definitely interested. Kick starter is a good way to go as well. My key issue is where to mount the box. There is no where on the bike that is dry but the real issue on the 800GS is finding a spot that is protected. Epoxy sounds good, but there is a coating for electronics that made a brief buzz on the iphone forums. the coating protects the device even when submersed in a fish tank. That might be cool (if if works)
Wow. Really impressive list of features. I currently have an Easter Beaver fuse panel, a Skene LED controller and volt meter. I think it's a great idea, and the only thing that will limit sales would be the cost. It obviously has more parts (and capabilities) than a the other high quality fuse blocks on the market; will the cost be similar? Double? x5? Keep the updates coming!
The PDU will be in the $150 to $200 range I think. The cards range in the $15-$35 range depending on function. The Bluetooth module will be $75-100. The handle mounted multi-function computer will be more. It can't be cheap, but will be wicked cool. In order to build them we'll need to spend a lot of dough though. The tooling to build the first one will be around $25,000 (that's for the circuit board and epoxy encapsulation). That is certainly a challenge to overcome, but a worthy challenge for a worthy project. We are in the middle of long term testing. Lonestrom will post up some photos of his testing rig soon I hope.
A lot of these features are available on this product which has been on the market for over a year: http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=657988 -dman
Sure enough, never saw that before. Mine will be considerably smaller than that one (but only 40A as well). It certainly has the significant advantage of being available for purchase. The expandable card system we have and the programmability are a significant upgrade in terms of feature set... It's nice to know we are not alone.
I'm going to purchase teh Dispatch 1, unless you have a plan to bring yours to market soon. Can you give us a sense of yoru timing? thanks!
I guess that is a genuine problem. There are more folks out there that are smart enough to invent stuff, but if you can't get it on to the market in time, your chances remain slim anyway. It just needs a company to not only invent, but prototype, test, produce and market in short amounts of time.
It's about money and time. If I have $15K and 200 hours to toss at this I'd have it ready to go. I have a shortage of focus. It doesn't really bother me though. I've got mouths to feed and keeping FFs in new toys is about my 6th priority. That said, a winning lottery ticket would go a long way to making this a reality!
No, it will be dual band BT2 and BT4. It will also have an SDCard for storing your program and a microcontroller to doing all the processing. It's really a full blow custom designed computer. The BT radio itself will only cost me about $35. The rest of the money is for all the other parts and assembly and profit. It has to be water resistant which makes the assembly expensive...
I am sure you have done your homework believe me. But I couldn't resist asking you whether you know that there are companies out there who will build your circuit boards at custom specs for very reasonable prices, even A PIECE. You could ask yourself whether that 25.000 is called for or that you can bypass it, at least at first. You don't need to do everything yourself in the first series I would say?
I build hundreds of boards a year and I get them CHEAP! Like $1.40 delivered, but those are standard boards. This PDU requires 4 layers and 28 ounces of copper in order to handle the current and that means its not at all standard. In fact it is so non standard that I need to find very special producers. I've only found a handful of people who build these things and most won't take my calls (busy with military business). Those that do answer want top dollar and they will get it from me, and in fact have gotten it already.
Indeed. After much feedback from you guys, I've decided to simply the design some. Integrate bluetooth in directly. Remove the fuses completely and go 100% solidstate. Furthermore, because you will never need to touch it after you install it you will be able to put it almost anywhere (like under your fuel tank or hidden in a fairing). The spec I am aiming at now is 8 channel, all switched on the highside with current limits set via bluetooth. Each channel has it's own ammeter with real time user feedback on your mobile phone. Two channels will support 30A. 6 will support 15A. Max current in the 80-100A range pending testing. 8 soft switches that can be pulled high to 12V or pulled down to ground will also be available for users to use to control their circuits.
If I have to ask, I probably can't afford it, but do you have a ballpark figure for the selling price?
The target is < $150 (NO LONGER TRUE - SCOPE CREEP) I am working hard to get there. Dumping the fuses, which allows installation anywhere, means that I have to be able to measure the current effectively which is pricey. The current goals are impressive which means ultra high quality semiconductors. I don't know if I can meet he goal yet. The ARM Cortex M3 processor doing all the thinking isn't exactly cheap either. It will take a lot of creativity to meet the specs and price but if we do it's a slam dunk for all of us.
Sweet, it seems like a great price to me. Message created by tapping my fingers on a wee little screen.
