bar talk - at curious boards we got a new logo!!! + update about all I'm doing

Community Bar Sport
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Hey so I thought that I'd mention that I'm thrilled that we got a new banner over at http://curious.boards.net !!!

(curious boards is my independent forum not dedicated to any specific technology like Arduino only but the intersection of Arduino, Raspberry Pi, niche manufacturing, starting to move into trying to produce stuff, etc!!)

Some people might also be interested in a summary of everything I'm doing :smiley: :smiley:

I got my thoughts down here - but don't worry, I'll summarize!!

  1. At the moment I have to keep doing write-ups on various subjects, sometimes Arduino-related, sometimes embedded computer related (I'm exploring the $5 Omega2 Linux computer with arduino support, that was just announced for example), and different parts of hardware and software. I have a ton of different subjects I have to write about one at a time. On the Arduino side an upcoming one is about concurrency, scheduling, so I appreciate if anyone gives me all the low-down on it in the appropriate thread

  2. I have one active project, it has a heavy mechanical component with gears so I am learning the CAD deisgn stuff for it. I've been offered 3D printing of the gears, but need to design them so I am exploring this. This is summarized in my first link in this comment.

  3. The upcoming stuff I describe briefly in the first link here but it's better to focus on the next step, not long-term projects! :smiley: :smiley: :smiley:

So, I'm doing the forum stuff and trying to build an audience, then working on the mechanical stuff (that we don't have a sub-forum for) and trying to ship my first small arduino project as an indiegogo campaign, then I can move on to exploring a more difficult project, if it turns out to be feasible!

So, that's the update on everything that I'm doing :slight_smile:

I think this kind of update is a good match for the bar talk forum! :smiley: :smiley: :smiley: -
"Jokes, mobs, and all sorts of unrelated topics, shout out loud your love, and curse for that burnt battery-pack "

we will see if my plans to actually eventually build and ship something have any grounding in possible reality :smiley: Thanks for everyone's help along this journey!!!

This is a fantastic community, and a big thanks to everyone!

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trying to ship my first small arduino project as an indiegogo campaign

How has/is Indigogo worked out?

plans to actually eventually build and ship something have any grounding in possible reality

It seems pretty difficult, I was/am thinking of a small boards like the Teensy. I see Paul sells them for around $20 and I have no idea what his markup is but even at 100% that's only $10 per board. If I could do similar I'd only get $1000 for selling 100 boards, they would be made and loaded in China or wherever but is it worth testing a 100 boards (say 110 really to allow for failures) for a measly $grand?

Maybe, maybe not, depends on what your time is worth I suppose.

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Graynomad:
How has/is Indigogo worked out?
It seems pretty difficult, I was/am thinking of a small boards like the Teensy. I see Paul sells them for around $20 and I have no idea what his markup is but even at 100% that's only $10 per board. If I could do similar I'd only get $1000 for selling 100 boards, they would be made and loaded in China or wherever but is it worth testing a 100 boards (say 110 really to allow for failures) for a measly $grand?

Maybe, maybe not, depends on what your time is worth I suppose.

So it's different, I'd like to collect a thousand small, niche manufacturers and have them order about a thousand boards each, i.e. if they don't really have enough of a budget to talk with Broadcom and the like and just have a tiny amount of budget to get parts to ship in products. (So, like in a similar situation as me.)

If you only are placing a $5,000 order Broadcom wouldn't even talk to you, let alone sell you an ARM chip that can power a Linux embedded device that costs $5 + $1.50 or + $2.50 let alone that complete, small, cheap board. You can't build a product around it.

However, there are well over a thousand people who could manufacture something if they had access to those thousand chips.

So, I'd like to collect them, and then suddenly it's not a $5000 order, suddenly it's a $5M order.

But this is a way's away. I got a huge response when I discussed this possibility on another site I don't want to get into but suffice to say that the Linux side would have to have one of a range of possible partners.

when others heard what I'm doing I've had digital electronics engineers reach out to me to be part of that, but I would like to show actual deliveries / fulfillment of an Indiegogo campaign.

you ask "How has/is Indigogo worked out" the answer is that I've been approved for a campaign and have had my paypal confirmed, so I can put one up.

but my first campaign as I mentioned will not be the boards, it is just going to be a cheap little mechanical thing with arduino button-activated solenoid affixation of gears in place - the product itself is similar to helping hands for electronics but better, fulfill a different role. I wrote about it elsewhere on the forum. at the moment I'm 3d designing parts for it.

but I have to build my audience as well so I have to balance the two things. I'll write more later as things progress. Thanks for your interest :slight_smile: