PCB Ruler. The ruler of radio amateur and crowdfunding in Vkontakte
Hello to all!
I want to share with you the story of one of my unexpectedly very successful project. Surely you have already seen on the Internet my line of radio amateurs and it will be about it. Today I will set out the whole series of random events that allowed me to collect money from Vkontakte users and release this product.
In the contact there is a group. Quite an active community Products from China Radio amateurs , which discusses electronic and not only nishtyaki with aliexpress. So, with another gloomy November evening, an old friend threw me a post from there about a rather amusing product :
')
This is a clone lineup from Adafruit . Of course, I liked it, and I even wrote in the comments that I could do the same and cheaper, but no one really responded. Initially, I did not attach much importance to the events of that day, but it was too late - the idea lurked somewhere in the depths of consciousness and began to go through an incubation period.
Slowly but surely, I had imagined quite a few cool pieces useful for an electronics engineer that could fit on a printed circuit board and convinced myself that it might interest someone other than me.
On the one hand, I thought of the concept of the product. Initially, I just sat down and looked through all the existing business cards and lines that were of some interest, and wrote out all the features that were in them, as well as added my own. In fact, the idea is completely new and many bloggers have similar products (here are a few for example: 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 ). Dave has the coolest lineup, of course, but he added more background information than useful “tools”:
After that, I made a chart of chips that I wanted to add to my version. The coolest thing is that I decided to make my own line in the business card form factor. Special thanks for this to colleagues from work. To the functions that I added in the toga, I will come back.
On the other hand, I thought about the process of launching the whole batch into production. No, I, of course, could order one for myself, but then what's the fun? I spent a long time researching the possibility of entering a bomstarter, questioning the authors of successful projects, etc., but in the end I realized that it was too smart for my microproject. And at some point I was just hit on the head with a hammer! Public “Goods from China to the Radio Amateur” was just an IDEAL fundraising platform! It includes people who:
It was just 100% my audience!
I wrote about my idea to the public administrator. He answered me coldly enough, but agreed to help. It must be said that for a group on Vkontakte, an audience of 10k subscribers (namely, approximately as many there were in those days) is considered not enough to sell advertising in it. Therefore, the admins agree to different offers that increase activity. My joy knew no bounds! The administrator simply did not believe that I could do this and agreed to help for free - just to entertain people. He later wrote to me like this: “At first I thought that you were a ball ... some kind of ol.”
I also managed to get advice and approximate prices from Rezonit for the manufacture of such an order. At that time I did not build grandiose plans and proceeded from a party of 20 pieces. With such an amount for the campaign participants, the line should have cost from 250 rubles.
So, in my head there was a vision of the product, an understanding of how to make it and to whom to sell it. Could begin!
It was the last Sunday of November. By the time the idea has already covered me completely. I slept poorly and felt bad, but as soon as I woke up I sat down to work. I almost did not eat anything that day, did not leave the house, did not talk to my wife, I was completely immersed in work. I didn't even get dressed that day!
Towards evening, I had a preliminary design of the board, I dropped a brief description, created a discussion in the group, asked the admins to make a repost on the main one and it started.
Listening to criticism of your brainchild is quite difficult. Many people said that the thing is useless, or what to do in China, or that the form factor of a credit card is inconvenient. In other matters, I took into account one wish - added the inscription “Made in Russia”. As a result, late at night the same day I scored almost completely my small bid, prepared all the files for production and sent them to Resonit.
It was a very cool day. All my creative energy was completely squeezed. I was winged and crushed at the same time! And what I like most about it is that everyone else is involved in this project in passing. And on the very implementation and launch of the project, it took me only one (albeit a very long) day.
The next day, I nevertheless reached the “20” mark, but on Tuesday we again made a post with final data and people reacted to it quite differently. By that time, it was already clear that they could not change anything and I would place an order with or without them. This post was commented on much less, and fit into the order much more.
As a result, over the next few days I scored almost a hundred people of potential buyers and it became clear that the project has a commercial potential. And the cost for the first hundred buyers has dropped to 165 rubles. At that moment I made one decision, which I am not proud of, but it would be just strange to act differently.
Of course, I ordered more fees than I collected orders and, of course, the cost has decreased, that is, some money has been freed. I divided the money in half - I took one of the money for myself, and gave the other to a friend who helped with mailing and fundraising. It really is about a very small amount, so my conscience is not particularly gnawing.
After a month of waiting, at the end of December, I finally received my order. And the lines turned out just fine! That is, usually everything looks a little better on photos, but my boards were also pleasant to hold in your hands as well as look at the pictures!
