I think the Mu guys did some very (very) basic costing from a perspective that was absolutely naive about manufacturing and production.
A lot of people put $$ in, and I'll bet their money supply has been eroding ever since. They bought hardware and software, prototype parts, plus the cost of just running a business, even "on the cheap".
They certainly aren't going with all the cheapest parts (i.e. the Sam3x and Redpine module), so I think what will happen is they'll get to the point where they think they can make something... only to find out they have only 1/5th of the funds needed to do a production run.
That will be the oh-shit moment.
I can't believe that at this stage they don't know how much the sensor and optics will cost. That would have been the Oh Shit moment...
I wonder if it's possible, perhaps even considerably cheaper, to buy thermal imaging sensors with many dead pixels? I can buy cheap China PAL/NTSC cameras for about £4 from eBay, shipped from Hong Kong. They typically have around 50~100 dead pixels on a 320x240 array. But they're cheap, so I can tolerate that. Not sure if I'd like it so much with a relatively expensive thermal imaging camera, but it could work as a compromise to achieve low cost.
These guys are way out of their league, both in terms of running a crowd funded campaign, and actually developing a product.
Hello All,
So right now we're tweaking and modifying the board's firmware to make the most stable and consistent platform possible for the release product. What we arire aiming for is the fastest possible startup and warm-up for the wifi network and the imaging sensor respectively, as is possible. This process involves a considerable amount of testing and trials.
We have been in design and manufacturing discussions with several case manufacturers over the last few months, however, we are still willing to consider new providers. To that end, if any of you out there are camera afficianados and have a camera case manufacturer that you really love, please let us know in the comments, and we will look into what they have to offer.
As for the camera body itself, while we continue to work with the hardware, we are using the opportunity to improve the feel of the device. If there are any features that you would like to see, please let us know.
We are quickly approaching the point where we feel we will be able to provide a new release date and look forward to doing so.
Thank you for your continued support,
-Mu
Hello All,
So right now we're tweaking and modifying the board's firmware to make the most stable and consistent platform possible for the release product.
What we arire aiming for is the fastest possible startup and warm-up
for the wifi network and the imaging sensor respectively
To that end, if any of you out there are camera afficianados and have a camera case manufacturer that you really love, please let us know in the comments, and we will look into what they have to offer.
We are quickly approaching the point where we feel we will be able to provide a new release date and look forward to doing so.
We are quickly approaching the point where we feel we will be able to provide a new release date and look forward to doing so.
We have been in design and manufacturing discussions with several case manufacturers over the last few months, however, we are still willing to consider new providers. To that end, if any of you out there are camera afficianados and have a camera case manufacturer that you really love, please let us know in the comments, and we will look into what they have to offer.
QuoteWe have been in design and manufacturing discussions with several case manufacturers over the last few months, however, we are still willing to consider new providers. To that end, if any of you out there are camera afficianados and have a camera case manufacturer that you really love, please let us know in the comments, and we will look into what they have to offer.
I lost track of all the claims. Didn't they once claim they had a manufacturer, and they were expecting to get prototype enclosures any day?
I lost track of all the claims. Didn't they once claim they had a manufacturer, and they were expecting to get prototype enclosures any day?
Hello All,
We've got the portion of the firmware that deals with the wifi all set, the camera starts up and is ready in just over 2 seconds. We're very happy with this startup time, and better yet, we have a very solid and stable throughput on the new board.
A few more tweaks to the portion of the MCU firmware that deals with the ADC and the sensor itself and the firmware should be good to go.
These are major advances and moves us closer to our final goals.
We'll keep you updated.
-Cheers
"The firmware should be good to go"... So that means they have images coming from the sensor right? So why the hell have they not posted any?!? [Don't answer, I already know ]
... That is the only way I see to get the sales price down in the $500 range and that would be with 2000 people signing up to take units.
Is there any interest at that price point?
To extract the data I see backend daughter boards being used. You select one when you buy the unit and you can come back and order other ones if you want. Among the list are USB, Wifi, and Bluetooth.
Couple of notes on the IGG Mu Optics project.
1. Before I did any of the work above I contacted them an offered my help to get their project completed. No one responded AT ALL.
3. If they run non-temp stablized (best for battery operated scenarios), they will need image NUC data for the whole array across whatever ambient operating temperature profile they select. That eats up a lot of flash. I did not see an extern flash memory chip either.
I have attached an image of the modified core as well as an image from the data stream. I left the thermal image in its native resolution. Pictures are great, but video is better so I am going to create a video of the unit streaming this week and post it to our youtube channel. Given our present hardware design, we would have to remove MANY of the parts on our current design and shrink the package down. That is the only way I see to get the sales price down in the $500 range and that would be with 2000 people signing up to take units.
Is there any interest at that price point?
more like this, there is no reason to not at least do some post