ProBUDDY Kits by Sunday Robotics

[salihkanber]

Dear all this is Salih from Sunday Robotics. It's a small, dynamic, creative, and versatile start-up founded in a 20m2 Office. Our aim is to create Robots and AI that can really change our lives so that we can witness some more majestic developments. But before that, we have smaller-scale products developed for makers and engineers for funding our big goals.


I'd like to introduce our product, ProBUDDY (Project BUDDY) to you on this topic. We are planning to launch a Kickstarter campaign on  11th January 2022 and until then I'll be sharing some info and updates, with your permission, and will be so happy to hear your thoughts and take your feedback.

Best regards.

[PlainName]

until then I'll be sharing some info and updates

You're going to spend the next 2.5 months dribbling stuff out and expect us to be here for every excerpt, just to find out what this thing is? You've lost me.

Tell us what it is, what it can do for us. Simples. We don't need the actual thing (yet), just convince us that you are worth following to find out how to get one.

[salihkanber]

until then I'll be sharing some info and updates

You're going to spend the next 2.5 months dribbling stuff out and expect us to be here for every excerpt, just to find out what this thing is? You've lost me.

Tell us what it is, what it can do for us. Simples. We don't need the actual thing (yet), just convince us that you are worth following to find out how to get one.

Dear @dunkemhigh thanks for the reply, I've posted the details on ProBUDDY landing page https://www.sundayrobotics.com/probuddy/ and we have an active Instagram account https://www.instagram.com/sundayrobotics_probuddy/ . You are right, I was just preparing the info for here, will reveal the current state and then would like to share the updates with you guys.

[PlainName]

OK! That's much more interesting and I can see there is lots more to it than what we can see if your original photo. I am interested now and will keep an eye out for the kickstarter 

[salihkanber]

Dear All, let me start giving info about ProBUDDY, I ll do my best and I am new in this forum, just learning the rules and the usage of the platform.

What is ProBUDDY ?
ProBUDDY quickly helps a lot with on-the-desk electronics work. It is a group of helpful items that eases our R&D life. Base Plates, Magnetic Bases, Holders, 3rd Hands, ProBUDDY Racks, Compatible Accessories, Carry Bags and Free 3D Printables Library. The hardware of your project will be built, modified, stored, carried, and switched easily by using all of these items in many combinations.



Why do we need it? What's the problem solved?
1) While building our projects we all use lots of Breadboards, Arduinos, Raspberry Pi's and such that are connected with lots and lots of cables and things around.. Between them, we use sensitive electrical connections that needs to be electrically and mechanically secured for reliable operation. Most of the time our hardware floats on our R&D desks and it creates unreliability for our project and stress for us.



2) "Working with many projects at the same time on our R&D desks" and "locating and storing the projects" is another issue.

3) When we need to carry our projects between home and school, or lab and office, or even "from one R&D desk to another" things get messy..



4) Glueing hardware creates its own problems.

What advantages does ProBUDDY bring?
With it, mechanically securing the hardware of our projects becomes very easy. Magnetic bases and holders are so versatile, they are strong and won't let your hardware go even when it's upside down!



ProBUDDY lets us use even the vertical surfaces for locating our projects, hang your Project A, Project B and Project C on the wall and start working on Project D on your cleaned R&D desk.



With ProBUDDY accessories, we all will have great flexibility while building and working on our projects. Build large projects with Multi-Base Plate configurations, you will be able to use DIN Rails on ProBUDDY Base Plates, You'll have mounting plates, angled working options on Base Plates and so on..



ProBUDDY users will be supported by our Free Printables library. Do you need a "screwdriver stand", "Item box" or "montage plates" for your ProBUDDY? You will find them all in our Printables for ProBUDDY library. A lot of different items are (and will be) available there for you to download easily, print out, and start getting more from your ProBUDDY set. Combinations will be limitless.. ProBUDDY + 3D Printables = Work on your RC Cars, Planes, Electric Skateboards, Plant Watering Projects, Robotics and more by the help of ProBUDDY..

We will be so glad if you contribute and share your thoughts, experiences and any feedback you like.

Best regards, Salih.

[salihkanber]

Our timeline is and will be like this:



I've finished design, prototyping, and even the packaging phases of our ProBUDDY project. We can now afford to do all the manufacturing needed  (Base Plates, Holders, Accessories, Packaging..) but except for the Plastic Bodies of the Magnetic Bases. Currently, we are manufacturing them with 3D Printing but it is slow and expensive. We need extra funding to get plastic injection moulds built and then we can offer Probuddy at affordable prices. Hence we decided to create a KICKSTARTER project on January 2022.

