Professional Advise?

[BrendonV]

Hi everyone,

I have been following dave for some time now. Basically I'm noooooooooo expert at all in the field of electronics. Im barely a novice. But I have a great idea that applies to the industry i work in. I need advise on how to go about getting my project off the ground. I know exactly what I want the hardware / software to do but I dont know enough about designing electronics the proper / calculated / tested to perfection way. Where do I start? Who shall I consult with? How much will it cost?

I would love to work with Dave but hes a very busy man these days. Does he still consult?
Thanks for any advise you could give.

[Bored@Work]

Try to offer Dave a 10% share in your future company *duck and cover* 

[SeanB]

Depends what your idea is, and where you are. Do not discuss this idea on an open forum ( I know, spoiling the fun for the rest of us) but rather think about your idea, your industry and if this has been done before. Do some research and refine your idea so that you are sure that this is an original idea and is of benefit. After doing that, come back and see.

[BrendonV]

Thanks for the advise. I wouldnt talk about it openly and I have really thought about the need for the item. It is a specific industry controller that has never been done before. Im in Australia and have worked in the industry I want to design this for 12 years. Has anyone been through the electronics design process with a consultant before?

[SeanB]

Well, send Dave a PM, and it will be up to him. His site, his decisions and such. From what I have seen here he is an all right guy, and should either be approachable, or will give you good advice and possibly some reference to others if he is unable to help.

Good luck with your thought, and hopefully you will bring it to fruition. When you do so then come back here and tell your story, for all of us to see.

[IanB]

This area is really tricky.

Not wanting to dispirit you or anything, but there is a saying that "ideas are free", and putting this another way round, ideas themselves don't have a monetary value.

In practical terms, an invention does not begin to have value until there is a working, demonstrable prototype with full design and construction details available. (This is the point where you would have enough information to hand to make a reasonable patent application.)

It is highly unusual to have an original idea in a mature industry. Useful ideas come out of needing to solve a particular problem, and are you the first one to need to solve this problem? If you are the first or only one facing this problem, where is your potential market? Now suppose instead that many people face this problem every day, then surely many others will have thought of your solution before you? In which case you have to ask yourself, why has nobody acted on it yet?

Are there some technical barriers to implementing this idea that make it impractical? Is it going to be so expensive to build that it doesn't save any money? These are all questions to ask yourself.

Now it could be that you have thought of a truly novel and unique solution to a problem that nobody really has come up with before, in which case you could succeed. In that case, you are the one with the motivation to see it through. Anyone you consult with will be commercially motivated and will want paying for their work. That's probably not a good place to begin. You can easily end up pouring lots of money down the drain if nothing comes of it.

I think you have two choices. Either find a potential partner in the same industry with the vision to understand the utility of your idea and also with the technical skills to help prototype it. But then what will you bring to the party? Or, you need to learn the required technical skills yourself so that you can prototype it and make it work. This will be a long and painful process, but you will be the better for it.

Needless to say, I think learning how to do this yourself is the best option. Only by learning the technical skills required will you truly understand whether your idea is really practical and also keep control and ownership of the idea.

[IanB]

Also, one thing about potential inventions is to keep a notebook/journal where you write everything in dated entries, all ideas, all experiments, all drawings. You can periodically file a notarized copy of this with a lawyer. This helps to protect your rights and ownership if what you come up with does turn out to have value.

Another point is whether you are employed in the industry you refer to? If so, you will not be able to independently own or invent anything in that industry without being in dispute with your employer. Usually your employer will have ownership rights to anything you invent while in their service. Your choices might be to go to your employer and see if they see the value and want to take it on with their resources (in which case you will only get a nominal financial consideration). Or you may have to resign and go it alone.

[Mechatrommer]

I need advise on how to go about getting my project off the ground

[EEVblog]

No, sorry, I am not available for consulting any more, at any price 
I simply do not have the time nor the inclination to work on other people's stuff, I have too much of my own stuff to work on which I get much more enjoyment from.
Probably not surprisingly, I get approached all the time about stuff like this, and even offered shares in the their startup etc. But the answer is always the same.

IanB nailed it.

You have the options of:
1) finding someone to partner with, which is pretty hard unless you both came up with the idea. Trying to sell your idea to someone else is not easy.
2) open up your idea (or parts of it) on a forum like this and get design input to either you do it yourself, or at least get a better idea of what may be required. I would suggest you do this at least on some level.
3) Hire a consultant engineer to turn your idea into a prototype or production. Expect $100-$150/hr easily. And engineering does not happen overnight, it takes a lot of time and therefore a lot of $$$$$. This consultant won't necessarily give a toss about your idea, they will often just do what you tell them to do. Most will offer suggestions of course, but it's not in their interest to tell you your idea is impractical or has already been done, or will be too expensive for the market etc They will hapilly take your money and design your your Handifax 1000 

Dave.

[T4P]

No, sorry, I am not available for consulting any more, at any price 
I simply do not have the time nor the inclination to work on other people's stuff, I have too much of my own stuff to work on which I get much more enjoyment from.
Probably not surprisingly, I get approached all the time about stuff like this, and even offered shares in the their startup etc. But the answer is always the same.

IanB nailed it.

You have the options of:
1) finding someone to partner with, which is pretty hard unless you both came up with the idea. Trying to sell your idea to someone else is not easy.
2) open up your idea (or parts of it) on a forum like this and get design input to either you do it yourself, or at least get a better idea of what may be required. I would suggest you do this at least on some level.
3) Hire a consultant engineer to turn your idea into a prototype or production. Expect $100-$150/hr easily. And engineering does not happen overnight, it takes a lot of time and therefore a lot of $$$$$. This consultant won't necessarily give a toss about your idea, they will often just do what you tell them to do. Most will offer suggestions of course, but it's not in their interest to tell you your idea is impractical or has already been done, or will be too expensive for the market etc They will hapilly take your money and design your your Handifax 1000 

Dave.

You'll be crying when the next Steve Wozniak comes along, and happens to have the equivalent of Steve Jobs with him... LOL!!

That rides on their ole' fame and "designs" (They don't anymore ... they use the samsung's parts AND soc design altogether + the screens are delibrately made poor from LG) and charge a bomb when it is all from what we call One Hung Low Nation so basically Apple = OHL