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Feedback Welcome: I am developing an e-paper calendar as a consumer product

invisible-computers.com

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Re: Feedback Welcome: I am developing an e-paper calendar as a consumer product

#71
post #17

Others will comment on the product itself, and because it looks like you're trying to feel out the market, my questions are: Do you have experience developing, certifying and shipping consumer hardware? In what countries do you want to sell it? Who builds the hardware? How big is your first run?

Hehe, those are really important questions you're asking. I'm looking at the EU and the US market. I know I need to get CE and RoHS and a bunch of other certificates. I know this won't be easy. If you know somebody who has experience with that, ideally in a boutique/startup environment, I'd love to hear the advice they have to give.

I run a small business selling a piece of open source hardware I designed a few years back (total sales around 10,000 units do far).

I haven't got a single certificate - FCC, CE, RoHS or otherwise. Your customers don't give a fuck, the governments don't give a fuck, and neither should you.

That goes for all forms of official certification. Unless some bureaucrat actively gets in your face and demands you do paperwork (EU VAT registration for FBA sellers is a good example), focus on good logistics and a solid product.

Re: Feedback Welcome: I am developing an e-paper calendar as a consumer product

#74
maybe a vertical version with a support that you can have on the desk like a picture frame, with a less wide wood frame, maybe the display can alternate showing the calendar for a few minutes and your favourite newspaper frontpage or something else for a few minutes

Re: Feedback Welcome: I am developing an e-paper calendar as a consumer product

#77

IMO, the bezel is way way way too big for how much screen space there is. Instead of red oak, I'd suggest looking at walnut or cherry -- something with more color and a little less texture might help the screen to take focus. You could also look at separating the screen from the bezel with some kind of mat board or something (another commenter linked to an instructable that did this). I'm also not super clear on the…

The wood is actually beech, though this particular batch I got for the prototypes had a surprising amount of texture. I am planning to use lighter colors in future. Regarding your second point: I'd love to support a multitude of layout options some day.

Huh. Alright then. Either way, I'd recommend leaning toward a less textured, richer/darker color and species of wood. If you go lighter, it's going to look a little washed out IMO.

Also, in your quality control for the wood bits, make sure that those mitered corners all line up evenly across the entire joint (examples of what I'm talking about highlighted here: https://monosnap.com/file/MkTzAjJhx7v7DkL5kOKypQNFKVyrNU). People who have purchased any kind of fine woodworking will see this and see something somewhat poorly made, even if the actual electronic hardware and software parts of the product are rock solid. The presence of those gaps means that one or more of the following things are true: 1) the miters weren't cut at a perfect 45, 2) the wood wasn't dried long enough, 3) the pieces were cut too short, 4) the wood was moved from a high humidity environment to a low humidity one (causing it to dry out and shrink slightly). 1 and 3 can be solved by closer inspection/better processes for the people/machines cutting the wood. 2 and 4 are harder to remedy if it's possible at all. I'd guess it would mean a new supplier + factory doing the wood bits.

Not necessarily saying that layout options would be _necessary_. Just pointing out that something more focused on showing immediately relevant information (i.e. scoped to _today_, rather than this entire week) might help to more clearly define the value of the product to a prospective buyer.

Re: Feedback Welcome: I am developing an e-paper calendar as a consumer product

#78
Good luck.

My two cents: I suggest making the software work first, on existing tablet(s).

Then once you have a product people actually want/use you can add the cost and complexity of building, inventorying, and shipping a physical product. Also, far more people would use your software than buy a physical version and you would have an audience of all the people using your software to convert into physical product customers as an upgrade.

Again, good luck!

Re: Feedback Welcome: I am developing an e-paper calendar as a consumer product

#79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The wood is actually beech, though this particular batch I got for the prototypes had a surprising amount of texture. I am planning to use lighter colors in future. Regarding your second point: I'd love to support a multitude of layout options some day.

Huh. Alright then. Either way, I'd recommend leaning toward a less textured, richer/darker color and species of wood. If you go lighter, it's going to look a little washed out IMO. Also, in your quality control for the wood bits, make sure that those mitered corners all line up evenly across the entire joint (examples of what I'm talking about highlighted here: https://monosnap.com/file/MkTzAjJhx7v7DkL5kOKypQNFKVyrNU…

Thank for the tips on the woodwork. I am not sure if a darker color would make the screen look brighter or darker.

I had noticed those gaps in the frame as well. I agree they look poorly made :)

I think they are mostly from the fact that this was cut with a hand saw, and the cut wasn't even throughout the Z axis. I am hoping that I will be able to fix this as I go from a prototyping process to a more refined production process.

Another commentator brought up CNC milling the wood - what do you think of that idea?

Re: Feedback Welcome: I am developing an e-paper calendar as a consumer product

#80

This is a prime product for a Kickstarter or gofundme campaign, both for seed capital and to get early feedback. Seriously, massive lost opportunity otherwise

I've considered it. To me Kickstarter is a double-edged sword and I'd rather only take money from customers once I can actually deliver ... let's me sleep more easy.

But maybe I should re-consider, yea..

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