Guys, can you suggest high benefit/cost manufacturers for injection moulding? The image above seems full page, sorry for that, do you know how to make it smaller while using the insert image button?

[PlainName]

How do the racks fit in with this? Is it just a way to store many of the bases, or is there some function? I thought maybe you could stack a couple of bases with parts on then connect them vertically, but I can't see that being neat and tidy, so perhaps I've missed something?

[salihkanber]

How do the racks fit in with this? Is it just a way to store many of the bases, or is there some function? I thought maybe you could stack a couple of bases with parts on then connect them vertically, but I can't see that being neat and tidy, so perhaps I've missed something?

Dear @dunkemhigh thanks for your contribution. Magnetic bases with holders hold breadboards, cables and other electronics on base plates, hence whole project can be built on one base plate. This makes the project hardware sturdy, easy to store and carry. Magnetic bases and holders are reusable, easy to build one project, easy to disassemble it and take electronics out quickly and rebuild another project. It's not like gluing the electronics onto smt. A5-sized plate is small and for soldering and for 1-2 module projects, A4 and A3 are larger and enough for many project types.

So, we build project 1, project 2, project 3 on different base plates, 1 base plate for each, then we put them in probuddy rack (our vertical storage unit) 3 Projects (or more) on 3 separate base plates in 1 rack. This saves space and protects the hardware and there will be available room on our R&D desk for other work (Clean desk, no-stress, clear mind . When we want to work on project 1, we take it out from the rack and put it on our desk, do our work and put it back to the rack easily. Then for example take project 3 from the rack, work on it, and put it back again.

This increases efficiency, racks will be sized to carry 4-20 base plates vertically, hence we can work on 20 different projects on 1 R&D desk at the same time. Probuddy also makes carrying the projects easier. Take the base plate (with the project on it) out of the rack and carry it easily to school, office, lab. Do your work and carry it back to your house easily and safely.

It's also helpful in schools. John, Mark, Tony can store their own projects in the lab vertically without any mess. Everybody can take their project from the rack, do their work, and put it back into the rack for another lecture.

What do you think?

[PlainName]

OK, thanks for the explanation.

What do you think?

I am tempted to suggest that it's not part of the kickstarter. There is already a lot of stuff which could make funding tricky: you either have lots of offers with varying numbers of parts to cover all options, or just have a couple of 'kits' which might be too expensive for some potential backers. The racks don't really seem to fit in and I would imagine a large proportion of users would just have a base or two and leave them on a shelf when between projects.

I appreciate that they go some way to saving space, but perhaps they would be better as something to populate a shop front with. Kickstarter backers get the base and holders they want/need then later visit your shop to get more of the parts. At that point they see the racks and figure they're useful because they already have the bases and better know if they need to deal with holding in-progress projects somewhere.

[salihkanber]

Thank you for your feedback, its valuable and I am taking your points into my notes.

OK, thanks for the explanation.

What do you think?

I am tempted to suggest that it's not part of the kickstarter. There is already a lot of stuff which could make funding tricky: you either have lots of offers with varying numbers of parts to cover all options, or just have a couple of 'kits' which might be too expensive for some potential backers. The racks don't really seem to fit in and I would imagine a large proportion of users would just have a base or two and leave them on a shelf when between projects.

You are right, we are planning to create 6-7 kits as rewards, ranging from small ones from 20 US (for youngsters) to large ones for around 1000 US (for professionals, R&D Offices..) Each kit will have certain amount of base plates, magnetic bases and many kinds of holders, 3rd hands, accessories, racks and carry bags (yes, that's true, lets think about adding racks and bags into the Kickstarter kits or not). Expensive ones will even have custom prints on them, check these out:

I appreciate that they go some way to saving space, but perhaps they would be better as something to populate a shop front with. Kickstarter backers get the base and holders they want/need then later visit your shop to get more of the parts. At that point they see the racks and figure they're useful because they already have the bases and better know if they need to deal with holding in-progress projects somewhere.

That is also true. We hope to sell ProBUDDY kits and items for a time to fund our start-up's sustainability, hence we definitely open an online shop. Yes, after receiving our kits with competitive prices and with many advantages on our Kickstarter campaign on 11.01.2021, everybody will be able to purchase more if they like it and need more items afterwards. And also there are few more ProBUDDY compatible products (sunday powerbanks, elevator probes and elevator analysers and loggers) are in line waiting their turn.



