I-Blinds is back on kick starter this year. They were unable to reach the target last year and lets hope they get it now.
This is one of the most cost effective solutions to just tilt your blinds.
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please bring it on soon
Iâll back it⌠Weâll see where it goes.
EDIT: Backed for a pair. Iâll try to get my living room done (2 blinds). Iâll have to buy some 2 inch blinds though as I currently have 1 inchers.
Yeah, Iâve been waiting too. They just need to get the word out to the community better. At least we have a second chance.
This project failed to reach its funding goal the first time around (which isnât too unusual⌠similar result occurred with FlipFlic). I think they had a competitor with a much cheaper option running at the same time.
BTW: Watch for FlipFlic launching new design âsoonâ ⌠hmmm⌠they might even overlap dates.
(Oh⌠full disclosure: Iâm associated with FlipFlic for ZigBee / smart home integration duties).
###Edit:
Looks like FlipFlic has an official countdown of 13.5 days from ⌠now⌠posted on their website.
Ummm⌠Guess thatâs Monday March 14th? (Whew ⌠ahead of "Ides of March!).
Iâve never used Kickstarter before, can I order multiples of the âthree packâ bundle?
Itâs up to the Project ⌠sometimes in the details they will say âPick a Pledge Level and then add on $x per unit and weâll confirm the order after the campaign is closedâ.
But be very, very, very careful: Most âgadgetâ Kickstarters are late, then have bugs. And, a non-trivial number are âvery lateâ (WigWag is +2.5 years) or never deliver and there is no recourse.
It is better to support for a minimal amount (i.e., 1 unit) and then get more at retail. The slight price increase and possible extra wait time is worth the savings in future frustration.
Yep, itâs the reason why Iâve never backed anything before, but I want iBlinds to succeed this time and I have to pledge to help that happen then so be it.
Plus I like saving money and not only will it save me over a hundred bucks, but these start off way cheaper than the competition anyway, so I need them to succeed.
Thatâs the problem⌠youâre proceeding from a false premise.
The fact that they are offering âRewardsâ (not sales ⌠Kickstarter is not a store) at âway cheaper than competitionâ significantly increases their odds of running into problems or outright failure. InstaCube failed due to running out of funds; i.e., they under charged for their Rewards. Still havenât delivered to Backers. Outright fraud.
Kickstarterâs ought to be charging more, not less than retail and competitors, because they should be trying to earn surplus funds for ongoing operations. Well⌠fact is that many of them are actually test-marketing in order to give potential investors some sales data, but that also makes the delivery estimates subject to a lot of leeway.
The best part about Kickstarter is that the project has to be funded for the money to be taken. Not the case over on IndieGoGo. They can set up projects to fund regardless of whether the target is reached or not.
So if a project ends up doing miserably for some reason, youâre not out anything if it doesnât hit target.
But I can confirm that projects do tend to launch late. Out of all the projects I have backed on Kickstarter, only I think 2 have launched on time. Some projects that didnât were not even tech related (some minimalist footwear), and some are going through re-designs like the connected pillow pad Chrona.
I currently have 4 backed projects that are beyond the expected fulfillment date. And one that is now in the month of its fulfillment.
However, I still enjoy the process of finding cool and innovative projects and seeing the process for bringing them to market (a lot of project teams are very detailed and share a lot of awesome info with backers).
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Kickstarter is definitely a risk. You have to take the risk if you want to take advantage. I have backed 6 projects on Kickstarter until now. So far 4 of them have deivered and the max delay I had was 3 months beyond the promised date. The other 2 are slated for later this year and their updates say that they are on track, but it will slip by alteast a month for sure. It is true that the initial products will have bugs, but the good thing is that they will mostly be addressed quickly as well. But you need to have the apetite of addressing issues consistently. While choosing products I try to do some research to determine the feasibility of it happening. You can always contact the company and get details to understand their backing and their credibility.
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Iâd have hope that since @eric1500 is a part of this forum that he wouldnât do us over although I know that doesnât mean anything.
Additionally I hope that since his last attempt heâs already been working on refining the device and/or the process of getting the device to market, be it working out who is going to be the best supply or other methods.
Plus I have a predisposition for Z-Wave devices and companies that choose Z-Wave (yay!) over ZigBee (boo!)
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Itâs really cool! However my house has the 1" blinds, not looking to change them. However itâd be cool to take advantage of the twisting rod.
Thatâs irrelevant, actually, because any non-idiot Project Creator will set their goal amount as low as possible.
There are no negative consequences to setting a low Goal amount⌠In my opinion, Kickstarter should limit the maximum funding (i.e., pre-sales) to 2x the Goal Amount, thus ensuring:
(a) Project Creators donât get in over their heads with a project that has a scale 5x or 10x or 100x what they describe.
and
(b) Project Creators are incentivized to set higher Goal amounts in order to maximize the upper end of the funding limit, and thus are more likely to have to think very carefully about not using too low or too high Goals.
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Z-Wave has significant high licensing fees which are prohibitive to a startup, especially when there are quite a large (and growing) selection of ZigBee compatible smart home systems / hubs.
Also, with Z-Wave, the manufacturer has to make two (?) different versions for different frequencies internationally.
I presume I-Blinds is aware of the license requirements.
(FlipFlic has not ruled out Z-Wave as a future feature.)
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the thing I like about Z Wave is the fact that there is one maker of the chips so you get consistent results. Zigbee while cheaper could end up having more issues not due to the technology behind it but due to them trying too hard to pinch pennies and go too cheap.
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ok I have never done a kickstarter before. If I contribute and they dont get their goal I dont pay but if they hit their goal they get my money and if they never deliver I am just out the cash right?
Correct.
They are required to do everything possible to bring the product to life and fulfill the project or refund money if there is still money available (such as they determined they could not get the certification required to do the project, so they didnât even get to production stages so they may not have spent a significant amount of money to that point)
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ok honestly I am not seeing an upside to backing. If they have a good idea and a business plan why wouldnât they just get a bank to loan the startup?
I agree, however they typically donât want to set a goal so low that it looks like theyâre only after 5 thousand dollars for a larger project.
I think the 45,000 mark for this project is a good target (and itâs doing quite well on day 1!). It seems like a reasonable amount to request to be able to get production and certification, packaging, etc. The prototype was already working and itâs a more realistic timetable with 9 months until potential delivery compared to the 4 months his first go around.
Iâm not sure I agree about setting the maximum funding to 2x the goal amount because certain projects really donât have the same type of deliverables to users that are based on the different pledge levels.