Stretch Goals - What would you like to see?

[Larry]

What would you guys like to see as stretch goals for the KS project?

I'm sure we can get pretty creative and help the admin of this project come up with some really great ideas.

I would love to see an iOS / android app.

[3DGeek]

I'd like to see the Peachy "done right". The business with using the sound card and the assumption of a steady drip rate and the lack of a means to turn off the laser could all be fixed if the project included a $25 microcontroller (a recent indiegogo project showed that a $9 Arduino board is possible). I'd also like to see all of the parts of the machine (pipe and reservoir and anything else other than raw materials) included in the price.

I predict other problems with the Peachy's approach - if your PC gets an email or the screen saver kicks in - the print will suffer. Any kind of timing glitch whatever can do that. Having a USB interfaced microcontroller would fix all of that.

I guess I didn't need a $100 3D printer - a $150 3D printer that would work MUCH better would have been just as amazing.

[nka]

Sound about right 3DGeek. I think it might be easy to do as it's already planned for the "Pro" version. Guess if that could be a goals.

[Drewu]

I think stretch goals are a bit much, actually. What's already there is just fine for one kickstarter :P
I would rather have 2 or 3 kickstarters for every bloated one I see.

[uminded]

If you do the math this project seems to be on the trend towards 9750 units being manufactured for the kickstarter alone. (3250 >$100 backers / 10days * 30days)

Assuming the fact they where originally going to produce the <5000 unit run locally and move to injection molding for >5000 units I think its reasonable to suggest that if they are looking at a >10k unit run they should move to offshore assembely as their is nobody able to assembly this equipment in that large of scale locally so if you move it away from home then make it count! By moving overseas they can easily cut manufacturing and assembly costs by 30%.

I propose that the stretch goals be:

>10k units: Offshore production and assembly.
- immediate plans for microcontroller based controls at an extra $20-25.
- Reservoirs, stand and hoses included in a kit form for additional $20-25.
>15k units: microcontroller based controls at NO extra cost.
>20k units: Reservoirs, stand and hoses included in kit form at NO extra cost.
>25k units: Reservoirs, stand and hoses included with fittings mounted, total plug & play kit at NO extra cost.

I believe that is plenty fair as the idea behind the kickstarter is not to make an immediate profit on the first production run but to use every penny to make a product that will sell on day one of public release. And that is where you make a profit. With those manufacturing quantities you will easily stay below the $100/unit to manufacture.

As for the microcontroller I recommended using the same configuration that people are already familiar with, that being a 20x4 character LCD, rotary encoder and sd card slot. I would recommend the STM32 Cortex M3/M4 series as they are one of the most affordable, I also recommended using a standard USB slot instead of the expensive sd card slot, that way a simple keystick will work for everyone. (I had a heck of a time finding a 2gb or smaller SD card for my Prusa i3!)

A NOTE FOR EVERYONE:
Please try and remember guys that the whole point of crowdsource funding is that you DONATE your money in hopes that they product the product that you believe in and it does all the things you want. If you are only pledging because you just want a full printer for $100 then you are not in the right mindset. If you want every bang for your buck wait until everyone has a Peachy Printer and then haggle for one on eBay like we all do, the moments right now in the beginning is when you should be generous and willing to do a little extra work to share with the community and developers so that version 1.0 is something that becomes so popular you can get the full kit for that <$100 dream.

Run on sentences aside, don't hate, proliferate!