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Show HN: Everything you need to build your own Turn Touch smart home remote

103 points by conesus 10y ago

conesus 10y ago
Hello HN! This is a ridiculously long but thorough guide to building your own hardware on a budget. Turn Touch is a small wood remote that controls your smart home. I built it because I wanted it to exist and I was tired of waiting for somebody else to build it. And because I believe so heavily in open source, I wrote up detailed instructions on how to build each phase of the process: the PCB, CAD, wood machining, and laser cutting. Turn Touch is also on Kickstarter, which is the culmination of 3 years of learning and work. I'm a solo indie developer and if I can learn to build this, so can anybody else. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/samuelclay/turn-touch-beautiful-control https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/samuelclay/turn-touch-b...
- StavrosK 10y ago
  Thank you for this series of posts, it's full of practical advice on how to design things. I especially like how you've condensed what must be months of experimentation and experience in a few short paragraphs, with diagrams and everything. Very useful, thanks again!
  - conesus 10y ago
    Thank you for your kind words. I really tried hard to capture what was years of work into just the salient pain points and design lessons.
- jd20 10y ago
  As a long-time software guy learning more about hardware, I find these kind of deep dives immensely useful. Much of building a physical device seems like a black box, from choosing electronic components, assembling them on a board to do something useful, writing firmware, getting it fabricated, seeing it broken down step-by-step (even if this is only one particular example), it makes everything much more accessible. Keep it coming!
  - conesus 10y ago
    Yep, this is exactly what I wanted when I was starting out. I just had the resources and time to write everything done as I went through it in the hopes that other people take it and can make even better tools and open source docs.
- Eridrus 10y ago
  I recently spent a bit of time playing with the idea of making an IoT doodad, so this is pretty cool to see. I was wondering if you had any thoughts on how to mass produce this, but looking at the Kickstarter it looks like you've doubled your goal with only 500 backers, so maybe that's not a useful question to ask. One of the things that was unexpected for me when I was investigating was that I would need to get some kind of certification done by UL or someone else; have you gone through that process/what was it like? Also, did you find a PCBA house that would also flash your microcontrollers, or do you need to do that manually?
  - conesus 10y ago
    At 500 remotes, I'm planning to flash them myself. And I just called a bunch of factories to get quotes on box build assembly, wood machining, PCBA, and injection molding. It just took time to work on the manufacturing quotes.
- DeRock 10y ago
  Thanks for sharing! How did you deal with FCC approval?
minimaxir 10y ago
OP has been blatantly asking for upvotes in Twitter and attempting to bypass the voting ring detector using the /newest trick: http://imgur.com/4M1NNXz http://imgur.com/4M1NNXz http://imgur.com/DYnJOcB http://imgur.com/DYnJOcB While this is a good submission and likely earned many upvotes legitimately, that doesn't justify gaming the system, which is why I am highlighting it.
- NicoJuicy 10y ago
  Although, normally I would agree. But it seems to me that the op is sharing a lot so you could create it for your selve. So, actually, I can't blame him. Good luck to the OP
- conesus 10y ago
  I mean come on. I'm asking friends to vote for my post. I wrote an enormous post that offers a guide for many people looking to build their own hardware. The least I could do is get it as widely seen as possible.
  - minimaxir 10y ago
    That's fine, but why advertise the Hacker News submission instead of the post on Medium itself? Moreover, why advertise upvoting using a known exploit (that doesn't work) if you are trying to get authentic exposure?
mkj 10y ago
Nice to see more wood cases for electronics. It should wear well with age, not just get scuffed and grubby like plastic.

103 points by conesus 10y ago

Hello HN! This is a ridiculously long but thorough guide to building your own hardware on a budget. Turn Touch is a small wood remote that controls your smart home. I built it because I wanted it to exist and I was tired of waiting for somebody else to build it. And because I believe so heavily in open source, I wrote up detailed instructions on how to build each phase of the process: the PCB, CAD, wood machining, and laser cutting. Turn Touch is also on Kickstarter, which is the culmination of 3 years of learning and work. I'm a solo indie developer and if I can learn to build this, so can anybody else. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/samuelclay/turn-touch-beautiful-control https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/samuelclay/turn-touch-b...

StavrosK 10y ago
Thank you for this series of posts, it's full of practical advice on how to design things. I especially like how you've condensed what must be months of experimentation and experience in a few short paragraphs, with diagrams and everything. Very useful, thanks again!
- conesus 10y ago
  Thank you for your kind words. I really tried hard to capture what was years of work into just the salient pain points and design lessons.
jd20 10y ago
As a long-time software guy learning more about hardware, I find these kind of deep dives immensely useful. Much of building a physical device seems like a black box, from choosing electronic components, assembling them on a board to do something useful, writing firmware, getting it fabricated, seeing it broken down step-by-step (even if this is only one particular example), it makes everything much more accessible. Keep it coming!
- conesus 10y ago
  Yep, this is exactly what I wanted when I was starting out. I just had the resources and time to write everything done as I went through it in the hopes that other people take it and can make even better tools and open source docs.
Eridrus 10y ago
I recently spent a bit of time playing with the idea of making an IoT doodad, so this is pretty cool to see. I was wondering if you had any thoughts on how to mass produce this, but looking at the Kickstarter it looks like you've doubled your goal with only 500 backers, so maybe that's not a useful question to ask. One of the things that was unexpected for me when I was investigating was that I would need to get some kind of certification done by UL or someone else; have you gone through that process/what was it like? Also, did you find a PCBA house that would also flash your microcontrollers, or do you need to do that manually?
- conesus 10y ago
  At 500 remotes, I'm planning to flash them myself. And I just called a bunch of factories to get quotes on box build assembly, wood machining, PCBA, and injection molding. It just took time to work on the manufacturing quotes.
DeRock 10y ago
Thanks for sharing! How did you deal with FCC approval?

minimaxir 10y ago

OP has been blatantly asking for upvotes in Twitter and attempting to bypass the voting ring detector using the /newest trick: http://imgur.com/4M1NNXz http://imgur.com/4M1NNXz http://imgur.com/DYnJOcB http://imgur.com/DYnJOcB While this is a good submission and likely earned many upvotes legitimately, that doesn't justify gaming the system, which is why I am highlighting it.

NicoJuicy 10y ago
Although, normally I would agree. But it seems to me that the op is sharing a lot so you could create it for your selve. So, actually, I can't blame him. Good luck to the OP
conesus 10y ago
I mean come on. I'm asking friends to vote for my post. I wrote an enormous post that offers a guide for many people looking to build their own hardware. The least I could do is get it as widely seen as possible.
- minimaxir 10y ago
  That's fine, but why advertise the Hacker News submission instead of the post on Medium itself? Moreover, why advertise upvoting using a known exploit (that doesn't work) if you are trying to get authentic exposure?

mkj 10y ago

Nice to see more wood cases for electronics. It should wear well with age, not just get scuffed and grubby like plastic.