[HH] Blink(1)

[Drew Van Zandt]

RGB LED $0.06 shipper from China in qty.

$0.155 with controller built in to LED. (WS2811, not USB.)

Chinese knockoff could be $5 including PCB, slow boat shipping, most
likely.  Certainly true in qty >= 10.

*
Drew Van Zandt
Cam # US2010035593 (M:Liam Hopkins R: Bastian Rotgeld)
Domain Coordinator, MA-003-D.  Masquerade aVST
*


On Sun, Dec 23, 2012 at 2:46 AM, Tom Metro <tmetro+hhacking at gmail.com>wrote:

> Federico Lucifredi wrote:
> > I am playing with the Blink(1), an USB-connected RGB LED that
> > kickstarter seeded a few months ago:
> >   http://thingm.com/products/blink-1.html
>
> Nice.
>
> It's trivially simple (in terms of outward functionality), and yet I can
> imagine several uses for it. It's one of the few Kickstarter projects
> I've seen that struck me as practical and useful.
>
>
> > Also, the ability to create color animations or blinking patterns
> > makes it even more flexible than a plain "Red Alert" signal.
>
> Sure, but is it worth $30? Probably not. At least not for most typical
> applications. If it is successful, no doubt there will be a Chinese
> knock-off for $5 that just uses a simple single-color LED, instead of an
> RGB LED with the ability to do fancy color fades. Unfortunate for the
> developers, as they deserve to get the sales themselves, but you have to
> match your price point to your application. I think at a $5 to $10 price
> point they'd sell in excess of 3 to 6 times what they'll sell at $30.
>
> Some of their other products seem more worthy of the price points. For
> example, they seem to be heading in the direction of offering tiny
> battery powered RGB LEDs which can be remotely controlled via IR. (They
> sort of have the pieces to do this, but currently you have to plug
> together several separate products.) With that product I can see someone
> using it for decorations and theatrical set pieces where the color and
> blink pattern control would be important.
>
>
> > Quite nice if you want a rack of machines to signal you something,
> > and they don't have a built in light for this purpose.
>
> Yes. Assuming your server has a USB port mounted somewhere that you'll
> be able to see it. Though I suppose a short USB pigtail cable will
> remedy that if you don't.
>
> The USB parallel port adapter, which I wrote about previously, I traded
> for a USB serial adapter, which is no longer needed for the intended
> project (found a better solution), so I was actually thinking of
> repurposing it as a Blink(1) equivalent. It will be far simpler. Likely
> just a single one-color LED.
>
> I wonder why they chose the HID USB profile, rather than serial? Vendors
> of oddball stuff often seem to use HID and say they do because it is
> more universally supported and doesn't require drivers, but isn't that
> also true for serial? (For example, the first generation of Zwave USB
> interfaces used serial, and I think all of the current generation use HID.)
>
>  -Tom
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