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Lessons learned shipping 500 units of my first hardware product

simonberens.com

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Re: Lessons learned shipping 500 units of my first hardware product

#311

Post by Arn_Thor »

4gotunameagain wrote: post #300
theodric wrote: post #259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have observed the same across a bunch of linguistically Germanic countries (DE, AT, CH, NL, DK, NO, haven't been to SE, didn't observe it in IS), and I thought of it as "cultural autism." Apparently "higher context" is the politically correct way to say it. Now I know!

Danish and Norwegian are not linguistically Germanic. If anything, German has more old Norse influences. And dutch.. Well, dutch is the illegitimate child of england and germany.

>Danish and Norwegian are not linguistically Germanic

Where do you get that notion? My education (and some googling to refresh my memory) has Norwegian, Swedish and Danish classed as "North Germanic" according to comparative linguistics. That is one subset of the West Germanic languages which most of northern Europe speaks.

Re: Lessons learned shipping 500 units of my first hardware product

#312

Post by simgt »

tokyobreakfast wrote: post #234

For all the complaining about tariffs and all the woes of manufacturing in China, much of this could have been avoided by manufacturing in the US. Or even Canada or Mexico. There is literally nothing here that requires Chinese supply chain magic, it's just penny shaving. This isn't Apple where you need 80 million bespoke screws manufactured for your device overnight, which can only be done by slave labor supply chain…

> anyone willing to pay $1200 for a god damn floor lamp would surely pay $1500

Maybe even more would be willing to pay if it had a Made in USA stamp.

Re: Lessons learned shipping 500 units of my first hardware product

#313

Post by mattmaroon »

jasonkester wrote: post #226
ggm wrote: post #132

This is the second article about hardware supply from China I've read and it reads very much the same, albiet in a different niche (the other one was about SBC construction) -Anything you don't specify will be done least cost, and there is no amount of "least" which cannot be chased in manufacture. The other one noted if you don't specify the density of plastic for bags, or paper for bags and packing, you get clingfi…

That's the thing that drives me nuts about buying stuff manufactured in China. They'll make this amazing Remote Control Car, with good suspension, a battery that lasts half an hour, plenty of power, and just all around amazing. But then it'll break after a day because somebody saved 1/20th of a penny by speccing this impossibly thin wire the thickness of a human hair to hook that powerful battery to the powerful moto…

It makes a lot of sense if you agreed on a price per unit before everything was locked in. If their profit is a flat price minus expenses, lower expenses is more profit.

I ordered cups and did specify the thickness (based on a reference) of the plastic but didn’t specify how thick the boxes they shipped in should be. Guess what happened!

Re: Lessons learned shipping 500 units of my first hardware product

#314

Post by codyZ »

I have no productive words to share other than positive feelings and kind empathy to you @sberens. I've gone through this manufacturing route in China before about 10 years ago and...it has largely been the same. Even with near native fluency in Mandarin and Cantonese did not spare me from this experience. Good luck and I looking forward to purchasing one on your next run - its been on my radar for a very long time!

Re: Lessons learned shipping 500 units of my first hardware product

#316

Post by 4gotunameagain »

Arn_Thor wrote: post #311
4gotunameagain wrote: post #300

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Danish and Norwegian are not linguistically Germanic. If anything, German has more old Norse influences. And dutch.. Well, dutch is the illegitimate child of england and germany.

>Danish and Norwegian are not linguistically Germanic Where do you get that notion? My education (and some googling to refresh my memory) has Norwegian, Swedish and Danish classed as "North Germanic" according to comparative linguistics. That is one subset of the West Germanic languages which most of northern Europe speaks.

You are right, west germanic is what I had in mind. In my mind north germanic never made sense, but I guess I will leave that to the experts :)

Re: Lessons learned shipping 500 units of my first hardware product

#317

Post by bluGill »

4gotunameagain wrote: post #298
n4r9 wrote: post #284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who's visited both countries a few times, Germany is more of a drinking culture. Wikipedia agrees: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_alcohol_c...

As someone who has lived in both countries, the Danes drink much more in a social setting. Maybe the overall consumption is higher in Germany, but in Denmark everyone is out drinking much more than in Germany.

In Germany people drink less - but those who drink really drink a lot. Averages don't tell the story.

Re: Lessons learned shipping 500 units of my first hardware product

#318

Post by [deleted] »

4gotunameagain wrote: post #300
theodric wrote: post #259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have observed the same across a bunch of linguistically Germanic countries (DE, AT, CH, NL, DK, NO, haven't been to SE, didn't observe it in IS), and I thought of it as "cultural autism." Apparently "higher context" is the politically correct way to say it. Now I know!

Danish and Norwegian are not linguistically Germanic. If anything, German has more old Norse influences. And dutch.. Well, dutch is the illegitimate child of england and germany.

[deleted]

Re: Lessons learned shipping 500 units of my first hardware product

#319

Post by antonok »

SPICLK2 wrote: post #254
404mm wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$1200 is a lot, and it would be a straight dealbreaker to me as well. But I also noticed it draws 580W, which is a lot too. Besides not wanting to waste the money, I doubt the lamp will last 5 years (not 5 years of projected use of XX minutes per day…). 580W converted to heat on a small disk will take its toll.

~100 lumens per watt is rather poor, especially given the cost. It's the same as a standard LED lightbulb, and that includes the miniature AC voltage converter. 150lm/w would make it at least a cut above domestic lightbulbs. 200lm/w would make it a premium product.

fwiw, LEDs with higher CRI will generally be less power efficient, so the premium category has a 3-way tradeoff between brightness, power, and color quality. It's common for high efficiency LED lightbulbs to be much worse at illuminating red objects.

Re: Lessons learned shipping 500 units of my first hardware product

#320

Post by mtlynch »

Congrats on launching your first 500 units!

I had a similar experience. I quit my job as a SWE at Google and built a hardware product on top of the Raspberry Pi.[0]

I don't really have anything helpful to add, but I relate a lot to all of the gotchas you encountered. Shipping a hardware product made me appreciate software so much more, especially SaaS products where you can ship a fix immediately.

With hardware, it's painfully easy to make a mistake and not realize it for 3-6 months. And by that point, you have this whole manufacturing pipeline you have to halt and unwind. And with overseas manufacturing, tariffs, and shipping costs, you can't even unwind some of this stuff, and you just end up with useless material that you paid 5-6 figures for.

We're definitely spoiled in the software world with the relative ease of fixing bugs.

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23927380

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