Boldport, one of the interwebs better known hardware design guys went on a rant on how prototyping is so very different from production. If you have ever held a solder gun, or intend to, you should read this.
Why did your "hardware startup" Kickstarter fail? Because none of your prototyping skills are required for production. source
Skill | Prototyping | Production |
---|---|---|
coding | sloppy | efficient |
technical | stack overflow | $$$ consultants |
sourcing | clickety-clack | interacting with distributors |
iterating quickly | free next day delivery | 12+6 week lead time and shipping from China |
testing | woop, it works! | build jigs, test suite, train people |
support | wha? | oh shit. |
circuit design | cuta-and-pasta | actually need to know what you are doing |
pcb design | this Arduino shield would do | Eagle isn't fun -> $$$ consultants |
enclosure | over-night 3D print. easy. | tooling costs. Yikes ! |
shipping | FedEx overnight | holy damn, shipping is expensive, unreliable and lossy |
breadth | I'll wing it. How hard can hardware be? | Crap. I'm a fraud |
packaging | I'll just fold these 5 boxes | 5 days folding 5k boxes isn't fun. Where do I even keep them?! |
compliance | certification schmertification. | ESD, EMC, FCC, CE are expensive things. |
pricing | unit cost should be $5 with $4.5 profit | It's so damn complicated. I'm about to lose a lot of money |
knowledge | I know everything | I wish I knew about that much sooner |
punctuality | 3 months delivery max. | Crap, OK, I'll write the blog post explaining why we're 3 year late |
PS: I put this here so that I can use this in future slidedecks.
https://twitter.com/boldport/status/727162802734030850
https://twitter.com/boldport/status/727162671200624640
https://twitter.com/boldport/status/727162971068178432
https://twitter.com/boldport/status/727163319304511489
https://twitter.com/boldport/status/727163537701875712
https://twitter.com/boldport/status/727164084995629056
https://twitter.com/boldport/status/727164450856382465
https://twitter.com/boldport/status/727164843124469760
https://twitter.com/boldport/status/727165509939122176
https://twitter.com/boldport/status/727166618367889408
https://twitter.com/boldport/status/727168164505726976
https://twitter.com/boldport/status/727169300818186240
https://twitter.com/boldport/status/727171309940183041
https://twitter.com/boldport/status/727176890176380929
https://twitter.com/boldport/status/727177326526607360
https://twitter.com/boldport/status/727177788311101440