Novadays when we present it, Schools, R&D Companies, Professionals and students say that they like ProBUDDY and they want to purchase it. The situation is very good, but there is an obstacle we can't sell it.. Because we can afford all the manufacturing and packaging except the magnetic holders plastics. Those plastics are  3d printed for now and this is expensive and time-consuming. In order to afford the plastic injection molding for those parts, we are going to launch that Kickstarter event and ask for your help.

We will be sending our first prototypes to influencers, to get their opinion, with the custom prints on Base Plates they like. Would you suggest anyone ? 

[salihkanber]

Is ProBUDDY just for building projects?

No, while ProBUDDY Holders provide many easy-to-mount options for your breadboards and modules, special holder types like the "jumper clamps" mechanically fix jumper cables on base plates to create reliable test setups.



3rd hands offer great flexibility while soldering and holding components for many kinds of operations. You will feel comfortable while fixing, preparing, connecting, soldering, building and testing your hardware in many Configurations.



What do you think guys?

[salihkanber]

Advantages of ProBUDDY items
ProBUDDY have Magnetic Bases with thin, transparent & versatile holders. Just put them on the Base Plate and slide 'em.. They will hold Breadboards, Arduinos, Raspberry Pi's and all other modules easily in no time.. Our holders are isolated by nature.. Slots are labeled for precision and transparency let's us see the other side for full confidence.



While others can't, thin ProBUDDY Holders can go in.. Since their simple yet clever and thin design, ProBUDDY holders can hold electronics from places that others can't hold on. Other than our simple holders we also do have spring-loaded versions which turned out to be very effective.



Magnetic holders have soft textile layer beneath them, not to scratch the base plate and to provide smooth movements on it. Moreover, in order to increase surface durability and protect the custom prints, we've also designed a 4 layer coated rock-hard surface for our Base Plates.



Any comments, feedback or any contribution will be appreciated, thanks for your patience .
Salih

[bitwelder]

Maybe it's a bit offtopic comment, but after watching your last posts I thought that it could be a good addition to your shop (not sure it fits the Kickstart bundles) if you can source some reliable breadboards to offer to your future customers.
After all, sketchy breadboards are a common cause of frustration while doing R&D work.

[salihkanber]

Maybe it's a bit offtopic comment, but after watching your last posts I thought that it could be a good addition to your shop (not sure it fits the Kickstart bundles) if you can source some reliable breadboards to offer to your future customers.
After all, sketchy breadboards are a common cause of frustration while doing R&D work.

Thank you bitwelder, appreciated your contribution. Noted that and I will do it. What do you think of ProBUDDY itself? Will the kits be useful for you ? Will our campaign be successful? Any suggestions ?

[salihkanber]

We've built a free ProBUDDY compatible Printables Library



Do you need a "screwdriver stand", "Item box" or "montage plates" for your ProBUDDY Kit? You will find them all in our Printables for ProBUDDY library. A lot of different items are (and will be) available there for you to download easily, print out, and start getting more from your ProBUDDY set. Combinations will be limitless..

ProBUDDY + 3D Printables = Work on your RC Cars, Planes, Electric Skateboards, Plant Watering Projects, Robotics and more by the help of ProBUDDY..

Here is the link to the library (files are not yet uploaded, will be done really soon): https://www.sundayrobotics.com/probuddy_library/

Could you check the library and suggest any designs ? How can we make it an open source library for everybody's contribution?

Your contributions now worth a lot to our team! Make a comment, suggestion or anything Thank you..

[PlainName]

Looks good. You've clearly put a lot of work into this.

[salihkanber]

Looks good. You've clearly put a lot of work into this.

Thanks @dunkemhigh, yes because I (and the team) believe in this ProBUDDY project. It's something that really helps people.. A product that we can afford to design, build, commercialize and provide fund for the early stages of our Sunday Robotic's Startup. Yet, ProBUDDY really needs people's opinions and suggestions to evolve.

On the other hand, I think there is something wrong with me or the way I am trying to use this great forum. The majority of great people here are just observing, not contributing

[PlainName]

Most people do lurk, but that doesn't mean they're not interested. You could tell a stunning joke that would have people laughing in the aisle, but not get a single comment. It's a bit complicated, but generally people saying something to disagree, not agree, and an entire thread of 50 messages all saying 'lol' can be tiresome.

On the plus side for you, no-one has told you this project is rubbish and won't make a dime!
 

