Coin Card Teardown

#1

Post by monkeypod » Mon, Jul 20, 2015, 7:06 PM UTC

Re: Coin Card Teardown

#2

Post by mmosta » Mon, Jul 20, 2015, 7:41 PM UTC

Pretty cool.

I'm interested in knowing which component failed? did the second card fail in the same way? or was that remedied in the revision?

Did the display and button still work?

Hopefully the issue was with the coil, flex PCBs and displays are more or less a solved problem, batteries not so much.

With the Nordic 51822 they're lined up well to roll out NFC after the mandated phase out of mag-strip in the US (p.s how are they still a thing?).

It'll be interesting to see if they'll survive if a chip-and-pin foothold overshadows NFC.

Re: Coin Card Teardown

#3

Post by joshstrange » Mon, Jul 20, 2015, 7:43 PM UTC

I had the beta and a final Coin and neither one were reliable enough to to trust. You HAVE to carry backup cards which more or less defeats the purpose. Then there is the slightly embarrassing, extremely annoying "Your card didn't work/Do you have another card this one isn't swiping". I've stopped carrying my coin altogether because if you have the cards you might as well use the real ones (I tried for 7+ months to use coin first).

Re: Coin Card Teardown

#4

Post by stephengillie » Mon, Jul 20, 2015, 7:58 PM UTC

What Coin has managed to do in such a thin package is really impressive. It’s a shame they weren’t able to do it more reliably.

It's a really cool idea. I actually wonder what the technological hurdle was that held them back - mechanical (reliably magnetizing the coils, easy-to-break components due to narrow size), software (programming issues), or QA (reliable SoCs, reliable builds, reliable solders)?

Re: Coin Card Teardown

#5

Post by treycopeland » Mon, Jul 20, 2015, 8:02 PM UTC

I received my Coin about 2 months ago. I was excited to test it out after preordering almost 2 years in advance. The concept of having all my cards on one central card was a great idea. But having it not work at some locations was rather embarrassing and frustrating. I have decided the Coin was a fail and I will not carry it anymore. But, Coin, keep innovating. You tried.

Re: Coin Card Teardown

#6

Post by myth_buster » Mon, Jul 20, 2015, 8:07 PM UTC

I'm curious to know whether given proliferation of the NFC alternatives available now like Apple/Google Pay is there a problem that Coin Card addresses which the former don't. Is paying in the restaurants one of those use case or will we see table side point-of-payments in near future which would make it obsolete.

Re: Coin Card Teardown

#7

Post by lvs » Mon, Jul 20, 2015, 8:08 PM UTC

treycopeland wrote: post #5

I received my Coin about 2 months ago. I was excited to test it out after preordering almost 2 years in advance. The concept of having all my cards on one central card was a great idea. But having it not work at some locations was rather embarrassing and frustrating. I have decided the Coin was a fail and I will not carry it anymore. But, Coin, keep innovating. You tried.

It sounds like just another startup hardware offering with a spotty launch. But I've always been confused about the perceived "embarrassment" of a card not working at the point of a transaction. This seems to be a common marketing trope in payments, but I don't know what it comes from. It's a piece of technology, and tech often doesn't work quite right. Sometimes my phone restarts itself. What's the big deal?

Re: Coin Card Teardown

#8

Post by jdhawk » Mon, Jul 20, 2015, 8:10 PM UTC

joshstrange wrote: post #3

I had the beta and a final Coin and neither one were reliable enough to to trust. You HAVE to carry backup cards which more or less defeats the purpose. Then there is the slightly embarrassing, extremely annoying "Your card didn't work/Do you have another card this one isn't swiping". I've stopped carrying my coin altogether because if you have the cards you might as well use the real ones (I tried for 7+ months to u…

Ditto - great idea - just never works reliably

Re: Coin Card Teardown

#9

Post by tdicola » Mon, Jul 20, 2015, 8:12 PM UTC

> It doesn’t look like there are many other products using the 51822

Actually the nRF51822 is starting to pop up in a lot of products, especially those that use BLE. The BBC Micro Bit will be built around it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micro_Bit

Re: Coin Card Teardown

#10

Post by j_s » Mon, Jul 20, 2015, 8:12 PM UTC

lvs wrote: post #7

treycopeland wrote: post #5

I received my Coin about 2 months ago. I was excited to test it out after preordering almost 2 years in advance. The concept of having all my cards on one central card was a great idea. But having it not work at some locations was rather embarrassing and frustrating. I have decided the Coin was a fail and I will not carry it anymore. But, Coin, keep innovating. You tried.

It sounds like just another startup hardware offering with a spotty launch. But I've always been confused about the perceived "embarrassment" of a card not working at the point of a transaction. This seems to be a common marketing trope in payments, but I don't know what it comes from. It's a piece of technology, and tech often doesn't work quite right. Sometimes my phone restarts itself. What's the big deal?

Assuming the point was to aggregate the cards, if the one payment option you brought doesn't work...

Personally, I will often leave any alternatives to the one payment method I intend to use locked in my car.