Hi Yall, Lots of food for thought here. As for kits, I'm not too afraid of kit builders. I've sold over 100 of my Nixieneon clock kits with very few issues. Granted, I never package two values of any given part into the same bag. I truly believe that saved me a lot of grief. Also, making the steps very small and explicate helped too.
I am now starting to have reservations about calling this a thermostat and also will be contemplating making a statement dissuading users from connecting it to their house. We'll see. Maybe a subtle change to make it a universal data logger with the ability to turn stuff on and off. I will take the time to look into the personal rider on the insurance. It will probably be a good idea in any case if I am selling kits of any sort. I never thought of this as being a production item. The intention of this was always to be a kit. It was designed using either through hole components or pre-made boards such as the keyboard controller from sparkfun. Once the boards and components are gone (or the kits), it is done. I just need to recoup the cost of the parts and hopefully help fund the starting of the next project (not sure what it will be yet). The idea of making an LED version was to pull in more hobbyists. As for a case, I will be honest, as with my clock I find may people created their own cases and they all surpassed anything I am able to do! I would be very happy if I didn't have to supply a case at all ;) -joe On Sun, Jan 3, 2016 at 11:05 AM, NeonJohn <[email protected]> wrote: > Here's my opinion as Chief Engineer and majority owner of a company with > several products on the market. > > *) Lose the solid state relays. They will surely be failed in short > order the first time a service call is initiated. HVAC guys like to > short low voltage wiring to look for power. Faster than getting out a > meter. > > *) Lose the LED version. The Nixies are the hook that justifies the > high price. LEDs won't. > > *) Not a good KickStarter project. They (the doners) tend to like big > projects. Maybe one of the other crowsourced sites that cater to small > projects. > > *) I suggest using a quick flip etch and stuff house to assemble say, 5 > A/T systems and get them out there to beta testers. You MUST beta test. > Our beta test policy is that the tester buys a machine at half price > and when the test is over, he gets a production machine at no extra > charge. Another approach is to put them out at cost. Either way you > recover your costs. > > *) Consider putting it with SparkFun. They have three ways of selling > your projects. > > https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/how-to-sell-your-widget-on-sparkfun > > I have several pieces of ancillary bits and pieces that I'm about to > offer. The first is a variable speed fan controller. Stick the > stamp-sized board to a heat sink, connect 9 to 30 volts to the input, > connect a 15 volt or higher fan to the output and viola. No noise > unless it's necessary to keep the sink at the setpoint. We use this > controller in our Roy induction heater so the design is well-proven. > Therefore I'll probably go with option 1. > > *) Deal with and mock up/3d print the case first and get the approval > of several women of various backgrounds. No only does the lady of the > house control what goes on the furniture in many instances, they almost > always control the thermostat. > > Figure out how you're going to manufacture your enclosure if you go the > custom route. I'm very unimpressed with the appearance of 3d printed > parts, even from industrial machines. I can tell you all about getting > enclosures manufactured in China, for that's what we had to do to handle > the cost. > > *) Do a "design for manufacturing" and cost reduction pass across the > thing. Those Dallas temperature sensors are nice but a forward biased > diode will do the same job for a tiny fraction of the cost. You can > specify 4 wire telephone indoor plant wiring for the hookup and do a > Kelvin measurement to eliminate lead resistance effects. > > Up until a couple of years ago I was seeing thermistors in extremely > cheap consumer goods. Now I see diodes. > > *) Get hold of an ASHRAE handbook and learn how to properly implement > the outdoor temperature modulated algorithm. Hint: Torrent :-) > > *) Also study the ASHRAE standard comfort map. This maps temperature > vs humidity vs comfort. The aim of your thermostat is not to control > temperature but to control comfort. > > *) To that end, you need a humidity sensor so you can properly > implement the comfort algorithm. > > *) You need outputs for de- and humidifiers for the same reason. > Particularly central humidifiers in the winter. One can maintain > comfort at a much lower temperature if the humidity is kept high which > will save the owner a lot in energy costs. > > Here's a concrete example. Right now to keep my honey comfortable, the > house is at 79 degrees and 20% RH. I'm about to re-install the > water-line-connected humidifier in my propane furnace. (I take it out > during the summer to prevent lint build-up). I know that with 50% > humidity, she's comfortable at 69 deg. Major savings in fuel. > > *) contemplate the liability you're taking on. A malfunction could > start a fire or let a house freeze up and burst pipes. At least get a > personal liability rider on your homeowner's policy. A megabuck's worth > of coverage is very cheap. > > *) Consider your engineering approach, particularly your software > approach. Are you building self-checking and redundancy and other high > reliability techniques into your code? Using the Arduino black box > library doesn't give me fuzzy feelings in this area. > > *) If you're going to make these in commercial quantities, consider > getting it listed. We work with ETL (I have a grudge against UL and > their nasty politics). Figure at least $5 large. > > Well, that turned into an epistle! Just some things to think about, > though. > > John > > > On 01/02/2016 09:38 PM, Joe Croft wrote: > > Happy New Year Yall!! > > > > To open this new years, I have been continuing on my saga with the > > NixieStat Thermostat. I have a hackaday project with pictures and more > here: > > > > https://hackaday.io/project/4452-nixiestat > > > > I want to make this a kit, either both a Nixie tube version as well as 7 > > segment LED version. Unfortunately I don't have the cash on hand to do > > this in any quantity to start so I was thinking of turning to > Kickstarter. > > The question is, what is the quantity of kits I should aim for? If I do > 50 > > or each kit the approximate prices would be $115.00 for the LED version > and > > $155.00 for the Nixie tube version (darned in17 are expensive!). > > > > So the question is: Is one hundred kits to many or too few? > > > > Looking forward to hear from yall. Thanks! > > > > Joe > > > > -- > John DeArmond > Tellico Plains, Occupied TN > http://www.tnduction.com <-- THE source for induction heaters > http://www.neon-john.com <-- email from here > http://www.johndearmond.com <-- Best damned Blog on the net > https://www.etsy.com/shop/BarbraJoanOriginals <-- Affordable Fine Art > Originals > PGP key: wwwkeys.pgp.net: BCB68D77 > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "neonixie-l" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. > To view this discussion on the web, visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/568954E2.5080004%40neon-john.com > . > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "neonixie-l" group. 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