Kickstarter Electronics

pettitda over 10 years ago

Have you supported a Kickstarter campaign? Would you do it again? Was the quality of the reward what you expected?

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shabaz over 10 years ago +6

Hi David, I've only supported one Kickstarter with a reasonable sum of money (and I did get a reasonable product back, although severely delayed). However, I've been referred many KS projects by friends…
gadget.iom over 10 years ago in reply to shabaz +4

A very entertaining response shabaz . Thanks. There certainly are some "interesting" campaigns out there, this one always stuck in my head: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/779686749/pckeylock-physical…
Gough Lui over 10 years ago +4

I suppose one has to look at it as a way of finding capital for their project, and it's more-so a "donation" to their cause with the "possibility" of getting something back. Venture capitalists, flush…

mcb1 over 9 years ago in reply to land-boards

I think David asked if you backed any ... not started any.
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shabaz over 9 years ago in reply to mcb1

Hi Mark, it is possible to see these via the Kickstarter creator profile. It says 11 were backed all around the same period in 2014 (around May-Aug 2014), all were unsuccessful ones. Then one was backed in April 2015, again an unsuccessful one.
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land-boards over 9 years ago in reply to shabaz

I most recently backed this unsuccessful one https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/logos-electro/arachnio?ref=users
I thought it was a good idea. Sad that it didn't go through. The thing that he did was to put the WiFi onto the Arduino card. I didn't care for the form factor of the card. Fine for breadboarding but I really want the cheapest WiFi node I can put somewhere. For instance drop a 1wire thermal sensor in the basement to see what the temperature of my beer is at. The ESP8266 and Arduino Nano seem like a good approach. I did a card for that myself. No good price point for the card to Kickstarter.

Probably was his goal was unrealistic. He got a lot of backers - 179 but less than half way to the goal.

To me if you have already gone to the effort to make the prototype why make such high goals? Only if you want to do it overseas, I suppose. Then you need a certain volume. I would have been OK with paying US wages to have them built here at a higher price and have less backers. But that's a different formula.
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mcb1 over 9 years ago in reply to land-boards

I backed Eric and Digispark
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/digistump/digispark-the-tiny-arduino-enabled-usb-dev-board?ref=nav_search
His project went ballistic, but he stepped up to the plate and sorted it.
Because of the support he provided I backed his others. (except for the trailer)
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/digistump/digispark-the-tiny-arduino-enabled-usb-dev-board/creator_bio

I also backed the RFDuino, UDOO and PiScreen
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1608192864/rfduino-iphone-bluetooth-40-arduino-compatible-boa/description
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/udoo/udoo-android-linux-arduino-in-a-tiny-single-board?ref=nav_search
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2135028730/piscreen-a-35-tft-with-touchscreen-for-the-raspber?ref=nav_search

The PiScreen was disappointing in that the communication was .... well non existent is an understatement.
It was late due to the availability issues (apparently) but that doesn't stop communication or answering queries.

I also backed VoCore
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/vocore-a-coin-sized-linux-computer-with-wifi/x/8119029#/

In each case I supported them because the cost was realistic for what was on offer AT THE TIME.

I backed a few others that never made it off the ground.

I would do it again IF I can see value for what I receive. I don't freely hand out money and can't see why I should.
In each case the rewards have matched my expectations or contributions.

Mark
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shabaz over 9 years ago in reply to mcb1

Sorry, when I said there were 12 backed, that was misleading.
Technically none were backed with any money, since they were all unsuccessful.
Some surely ought to have been predicted to be unsuccessful..

Of the 12 (all unsuccessful) projects:
$2 towards the Fantastic Lamp (the only backer)
$1 toward "I am making lettuce to eat" (the only backer) and
$1 toward "Can you dig it" (again the only backer) and
$1 toward "New CD" (the only backer).
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musskopf over 9 years ago

I've supported https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1897710270/toaster-dual-output-usb-step-up-breadboard-power-s, which I already received the reward.

And also my own project , which is in production at the moment: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/340271897/whisper-node

I was always a bit scared of Kickstarter campaigns, but I ended up creating my own project there and it turned out to work well. Not only to raise some funds up-front, but also to know people interested in your idea. I certainly will support other projects in the future, but will try to stay away from the ones that look to good to be reality!

Cheers!
Mike M.
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