ngamboa parent
I wonder if we're on the brink of a world where hardware development is as easy as software engineering. Projects like this make me think so.
If you asked me 3 weeks ago I’d think you’re crazy, but this was genuinely not that hard. Honestly I had never even touched CAD before this.
I think my next challenge is supply chain, sourcing a custom board, and figuring out unit economics for a product version.
Hardware development still has fundamental physical constraints that software doesn't - material costs, manufacturing complexity, and safety requirements create barriers that CAD and 3D printing alone can't overcome.
I noted in a different discussion here that I'm about to the point where my next computer is going to be a Raspberry Pi 500 w/ a second gen. Wacom One 13 display w/ stylus and touch and a battery, for which assemblage I'll make a folding tablet shell...
Or, maybe it will be a shell/case for the Pilet which I'll be getting from Kickstarter.
Development, yes. Production, no. That's really where the rubber meets the road. Upfront costs, profit margins, and scaling challenges, are not comparable.
Probably not, even something really fast like a 3D print still takes hours to “compile” so to speak.
But, it looks to be a whole lot easier than it used to be!