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$1 goal? Is this a project in need of funding or HN marketing ploy? The product seems great. Not sure I see why it couldn't go on its own without the hype mach

by pistle 13y ago

$1 goal? Is this a project in need of funding or HN marketing ploy? The product seems great. Not sure I see why it couldn't go on its own without the hype machine.

badhairday 13y ago
I think they're just using Crowd Supply as a way to set up a simple pre-order system.
- VLM 13y ago
  I've seen several preorder strategies in the recent electronics kit field. The P112 project did a kickstarter. Mines sitting on the bench, too many other things to work on. A very simple kit given what it does. I'm sad I had to wait like 4 months for someone else to put the SMD components on, I could have done that myself in less than an hour. The N8VEM people sit on preorders until they get 20 at a time. Sometimes thats a very short amount of time indeed like days, sometimes its a bit longer like years between orders of certain obscure PCBs! The SpareTimeGizmo people have done some ship off the shelf and some preorder, I think? I was fast on the draw and got one of the last 6120 PDP-8 full kits ever made some time in the 00s. The KB9YIG SDR people were supply line limited at a very low price, so as they put together sets of bargain price kits they put them up for sale and usually sold out in an hour or at most a couple hours. To say this aggravated people who missed the 45 minute sale window, every time, would be a profound understatement. They switched to a much higher price and off the shelf shipping a couple years ago. I miss paying $11 for a single band fixed freq SDR although its annoying to pay $21 today for the same thing, its nice that its always in stock rather than being something like a lotto.
unwind 13y ago
I wondered the same, and it's actually answered on the page: Why is our funding goal just $1? Chibitronics is an academic research project. The work to develop this technology will proceed whether or not others would like to participate in our research project. Although the circuit stickers featured in this campaign have been produced in small volumes, they were produced using techniques suitable for mass production -- we are "prototyping in production". If just one person backs this project, we're still perfectly happy to build and ship a single unit, yet we have the process scalability to meet virtually any demand. It's a bit weird, but I guess they're using it basically to measure demand and size the initial order(s).
blhack 13y ago
Uhh...what? Maybe somebody just posted this because it's interesting to hackers. Which is kindof the point of hacker news, isn't it?

by pistle 13y ago

$1 goal? Is this a project in need of funding or HN marketing ploy? The product seems great. Not sure I see why it couldn't go on its own without the hype machine.

badhairday 13y ago

I think they're just using Crowd Supply as a way to set up a simple pre-order system.

VLM 13y ago
I've seen several preorder strategies in the recent electronics kit field. The P112 project did a kickstarter. Mines sitting on the bench, too many other things to work on. A very simple kit given what it does. I'm sad I had to wait like 4 months for someone else to put the SMD components on, I could have done that myself in less than an hour. The N8VEM people sit on preorders until they get 20 at a time. Sometimes thats a very short amount of time indeed like days, sometimes its a bit longer like years between orders of certain obscure PCBs! The SpareTimeGizmo people have done some ship off the shelf and some preorder, I think? I was fast on the draw and got one of the last 6120 PDP-8 full kits ever made some time in the 00s. The KB9YIG SDR people were supply line limited at a very low price, so as they put together sets of bargain price kits they put them up for sale and usually sold out in an hour or at most a couple hours. To say this aggravated people who missed the 45 minute sale window, every time, would be a profound understatement. They switched to a much higher price and off the shelf shipping a couple years ago. I miss paying $11 for a single band fixed freq SDR although its annoying to pay $21 today for the same thing, its nice that its always in stock rather than being something like a lotto.

unwind 13y ago

I wondered the same, and it's actually answered on the page: Why is our funding goal just $1? Chibitronics is an academic research project. The work to develop this technology will proceed whether or not others would like to participate in our research project. Although the circuit stickers featured in this campaign have been produced in small volumes, they were produced using techniques suitable for mass production -- we are "prototyping in production". If just one person backs this project, we're still perfectly happy to build and ship a single unit, yet we have the process scalability to meet virtually any demand. It's a bit weird, but I guess they're using it basically to measure demand and size the initial order(s).

blhack 13y ago

Uhh...what? Maybe somebody just posted this because it's interesting to hackers. Which is kindof the point of hacker news, isn't it?