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Show HN: Loodio 2 – A Simple Rechargable Bathroom Privacy Device

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Re: Show HN: Loodio 2 – A Simple Rechargable Bathroom Privacy Device

#44

Post by dowager_dan99 »

moritonal wrote: post #5

I got lost investigating the battery claim of a week because this seemed quite low for such minimum specs. But then noticed it has a range of Wifi features? If you're selling a product focused on privacy, isn't it a bit weird that it has WiFi? The whole story around needing to know the time sounds like feature creep. If I wanted a clock in my bathroom it's trivial to hone, and I'd only have to charge it once a year.…

I was really hoping that this toilet-privacy device required an always-on internet connection. I want to broadcast my shits to the entire interwebs

Re: Show HN: Loodio 2 – A Simple Rechargable Bathroom Privacy Device

#46

Post by rendaw »

raphinou wrote: post #31

Having built a similar device, it appears that to give privacy to the person inside the bathroom, it is much better to have the music play outside. With music playing near to the "listener", the sounds coming from inside the room are much better covered. Congrats for the realisation nevertheless!

Psychologically though doesn't it feel more private to have the noise inside the bathroom?

Re: Show HN: Loodio 2 – A Simple Rechargable Bathroom Privacy Device

#48

Post by tonyarkles »

999900000999 wrote: post #34

Feels like a really really weird device. Even when I live with others, we aren't worried about bathroom noise. I guess if you have a habit of talking to yourself while using the bathroom or showering and need to drown it out this is cool. However, I'd love this as a general device. I get home and it auto plays music , etc

> Even when I live with others, we aren't worried about bathroom noise.

I think there's a specific target customer that would love this. I'm in the same camp you are... I couldn't care less. When it's just my wife and I at home it's pretty rare that we close the door even.

In university though I had a roommate who was absolutely paranoid about people hearing her in the bathroom. She would generally run the faucet the whole time she was in there to mask the sounds. Sometimes... I think she'd even run the shower; I don't know this for sure, but I'd hear the shower running in the bathroom for a while and she'd come out looking just as un-showered as she had when she went in.

Re: Show HN: Loodio 2 – A Simple Rechargable Bathroom Privacy Device

#50

Post by tonyarkles »

porterde wrote: post #41

Great idea and congrats on launching v2. Do you have to certify compliance with safety / EMC regulations to sell a product like this? The thought of that always put me off imagining a hardware startup.

Up front: This is not legal advice.

RF/EMC: definitely. It's an intentional radiator (WiFi) and an unintentional radiator (high-frequency CPU). Using pre-certified COTS modules helps with this quite a bit because they'll, hopefully, pass on their own but they do not relieve you of the certification burden.

Safety: from a legal perspective I don't believe safety certification is mandatory because it runs on low voltage. The wall wart would need to be certified. But... from a liability perspective it might still be necessary. If one of these devices were to catch fire and burn someone's house down the company is going to get sued. Maybe sued by the homeowner, maybe sued by the homeowner's insurance company. The counter to that is to have solid product liability insurance and the insurer may have specific safety certification requirements before they'll even issue an insurance contract, and they may have additional safety certification options that would reduce the premiums.

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