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Thanks for you detailed response. Our goal is to continue to improve our product. Indeed this is why we talk about our problems (and solutions) such as in the a

Thanks for you detailed response. Our goal is to continue to improve our product. Indeed this is why we talk about our problems (and solutions) such as in the above post. We have discussed much of what you have brought up here over the past few years. If our implementations on these matters are different than your opinions I think it must be due to the closeness that comes with building and iterating on the concept rather than commenting on one generation of it. I am not quite sure how to respond to your other claims in this thread that suggest we are acting irrationally other than to say we have an "EE that had experience in product development", we did consult with multiple other companies to check our "sanity", the "pitfalls" we encountered are common to many other products which don't disclose development details - we are no worse for having addressed and solved them, and that we don't engage in used-car salesman tactics. Regarding your questions above: Lockitron enters power save mode when not in use for a few seconds. Using a pre-fabbed gears or gearboxes from other vendors on one level can introduce complications with motor selection, housing, industrial design, and yield between batches; on another level it provides a gap for manufacturers to shift accountability. Simpler is to use standard gears from a gear manufacturer which also makes your gearbox which is what we do.

bravo22 12y ago
Paul, thanks for responding. I didn't accuse you of used-car salesman tactics. I was pointing out that nowhere on your main product page is WiFi sleep mode, or knock-to-wake are mentioned. I think it is a fair point and has significant impact on the user experience, and it is fair to expect a company to mention that when selling you a product. With respect to steps you have taken to complete the product, frankly that is between you and your customers. It is unfortunate that you've encountered delays and I'm sure of all the parties involved you are most motivated to ship a product that gets good reviews and has few returns. Your company decided to outline the troubles you've encountered so far. That is commendable. In this, Cameron outlined a number of problems and lessons, some of which my experience tells me are not necessarily true and is the wrong conclusion. For example I don't think it is true that going to China means you have to make everything "bespoke" from switches, to motors, to screws and I also don't think designing a motor and gearbox that turns a deadbolt -- of any torque -- requires ~40 moving parts. I'm sure you've had your reasons for developing the product the way you did and I'm sure you've had good people review your work and help you along the way but the inescapable fact is that almost 2 years later the product isn't out, and from what one gathers through google searches and your own product support forum the few users who have received it have troubles with it. It is one thing to say our path didn't yield what we expected and here is what we did, than to say building hardware is hard and none of it was really because we lacked the experience and made a number of mistakes, should have had better prototypes, etc. If you read your customers feedbacks elsewhere, and in this thread, one of their chief complaints I see is that you say the most recent problem is the last remaining problem and that it'll be fixed and units will ship out soon. I truly believe you really think everything is solved and would ship within a month and are being honest when you send the update, but fixing one bug only uncovers another and in my experience this is a problem of product development process and methodology more than anything else. There are analogues of this in Software world which many HN readers I'm sure are familiar with. I am certain product development doesn't have to be this way and I make that statement relying on hundred of new products of greater complexity being introduced around the world every month and on my own experience. It is not the normal, yet Cameron's article makes it sound that it is and the fix is better vendors and more time. The past has passed and whatever pitfalls I've outlined in my original post aren't really useful to your situation because you're at a different stage. There are many aspiring and budding entrepreneurs who read HN and read Cameron's article. My goal by putting in my $0.02 is to balance out some of Cameron's assertions and lessons learned that I don't believe to be necessarily correct so that they may avoid delays and customer dissatisfaction in their own development.
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bravo22 12y ago

Paul, thanks for responding. I didn't accuse you of used-car salesman tactics. I was pointing out that nowhere on your main product page is WiFi sleep mode, or knock-to-wake are mentioned. I think it is a fair point and has significant impact on the user experience, and it is fair to expect a company to mention that when selling you a product. With respect to steps you have taken to complete the product, frankly that is between you and your customers. It is unfortunate that you've encountered delays and I'm sure of all the parties involved you are most motivated to ship a product that gets good reviews and has few returns. Your company decided to outline the troubles you've encountered so far. That is commendable. In this, Cameron outlined a number of problems and lessons, some of which my experience tells me are not necessarily true and is the wrong conclusion. For example I don't think it is true that going to China means you have to make everything "bespoke" from switches, to motors, to screws and I also don't think designing a motor and gearbox that turns a deadbolt -- of any torque -- requires ~40 moving parts. I'm sure you've had your reasons for developing the product the way you did and I'm sure you've had good people review your work and help you along the way but the inescapable fact is that almost 2 years later the product isn't out, and from what one gathers through google searches and your own product support forum the few users who have received it have troubles with it. It is one thing to say our path didn't yield what we expected and here is what we did, than to say building hardware is hard and none of it was really because we lacked the experience and made a number of mistakes, should have had better prototypes, etc. If you read your customers feedbacks elsewhere, and in this thread, one of their chief complaints I see is that you say the most recent problem is the last remaining problem and that it'll be fixed and units will ship out soon. I truly believe you really think everything is solved and would ship within a month and are being honest when you send the update, but fixing one bug only uncovers another and in my experience this is a problem of product development process and methodology more than anything else. There are analogues of this in Software world which many HN readers I'm sure are familiar with. I am certain product development doesn't have to be this way and I make that statement relying on hundred of new products of greater complexity being introduced around the world every month and on my own experience. It is not the normal, yet Cameron's article makes it sound that it is and the fix is better vendors and more time. The past has passed and whatever pitfalls I've outlined in my original post aren't really useful to your situation because you're at a different stage. There are many aspiring and budding entrepreneurs who read HN and read Cameron's article. My goal by putting in my $0.02 is to balance out some of Cameron's assertions and lessons learned that I don't believe to be necessarily correct so that they may avoid delays and customer dissatisfaction in their own development.

deleted 12y ago
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