Author Topic: Motherbox Indiegogo  (Read 11190 times)

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Offline Ice-Tea

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Re: Motherbox Indiegogo
« Reply #25 on: February 24, 2017, 11:07:50 am »
Just saw something comparable passing by from... Disney!

I know they're really good in the fairy tale department, but still... Disney!

Offline sambran

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Re: Motherbox Indiegogo
« Reply #26 on: March 07, 2017, 07:27:05 pm »
Just saw this on Indigogo (good thing I searched before starting my own thread)

Anyone know if this can be used for wireless cooking with an inductive frying pan?
 

Offline CCitizenTO

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Re: Motherbox Indiegogo
« Reply #27 on: March 19, 2017, 02:26:46 am »
LOL... That field thing is kinda funny.

That said looking at the video where they make a 3D charge it makes me wonder why they don't just use high gain directional antennas assuming it works similar to WIFI if you have sufficient gain on a directional antenna you can easily double the distance of transmission and reception but even that wouldn't get you out to like half a meter (or half a yard) distance with an initial distance of like 2mm... and even then it would have lots of gaps in the 3D plane.
 

Offline grg183

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Re: Motherbox Indiegogo
« Reply #28 on: November 05, 2019, 10:49:59 am »
Sorry for reviving an old thread. I've been following this campaign regularly, not because I am interested in the product - I think it is an incredibly useless, impractical and inefficient solution in search of a problem - but because this is a prime example of the bad approach that so-called entrepreneurs and startups are taking to product design nowadays.

Firstly, to my knowledge, there is no proper video showing the device working, the only videos they released are like 10s long. If they are this far and this late in the development why not release a simple video showing the device in everyday use?

Secondly, well over a year ago they announced that they were only a couple of weeks away from shipping. Then they said something which sounded like "oh we just need to send the prototype for FCC testing, we'll postpone shipment by a couple of weeks just in case, no worries". Any electrical engineer who has worked on a real product development should know well enough that even the simplest design can be a big headache to pass through FCC/EMC testing! To assume that a product that is not only an intentional radiator but that needs to radiate the claimed 10W (actually 10W is the supposed received power so transmit power is, I guess, more) of power would pass certifications in a couple of weeks is totally insane!! This says a lot about the 4 'expert' masters degree holding engineers listed in the campaign, although to be fair, they might have warned the CEO, whom, with his 'self-taught' engineering skills decided it must not be that hard. This is the so-called 'think outside the box' attitude of many 'entrepreneurs': "experts must be wrong because they are locked into what they were thought, but I as a self-thaught guy am free to explore innovative ideas". Even to just book a timeslot at a test lab often takes several weeks, and rarely a product passes on first attempt (unless it is a really basic or familiar design), it should be obvious to anyone with basic engineering knowledge that a product like this is bound to have a hard time passing the testing.

The saga continues as they say that "hey we passed part 15, so no worries we just need to finish part 18 and some paper-work". Part 15 is just the stuff that any product needs to pass, it has mostly nothing to do with the wireless power transmission which is the main FCC challenge in this product. With a good power supply, good PCB design some, filtering and maybe shielding part 15 is not a big deal. Part 18 is the deal-breaker in this product!!

I don't think this is a scam as such but a prime example of zero experience in designing a product for manufacturing. It is sad that campaigns like this put bad light onto crowd-funding platforms.
 

Offline Ice-Tea

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Re: Motherbox Indiegogo
« Reply #29 on: November 05, 2019, 11:34:25 am »
It's cute that you think they have an actual product to test  ;D

Offline grg183

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Re: Motherbox Indiegogo
« Reply #30 on: November 05, 2019, 12:02:30 pm »
It's cute that you think they have an actual product to test  ;D

Well, the possibility they don't have a working product is highly probable as well, which is why I questioned the lack of video evidence. It depends on the definition of "working product" as well ;) if it charges at 10mm distance taking 5 hours and wasting 95% of the power input, it is technically an actual working product :) I never believed the ranges they claimed but technically it is possible to build such a product, it will just be very inefficient and most likely to stay within FCC limits it would have an unusable range.

I believe they do have a "working prototype", whether it draws 1kW to charge a phone 10mm away at 1W or is more usable though is another story. But I'm more struck by their seemingly naive approach to something so obvious as FCC testing, assuming as you rightly say, that they do have something to test.
« Last Edit: November 05, 2019, 12:06:18 pm by grg183 »
 

Offline abdullahsebaTopic starter

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Re: Motherbox Indiegogo
« Reply #31 on: November 06, 2019, 01:52:48 pm »
Gets an email almost 3 years later.  Had forgotten all about the charger.
This is my right hand this is my wrong hand
 

Online EEVblog

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Re: Motherbox Indiegogo
« Reply #32 on: November 07, 2019, 08:35:05 am »
I couldn't hep myself:


Too harsh?

I know they have worked on this for years, not taking that away from them, but how many times have we seen this now?

Was my timeline annotation bang on?  ;D
 

Offline grg183

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Re: Motherbox Indiegogo
« Reply #33 on: November 07, 2019, 12:58:48 pm »
Yep, absolutely spot on Dave :)

Actually, just today they claimed to have practically passed the testing, and that they will be soon proceeding with delivery (or maybe they have another excuse in the pipeline lol). It will be interesting to see how this unfolds.
 

Offline abdullahsebaTopic starter

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Re: Motherbox Indiegogo
« Reply #34 on: November 07, 2019, 09:32:44 pm »
I couldn't hep myself:


Too harsh?

I know they have worked on this for years, not taking that away from them, but how many times have we seen this now?

Was my timeline annotation bang on?  ;D


Spot on :-DD.
This is my right hand this is my wrong hand
 

Online EEVblog

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Re: Motherbox Indiegogo
« Reply #35 on: November 07, 2019, 10:15:34 pm »
Yep, absolutely spot on Dave :)

Actually, just today they claimed to have practically passed the testing, and that they will be soon proceeding with delivery (or maybe they have another excuse in the pipeline lol). It will be interesting to see how this unfolds.

Is there still a single real operational video with a power meter?
 


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