Out of ideas - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / projects

author: JustClaire
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: April 06, 2019, 07:16:17 pm
content: Hi! Im new on this forumMy problem is: im out of ideas. I want to make a diy kit and currently going through different ideas for what would be actually useful as a kit/standalone open source product(maybe). My ideas were: waveform generator, digital multimeter, power supply, radio, etc. The problem is: all of this already exist in some form of a diy kit/project or would be rather expencive so people would rather get a commercial option.. What do you think would be useful(and interesting) as a kit?P.S. Sorry for my bad english, im from russia

author: retrolefty
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 06, 2019, 08:03:24 pm
content: How about a nuclear reactor controller kit?

author: mkschreder
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: April 06, 2019, 08:51:47 pm
content: You need to start from a problem the solution for which people would be willing to pay money for. If you start from a problem then ideas will come.Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk

author: branadic
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 06, 2019, 09:01:25 pm
content: Here is my idea for a kit:You know those wine/beer chillers HERP Nursery II used as a low cost thermal chamber for hobby electronics? What if you develope a programmable controller for it to run programmed temperature profiles?-branadic.

author: jonroger
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: April 06, 2019, 09:08:21 pm
content: A small AC booster/STATCOM. Store energy in capacitors and provide a boost when an inverter or other limited source attempts to start a load with a start-up surge.

author: james_s
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 06, 2019, 09:36:28 pm
content: There are some items that always seem to be popular, audio amplifiers can be made in many different varieties. Radio transmitters, analog TV transmitter, RF amplifiers, internet connected gadgets, unique clocks, there are all sorts of things that make good kits.

author: Conrad Hoffman
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 06, 2019, 10:29:09 pm
content: My hobbies all feed on each other. What other things are you interested in?

author: chickenHeadKnob
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 07, 2019, 05:20:49 am
content: Quote from: JustClaire on April 06, 2019, 07:16:17 pmYou have outlined the essential barrier to the kit business. It simply does not make economic sense to have low experience hobby people clumsily soldering components when you now can have small volume factory made runs of any electronic module. More over those modules can be fully tested and programmed much more efficiently at the assembly time than they can in anyone's home lab. Dave Jones has some experience here and has come to the same conclusion even though people keep on asking him to get back into kit making.I understand peoples desire to pretend that they are building something themselves but have all the "hard stuff" like design and the run around needed to acquire components done for them. Those same people however don't want to pay a significant premium for a kit when they see the fully built item can be purchased for less on ali-express/ebay.

author: JustClaire
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: April 07, 2019, 07:27:42 am
content: Quote from: chickenHeadKnob on April 07, 2019, 05:20:49 amYea, i totally aggree. I was thinking of making a good waveform generator kit, but there are already tonns of crappy ones on ebay and whatnot and a better one would be expeencive so people would rather buy a commercial item.

author: Doctorandus_P
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 07, 2019, 09:24:13 am
content: How about a wireless extension cord?

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: April 07, 2019, 09:31:08 am
content: Quote from: chickenHeadKnob on April 07, 2019, 05:20:49 amYep, kits are a mugs game, been there, done that. You'll constantly inundated with queries from clueless people, it will eat your life away.If only work for the like of Adafruit that have a massive staff and a online community that can take care of that support stuff for you.

author: JustClaire
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: April 07, 2019, 11:31:40 am
content: Quote from: EEVblog on April 07, 2019, 09:31:08 amI see, thanks anyway!

author: tkamiya
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 07, 2019, 07:57:49 pm
content: That aren't too many things solution doesn't already exist, either a completed commercial option or another kit.When I built kits, FUN factor is my motivation. I ignore economic sense. Heathkit went under many years ago. What's avilable today as a kit is often a combination of existing functionality or something but a different approach.Like right now, I'd love to have a combination buffer board / distribution board that does both 10MHz clock and 1 pps buffer that are expandable. Say if I buy a kit from you, I will get a two channel in and 2 channel out of both. I want to be able to go up to 4 channels each. By populating more, I get more channels.If you can make a kit like that, I'll buy a few from you. I do not know if there is a general interest.

author: CatalinaWOW
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 08, 2019, 03:35:32 am
content: If a kit is going to have any kind of a chance it is going to have to go to a market that wants to build things electronic related. For electronics kits that means folks like those on this forum. And as pointed out testing and building just doesn't make economic sense when it competes with a Chinese factory. So it has to have other things going for it. One example is something that has such a small market that the factories don't get involved. Or things that with large amounts of tweaking and adjustment can provide better performance than the mass produced stuff.So perhaps the kit would be a simple receiver front end with the primary "kit" element being selection of the best low noise component out of a large number of samples in the kit, including finding the low noise operating point in terms of bias etc. The kit would include components to build the evaluation rig and instructions on how to do the selection.I think if you look at it this way you can find a number of small markets for kits. But to avoid the problems Dave mentioned you might have to devise some sort of quiz to evaluate whether someone would be allowed to buy your quiz. This elitism element might be just the ticket to get your sales up a bit higher while keeping your support costs lower. You can even sell T-shirts: I'm Smart Enough to Build a JustClaire Kit.

author: james_s
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 08, 2019, 04:32:56 am
content: Seems better to just say you are one person and cannot offer individual support for your kits then direct people to a forum such as this one. If I was presented with a quiz I'd just leave and look elsewhere, I refuse to play games like that. If it said there's no support available you're on your own to build this then no problem.

author: OwO
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 08, 2019, 04:55:39 am
content: The other problem is that logistics are hard (and ex🅱ensive), but this isn't specific to kits. Snail mail is horrible in almost every country except USA and China. Usually international packages (not letters) are on the order of $10 and do not include tracking. The lack of tracking is a big no-no for e-commerce. To get reasonable rates from DHL or Fedex you have to have on the order of 300 shipments a month, and even then the price is still steep for international shipments (~$30 to $50).

author: rahandford
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: April 08, 2019, 04:56:13 am
content: I am working on a similar idea at the moment

author: maxwell3e10
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: April 08, 2019, 05:12:55 am
content: Low-noise circuits is a good idea, for example bipolar transistor amplifiers. There are a lot of potential parts to test, each part is very cheap, but it would be more economical to buy them in quantity and send everyone 3 pieces of each. One could setup a simple circuit that connects to an audio card to make a spectrum analyzer and measure the noise.One reason I have bought kits is to assemble them with kids. Here it is more for fun: Halloween, Christmas decorations, motion activation, flashing lights, etc. There are some from Elenco, but with a little imagination one can think of more permutations.