7 ms·

> With a makerbot, a raspberry Pi, an arduino and a shelf full of components From recent experience working on a hardware side-project: these are extremely coo

by ErrantX 14y ago

> With a makerbot, a raspberry Pi, an arduino and a shelf full of components From recent experience working on a hardware side-project: these are extremely cool and useful development/indie tools. But when you get to the stage of large scale production we are still lacking easy entry. I've been working on an XBEE home automation project intended to be run from a Rasp Pi "server" (but designed to run from anything that can boot linux and has GPIO). It's looks great, has a nice enclosure and is something any hobbiest could get working with the right plug and play bits. But. Packaging this for mainstream, where a user can simply buy "black boxes" and connect them up is tough. Circuit design and fabrication on any scale requires both skill (i.e. in designing the layout - I am an Electronic Engineer but of the solder-stuff-together ilk rather than CAD) Admittedly places such as Batchpcb etc. make prototyping a lot easier, but the hurdles you mention are still there in many forms. The maker/hacker collective is very well serviced nowadays. Next we need someone to disrupt the small-scale development arena: off hand, a community of PCB designers/hackers available to make bespoke PCB layout which links into a batch production system would rock! I've hacked together my prototypes, but have minimal confidence they will work first time :)

ippisl 14y ago
circuits.io is working on an interesting solution: http://blog.circuits.io/post/34159982502/in-this-video-karel-demonstrates-how-to-build-a http://blog.circuits.io/post/34159982502/in-this-video-karel...
- ErrantX 14y ago
  I've got further using that tonight than I got in about 2 weeks learning Eagle. Thank you! A great project.
beambot 14y ago
Plus... a lot of these companies are side-stepping CE / FCC certifications by clinging to the "we only sell to 'developers'." When you want to sell to non-DIY consumers, I'm not so sure this is an option anymore -- especially for projects like home automation where there are serious safety concerns (fire and electrocution!). I've never gone through that process. Anyone know ballpark costs for certifications?
- mixmax 14y ago
  The way we got a CE certification for our product was by hacking the system. It turns out that the way it works is that some legal entity of your own choice puts a CE-approved sticker on the product and can then be held responsible if the product doesn't meet the regulations laid forth in the directive that deals with whatever your product was (In our case the machine directive). Of course the way it's meant to work is that your company hires an approval company that knows a lot about certifications, tests the product and then approves it knowing that they're on the hook if it doesn't meet requirements and regulations. Nowhere does it say that the approving company can't be the same company as the one making the product, so basically we bought a few CE stickers put them on the product and it was approved. By us.
  - callmevlad 14y ago
    The Wikipedia entry on CE certification says: * The product may be placed on the market only if it complies with the provisions of all applicable directives and if the conformity assessment procedure has been carried out accordingly. * If stipulated in the directive(s), an authorized third party (Notified Body) must be involved in the conformity assessment procedure. I'm not sure if the machine directive stipulates it, but "authorized third party" seems to imply that the manufacturer can't perform the certification themselves. Even if you can count yourself as the approving company, did you make sure that your product complies with all the provisions? Or were you taking advantage of some loophole somewhere to skip the entire process? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CE_marking http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CE_marking EDIT: I see that you mentioned this was 15 years ago, so I'm mostly curious for historical reasons.
    - tkhoven 14y ago
      If stipulated in the directive(s), an authorized third party (Notified Body) must be involved in the conformity assessment procedure. The "If stipulated" part seems to be the key. Below your quotes in the wikipedia entry there is a section that covers self-certification. While it doesn't list the directives comprehensively, the steps there do seem to indicate that self-certification is not unanticipated.
Kliment 14y ago
I'll do layout for money, and I have experience getting stuff manufactured. Feel free to contact me about it.
primitur 14y ago
>>we are still lacking easy entry I give you, the Open Pandora project - a bunch of open-source hackers who are spearheading the hardware rennaissance and showing everyone, along the way, how to do it - and not do it (also: volcano): http://openpandora.org http://openpandora.org One day, probably soon, there will be books written about this project. It is an awesome thing - the device itself, the people involved (EvilDragon and his merry band VERSUS Craigix' Reality Distortion Field [really, he has one!]), and the whole community. The Open Pandora Community is a very, very, very fertile y-combinator with proven track record of delivering, within its own realm of course, much value. So, check it out, yo. Open Pandora .. 2.0 .. could be a YC project? Or .. the inevitable spinoffs? (The Open Pandora is old enough now that there will soon be splinter factions establishing new product, btw..)

