Real question. Did you have any contact with organized crime? Some of the 'territory' of nothing-type technologies like vending are said to be 'owned' by certain groups.
That's strike one from the Bowlero family.
Show HN: I replaced a $120k bowling center system with $1,600 in ESP32s
101–110 of 375 posts
Re: Show HN: I replaced a $120k bowling center system with $1,600 in ESP32s
#102Earlier quoted context omitted.
Mostly to prevent damage and minimize maintenance + cleanup. Dirty shoes can mess with the oiling and rocks lodged in soles can gouge the floor.
Maybe they could issue those disposable over-the-shoe booties they make you wear at home showings
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Re: Show HN: I replaced a $120k bowling center system with $1,600 in ESP32s
#103Have you thought about starting a youtube channel? I would love to hear more about the tech and the business.
Unless you have a stay at home spouse or teenage child who wants a video editing hobby it's usually just a huge time sink.
Re: Show HN: I replaced a $120k bowling center system with $1,600 in ESP32s
#104Did you use any AI to help you build this? If so, thats cool but if not, you are even cooler.
This is the dream. Imagine cutting out the fat with open hardware, experienced devs (assisted with AI) can rapidly learn and build systems and cut the overall cost of keeping a service running.
This translates into savings for customers and could mean the difference between wage stagnated customers being able to enjoy that service or not. It can also mean the difference between a service being able to survive in a lower density area vs closing.
That bloat from a vendor is eventually passed down to the customers. And to be frank, so many vendors do the bare minimum and get worse over time.
I observe when people buy out an old place like an arcade, house or some other venue, rip out all the old to replace with substandard "modern" design that might be modern taste but just of poor quality(real wood, screen printing, high quality professional displays vs particle board, cheap LCDs, etc.). All of that poor quality is some vendors additional padded margin.
So many "reformed" businesses are just some joker's passive income investment portfolio because they have to put all the money they have to use somewhere and they wont spend a single ounce of energy more than they have to. That means buying substandard junk from a vendor at whatever the vendor charges, passing the cost to customers and they have to just take it.
Luckily with this declining K-Shaped economy more people are just deciding not to participate. Maybe that will put some fear into people who operate business like this.
Will this be the very best bowling system ever invented? Maybe not but the cost savings might make it much more valuable because it allows more to enjoy the service.
An average system thats low cost is better than an average system that you got to pay out the nose for. And the openness makes it possible that it could eventually become so much better than any vendor could possibly deliver.
Maybe im totally wrong about this and the existing players in the 'bowling machine' space are stellar...but I have my doubts given what I've seen elsewhere.
Re: Show HN: I replaced a $120k bowling center system with $1,600 in ESP32s
#105Earlier quoted context omitted.
Mostly to prevent damage and minimize maintenance + cleanup. Dirty shoes can mess with the oiling and rocks lodged in soles can gouge the floor.
Maybe they could issue those disposable over-the-shoe booties they make you wear at home showings
Those are no fun to a customer. I’d much rather wear the loaner shoes.
Re: Show HN: I replaced a $120k bowling center system with $1,600 in ESP32s
#106I'm a bowling fan and seeing this makes me happy. If I can help or you put something together for others to contribute, please reach out.
Re: Show HN: I replaced a $120k bowling center system with $1,600 in ESP32s
#107There's a scene where Jack Klugman's character is staying in a hotel in Buffalo and he leans out the window and he looks up and down the street and he says I never knew that one street could support eight bowling alleys
Re: Show HN: I replaced a $120k bowling center system with $1,600 in ESP32s
#108Nice, sounds like a lot of fun. A few years from now one may have 2 businesses, as solving the niche issues is how small business happens. =3
Re: Show HN: I replaced a $120k bowling center system with $1,600 in ESP32s
#109Earlier quoted context omitted.
Never understood the need to wear extremely uncomfortable and ill-fitting shoes just to throw a ball. Always seemed like a way to jack the price up. Sure, professional bowlers use specialised shoes. Professional footballers and professional runners and cyclists and golfers and tennis players and skateboarders and ... do as well. But if you do any one of these activities at a low enough frequency and/or level that you…
It's because the way the sole slides is an integral part of bowling the ball. You can't play "properly" without a proper sliding bowling shoe. I was a little surprised when the local bowling centres stopped bothering to make everyone use the proper shoes. I get what you're saying about playing casually, but when I last went bowling with colleagues, and won comfortably, and others were asking for tips because they jus…
Appreciate the good answer. Out of curiosity, ofder of magnitude how much would a person need to be bowling to get good enough that choice of shoe matters?
Re: Show HN: I replaced a $120k bowling center system with $1,600 in ESP32s
#110Amazing post. I'm a enthusiastic bowler myself and in tech so this scratches both of those itches. These are the types of posts that keep me coming back to HN.
Best of luck and please post some images/videos of the prototypes in action.