Show HN: I built this notifying device – electronics, code, design, marketing
1–10 of 58 posts
Re: Show HN: I built this notifying device – electronics, code, design, marketing
#2Interesting. Seems similar—complete with slightly creepy base station—to Sen.se: https://sen.se/store/cookie/#mother
(Though it appears Karotz is a separate thing: http://store.karotz.com/en_US/)
There's also Electric Imp, but it's a bit more of a platform/DIY: https://electricimp.com/
Re: Show HN: I built this notifying device – electronics, code, design, marketing
#3That you managed to do everything is impressive, especially given the costs involved in production tooling for plastics. I assume you had to build a large quantity of PCBA's as well, to get your per unit cost down to something you could actually make a profit on, which means that was another large check you had to write for components and assembly.
Can you give a ball park figure for how much you invested, bringing this product from concept to market?
Re: Show HN: I built this notifying device – electronics, code, design, marketing
#4This is pretty cool. Can you describe how you went about designing the slick outer packaging? Did you use an external vendor to design & produce? I am doing a DIY project with my kids and wondering how to get the outer packaging for the arduino board inside. Any pointers appreciated...
Re: Show HN: I built this notifying device – electronics, code, design, marketing
#5The web page gives me pretty much absolutely no idea what this product does, except for the abstract "notify me of things". How does it do it, how do you interface to it, etc?
Re: Show HN: I built this notifying device – electronics, code, design, marketing
#6That you managed to do everything is impressive, especially given the costs involved in production tooling for plastics. I assume you had to build a large quantity of PCBA's as well, to get your per unit cost down to something you could actually make a profit on, which means that was another large check you had to write for components and assembly. Can you give a ball park figure for how much you invested, bringing t…
Thank you. In fact, I haven't yet launch the mass production. I'm running a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo to have at least 400 preorders.
As I have done a lot myself, I didn't had to invest so much. The only part that was done outside is the design of the plastic enclosure. I found a good designer in china, it cost me only 700$ for both Node and Hub with 3D printed prototype.
In total, I think I spent about 1500$. I had to buy an oscilloscope, some componants and others tools...
Re: Show HN: I built this notifying device – electronics, code, design, marketing
#7This is pretty cool. Can you describe how you went about designing the slick outer packaging? Did you use an external vendor to design & produce? I am doing a DIY project with my kids and wondering how to get the outer packaging for the arduino board inside. Any pointers appreciated...
The best way is to found a freelancer in China. I used elance.com
Re: Show HN: I built this notifying device – electronics, code, design, marketing
#8This is cool marketing but it is way expensive than I expected. I am not sure pricing is DIY-friendly but you would certainly find people to buy that.
Re: Show HN: I built this notifying device – electronics, code, design, marketing
#9The web page gives me pretty much absolutely no idea what this product does, except for the abstract "notify me of things". How does it do it, how do you interface to it, etc?
In fact there are more details on the Indiegogo page. Can you take a look and tell me if I have to add some details? (http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/notifon-the-notifying-obje...)
Re: Show HN: I built this notifying device – electronics, code, design, marketing
#10Looks great! Out of curiosity, why go with the hub/node approach using ZigBee for sending such a small amount of data? There are WiFi modules like TI's CC3000 (http://www.ti.com/product/cc3000) available for very low cost that would make separate hub hardware unnecessary. This is the product used in Spark Core (https://www.spark.io/), for example. I imagine there are a few different reasons why you might spring for a hub-based solution despite the higher cost, but just wondering what your thinking is.