[Seen on the Artisan Asylum discussion list.] A local hardware hacker/artist looking for collaborators.
The product, a Saikoduino, is a high powered LED controlled by an Arduino and running software so it responds to audio (among other things). See the last of the set of YouTube videos linked below for the best overview of what it does. If blinky lights are your thing, respond to the author via email at the address below. -Tom -------- Original Message -------- Subject: [discuss] Saikoduino call for interest. Date: Fri, 21 Dec 2012 00:47:30 -0500 From: Brian Neltner <[email protected]> Hi folks, Some of you may have gotten this independently; apologies if this is a duplicate. It was suggested I send my note here. For introduction, I'm an MIT alum, have worked with quite a few of you I suspect, and have been working on LED lighting projects for maybe six years for hacker/hobbyist use. Basically, this email is a general inquiry to see if any of you might be interested in being involved in the saikoduino project. Some of you may have already seen it at boston decom, burning man, or the somerville maker faire. I would request that if you are interested in any of the areas I mention briefly below, you email me privately and I'll put together individual lists of people interested in different conversations. The Saikoduino is an arduino programmable LED light that I am trying to sell for $70 each, including a RGB+white 12W LED, DMX in/out, built in microphone, and the ability to add wifi support. To do this, I need to figure out how to get the funding to make 1000 or so. Plus I'm always looking for collaborators on art projects. Here are some videos to give you a better idea if you haven't seen it before. Yes, it is what was in the hallucinatorator (or hypnocube) at Boston Decom. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtahuw-4TsY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4QSJlGQQmg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drSGwQWH0OQ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUoRSqJMXJQ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nu21KK0iyFU http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p37Dl4UdtPM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6w1wXggxwk As for what I'm most interested in discussing: 1. My current manufacturing cost is too high to sell them for $70. I really don't want to sell for more than that. How to get this cost down? I have lots of documents explaining why it's so expensive, but I don't see a way to do this without cutting functionality. 2. I'd like to donate some fraction of the lights either to primary schools or to hacker spaces in the US and abroad. How does one do this in a way that is transparent? 3. We've had trouble getting DMX working and wifi is sketchy. Free prototype light for anyone who can get it to work reliably! 4. Artists doing installations with ideas of how these could be used in cool new ways. Coders interested in developing cool new effects welcome! If you're interested, take a look at the videos of what we're currently doing and if any of that is inspiring let me know! 5. A 10x10 array would cost ~$7k, and would have 1.2kW of LED light that automatically responds to music. If I could sell a few dozen of those to dance clubs that would make bootstrapping much easier. 6. How to spread the word about a project like this so that the eventually kickstarter succeeds? So, if any of these topics are things you think you might be interested in collaborating on, offering advice, or just being kept up to date on please shoot me a private email and let's jazz! Brian _______________________________________________ Hardwarehacking mailing list [email protected] http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/hardwarehacking
