I-Blinds is back on Kickstarter

no chance i’m funding something almost a year out… i did it once with pebble, forget it… way to long to wait.

So would you rather fund a Project that estimates only 4 months (WigWag) thay turns into over 2.5 years (and counting)? The estimated delivery has zero relation to the actual deliver date.

I strongly applaud Creators who use longer estimated timeframes… They have a chance at surprising their Backers pleasantly, rather than the customary approach.

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Ah…the million dollar question. The answer - because you don’t have to pay the money back if you fail like you would have to pay back a loan. In a loan there is usually a way for them to recover some or all of the money via collateral even if the business fails. There’s a degree of risk to both the bank and the lender. With Kickstarter the funders accept all the risk more like a VC firm.

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and the idea person keeps 100% control of the company V/S a VC firm

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There is none. That’s an observation that most people don’t understand. The trivial savings from the supposed eventual “retail price” (i.e, irrelevant, because it is impossible to firmly set retail price until production is full scale, market is extensively analyzed, retail channels established…) does not make up for the tremendous risk of delay and poor product.

Just ask SmartThings backers. :smile:

But Kickstarter continues to be a successful channel due to consumers impulsive impatience, inattention to reality (not a STORE!), and inability to assess risk against the few dollars in savings.

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no comment…

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The only time there is an upside is when the company is established and using Kickstarter as a storefront and offers either a discount or early access or something similar.

Pebble definitely didn’t NEED to come back to Kickstarter to get their latest watch funded, but they did. They used it as a store front.

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Actually that makes me happier about it, not the other way. This date gives them a little under a year which is more realistic than what most campaigns set which is why the majority of them are delivered late, because they are completely unrealistic about their production time because they don’t want to set a long term production because of this kind of mentality.

Prime example was WigWag, who’s campaign ended in August and they promised a delivery time 3-4 months later in November which is insane and doesn’t give me any confidence that they know what they are doing.

This device is relatively ‘simple’ I bet it’ll take them longer to get FCC/CE/etc approval than anything else.

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Not good with DIY, else i would have gone with the spark core build…

i backed them (again)… Hope the project gets funded and the team delivers (on time)…

the app looks a lot like ST

Not a surprise. The guy behind the project is a member here

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It IS SmartThings.

I don’t know if they are also writing a custom mobile App. (FlipFlic has their own cool App as well as direct integrations).

i think the blinds require a zwave hub and the interface will depend on that hub’s mobile UI

there is no mention of a zwave hub in the pledge…

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Since it is a Z-Wave device, it should pretty much work with any Z-Wave hub (Including SmartThings). My guess is that it may show up as a dimmer switch (Just like the Keen Vents). You can then set the dim level to any setting to align the tilt in accordance.

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Hey @BatraD, did HAB ever give any more insight into his reply to you about manual controls? That’s bugging me more and more. Do you know what the buttons are for on the top of the unit?

Yup, look at the slider in the image:

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@johnconstantelo no work from HAB on the manual switch… they did say it would be an optional pledge soon in one of their updates…

i think the buttons maybe for ZWAVE paring / exclude…not sure…

i could just install a couple of Aeon Minimotes or another button next to the blinds to provide local control if nothing else comes through the team…

the MySmartblinds kit looks way better, but there is no integration with ST and the price is more than double…

Still have 2 more weeks before the project is funded to see if they provide us with an answer…

it mounts inside the blind I dont see why id doesnt disengage and let you use your manual controls when you are not sending it a signal

they make you take out the manual reel as the motor slides over the rod and sits in the middle…

if the unit has ports for manual switch it would be easy to add a push button or something similar to open / closel manually…

If it had a clutch or some sort of spring loaded gear engagement mechanism, that should work, but I bet it doesn’t (for many reasons). I would be curious to know what would happen if someone puts the manual reel back on. Probably strip the gears?

I’d also be curious to know how it syncs with the position of the slats when it’s first installed. Do you have to set the slats to 1/2 open, closed, or what?

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