OT: new product, Kickstarter campaign
This is very much off-topic. Last year, I was introduced to a friend-of-a-friend who had a lighting control project with...shall we say "engineering problems". I was brought in to finish it up. While it's a simple concept, it also solves a real problem and is rather cool. It was a fun little project. They just fired up a Kickstarter campaign to fund the initial production run. You might see a familiar face in the video. ;) Here it is: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/neilson/switcheroo-lighting-made-easy They're pretty close to their funding goal; it'd be great if you folks could help push him over the edge. -Dave -- Dave McGuire, AK4HZ New Kensington, PA
"I assembled a team" = Dave. :-) Clever product and idea. Very nice! Pledged! On Tue, Jan 10, 2017 at 1:04 PM, Dave McGuire via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:
This is very much off-topic.
Last year, I was introduced to a friend-of-a-friend who had a lighting control project with...shall we say "engineering problems". I was brought in to finish it up. While it's a simple concept, it also solves a real problem and is rather cool. It was a fun little project.
They just fired up a Kickstarter campaign to fund the initial production run. You might see a familiar face in the video. ;) Here it is:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/neilson/switcheroo- lighting-made-easy
They're pretty close to their funding goal; it'd be great if you folks could help push him over the edge.
-Dave
-- Dave McGuire, AK4HZ New Kensington, PA
On 01/10/2017 01:42 PM, Chris Fala via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
"I assembled a team" = Dave. :-)
Well...and a mechanical engineer, and an injection mold designer, and an industrial artist...I was only brought in to figure out what was wrong, find a path forward, then do the hardware design and write the firmware.
Clever product and idea. Very nice!
I thought so too.
Pledged!
Thanks! (on behalf of Switcheroo) -Dave -- Dave McGuire, AK4HZ New Kensington, PA
Kind of reminds me of the old X-10 products, especially when I used to use the same address on multiple devices. Except that the command to turn on/off is controlled by wether or not there is power to one or more of the modules than a central source. On Tuesday, January 10, 2017, Dave McGuire via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:
On 01/10/2017 01:42 PM, Chris Fala via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
"I assembled a team" = Dave. :-)
Well...and a mechanical engineer, and an injection mold designer, and an industrial artist...I was only brought in to figure out what was wrong, find a path forward, then do the hardware design and write the firmware.
Clever product and idea. Very nice!
I thought so too.
Pledged!
Thanks! (on behalf of Switcheroo)
-Dave
-- Dave McGuire, AK4HZ New Kensington, PA
-- Normal Person: Hey, it seems that you know a lot. Geek: To be honest, it's due to all the surfing I do. Normal Person: So you go surfing? Normal Person: But I don't think that has anything to do with knowing a lot... Geek: I think that's wrong on a fundamental level. Normal Person: Huh? Huh? What?
The main difference being, of course, that X10 systems have "controllers" of one sort or another. -Dave On 01/10/2017 03:36 PM, Joseph Oprysko wrote:
Kind of reminds me of the old X-10 products, especially when I used to use the same address on multiple devices. Except that the command to turn on/off is controlled by wether or not there is power to one or more of the modules than a central source.
On Tuesday, January 10, 2017, Dave McGuire via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org <mailto:vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org>> wrote:
On 01/10/2017 01:42 PM, Chris Fala via vcf-midatlantic wrote: > "I assembled a team" = Dave. :-)
Well...and a mechanical engineer, and an injection mold designer, and an industrial artist...I was only brought in to figure out what was wrong, find a path forward, then do the hardware design and write the firmware.
> Clever product and idea. Very nice!
I thought so too.
> Pledged!
Thanks! (on behalf of Switcheroo)
-Dave
-- Dave McGuire, AK4HZ New Kensington, PA
-- Normal Person: Hey, it seems that you know a lot. Geek: To be honest, it's due to all the surfing I do. Normal Person: So you go surfing? Normal Person: But I don't think that has anything to do with knowing a lot... Geek: I think that's wrong on a fundamental level. Normal Person: Huh? Huh? What?
-- Dave McGuire, AK4HZ New Kensington, PA
On 01/10/2017 03:36 PM, Joseph Oprysko via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
Kind of reminds me of the old X-10 products, especially when I used to use the same address on multiple devices. Except that the command to turn on/off is controlled by wether or not there is power to one or more of the modules than a central source.
