Most of us have heard of Kickstarter.

Well, I just launched my first project. I would very much appreciate it if you backed it.

This ends on Fri, Feb 5 2016 2:05 PM EST.


If you do decide to back it, please post about it.

EDIT: At the request of Comic, I will tell you all about this project.

What I am trying to do is to make it so that a bicycle and its rider is as visible as can be. Yes, we all know that we aren't supposed to ride at night, but we all know that most of us do anyways. On the other hand, I need to create a prototype first. This is what this project is focused on. This prototype is planned to be water resistant, as well as cold- and heat-resistant.

Please note that I have no prototype yet. If this gets fully funded, though, that will change within about a month of getting everybody their rewards. Currently, I do have a paper plan, as well as drawings, of what I want to produce. That's where I am right now.

What I need to do:

1.Get this fully funded.
2. Order a 3D printer and a laptop.
3. Make (and ship) all rewards to backers.
4. Begin making prototypes of bike lights.

I read through your Kickstarter and I have some pointers. Please note that I do not wish to discourage you, but I am giving you some advice that will come off as blunt and harsh. I want you take this advice and grow from it.

1. 25,000 bucks is A LOT for a prototype of this nature. You don't say why you need 25k. Are you using high cost materials? Are you renting time in a wind tunnel? A swimming pool? How expensive of a 3D printer and/or laptop? Why 25k?
   
   
2. why a 3D printer? Can't you do the same with some CAD renderings first? Get it down to 3-4 designs and send those off to be printed? I'll admit it isn't as fast as a 3D printer in your possession but you'll probably spend make in filament and time just getting the thing to print plus failures. And rapid prototyping can be a bad thing. I don't see this as a smart purchase for this project.
   
   
3. Your rewards are not incentivizing. Most importantly, what are these credits? I've never seen credits on a webpage. Okay, admittedly they've probably been masked as something like "supporters" or even "backers" as an additional page on the product website. But credits are usually something associated with a media production like a movie. Then there's that mug with my name? Even the glow in the dark options are not interesting.
   
   
4. Your risks and rewards section is abysmal. There are already these types of lights on the market and likely being funded through other crowd funding campaigns. What sets yours apart? Is it gunna work from the energy created while riding? How are you going to market your creation against the others that a re out there?
   
   
5. Why are you trying to fund a prototype? I find this odd. Most prototypes are funded privately and then reach out publicly once the company/creator has a final version. I don't see a compelling reason why I should back an undeveloped prototype. There may be exceptions, such as Oculus Rift was a prototype when it first went live on Kickstarter, but I think they had a solid direction and game plan which eventually changed as technology improved and acquisitions were made.

You can certainly ask for funding on a prototype but everything about your campaign is not compelling. I encourage you to reevaluate this project.

Secondly, in spirit of Cemetechs Quality over Quantity mantra. We would appreciate it if you could describe your campaign in the first post so those who are interested can continue to click through or carry on.

Post Vacation Edit:

Look, I don't want to discourage you from this. Though I will probably do a decent job below. But I'm trying to show you the world of logistics and planning. There's a lot of things you need to consider and I believe you're in for far more work than you anticipate if your campaign is successful.

On your highest tier, the mug for 30 bucks, you'd need to sell roughly 834 to make up the amount you seek. You limit yourself to 100. With both limited campaign donations, you have $4500. Which means you need to make up $20.5k from backers wanting their name 3D printed or with a bracelet. Which means, you'll need at most 1,367 additional people to pledge $15. Which that will go down if folks want a bracelet instead. So, what kind of logistics are you looking at?

If you 3D printed all the backers, which using the above example will give you 1,517 3D printed names. And let's assume each print takes 2 hours. If you were to print 24 hours a day 7 days a week. It would take 126.4 days. This assumes no messed up prints, no down time (i.e. you fell asleep and the next print didn't start until 8 hours later, filament mucking up the extruder, changing filament colors, cleaning/changing the bed, etc). Convert that to months and you have 4 months of solid printing. You won't have a lot of time to print prototypes. Your campaign ends at the start of February and assuming you got everything together relatively fast, and everything goes perfect you'll finish printing all the backers around mid June.

So, it's feasible to meet the July 2016 ship date! But you'll go through a metric ton of filament, depending on the printer you may need to buy new beds every once in a while, you're costs for the 3D names along are going to be substantial. I've never done a crowd funding campaign but I've backed a few and this is a mix of my observations when baking with what I'd consider when creating a campaign.

I'm here, and I'm sure other folks in the community are as well, if you have any questions.

Comic: Thanks for the advice, and I will definitely restructure the project. I'll probably relaunch it.

I do understand that this is constructive criticism, so no worries there.


And as for funding a prototype, that is because I need something to prototype it (i.e., a 3D printer). This way, I can make something, try it out, and go from there.

Yes, I would love to do CAD renderings first, and post pictures, but

1. I don't have a computer of my own, and
2. I have no CAD software of my own, although I do have a lot of experience with CAD and 3D printing(4 years in high school).

This project would allow me to get a 3D printer and a computer, and get it on its feet and moving forward. Besides... I used to live in the Mojave Desert, and in Minot, ND, where (combined) I've endured temperature ranges from -75 degrees Fahrenheit, to 125 degrees Fahrenheit. And every single light that I have bought fails in either of those conditions. In Nevada, the electronics fried; in North Dakota, the circuit board froze, and then broke in half while I was pulling it off of its mount. I know this because the entire light just split in half (casing included). So instead of spending more money on useless lights, I decided to make my own. (I now realize that I should have put this in the project in the first place. Sigh.)

That's what inspired to start this up.

And again, Comic, thank you for putting in the time to do all of that math and point me in a right direction. It is much appreciated.

Have you taken a look at Google Sketchup? It's very easy to get started with, and quite powerful. Sketchup is free for educational and non-commercial use, although if you use it for a commercial project, you need to pay for it. Good luck on this project, and I hope you get the logistics of materials, modelling, and fabrication worked out.

Edit: Sorry, I forgot about the best option of all for a beginner, TinkerCAD. It's a webapp and lets you directly export .STL files for 3D printing. That plus ShapeWays could get you some prototypes for dozens of dollars instead of thousands.

I used to work with Sketchup. Not too bad, but I prefer Inventor, because that's what I worked with the most. And it has a lot of features, so that's a plus.

Also, the 1 quarter of a school year that I worked with Sketchup, it was no good for what I wanted to do. So thank you, but no thank you. Besides, even if I got that, I don't have a computer of my own to run it on.