Skoobot

I am almost done with pledges. Very embarrassing it took me this long. I learned a lot from Skoobot. My present job at my startup uses all the skills I learned from this attempt at crowd funding. I learned design, assembly, how to work with Szhenzen, how to do marketing (crudely), etc. Everything that happened turned out to be useful in some way.

He is so much faster than me, it's embarrassing.

I'm working full-time at a startup and trying to find time to fill orders. That is far and away my biggest problem. I put out an ad on Indeed for an assembler. I offered $10-$15hr for Saturday 10-2pm. I did it as a Gig, where there would be 2-3 people I would call to see who could commit. I got about 15 responses to my job offer, Of the 5 people that responded and made appointments to call or show up, none of them did. I think this is normal for a low-level side job like I'm offering. Some of things I sweetened the deal with didn't sell, like being a contact I can recommend with all the companies I know that are hiring. I'll keep at it, but the retailers who want robots won't likely wait forever for me to say I can fill their order.

Robots I'm working on myself:

No photos this time. I got an order for 25 robots and another proposal for robots. I advertised on the local robot club email list for a helper. A guy came over but he wasn't interested beyond training. I put an ad on Indeed for a Mechanical Assembler. Two people scheduled interviews but neither showed up. I have other applicants though. I will make it more formal where I ask them to text to confirm before the interview.

Otherwise, working at a startup makes little time for robots, although I am shipping. I pretty confident I will be able to find a helper.

https://www.ponoko.com/blog/maker-success-stories/skoobot-william-weiler-engineering/

This is the P2 sheet from Ponoko. I have been getting the smaller P1 sheet. The P2 is about 66 bodies of laser cut madness.

I got a visit from a salesman with a linecard for Knowles microphones. He gave me some samples I will try out. The Skoobot buzzer is weak because it is only 10mm in diameter, not much I can do there. The microphone I use is directional somewhat and has 23dB gain. The new microphone he showed me has 36dB gain, much higher. This may actually work and hear the buzzer of another robot, or make normal conversational volume actually work well. I can try the microphones on my test rig. The sample microphones are soldered to flex, which is a good idea for me to, for example, extend a flex to put the microphone where I want it, like right on top facing up. But this would add a lot of cost though.