This has a lot of overlap with much of the HA/Smart Home space. I'm left wondering what frequency and how much. I'll poke around a bit more. -- Linux Home Automation Neil Cherry ncherry@linuxha.com http://www.linuxha.com/ Main site http://linuxha.blogspot.com/ My HA Blog Author of: Linux Smart Homes For Dummies
On 01/10/2017 03:46 PM, Neil Cherry via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
On 01/10/2017 03:36 PM, Joseph Oprysko via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
Kind of reminds me of the old X-10 products, especially when I used to use the same address on multiple devices. Except that the command to turn on/off is controlled by wether or not there is power to one or more of the modules than a central source.
This has a lot of overlap with much of the HA/Smart Home space.
Not the way I see it, really. This is for those cases where one just wants remote control of some lights from another light. The market is already flooded with remote control pads, phone apps, etc...this is aimed at the space where less automation is the goal, not more. -Dave -- Dave McGuire, AK4HZ New Kensington, PA
On 1/10/2017 5:44 PM, Dave McGuire via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
On 01/10/2017 03:46 PM, Neil Cherry via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
On 01/10/2017 03:36 PM, Joseph Oprysko via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
Kind of reminds me of the old X-10 products, especially when I used to use the same address on multiple devices. Except that the command to turn on/off is controlled by wether or not there is power to one or more of the modules than a central source. This has a lot of overlap with much of the HA/Smart Home space. Not the way I see it, really. This is for those cases where one just wants remote control of some lights from another light. The market is already flooded with remote control pads, phone apps, etc...this is aimed at the space where less automation is the goal, not more.
-Dave
Are you guys planning an eventual 3-prong version of this for higher-wattage devices? Also how does the device retain power when shutting off a light enough for it to send a 'socket #x has turned off' event from a sender unit? a big capacitor to supply power to the antenna and mcu? or does it have a battery? -- Jonathan Gevaryahu jgevaryahu@gmail.com jgevaryahu@hotmail.com
Very cool! I guess most people don't see an improperly located switched outlet as a good excuse to rewire a room. I could see this being very useful to a lot of people, the kind of thing you'd find at Big Box hardware stores.
Also how does the device retain power when shutting off a light enough for it to send a 'socket #x has turned off' event from a sender unit?
Could just be "CARRIER LOST" kinda signalling. But if it's not a secret, I'm sure Dave knows the right answer :) Thanks, Jonathan
Big capacitor. On Jan 10, 2017, at 6:02 PM, Systems Glitch via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote: Very cool! I guess most people don't see an improperly located switched outlet as a good excuse to rewire a room. I could see this being very useful to a lot of people, the kind of thing you'd find at Big Box hardware stores.
Also how does the device retain power when shutting off a light enough for it to send a 'socket #x has turned off' event from a sender unit?
Could just be "CARRIER LOST" kinda signalling. But if it's not a secret, I'm sure Dave knows the right answer :) Thanks, Jonathan
On 01/10/2017 05:57 PM, Jonathan Gevaryahu via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
Not the way I see it, really. This is for those cases where one just wants remote control of some lights from another light. The market is already flooded with remote control pads, phone apps, etc...this is aimed at the space where less automation is the goal, not more.
Are you guys planning an eventual 3-prong version of this for higher-wattage devices?
I don't know. I'm just a hired engineer handling the internals. Product positioning, planning, marketing, etc isn't any of my business.
Also how does the device retain power when shutting off a light enough for it to send a 'socket #x has turned off' event from a sender unit? a big capacitor to supply power to the antenna and mcu? or does it have a battery?
I'm not at liberty to discuss much of the internals, as I don't own the design, but I will say that "off" events are handled, and there is no battery. -Dave -- Dave McGuire, AK4HZ New Kensington, PA
On Tue, Jan 10, 2017 at 1:04 PM, Dave McGuire via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:
This is very much off-topic.
Last year, I was introduced to a friend-of-a-friend who had a lighting control project with...shall we say "engineering problems". I was brought in to finish it up. While it's a simple concept, it also solves a real problem and is rather cool. It was a fun little project.
They just fired up a Kickstarter campaign to fund the initial production run. You might see a familiar face in the video. ;) Here it is:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/neilson/switcheroo- lighting-made-easy
They're pretty close to their funding goal; it'd be great if you folks could help push him over the edge.
-Dave
very cool I like how it's completely self-contained, no muss, no fuss, in these days of IoT, Apps, etc Certainly does remind me of the X-10 days, that was breaking technology in the 70s It has a very sleek look, both style and functionality. But you may have to fault me on this, it would be neat to see Rx/Tx Leds :) I went for the early bird two-pack, looking forward to this. I hope they can expand into a store and sell more after they satisfy all of the pledges. Dan
participants (8)
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Chris Fala -
Dan Roganti -
Dave McGuire -
Douglas Crawford -
Jonathan Gevaryahu -
Joseph Oprysko -
Neil Cherry -
Systems Glitch