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Important Safety Notice from WakeMate

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Important Safety Notice from WakeMate

#41

Post by PStamatiou »

Ein2015 wrote: post #35
callmevlad wrote: post #20

I stopped using mine the day I got it because it emitted a annoying loud whiny noise the second I plugged it in. I immediately thought "cheap Chinese manufacturing" and started using my white iPhone charger instead. Glad I did. What makes this more serious is that the WakeMate seems to be really power hungry and needs almost constant charging - I've noticed that it usually can't go 2 straight nights without a recharg…

I think your battery might be defective. My WakeMate loses about 19-20% battery life each night. I was using the original black charger... looks like I'll be using the real brick from Apple now.

I was using the original charger as well and I get about 2 nights of sleep on it.

Re: Important Safety Notice from WakeMate

#43

Post by furyg3 »

cookiecaper wrote: post #26
tlrobinson wrote: post #3

Man these guys can't catch a break. I really want to love WakeMate but they're making it hard.

This is the first issue I've read about. What else happened?

They also had this little fiasco: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2029052

Re: Important Safety Notice from WakeMate

#44

Post by StudyAnimal »

PStamatiou wrote: post #40
jackowayed wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

USB power is standardized, so anything that plugs into the wall and has a USB port on the back should work fine. I regularly charge my phone with my Kindle charger and vice versa (and they even both use microUSB, so I can use the same wire too).

Though some USB chargers output more than the standard 5V @ 500mA, up to 1500mA in my experience.

Amps is more like a maximum that they can supply kind of thing, not a how much they force out type of thing.

Re: Important Safety Notice from WakeMate

#45

Post by jrockway »

rdl wrote: post #30
cookiecaper wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the first issue I've read about. What else happened?

The 14 month shipping delay, delivered in 1-2 week bites: "we'll be ready next week, for real this time!". So, lots of little things which added up to one big thing.

Are you bitter that a technology project was delayed, or that they had your money the whole time?

This is why I don't preorder. Even though I thought the WakeMate was interesting, I didn't have anything personally invested, and could just enjoy the story instead. My advice is to not give random people your money in exchange for promises unless you want to grow to hate them.

Re: Important Safety Notice from WakeMate

#46

Post by jrockway »

Dear electronics companies. I am willing to pay more money if you build your products in the US / Europe / Japan and actually do QA.

(Actually, I have nothing against making stuff in China. But it seems that people outsource to China only to save money, and you get what you pay for. In this case, your house nearly burning down because someone wanted to save a fraction of a penny on capacitors, or something.)

Example: I have a Soekris router instead of a random Netgear or Linksys. It cost $300 instead of $25 that a WRT-54G would cost, and it doesn't even have wireless. But, it actually works. The VPN works. The firewall works. It doesn't drop packets. It doesn't overheat. It doesn't burn down my house. Is this worth a 12x price premium? Yes.

Re: Important Safety Notice from WakeMate

#47

Post by davidk0101 »

bugsy wrote: post #6
noonespecial wrote: post #4

It's likely that the chargers that were tested and the chargers that actually ended up shipping are quite different inside. This seems to be a constant battle when going the Chinese route. You have to cut open a few from every shipment and check to see if inferior components have been subbed in since last time.

At a place I worked a few years ago we had to individually retest every single unit of our products. This involved opening up packaging and repacking and reshrinkwrapping afterwards. In between unpacking and repacking there was testing and finding about 1/3 of them always had problems. Some boards could be fixed by diagnosing to the component level, replacing components and even resoldering incorrectly wired interboa…

So you were basically saving $180 in exchange for a more polluted planet. Great exchange if I ever saw one.

Re: Important Safety Notice from WakeMate

#48

Post by gommm »

tlrobinson wrote: post #3

Man these guys can't catch a break. I really want to love WakeMate but they're making it hard.

Well doing a hardware startup is hard and they've had a string of bad luck but at least, in this particular case, they are responsive about it and immediately started a recall instead of trying to hide the issues under the rug...

Re: Important Safety Notice from WakeMate

#49

Post by maayank »

davidk0101 wrote: post #47
bugsy wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At a place I worked a few years ago we had to individually retest every single unit of our products. This involved opening up packaging and repacking and reshrinkwrapping afterwards. In between unpacking and repacking there was testing and finding about 1/3 of them always had problems. Some boards could be fixed by diagnosing to the component level, replacing components and even resoldering incorrectly wired interboa…

So you were basically saving $180 in exchange for a more polluted planet. Great exchange if I ever saw one.

Realisticlly, if you don't do it then a competitor will and not only will he pollute the planet, but drive you out of business with his cheaper units.

Re: Important Safety Notice from WakeMate

#50

Post by kljensen »

tlrobinson wrote: post #9
donniefitz2 wrote: post #5

Man, this is big. What a bummer for Wakemate. I admire your honesty though. Thanks for not keeping quiet.

Thanks for not keeping quiet. If they kept quiet and someone were injured or killed due to a known defective product wouldn't they be open to lawsuits?

They're open to lawsuits is any case -- such in the nature of selling products in the US. They likely have product liability insurance.
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