Patrick Van OosterwijckThere is a big problem with making any Raspberry Pi accessory: Why would anyone pay as much or more for an accessory than for the main board? :-)
Unfortunately it's all about scale and it's very hard to make something cheap in small quantities without ripping your pants. I should crunch all the numbers some time but I think I still may not have reached break-even for the #LiFePO4wered/USB which I've been selling for over a year now...
The Raspberry Pi foundation is a non-profit, very well connected with Broadcom and has massive scale now. I'm convinced the PiZero is being sold at a loss, subsidized from the massive war chest the foundation must have accumulated by now. This would explain why they are hard to find: the foundation needs to carefully throttle their supply so as not to bleed dry.
I don't have any of these advantages, my cost to build anything is much higher. One of the reasons I'm considering a Kickstarter is to get some minimum amount of scale (guaranteed orders, pre-paid) to be able to offer this cheaper. But Kickstarter is in some way a big distraction as well (I have to make a video, ugh!).
The recent influx of followers because of being featured on the Hackaday blog is very helpful (Thanks again Hackaday!). If I knew every one of the project's followers would buy one, I would probably spend the money to start a CM build right now. I could probably sell them at $20-$25 at that volume. But there's a big difference between free following and actually paying for an order. :-) Based on my current following, I'd expect maybe 20 orders out of the gate.
But no worries, I do intend to produce these. It's too useful a device to keep it from those who want it, and the potential market or Pi users is huge. It's all a matter of getting the word out to build a customer base!
You guys can all help get this in production actually. Please, spread the word! It's very well known that Kickstarter doesn't work as a marketing vehicle any more. There are just too many projects started every day so you get lost in the shuffle. You need to have a community built before you start your Kickstarter now.
If you have maker friends with Raspberry Pi's, please tell them about this project. More followers = more potential customers, hence a bigger, lower cost initial build. Since I also entered this into the 2016 Hackaday Prize, more skulls actually means more initial funding as well. So please talk about it, blog about it, link to it, skull it. Thanks! :)
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I have the LiFePO4wered/USB I need the hat for the Pi. So where can I buy it?
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You can't just yet unfortunately. I'm still working on it, follow the project to stay up-to-date with progress. I hope to start producing them soon!
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I would also recommending checking with other fab facilities as well.
The interesting thing regarding the comment on the batteries is that they do not have to ship the batteries, and offer that later on. The problem is that the end use would have to get the proper batteries... Hmmm... there might be a way to test and make sure they have added the proper one.
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The first LiFePO4 batteries I ever bought I got at Wal-Mart, they were sold as replacements for the little solar lights. Finding and playing with those is actually what got me interested in LiFePO4 and got this whole thing started. After that I've actually never seen them in a store again. They may not be easy for a customer to buy themselves.
Aside of that, I prefer to ship with the battery for quality control. I have tested the batteries from my supplier and know they actually do retain 80% of their original capacity after 1000 cycles. It's a long test to run... :-)
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Do watch out for international distribution as they make it very hard and expensive to send LI based batteries out of country. Consider to get your distributor(s) to carry battery they obtain from local sources.
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Yes, very unfortunate, especially since LiFePO4 doesn't present nearly the hazard that LiPo's do for instance...
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One of the things I did years ago was to contact companies which sell both components and fully assembled accessories. One company offered me something like a 10% royalty on the design I was working on -- if I could limit the extra components to ones they already use in their fab and pick-and-place facilities. So maybe SparkFun, Adafruit, Futurelec, or someone else would work a deal with you... Just an idea...
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I did approach SparkFun about #LiFePO4wered/USB, since they're pretty much in my backyard.
I was told they were in the process of evaluating their battery offerings because of shipping hassles (<rant>meanwhile everyone and their dog ships cell phones and whatever containing Li-ion batteries whichever way they please without giving it a second thought... </rant>). I guess it's a good idea to check back with them and see what they think about #LiFePO4wered/Pi.
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One of the shipping requirements is that battery has to be inside equipment/enclosure. Cell phone qualifies for that. So not exactly surprising if you read the rules.
Cell phones also have to pass a lot of compliance/regulatory stuff and products like these had a lot of logistic and planning to make sure that they can be shipped. It is not exactly a fair statement.
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