DenisI was successfully completed an "experimental" group buy (small qty) for bare PCBs,
TFT display and customized metal enclosure. That encourage me to start
thinking about another group buy but this time for assembled modules and
all other parts. But PCBA service makes sense only for larger quantity
that means more people needs to be involved and I decide to run new
group buy as a crowdfunding campaign.
The campaign will be conducted on the CrowdSupply and I'd like to hear your opinions about pledge levels. First please note that I'm not going to offer a completed solution. Also please note the campaign is conceived as a group buy to achieve few goals:
- Manufacture assembled modules (combined they have almost 800 items and that is far too much for many DIYers/makers despite the fact that DIY-friendly SMD packages are solely used)
- Manufacture compact metal enclosure to mount safely all parts and
- Decrease the cost per unit
Again, this is a group buy, not a new product production kick start, because it's not a profit driven (I have another source of money for living). Therefore prices of all pledges will be set to cover without loss the cost of manufacturing, packaging, transportation and campaign fullfilment cost, crowdfunding platform and payment gateway fees.
I was thinking about the following pledge levels (the final number and contents will be set in accordance with your wishes):
- Set of bare PCBs only (4 of them, 2 layer)
- As above + metal enclosure (with other metal parts such as TFT display support, AC/DC modules support, channel's heatsinks)
- Set of assembled PCBs only
- As above + metal enclosure set + wire harness
- As above + TFT display + AC/DC modules (2 of them)
- As above + Arduino Due
The latest one include all what is needed to assembly a fully functional unit that can be ready to run after firmware is uploaded. In essence you'll need a screwdriver for that operation and PC with Arduino IDE for uploading. Of course, you also need multimeter to calibrate it using built-in calibration wizard.
Thanks in advance for your valuable inputs.
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I am interested in option 6 without the enclosures (I have already 4 enclosures).
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I am interested in option 6. I have little interest in the soldering and sourcing 800 parts myself. I'm really just looking for an affordable platform to build myself a universal battery charger. The 'programmable' power supplies on the market seem to require an attatched computer. I want to be able to design my own charging programs and then pick a program like 'NiCd1' from the touch screen and walk away.
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Thanks for your input. We are going in that direction: that you can load a program/script that can be called e.g. "battery charger" that could take care not only about type of battery but also keep track of "charging history" for specific battery (battery name, number of charging cycles, charging data logging: current/voltage/time duration/Ah delivered, etc). We have a plenty of space to do that thanks to SDcard that can be inserted and be completely independent of PC. Of course in any moment one could transfer such data to the PC.
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Sounds great. I see you also have the potential to add a temperature probe. I'd also be interested in a load bank module for battery capacity measurements. Any idea about costs for option 6?
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