to stop shooting for there's at least one person going to change the targets) system with a modern system of electro-magnets and embedded devices. Mechanical safeguards where, by default, the 10 lanes (there two times 10 lanes, the 50 meters ones and the 100 meters ones) have to stop shooting and then an embedded system with a little controller for each lane that needs to be working to give the greenlight / "fire frei" ("free to shoot").

We mostly decided on the switch after a failure of the old system: the "free to shoot" system has recently been given even though there was still one person outside, changing the targets (nothing bad happened but this is a serious incident).

We asked for quotes for a system that is always "door locked" / red light / "fire stop", unless everything works fine and every lane gives the greenlight (each shooter has now one badge).

Same thing as in TFA: cost in hardware is minimal compared to the quoted prices. Like basically 1/50th of the quoted price.

Re: Show HN: I replaced a $120k bowling center system with $1,600 in ESP32s

#264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They didn't offer any of the €15k a year to you, did they?

They hadn’t been paying since 2008, hence it was all derelict trash - they don’t even have the budget to maintain the roads or keep the school open, never mind monitor river levels. My interest was not drowning, rather than pecuniary.

so what are they doing?

Re: Show HN: I replaced a $120k bowling center system with $1,600 in ESP32s

#265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah. Anyone who hated writing code but had to, like biologists and chemists, now don't have to.

This is arguably a dangerous fallacy, particularly for anything critical. When the person doesn't know programming, it becomes harder to guide agents and do reviews, leading to overlooking issues and accepting mistakes. This gets amplified for any creative solutions or fixing future problems, where it is something the LLM was not trained on or has limited data about the subject. Plus add how much money spent on token…

I'd argue we're there anyway with all kinds of non-programmers using languages like Python to achieve their goals.

On one hand, it results in some absolutely horrendous code that takes 100x longer to run than necessary, because it lacks the most basic principles of engineering. On the other hand....it works and does what is asked of it.

Re: Show HN: I replaced a $120k bowling center system with $1,600 in ESP32s

#267
post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's just lack of competitive pressure. I bet if you investigate you will find there are only a couple of suppliers that have the bowling alley market sewn up between them.

Work out how many bowling alleys there are and how many of them are in the market for an upgrade or a fresh install, trying to get to be the king of that hill is a lot of work and risk for not really life changing rewards compared with what a self-avowed SRE could make just pulling paychecks

Well, the reality of those types of businesses is that once set they do become a relatively low maintenance (and for some, very low 'urgent' maintenance) passive income.

It's really easy to pull $300k/y as an SRE (but that does amount to about $100/hr equivalent in SMB, assuming realistic >40h workweeks and the tax advantages in SMB, even less if you have to pay for services you enjoy and can't find time for due to FTE - nannies or even changing your own oil).

It is extremely hard to keep that $100/hr and a sliding scale - one week you work 50h, the other 30h, then you take a month or three off at $5h/week.

Mine (and I don't regret these) is running midsize PV plants. Slightly bigger than residential (hey, does OP want solar PV on the rooftop? I have a bowling alley as a client, they are a great match), but again not large enough to attract a scaled business.

I approximately put in 5h on each a year after the initial setup (around 100hr each), for $10k/y in profit from each.

Re: Show HN: I replaced a $120k bowling center system with $1,600 in ESP32s

#268

I know this is rationally a good thing to do, but I can't help but be sad imagining this bowling equipment company being run out of business because someone wanted to do their jobs but for free. It's kind of absurd from their pov. Like imagine you own a cafe you've worked hard to grow into a successful business, and then next door some guy opens a cafe with infinite free coffee just because he is a generous guy.

Yes but the alley was closed. They couldn't pay the company anyway. The big providers will still pay the company, because they want support.

Re: Show HN: I replaced a $120k bowling center system with $1,600 in ESP32s

#269

I am compelled to ask: Can this equipment take someone’s arm off? Do you have insurance for that? Does you insurance know you wrote this yourself?

Yes it can take an arm off. But that is not the bit that is being controlled by him. The machine starts with a single relay...he fires the relay and keeps score

Re: Show HN: I replaced a $120k bowling center system with $1,600 in ESP32s

#270

Thank you for posting this, it reaffirms what I've been thinking for so long. There are many opportunities to retrofit old systems of all types with modern low-cost embedded technologies. Around 2019 or so I was approached by an engineer who had a small business retrofitting very old machine tools with modern motion controls. Think very large lathes and planers. The problem they had was that in order to get these sys…

Yup. I live on a river. We flooded catastrophically in 2019, which made me suddenly care about the government’s network of river level meters. Turns out, they abandoned most of them in 2008, as it was the local council who were meant to maintain them, but they couldn’t afford it - a chat with the president revealed they’d been paying €15k a year for each station to maintain it and they’d cost about €100k each. I went…

Where are you located? Around 2020 I put together a landslide risk monitoring site that's entirely based on stream gauges:

https://khmpsitka.org

It's an interesting approach that's way simpler than relying on soil moisture sensors placed high up on mountainsides. It's not as widely applicable as measuring soil moisture directly, but it's been running steadily for over 5 years now.

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