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

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

#151

Post by Qwertious »

freeone3000 wrote: post #119
konschubert wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I totally see your point of view regarding the price. What price would you say is right? > I’m either on the move, or in front of a computer, so I don’t see if there’s a good fit for this device in my life It's possible that the device isn't for you then, I agree.

Boox Poke3 is a 6" e-ink display that runs Android 10, as a general-purpose computing device, and is available for 160 EUR. Since you're selling a significantly less usable device (it only does one thing), I wouldn't want to pay more than 80 EUR for this. It's cute, but... when the price of the product is dominated by the screen, it's hard to sell a single-use device.

>when the price of the product is dominated by the screen, it's hard to sell a single-use device.

IMO if it doesn't have more than one UI menu, the UI ought to be built into the hardware - because AIUI e-ink screen costs scale geometrically with size. In other words, if you can e.g. break the five/seven days of the week into five/seven separate e-ink screens of the same surface area (not counting bezels), they'll be cheaper than a single e-ink screen of the same surface area.

As a bonus, giving each day its own screen means you can put a nice clean margin between them that's not made of expensive e-ink despite being left empty the entire time.

IMO that's the only way the price would drop to less than half the price of an e-reader of the same size.

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

#152

Post by konschubert »

gtyras2mrs wrote: post #150
konschubert wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That concept you're linking is what inspired me :) > It would be replacing a paper calendar that shows 3 months ahead. A nice feature would be to be able to move between views of today, this week, 3 months. I agree. > Much bigger would be nice too. Totally.

What's the planned size of the display? To me, a physical calendar is useful to get an idea of the schedule at a glance - but this seems like it will be too small to get a clear idea at a glance. I'm guessing 6"-7" ? TBH 13-15" would be ideal to hang up on the wall (with a better contrast ratio as well) - but I'm guessing that would be way too expensive?

It's a bit above 7 inches. It's enough to get a feel actually for the week and not miss anything important on the next day - that's what I'm using it for personally.

You're right in guessing that anything bigger is very expensive - let's hope the cost comes down!

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

#153

Post by Qwertious »

robinsoh wrote: post #113
dogma1138 wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.google.com/search?q=why+is+e+ink+so+expensive

Sigh... I work in the display industry and interact with competitors as well as partners of EInk. The first link is a reddit post. I leave it to others to work out why a lot of these comments blaming patents are completely wrong. I've tried to counteract these mistaken assumptions repeatedly on HN. See my comment history. But after this kind of low quality approach to factual discussion (eg: I ask for a citation and…

Hi,

For quite a while I've been specifically looking for a reliable source on the "e-ink prices are caused by patents" (or alternative explanation) to bookmark, but haven't been able to find one.

Please educate me. Preferably with sources I can cite. The best I have right now is a freaking reddit comment.

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

#154

Post by Aeolun »

cweagans wrote: post #77
konschubert wrote: post #55

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…

To me the value is in seeing the entire week. I already have my outlook notifications for things happening on the current day.

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

#155

Post by Aeolun »

konschubert wrote: post #46
iamleppert wrote: post #18

The wood bezel is kind of ugly & cheap looking. The audience for this is likely to be tech people and users who want to show off their calendar or manage their time with calendar invites. I think this could do well with a more contemporary frame. You could market it to people as a solution to forgetting meetings; the price would have to be low enough (sub $100) to trigger people’s impulse buying. The lower the price…

I actually like the wood as material per se, but I still want to improve a bit on the processing. I'd love to lower the price, too. I don't know yet if it's possible.

I think the price point is about right for those tech bro’s that want to buy this to show off. I don’t think you should try to compete with consumer grade stuff.

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

#156

Post by kweks »

AussieWog93 wrote: post #71
konschubert wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Just in case anyone is considering taking the above as advice..

Everything is entirely correct. Focus on a great product. However, avoiding certification 'because noone cares' - is incorrect. People don't care until something goes wrong.

Correct, you can skirt standards and certifications, or buy CE ratings from less-than-reputable firms - but if something goes wrong - and you're unable to produce appropriate certifications - you open yourself to a world of risk.

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

#157

Post by jsilence »

encom wrote: post #76

Reading the website, it seems this product is tied to Google. Instead of using a proprietary cloud service, you should work with CalDAV instead and make it accessible to everyone.

Strongly support this suggestion!

Integrated CalDAV or at least subscribing to .ics calendars, since device would not allow for inputing new events.

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

#159

Post by okl »

dogma1138 wrote: post #133
robinsoh wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sigh... I work in the display industry and interact with competitors as well as partners of EInk. The first link is a reddit post. I leave it to others to work out why a lot of these comments blaming patents are completely wrong. I've tried to counteract these mistaken assumptions repeatedly on HN. See my comment history. But after this kind of low quality approach to factual discussion (eg: I ask for a citation and…

“Citation please” is the mother of “low quality approach to factual discussion” if you have a different opinion or have facts to present please do so. Asking for a citation to what you say is a misconception is somewhat pointless don’t you think since if this misconception is so prevalent all the citations would be misconceptions as well...

The burden of proof is on the one who makes the claim. You made the claim, you have to provide proof. That is what "Citation please" says.

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

#160

Post by dabch »

This is quite blatant a copy of my project from a few years back: https://github.com/dabch/epaper-calendar

Considering that you even starred my GitHub repository and that even the frame looks pretty exactly like the one I built (but with nicer quality), this really seems to be heavily inspired by my build from early 2019.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm happy that people like to build on my stuff. You could even re-use the code (MIT license). Making this thing ready to sell is probably a lot of work. I never had any intention to do that.

But still, don't sell this as your idea. And remember, MIT license allows you to re-use the code, but it requires to re-state the license text, including the name of the original author.

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