[salihkanber]

Most people do lurk, but that doesn't mean they're not interested. You could tell a stunning joke that would have people laughing in the aisle, but not get a single comment. It's a bit complicated, but generally people saying something to disagree, not agree, and an entire thread of 50 messages all saying 'lol' can be tiresome.

On the plus side for you, no-one has told you this project is rubbish and won't make a dime!

I understand, thank you @dunkemhigh.



Today I will take the new batch of Base Plate metal sheets (1.2mm thickness) from laser cutting (20xA4 + 20xA3 + 26xA5 sizes). They are now DIN Rail and T Slot Aluminum Mountable, Hangable, Configurable into multi-stage configurations (one or more on top of another plate).. Now, these sheets will be sent to painting, printing and other coatings. We will be building lots of projects on them, sending custom printed ones to influencers and friends from instagram  and youtube (some of them already sent me their great logos to be printed on the Base Plates of their ProBUDDY kits, one of the good aspects of this is to get to know those productive, creative makers and engineers, we hopefully may cooperate with them on Robotics someday soon), starting to introduce ProBUDDY to local schools and companies and donate some to students.

[salihkanber]

By using ProBUDDY kits, these 3 will create 3 projects to put on HACKSTER.IO (https://www.hackster.io/) and INSTRUCTABLES (https://www.instructables.com/) and they are now looking for project ideas.. Would you like to suggest any?
 

[salihkanber]

Do you have any videos?

Dear @ledtester thanks, not at the moment, planning and scripting some for the Kickstarter page for the launch (11.01.2021). Do you think, starting to shoot videos asap would be better? 

[salihkanber]

Yes - videos would help explain what the product is, how it works, how you would use it, how robust it is, etc.

Just an example... you say that you can mount components upside down, and a natural question people will have is how strongly are the components held. Can it survive bumps and shaking, etc.? In a video you can actually demonstrate how tightly bound the components are to the board.

You are right, thanks, ok we will prepare and release an explanation video this week.

To answer your question for now, I made a quick lift and let-go threshold test with our magnetic bases. We've finalized their designs and prepared their bom, one of them is labeled as 1 2 10/3 (1xscrew mountable, 2xN35 grade neodymium magnets with 10mm diameter and 3mm thickness each). It has a let-go threshold of 1-1.2Kg.  The other is labeled as 2 3 10/3 (2xscrew mountable, 3xN35 grade neodymium magnets with 10mm diameter and 3mm thickness each). It has a let-go threshold of 1.8-2Kg. When 3-4 of them are used to hold a breadboard or any module, when horizontal or vertical storage, they provide a pretty large safety margin (For heavier components like large transformers etc the magnetic bases should be used carefully).



ProBUDDY is not designed to be used in shaky or high acceleration environments when vertical or upside-down. It's more than fine when working in normal horizontal operation or from desk to wall, wall to desk actions. ProBUDDY will be also fine to store the projects vertically, It will be suitable to carry projects horizontally. I think nobody will locate ProBUDDY or use it upside down, but yes, since we used the words "even upside down" I think we should add "we don't recommend the upside down usage".

Thank you @ledtester for your contribution, please share your feedback anytime.

[wizard69]

I'm not sure I get the point of this product nor why you would call yourself a robotics company.   From my perspective you have a fancy fixture board and some magnetically attached components, neither is revolutionary.   Fixture boards have been in use for decades, probably over a century now.   Magnets are nice and frankly better than ever but you don't always want them around electronics you are building up.   Further I see no point at all in using paper sizes to describe the boards.   In any event screw on rubber feet should be something that your fixture plates support.

One area where I could see a similar approach working is for people in business servicing very low volume needs.   Lets say you need to build 5-10, probably less, instruments for a lab, being able to move the prototype to a product quickly would be nice, but here you can't have a bunch of stuff stuck together with magnets.   You need a snap together solution or screw mounting of components.   In such a case the fixture boards would need to integrate naturally with some sort of professional housing.   That is your plates either slip into or become part of the box.   The idea here is a system that supports rapid transfer from prototype to a shipable device.

Now my comment about the "A" size boards.   The problem here is that the electronics world still revolves around the 19" rack with devices that are full rack width half rack width, one third & etc.   Taking into account the need to put a product in a box, even if it sits on a rack shelf, it still needs to be mindful of these dimensions.   I have no problem with metric dimensions as long as the resultant products don't mess with other hardware on these racks.    As an aside these days with electronics so small, we really could use a micro rack standard.   In any event I hope you see my point it would be better if the boards where sized for quick implementation compatible with common instrumentation.   So a one third rack sized instrument would need a housing of less than about 150.25 mm in width so a fixture board would have to be less than that in width.   That might work for A5 but A4 doesn't even fit half rack well.

