NEW PRODUCT ANNOUNCEMENT: ServoPAL, miniature dual servo pulser
Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)
Posts: 23,514
The Parallax ServoPAL is a tiny module that plugs in between your BASIC Stamp and two servo motors to pulse the motors so your PBASIC program doesn't have to. In addition, it provides an "alarm clock" function to perform timing in the background while the BASIC Stamp is busy with other tasks.
Features
Post Edited (Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)) : 11/7/2007 6:44:25 AM GMT
Features
- Plugs in between servo headers and servos: no wiring necessary.
- Simplifies PBASIC programming for both standard and continuous-rotation servos.
- Pulses two servos continuously based on single pulses received from the BASIC Stamp.
- Provides an alarm output (200mS to 30 min delay), which can be set by a single pulse.
- All interfacing is done by pulsing: no serial protocols to learn.
- Runs from the servo's power (up to 6.5VDC): no additional power source needed.
- Compact size: stackable side-to-side with additional units on 0.1" servo headers.
Post Edited (Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)) : 11/7/2007 6:44:25 AM GMT
Comments
just out of curiosity, why is Phil doing product announcements for Parallax?· Shouldn't that be the Marketing Department's job?
Post Edited (Steve Joblin) : 11/3/2007 1:34:24 AM GMT
The marketing department is really busy with the new website and catalog. Since I designed the product, I offered to help out with the announcement, and they agreed.
-Phil
http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?p=657281
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Think Inside the box first and if that doesn't work..
Re-arrange what's inside the box then...
Think outside the BOX!
Exactly so, but take a page from my Lessons of Life Collection, if you will -
When I owned my wholesale electrical supply business, a fair amount of the larger, incoming product material was pallatized on heavy oak pallets about 3' x 4'. Neither the garbage man nor the recycling yard wanted them, so I was faced with their disposal. I placed them out near the side of the highway with a sign that read "Free Pallets". They began the process of slowly aging in the sun over the next few weeks.
Then I remembered what every good sales and marketing person knows. That is that people need to see value in what they buy or own, before they make the purchase. I replaced the sign with one that read "Pallets for firewood $5.00 each". In one day all the pallets had been STOLEN, and I no longer had a disposal problem!
Raise your price to $7.95 (P&H included), promise domestic USPS Priority Mail delivery ($4.80 as I remember), and earn a bit of a profit. Something costing ONLY a dollar can't be very good, can it
Regards,
Bruce Bates
Post Edited (Bruce Bates) : 11/3/2007 5:56:26 AM GMT
I am perplexed though at the tiny numbers of people that visit and post on forums like this one and AVR Freaks for example. When you look at the population of the world you would think there would be at least a million people that might be interested in programming microcontrollers and the forum posts might be scrolling out of sight every hour or so. I guess I should make something that has to do with Football or Baseball or Nascar.
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Think Inside the box first and if that doesn't work..
Re-arrange what's inside the box then...
Think outside the BOX!
I feel your pain. When I first started selling products, I had very little profit in price (thinking I would sell lots). Ha. I only sold a couple and lost alot of money.
So I am force to raise the prices so that a distributor can make their markup (nothing against the distributor, they have to make money too), and still cover my costs.
Somthing that I would be willing to sell for $10, now I have to sell for $14 so I'm not under-cutting the distributor.
Then you have to advertise. I had a small Nuts and Volts ad for quite awhile now. At $150/month you have to sell alot of stuff to recoup that cost. So again the price must go up.
I think we have all been fooled by the "If you build it, they will come" alure of the internet. Trust me it doesn't work that way.
In an ideal world you could make a cool product, make a little website to sell it, everyone in the world that wanted it would find it and buy it.
If it wouldn't be for my consulting income, I would be losing alot of money. I don't sell my products to make alot of money. But it would be nice to at least break even. But I enjoy doing it, and I will probably continue doing it even though I "know" I'm going to lose money. Stupid business move I know. But for me it's not about the money anyway.
Maybe I should take a marketing class or something because I'm just as perplexed as you are. I look at something like the ipod (which is not a great mp3 player, and it alot more expensive then other mp3 players), but somehow Apple has convinced the kids that they "have" to have an ipod. My niece asked my about getting an mp3 player. I told her to get a certain one, and that "I" would not get an ipod and explained the reasons. Guess what, yep she bought the ipod. Why, "because all my friends have one". I asked her to name the friends that had one. She could only name two. I bet more of her friends had non-ipod mp3 players. But that is what advertising gets you. Well played Apple, well played.
Phil, sorry to hijack your thead. I'll gladly remove this post if you ask.
Bean.
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www.hittconsulting.com
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I'd be happy to provide some more interesting input if this topic were re-titled, and moved either to the Sandbox or off-list. I spent 20 years as a wholesaler and I helped out a number of up and coming small companies and individuals with promising products, by some very simple and convenient means.
Let me assure you that with a cooperative distributor network, you almost don't need a bank (financing) during the phase one growth stage. You really only need to convince the receptive distributor(s) that your risk is equal to theirs, and that you're willing to stand behind your product(s) 100% and possibly that you may be willing to offer (future) incentives at the start of a relationship. At the beginning of any such relationship often neither has all that much to offer.
Regards,
Bruce Bates
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I have start a new thread in the sandbox http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?p=687675
I an very interested in hearing your advice.
Bean
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www.hittconsulting.com
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First, ANY advice is just as worthwhile as what you pay for it, and mine is free
Second, the best I can do is to relate my own experiences and business relationships, both good and bad, in the hopes that others can learn and build on them, as I did.
Thanks for moving the topic.
Regards,
Bruce Bates
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Interesting discussion! I don't really consider the thread "hijacked"; plus the frequent additions do manage to keep it floating near the top!
Later today I'll add some behind-the-scenes details in the Sandbox showing how the ServoPAL and SoundPAL went from concept to product. But right now, yesterday's still-unfinished NY Times crossword beckons for my full attention. (%$#@! you, Will Shortz, and your insidiously addictive puzzles!)
-Phil