We put the ordered fees in envelopes and sent them, and I handed over the rest to the online store.
On the 6th of January already in 2016 we launched a rally in public and it was just a bomb! Reposts were even made on pikabu , yaplakal and easyelectronics ! The entire stock of motherboards, which I did initially, was bought up instantly and we collected many more pre-orders for the second batch.
My story will be incomplete if I do not introduce you closer to the ruler itself. All its features are shown in the picture, and I also have a video about it.
Of the main features:
All this is what I really used in these two months.
In the end, I think it turned out great. Yes, indeed, one can argue about the real usefulness of this gadget, but I just simply like the way it looks and when I did it, I only thought about what I want for myself.
Thank you for reading to the end. And thanks to those who supported me when I made a line of amateur radio! I hope my story turned out quite interesting. And even more, I hope that she will inspire someone to create their much cooler projects!
I have an idea for another product.
I want to make a good servo tester with six channels and different control modes. This will allow the builder of drones / manipulators / copters / robots to test the operation of engines and mechanics in manual mode before the “regular brains” are ready. I will post the project files in open access (including here) so that you can make it at home. I already have the hardware and the main part of the software. If you answer a simple question at the end of the article - I will be very grateful.
Well, and if someone is interested in participating in this project, you can write to me through Habr or in Vkontakte (link is in the profile).
UPD: if you want to support the creation of a new product - do not deny yourself anything !
I want to share with you the story of one of my unexpectedly very successful project. Surely you have already seen on the Internet my line of radio amateurs and it will be about it. Today I will set out the whole series of random events that allowed me to collect money from Vkontakte users and release this product.
Start
In the contact there is a group. Quite an active community Products from China Radio amateurs , which discusses electronic and not only nishtyaki with aliexpress. So, with another gloomy November evening, an old friend threw me a post from there about a rather amusing product :
')
This is a clone lineup from Adafruit . Of course, I liked it, and I even wrote in the comments that I could do the same and cheaper, but no one really responded. Initially, I did not attach much importance to the events of that day, but it was too late - the idea lurked somewhere in the depths of consciousness and began to go through an incubation period.
Elaboration of the idea
Slowly but surely, I had imagined quite a few cool pieces useful for an electronics engineer that could fit on a printed circuit board and convinced myself that it might interest someone other than me.
On the one hand, I thought of the concept of the product. Initially, I just sat down and looked through all the existing business cards and lines that were of some interest, and wrote out all the features that were in them, as well as added my own. In fact, the idea is completely new and many bloggers have similar products (here are a few for example: 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 ). Dave has the coolest lineup, of course, but he added more background information than useful “tools”:
After that, I made a chart of chips that I wanted to add to my version. The coolest thing is that I decided to make my own line in the business card form factor. Special thanks for this to colleagues from work. To the functions that I added in the toga, I will come back.
On the other hand, I thought about the process of launching the whole batch into production. No, I, of course, could order one for myself, but then what's the fun? I spent a long time researching the possibility of entering a bomstarter, questioning the authors of successful projects, etc., but in the end I realized that it was too smart for my microproject. And at some point I was just hit on the head with a hammer! Public “Goods from China to the Radio Amateur” was just an IDEAL fundraising platform! It includes people who:
- love electronics
- are in contact
- do online shopping
It was just 100% my audience!
I wrote about my idea to the public administrator. He answered me coldly enough, but agreed to help. It must be said that for a group on Vkontakte, an audience of 10k subscribers (namely, approximately as many there were in those days) is considered not enough to sell advertising in it. Therefore, the admins agree to different offers that increase activity. My joy knew no bounds! The administrator simply did not believe that I could do this and agreed to help for free - just to entertain people. He later wrote to me like this: “At first I thought that you were a ball ... some kind of ol.”
I also managed to get advice and approximate prices from Rezonit for the manufacture of such an order. At that time I did not build grandiose plans and proceeded from a party of 20 pieces. With such an amount for the campaign participants, the line should have cost from 250 rubles.
So, in my head there was a vision of the product, an understanding of how to make it and to whom to sell it. Could begin!
The longest day
It was the last Sunday of November. By the time the idea has already covered me completely. I slept poorly and felt bad, but as soon as I woke up I sat down to work. I almost did not eat anything that day, did not leave the house, did not talk to my wife, I was completely immersed in work. I didn't even get dressed that day!
