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On our product (air quality monitor[1]) we made the concious decision to design it for long life and repairability by e.g.: - using no glue or snaps - all com
by ahaucnx 4y ago
On our product (air quality monitor[1]) we made the concious decision to design it for long life and repairability by e.g.:
- using no glue or snaps
- all components on one PCB, no thin cables that can break
- standard philips/torx screws
- four screws to open the enclosure, four screws to take out the pcb
- expensive sensor modules on pin sockets for easy reaplacement
- only using components that are certified for longe lifetime -even if they cost a few dollars more (e.g. DC to DC converter)
- not using plastic for packaging and we ask our supplier to not use plastic when sending us the parts (e.g. no bag around the USB cable etc)
We wrote about this [2] and often do presentations for customers and have a slide about this and it gets a great response and I believe gives us an advantage compared to competing products on the market. As the market more and more appreciates this, Apple probably also realized that this can be a competitive advantage and give them positive press.
[1] https://www.airgradient.com/airgradient-one/ https://www.airgradient.com/airgradient-one/
[2] https://www.airgradient.com/about/ https://www.airgradient.com/about/
- philistine 4y agoYour scrutiny stopped at the hardware. Your first link showed a white page for 31 seconds while it was running javascript and using up to 50% of my M1 Mac's power. All that, for a page 2 MB page.
- jpgvm 4y agoThey are hardware guys, they probably wrote some good firmware but their expertise falls short of cutting edge web stuff. I would cut them some slack and hope they are successful enough they can pay someone else to do web stuff at some stage. :)
- intrasight 4y agoLooks promising and I'm in the market for a few. Too bad I can't buy them.
- ahaucnx 4y agoSee my comment above about pricing. We also have pre-soldered open source kits available that are "hacker friendly". More information on this page: https://www.airgradient.com/open-airgradient/kits/ https://www.airgradient.com/open-airgradient/kits/
- intrasight 4y agoExcellent! Is there any sample code for connecting to the device? Does the cloud dashboard have an API?
- Xorlev 4y agoHow much are they, and where can I buy one? I don't typically follow through on "contact for pricing".
- ahaucnx 4y agoWe focus on b2b and prices start at USD200. We also have an open source kit with very similar sensors starting at around USD70. More information here: https://www.airgradient.com/open-airgradient/kits/ https://www.airgradient.com/open-airgradient/kits/
- jpgvm 4y agoThis is a really cool idea. As a business owner I would never buy the DIY kit, I would want it fully assembled and have an appropriate warranty, factory testing/calibration and fast replacement - doubly so if I needed the sensor data for compliance or safety reasons. However as a tinkerer I probably wouldn't buy a $200 air sensor... but $70 and get a bit of a project out of it? Sure! Perfect example of broadening reach without cannibalising core business IMO.
- Xorlev 4y agoThanks! I'm happy ya'll sell a kit, definitely going to pick one up. :)
- otterley 4y agoThat's cool and all, but what you've built is not a phone and doesn't need to be IP67-rated for water resistance at 1 meter depth.
- ahaucnx 4y agoYes it's probably easier to design but there are no reasons why a phone needs so many glued parts inside and the latest iPhone demonstrates that there are ways to design for maintainability.
- simondotau 4y ago> there are no reasons why a phone needs so many glued parts There are numerous reasons (some very good reasons) why adhesives are used in smartphone assembly. Sometimes these reasons can sometimes come into conflict with repairability, but that doesn't render their usage completely devoid of any valid reason. For example, many uses of adhesive are to improve water resistance. And improved water resistance reduces the likelihood of a product needing repair, which is equally virtuous (in my opinion) as repairability.
- nicbou 4y agoThat about page is really bland. Your comment feels far more genuine than this. It would sell far better.
- behnamoh 4y agotbh, products/services named "one" are so cliche these days. At least it makes sense if the next product is called AG 2 or something.
- midoridensha 4y agoI think it should be illegal to have product names containing "One" or "Plus" in them, unless there is another product offered in the same product line containing "Zero" (or "Two" I suppose) or "Minus".
- simondotau 4y agoImagine if, after criticising the panel gaps on a Tesla, a representative from Lego points out that Lego cars don't have this problem and that Lego has a steadfast commitment to precise tolerances. As someone who uses (and is continually appreciative of) multiple AirGradient-derived devices throughout my house, my immediate reaction was one of confusion given how monstrously incomparable your product is to an iPhone. AirGradient hardware is little more than a plastic box and a relatively basic PCB which makes around a dozen connections between few off-the-shelf prototyping components which need direct exposure to room air — they can't be sealed or weatherproofed. Repairability is literally the default state for this class of product; making it less repairable would have required more effort. Apple devices weren't made difficult to repair because Apple actively despised repairers. They were difficult to repair because Apple lacked sufficient concern over repairability and had other priorities such as as thickness, weight, simplification and efficiency of manufacturing.
- kramerger 4y ago> Apple devices weren't made difficult to repair because Apple actively despised repairers. IIRC the front panel uses DRM to stop unauthorized screen replacement.
- threeseed 4y agoWhich is to make the device secure for users who are Apple's highest priority. It's amazing to me that developers, resellers etc seem to forget this.
- teitoklien 4y agoThis is a bad excuse. 0.002% of our customers need security against sophisticated hackers who have the capability to hijack a repair service and replace it with a spying custom made iphone screen replacement. Let’s make screen repairs 5-7x more expensive for 100% of our customers ! That will get the hackers ! Yea, right.... If you’re that paranoid about your security, go to an authorized apple repair centre which doesn’t bother repairing the parts and just charges you to replace the entire circuitry. No one’s stopping you. Leave the rest of us, alone from this.
- hoseja 4y ago>not using plastic for packaging and we ask our supplier to not use plastic when sending us the parts This honestly cheapens the rest of your efforts. Paper straws vibe.
- rajnathani 4y ago> - using no glue or snaps What's the reason to avoid snaps?
- rajnathani 4y agoOkay this is understandable as while some snaps are easy to both insert (snapped) and remove (unsnapped), some can not be removed easily.