by ErrantX 14y ago

ippisl 14y ago

circuits.io is working on an interesting solution: http://blog.circuits.io/post/34159982502/in-this-video-karel-demonstrates-how-to-build-a http://blog.circuits.io/post/34159982502/in-this-video-karel...

ErrantX 14y ago
I've got further using that tonight than I got in about 2 weeks learning Eagle. Thank you! A great project.

beambot 14y ago

Plus... a lot of these companies are side-stepping CE / FCC certifications by clinging to the "we only sell to 'developers'." When you want to sell to non-DIY consumers, I'm not so sure this is an option anymore -- especially for projects like home automation where there are serious safety concerns (fire and electrocution!). I've never gone through that process. Anyone know ballpark costs for certifications?

mixmax 14y ago
The way we got a CE certification for our product was by hacking the system. It turns out that the way it works is that some legal entity of your own choice puts a CE-approved sticker on the product and can then be held responsible if the product doesn't meet the regulations laid forth in the directive that deals with whatever your product was (In our case the machine directive). Of course the way it's meant to work is that your company hires an approval company that knows a lot about certifications, tests the product and then approves it knowing that they're on the hook if it doesn't meet requirements and regulations. Nowhere does it say that the approving company can't be the same company as the one making the product, so basically we bought a few CE stickers put them on the product and it was approved. By us.
- callmevlad 14y ago
  The Wikipedia entry on CE certification says: * The product may be placed on the market only if it complies with the provisions of all applicable directives and if the conformity assessment procedure has been carried out accordingly. * If stipulated in the directive(s), an authorized third party (Notified Body) must be involved in the conformity assessment procedure. I'm not sure if the machine directive stipulates it, but "authorized third party" seems to imply that the manufacturer can't perform the certification themselves. Even if you can count yourself as the approving company, did you make sure that your product complies with all the provisions? Or were you taking advantage of some loophole somewhere to skip the entire process? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CE_marking http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CE_marking EDIT: I see that you mentioned this was 15 years ago, so I'm mostly curious for historical reasons.
  - tkhoven 14y ago
    If stipulated in the directive(s), an authorized third party (Notified Body) must be involved in the conformity assessment procedure. The "If stipulated" part seems to be the key. Below your quotes in the wikipedia entry there is a section that covers self-certification. While it doesn't list the directives comprehensively, the steps there do seem to indicate that self-certification is not unanticipated.

Kliment 14y ago

I'll do layout for money, and I have experience getting stuff manufactured. Feel free to contact me about it.

primitur 14y ago

>>we are still lacking easy entry I give you, the Open Pandora project - a bunch of open-source hackers who are spearheading the hardware rennaissance and showing everyone, along the way, how to do it - and not do it (also: volcano): http://openpandora.org http://openpandora.org One day, probably soon, there will be books written about this project. It is an awesome thing - the device itself, the people involved (EvilDragon and his merry band VERSUS Craigix' Reality Distortion Field [really, he has one!]), and the whole community. The Open Pandora Community is a very, very, very fertile y-combinator with proven track record of delivering, within its own realm of course, much value. So, check it out, yo. Open Pandora .. 2.0 .. could be a YC project? Or .. the inevitable spinoffs? (The Open Pandora is old enough now that there will soon be splinter factions establishing new product, btw..)