←back to thread

1901 points l2silver | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0s | source

Maybe you've created your own AR program for wearables that shows the definition of a word when you highlight it IRL, or you've built a personal calendar app for your family to display on a monitor in the kitchen. Whatever it is, I'd love to hear it.
Show context
jwr ◴[] No.35741387[source]
Oh, I think I have a good one. I had an HP-25 calculator as old as myself, and couldn't use it. The original battery pack contained two sealed NiCd cells, which obviously failed many years ago. Most people replaced their NiCd cells with new ones, then with NiMh cells, or even alkaline AA batteries. This was always problematic: newer batteries were slightly larger and never fit well. Also, the power consumption of a calculator with an LED display was significant, so frequent battery replacements were needed. And the original HP charger was risky and could easily destroy the calculator.

So I designed and built a wirelessly (Qi) charged battery pack for it.

https://partsbox.com/blog/wireless-charging-for-a-hp-25-calc...

After a year of use, it's totally over-engineered and has so much energy and so little idle power consumption, that I have to remind myself to charge sometimes, the thing lasts for months.

I'm the only user. There are many people who wanted to buy one, but the step from a hobby design to small-scale production is a big one and it simply doesn't make business sense. Especially with Li-Po batteries being difficult to ship and potentially a hazard. I guess maybe if I found a manufacturer that would be willing to take the design and manufacture it on demand, taking over all of the shipping/support issues…

replies(6): >>35742033 #>>35743345 #>>35744675 #>>35745112 #>>35745571 #>>35749246 #
1. MichaelZuo ◴[] No.35744675[source]
There probably are some contract manufacturers that'll handle all that, but they'll need a decent sized minimum order.

I doubt anyone would front the money to produce 100k of them (to recover the cost of molds) unless you literally give them the design fro free.

Maybe there are smaller companies using 3D printers willing to take on a 1k sized order?