I have to agree that trying to get this off the ground with 3D printed parts is a non starter.   This is where it might help to support DIN rail on your fixture boards.   The reason here is that you can get a variety of snap together carriers for printed circuit boards really cheap.   This would significantly reduce your need for hard tooling for the variety of devices you would want to mount on the fixture boards.   The other plus here is that your users have access to complete DIN rail products.   By the way that hard tooling should support parts that can be screwed down for permanent mounting, all on well documented pitches.   So think about how you can leverage existing products from different industries as a way to get off the ground.

I fully realize that much of this doesn't apply for designers targeting high volume products.   That is an entirely different business in my mind.   I'm leaning towards the developer that needs the low resistance way to solving a customers problem.   Often that means taking a proto board / developers board and shoving it in a box with whatever support hardware was required.

[PlainName]

I'm leaning towards the developer that needs the low resistance way to solving a customers problem.

That's an interesting viewpoint and one I hadn't considered appropriate for this - I am leaning more towards repair, test and build, so it would be a temporary solution just to hold stuff in place while you attack it (and, hence, one reason I fail to see the full benefit of the racks, although I suppose you might have a couple of projects on the go).

[salihkanber]

Dear @wizard69 thanks for contributing. I took my notes of the good points I've seen in your feedback.

We call ourselves, Sunday Robotics, a robotic company because we are. Lara, Munir, Safkan are the names of our robots that we are currently working on and developing know-how.



Being started few months ago, our company needs time, funding and a better team to commercialize them. Hence, like every early-stage start-up, there is a death valley ahead of us.

Start----->Death Valley---->Commercialisation and monetization of Robotic Products.

Check this out; https://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/death-valley-curve.asp

But luckily, we have another small scale product that is really helpful, people demand it and can provide us some sustainable funding: ProBUDDY kits. We created it for our own lab and we are using it, we can do multiple R&D projects on 1 desk, our team members can build their projects on it, work on the desk and when they are done working that time, they put it on the wall for the next time. That increased our office & labs efficiency 5-6 times, no more breadboards, arduinos floating around, no more glueing and no more "cant re-use the modules, they are glued, and we have to buy new breadboards and arduinos at each projects", projects look and work and presented to the customer professionaly. Small scale to large scale, for a product for 1 pcs prototoype , for a prototype to thousands of mass production units, we use ProBUDDY kits on first stages of development. We also dont need anything else while soldering, testing.. etc. I am using "we" all the time because we are our only customer now, we didnt commercialise it yet, we need funding for the plastic injection, hence launch our Kickstarter campaign on 11.01.2022.

Yes I admit, its not "Revolutionary" or "Magical" or "Nothing like this on the market" kind of product (Let me know if I mention it as revolutionary somewhere and I correct the phrase). But I assure you, on top of its competitors, with the properties we added (versatility, cost effectiveness, design, storage options, 3d design library etc) now it is really and truly a helpful product.

The sizing of Base Plates is set to well-known paper sizes, so is the naming of ProBUDDY kits (A5 Kit, A4, A3 kit). Each kit will have some number of Magnetic Bases and Holders with many shapes, we do have the spring-loaded versions. We want more and more youngsters and people start innovating with low stress and high efficiency. So instead of more professional terminology, we use common sizes that everybody know. To attract more people into electronics, we are now manufacturing our Base Plates with beautiful and cool prints on them.



Soon we will even create Base Plates with very different shapes like transformers heads. But, of course, we are now also targeting the professionals, Schools, R&D companies, engineers, makers will use our kits.. Our term "ProBUDDY Racks" is different than industry sized racks. The confusion will be ended when we create the prototype and videos, sorry for that.

Sizing is not an issue. We can manufacture any apropriate sizes and shapes for professionals very soon. We are ready to reshape and revise our product with the feedback from our customers, it's the only way that Sunday Robotics can survive. Plus to that, for professionals, ProBUDDY kits will be just a start and a base. There are ProBUDDY compatible products like ELEVATOR PROBES, ANALYSERS, LOGGERS and POWERBANKS and they are waiting in the line.

ProBUDDY Kits will not be suitable for "prototype inside the device enclosure" stage. It will be used in the early "breadboarding and arduinoing" stage. They are also very helpful when fixing, soldering, testing and working on different projects. Everything will be more clear when we release our explanation videos.

@wizard69 and @dunkemhigh thank you for contributing.