Towards evening, I had a preliminary design of the board, I dropped a brief description, created a discussion in the group, asked the admins to make a repost on the main one and it started.
Listening to criticism of your brainchild is quite difficult. Many people said that the thing is useless, or what to do in China, or that the form factor of a credit card is inconvenient. In other matters, I took into account one wish - added the inscription “Made in Russia”. As a result, late at night the same day I scored almost completely my small bid, prepared all the files for production and sent them to Resonit.
It was a very cool day. All my creative energy was completely squeezed. I was winged and crushed at the same time! And what I like most about it is that everyone else is involved in this project in passing. And on the very implementation and launch of the project, it took me only one (albeit a very long) day.
Production start up
The next day, I nevertheless reached the “20” mark, but on Tuesday we again made a post with final data and people reacted to it quite differently. By that time, it was already clear that they could not change anything and I would place an order with or without them. This post was commented on much less, and fit into the order much more.
As a result, over the next few days I scored almost a hundred people of potential buyers and it became clear that the project has a commercial potential. And the cost for the first hundred buyers has dropped to 165 rubles. At that moment I made one decision, which I am not proud of, but it would be just strange to act differently.
Of course, I ordered more fees than I collected orders and, of course, the cost has decreased, that is, some money has been freed. I divided the money in half - I took one of the money for myself, and gave the other to a friend who helped with mailing and fundraising. It really is about a very small amount, so my conscience is not particularly gnawing.
results
After a month of waiting, at the end of December, I finally received my order. And the lines turned out just fine! That is, usually everything looks a little better on photos, but my boards were also pleasant to hold in your hands as well as look at the pictures!
We put the ordered fees in envelopes and sent them, and I handed over the rest to the online store.
On the 6th of January already in 2016 we launched a rally in public and it was just a bomb! Reposts were even made on pikabu , yaplakal and easyelectronics ! The entire stock of motherboards, which I did initially, was bought up instantly and we collected many more pre-orders for the second batch.
Funny fact about the first order of boards
In the first version of the boards (which was sent to customers from the contact) there is an error. Not any inaccurate size of the pads, but directly ERROR. These photos were before the eyes of a huge number of people, but I have never seen anyone pay attention to this in the comments. But the technical director of the company in which I work, noticed her literally at the fifth second of acquaintance with the ruler! Before re-ordering, I fixed this error.
To the one who finds this error and writes about it in the comments, I will send one copy as a gift. I am sure that the audience of Habr will easily cope with this task.
Now I order the boards with the corrected error, but I still do not update the photos. And I am even glad that those who were the first are now holding some “exclusive” with an error.
To the one who finds this error and writes about it in the comments, I will send one copy as a gift. I am sure that the audience of Habr will easily cope with this task.
Now I order the boards with the corrected error, but I still do not update the photos. And I am even glad that those who were the first are now holding some “exclusive” with an error.
PCB Ruler - Ham Radio Line
My story will be incomplete if I do not introduce you closer to the ruler itself. All its features are shown in the picture, and I also have a video about it.
Of the main features:
- USB connector. If you solder some of the details, you can use them for dialing, checking for power in the USB connector and LEDs, or to “pull out” the voltage from the connector
- Component count in tapes. Seriously. I often recount the remains of small things before the next purchase
- Holes of different caliber with metallization. If you make holes with plating, then you will definitely order it in production. And just be upset if your feet go in too easily or too tightly.
- The key is 5.5. This is actually very rare, and in electronic equipment it is fasteners on M3 that are usually used.
- Correspondence table of metric and inch sizes of SMD components
All this is what I really used in these two months.
In the end, I think it turned out great. Yes, indeed, one can argue about the real usefulness of this gadget, but I just simply like the way it looks and when I did it, I only thought about what I want for myself.
Epilogue
Thank you for reading to the end. And thanks to those who supported me when I made a line of amateur radio! I hope my story turned out quite interesting. And even more, I hope that she will inspire someone to create their much cooler projects!
I liked it and I want more
I have an idea for another product.
I want to make a good servo tester with six channels and different control modes. This will allow the builder of drones / manipulators / copters / robots to test the operation of engines and mechanics in manual mode before the “regular brains” are ready. I will post the project files in open access (including here) so that you can make it at home. I already have the hardware and the main part of the software. If you answer a simple question at the end of the article - I will be very grateful.
Well, and if someone is interested in participating in this project, you can write to me through Habr or in Vkontakte (link is in the profile).
UPD: if you want to support the creation of a new product - do not deny yourself anything !
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/391395/
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