Electronics for a living and for fun
I've been a member of LinkedIn for longer than I care to remember and only now have I stumbled onto this "post" page. I've no idea what to expect.. but hey, something new.
I've been involved with electronics since before I was a teenager. I recall my dad bought me a Philips Electronics kit, a kind of "Lego" for electronics. With it I put together the simplest of radios, transmitters and flashing lights... and never looked back. It didn't take me long to find companies such as "Bi-Pak" and "Bi-Pre-Pack" selling surplus electronic components dirt cheap (not to mention Clive Sinclair and his various devices for inspiration) and I've been designing and building stuff ever since then. Around 1982 I went into business designing and manufacturing and then after a hiatus of several years while concentrating on my role as IT Director of the FSB (which I did for 14 years ending only very recently) I'm drawn back to the idea of producing new and exciting products (a lot easier said than done).
I'm continuing to develop my skills and interests in home control electronics. 30 years ago this meant wires, today WIFI seems to be the way to go and there are no shortages of products out there to help you on that route. My current favourite is a generic range of products called ESP8266 by a company called Espressif. I've been working with their designs for some time now - the board layouts you see above were recently designed by a friend and colleague of mine and the software I'm putting in them makes for pretty powerful yet inexpensive home control. I'm also quite keen on and increasingly knowledgeable about the Raspberry Pi (and Orange Pi etc and increasing being fascinated by software such as Node-Red which offers incredible possibilities on these low cost platforms.
If you want to know more, simply head over to my tech blog.
That's a very good point but at this stage this hardware and software is very open - the advantage of that is the help and support you get from others of like mind. I've always found the way to tackle others copying you - is to be one ahead of the pack every time! The primary use for this projects is for my own use - actually there are two of us working on this as I hate doing board layouts and prefer the comfort of writing software. In a very short time I'm clearing off to Spain for the summer and hope to be taking the latest board with me to continue working on over there. Between plant watering, heating and lighting control, security and general monitoring there's no shortage of uses for this little item. If a spin-off turns commercial and makes us lots of money, that's nice, if not I've learned one hell of a lot in the struggle.
Hi Peter All sounds very interesting but as a marketing person I have to ask if you are protecting your ideas and progress in this new development ! I would hate you to miss out on the opportunity of being a very rich man one day !!