Ion Panda Launches Indiegogo Campaign for Triband Plus

[ionpanda]

Quick Summary of Triband Plus
Triband Plus is a wearable tech utility band that is a:

1) Backup Battery
2) Charging Cable
3) OTG Flash Drive (8 GB, 16 GB, or 32 GB)
4) Flashlight

Aimed at redefining wearable technology to provide more choices of how people augment their lifestyle. Triband was created for the wary travellers, college students, and potential business people to extend their phone battery use and become a daily multi-tool in everyday use.

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Contact Information:
Christopher Cheng
Founder, Designer, and Developer of Triband
ccheng@ionpanda.com
510.230.0946

Ion Panda Launches Indiegogo Campaign for Triband Plus

Triband Plus: The Wearable Backup Battery, Charging Cable, Flash Drive, and Flashlight.



(El Cerrito, CA – July 30th, 2015) – Triband Plus is aimed at redefining wearable technology to provide more choices to lifestyle augmentation. It charges any android, windows or lightning compatible (iPhone 5/6) smartphones with an extra boost in power with its 800mAh lithium polymer battery that can even be used as a charging cable. Containing a flash drive, Triband can be used to view or store files on an OTG compatible smartphone or on any PC. The bright 23 lumen LED has been added to the overall functions of the wearable and will last 20 hours of continuous use on a full charge that can be used on a day to day occasion.
 
Starting today, Triband Plus will be available for preorder on Indiegogo ( http://igg.me/at/TribandPlus ) in the hopes to reach a funding of $22500. The campaign offers a wide variety of 12 different bundles which contains an 8GB, 16GB, or 32GB which can be purchased by 1, 2, 3, 10, or 100 quantity of Triband with increasing discounts.
 
Perks Include:
Early Bird 1x - 8GB, 16GB, 32GB Triband Plus ($20, $25, $35 respectively) – limited time pricing and quantity
 
1x Quantity - 8GB, 16GB, 32GB Triband Plus ($25, $30, $40 respectively)
 
2x Quantity – 8GB, 16GB, 32GB Triband Plus ($44, $54, $74 respectively)
 
3x Quantity – 8GB, 16GB, 32GB Triband Plus ($60, $75, $105 respectively, per Triband, it is the same price as the early bird prices)

About Chris

Christopher Cheng is from El Cerrito, California, but before starting Triband, Chris was a Field Application Engineer at Aeon Labs, and served as a software engineer for companies such as Quantum3D, and Aquatic Moon (Twilight Monk). With his first product, Chris seeks to create a simple standalone multi-tool that can be useful in college, travel, or business situations that require commuting, or long term travel.

About Ion Panda

Ion Panda is a non-existent company that will come to realization depending on the success of the Triband or later projects. It will be dedicated to providing problem solving solutions through the development of wearable and potentially non-wearable tools that to help manage daily life. Ion Panda will be a US based company and it is unknown as to where it will end up. There is currently no further information on Ion Panda.

[Bud]

I guess this post should be moved to Crowd funded projects

[ionpanda]

Thanks! It does belong to crowd funded projects

[edy]

Nice gadget, can come in handy. The price is fairly good, considering the cost of separate items. The battery is only about 800 mAh which may give you 25-35% charge since some phones come with 2400 mAh and greater sized batteries. I guess it will give you some extra boost near the end of the day... But that's it.  The flashlight is nice, I usually have a separate one on my keychain but I rarely use it... Same goes for the flash memory... I have many 8 gb sticks free from different company sales reps, but now it would be on your wrist. I assume it has both micro USB for charging phone and regular USB for using on computers to access memory?  If the phone has OTG would plugging in the microUSB charge the phone even if all you want to do is read the memory? I guess there is an on/off charging circuit button to control this.

I'm a bit worried about a couple of things. One is the funding limit being only $10,000 which leads me to believe that is all that is needed to get this manufactured. I can't believe it can be done for such a cheap price when you have to do this from scratch (unless there is already one being made on Alibaba that can be modified by discussions with the manufacturer). Second, the construction of the wristband material is a concern due to issues in the past seen in other bands causing allergies and rashes, and if the battery boost-converter runs hot and is completely sealed inside, will there be issues with heat or skin irritation?

Good luck with the project, I like the idea!

[ionpanda]

@Edy - Thanks for your well thought out response I just wanted to say that i highly appreciate it before i start answering your questions and comments.

Battery: You are right, the backup battery will only provide enough charge for an emergency style use or to allow you to use it for maybe 30 minutes to an hour more of phone use if you are really that bored. Though 800mAh, you will need to consider that a battery is never drained to 0% nor are they charged to 100%. The range of good use for a longer term use (which is regulated by circuitry) is between 15% and 85% so you will get roughly 15-25% at most. This is suppose to be the main function of the band itself.

Flash Drive + Charge: the microUSB side that goes into your phone can be used for either charging, or to view any files in your Triband as long as your phone is OTG compatible. You can only choose between charging your phone or viewing the flash drive. So if you are charging your phone, then you can't view the flash drive, but if you are using your flash drive on your phone, then it won't be charging your phone. You will be able to toggle between the modes with a quick 2 second press and hold.

The Regular USB will be used to charge your Triband, and if your phone is connected, it will act as a charging cable for your phone and allow you to access the flash memory storage in your Triband at the same time.

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Your points of worry are very valid and I as a crowdfunder backer whole heartily agree with you. But I will bring in a couple of points in hopes to alleviate your worries (your always welcome to comment on my points).

Development and what is the 10000 used for?
I've worked on this from scratch, in terms, i've created the first prototype initially and then brought it over to a hardware manufacturer to help improve the functionality. Of course this would cost a bit, but it's manageable working a job on the side. The 10,000 is what is needed to cover the final manufacturing development, which is injection molding (the outer plastics), actually the most expensive part of the project that is holding back my project from going forward (hence why i moved over to crowdfunding). I have some funds saved up for the initial MOQ production of the project, but not enough for both the MOQ (minimum order quantity) and molding/tooling fee.

TPU Plastics
We are still playing around with TPU plastics and hardness, though i have heard of this before, i am hoping that there won't be any of these issues with the materials on skin. While using the Flashlight, there is no heat increase on the hardware so using that portion of the band will be fine.

Though as a part of your second point, I have a basic prototype (solid core unfortunately) that i have worn for a long duration of time, and have not experienced any irritation issues with the TPU plastics, though we would be using a slightly harder plastic than used in the initial prototype. I don't believe there will be any skin irritation, but there are many types of skin out there that are more sensitive so it is hard to tell for now on that.

Possibly Heating Issues
We have capped the output to 600mA (due to limitations of the battery), though it is a small amount being outputted, with this there shouldn't be much of a heat issue. Though time will tell when there is actual hard plastic covering the hardware in a possible later prototype. With the 600mA output, it should be enough to keep a phone going while using it for a phone call or surfing the web (though you may need to close a couple of applications)

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I hope that this answers your questions, i am always happy to answer more as needed Feel free to comment, question, or send us feedback