the amount of crapping on the author that I'm reading bothers me.
whole lot of manufacturing experts on HN today.
What I learned selling 2,500 MIDI recorders: Hardware is not so hard
251–260 of 276 posts
Re: What I learned selling 2,500 MIDI recorders: Hardware is not so hard
#252Earlier quoted context omitted.
In the EU (and UK with UKCA), CE certification is down to whoever makes the product available on the market. There's no get out for pre-certified modules. If you put a pre-certified module in a box and sell it, you have to be responsible for the CE mark. You need evidence that the whole product complies with the EMC regulations. There's some judgement involved - if you put a certified circuit board in a plastic box,…
No, you actually don't have to do the testing, except in some special circumstances (e.g. childrens' toys). Generally, the "CE" mark is a self-certification done by the manufacturer or importer that certifies that the product meets certain (category-specific) criteria. You can do the proper thing, test your product and then certify it. But it is also possible and usually legal to just issue the certificate based on a…
> except in some special circumstances (e.g. childrens' toys)
Don't nearly all electronics fall under it too, this is the second item after children toys in the link you posted.
> Here is a non-exhaustive list of products that are included in EU laws about CE marking:
> Toys, drones, electrical and electronic equipment, pyrotechnic products, recreational crafts and watercraft
Re: What I learned selling 2,500 MIDI recorders: Hardware is not so hard
#253[flagged]
Re: What I learned selling 2,500 MIDI recorders: Hardware is not so hard
#254Earlier quoted context omitted.
It still boggles my mind than such limits are a problem. Sure, a game with graphics and sound could easily burn past that. But for a “boring” ride hailing app, it’s still beyond my imagination. Microsoft Word was something like 8-10MB in the Windows 3.1 days. WordPerfect was about the same and even had a grammar checker. The entire damn PC with DOS, Windows, and Word was 30MB. We’ve fallen so far, we mistake the dark…
With more RAM, Storage and Compute everyone just got super lazy. We're at the point now that everything is written in some sort of javascript, with a JIT compiler and JS engine...
Even that isn't an excuse, when we compare the computers running Lisp and Smalltalk, versus what we have today.
Folks cared on how to make it all fit into what they had, maybe the RAM prices will help to bring back old practices.
Re: What I learned selling 2,500 MIDI recorders: Hardware is not so hard
#255Hardware has a reputation for being hard for three reasons. First, it scales differently than software. It's far harder to design something you want to make a million of than something you want to make ten of. Second, it's harder to anticipate, test, and correct all the things that can go wrong on the user end. Some people will put batteries the wrong way, some will drop the device on the ground, some will connect it…
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Re: What I learned selling 2,500 MIDI recorders: Hardware is not so hard
#256Hardware has a reputation for being hard for three reasons. First, it scales differently than software. It's far harder to design something you want to make a million of than something you want to make ten of. Second, it's harder to anticipate, test, and correct all the things that can go wrong on the user end. Some people will put batteries the wrong way, some will drop the device on the ground, some will connect it…
> impossible to find because a factory in Indonesia is on fire Has that happened to you?
This [0] was a pretty big deal in the audio electronics industry.
[0] https://www.audioholics.com/news/fire-destroys-akm-audio-chi...
Re: What I learned selling 2,500 MIDI recorders: Hardware is not so hard
#257Inquiring minds want to know: what is your anti-counterfeit strategy or is the fact that you're keeping it under your hat part of the strategy? Also, pretty cool that you set up your website real fast. Would you mind adding your Twitter link onto the site?
With 2500 units sold, no one has moved to counterfeit yet(1). A device this simple will be cloned by AI in an afternoon. There is no imaginable anticounterfeit strategy.
(1)2500*$175=$437,500. Estimated profit is 33-66%, so $150-300k. Nice for a soloprenuer, but limited market, so small target for piracy.
Re: What I learned selling 2,500 MIDI recorders: Hardware is not so hard
#258Hardware has a reputation for being hard for three reasons. First, it scales differently than software. It's far harder to design something you want to make a million of than something you want to make ten of. Second, it's harder to anticipate, test, and correct all the things that can go wrong on the user end. Some people will put batteries the wrong way, some will drop the device on the ground, some will connect it…
[deleted]
Re: What I learned selling 2,500 MIDI recorders: Hardware is not so hard
#259Hardware has a reputation for being hard for three reasons. First, it scales differently than software. It's far harder to design something you want to make a million of than something you want to make ten of. Second, it's harder to anticipate, test, and correct all the things that can go wrong on the user end. Some people will put batteries the wrong way, some will drop the device on the ground, some will connect it…
> Imagine we had that for software - "your JS is too big, you can't ship until you get it under 50 kB".
dont threaten me with a good time :)
Re: What I learned selling 2,500 MIDI recorders: Hardware is not so hard
#260Earlier quoted context omitted.
In the EU (and UK with UKCA), CE certification is down to whoever makes the product available on the market. There's no get out for pre-certified modules. If you put a pre-certified module in a box and sell it, you have to be responsible for the CE mark. You need evidence that the whole product complies with the EMC regulations. There's some judgement involved - if you put a certified circuit board in a plastic box,…
No, you actually don't have to do the testing, except in some special circumstances (e.g. childrens' toys). Generally, the "CE" mark is a self-certification done by the manufacturer or importer that certifies that the product meets certain (category-specific) criteria. You can do the proper thing, test your product and then certify it. But it is also possible and usually legal to just issue the certificate based on a…
I think there's 2 separate things at play.
Most products don't require testing by a notified body. That means anyone can do the testing - or even you could do it at home. The CE mark is self-assessed - you don't have to get a lab to issue it to you.
But electronics does have to conform with various electromagnetic compatibility rules. There's effectively no way to prove that without doing EMC testing. Most non-EU manufacturers will still do EMC testing in a lab, perhaps in China. That test report becomes part of the product's technical file.
My point is that if you take a module from a 3rd party and integrate it into a larger electronic product, it no longer has the same behaviour from an EMC point of view. You have no evidence that it meets the harmonised standards for electromagnetic compatibility. Realistically, probably nobody will ever notice. But if they do, you don't have evidence that your product complies with the standard.