Inventions that I can't get out.

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VERY easy to do. It would just be software debouncing on a much larger time frame.

There is free software that you could completely design the keyboard PCB with.
I want a mini-hackers keyboard. I would make it wireless from the get go to avoid
all liability of electric shock.

I have a lot of pic16f877-20/p microcontrollers. Development board, mplab-icd programmer,. I have pic c compiler on floppies. But I will be surprised if that floppy still
works. I have only one working circuit in use as a PWM speed controller with an adjustable resistors as the speed selector on a mig welder wire feed. I have the circuit
inside a PC power supply which also provides the power for the motor.

I was thinking of just using an HC12 to prototype it and get some optoisolators and darlington pairs on ICs and make some sort of acrylic dipped thing for the keys. Document the thing in a lab book and show it to Logitech.

i do have inventive ideas, and when i do i tend to spend ages thinking about it and after a while i either evaluate them as either:
a)stupid
b)useless
c)will not work

Same here, I burn through hundreds, but some of them I can just not kill. Not only do they come back, they have mutated to counter any damage I might do.

Just because it works does not mean there is a market, how can you figure the market for something that does not yet exist? Other things have blocking technology, like qwerty keyboards, there are better, but reprograming humans is impossible. Many marketable things cannot be patented, I have had several requests for larger keys from fat fingered people. Striking two keys at once is a common problem.

It is many arts, and can be approched in many ways. looking for holes in the market, I sell several things that I am the world's supply, it is not large, but I get the whole market. I keep finding more. Some things can be produced cheaply, a few hundred dollar factory, that pays, and will for years.

When I wanted injection molds they were steel and made by skilled labor, then aluminum made by CNC, and now, tooling epoxy filled with steel powder, a cold casting that can stand up for a while, and the technology is getting better.

Having things made is expensive, I need molding machine time, but molding machines are cheap, they do weigh 8,000 pounds, need three phase, but then production costs drop 90%. The break even point is a week of running time. a month buys a new machine, when sales and production work together, it pays for it's self, then wants to buy more, and more.

Each economic step up is much larger than the last, but lots of little things buy one bigger thing.

Invention is drawing pictures in the air, production is a lot of investment in set tooling, and marketing is a sales cost, everything gets spent to reach potential customers, but if it works, the return is a magnified version of the production costs, which have been paid for. Even turkeys sell once a year, I have picked some duds, but they still sell enough to cover cost. Other items bring a steady 1500% return.

Inventive is not just whole new fields, it is in how the product is designed, the tooling made, and in the marketing. Change is constant, and little changes bring big payoffs. CNC Minimills, tooling resin, turn production into brain power, not economic power. Web marketing works for me, I do not like to go out. so the world comes to me, and I do make one run a week for food, Post Office, office supplies.

I, the most anti-social, withdrawn, loner, except on WP, want to launch a product that will take at least fifty people, and I have no people skills. It is hard to start a business when you will not speak, make eye contact, shake hands, but life has not been easy, I did get here, I will get there.

My roommate in college worked at a small injection molding company and became very knowledgeable of the business. He read trade journals and priced used equipment. He learn that his company did not own any molds. They were super expensive and the company merely rented them or used the customers. Basically you
can in fact set up a small injection molding business on a budget if you can design and
machine your own molds for low cost.

I have a client that markets int'l electric/electronic items.
He has a company in China make minor mods to an existing product,
shipped to him, he puts in an IC and packages it.
He only has to pay a per unit price - no tooling or dies.

Sometimes, I come up with a friggin great idea (like a magnetic car) but then i realize that "How are you going to get a couple of magnets to lift 2 tons of steel ?". Dang. *Crumples piece of paper, throws it away*

Magnetic levation without a track? I guess you mean build a special roadway to?

yea, i have had plenty of ideas through the years to discover (if it was door hardware related) that a manufauctere of door closers in ill. or another in n.c. steal my ideas on arms or internal parts and differant ways of mounting the manufactureres are norton door controls (n.c.) LCN closers(i.l.) well least i know, it is possible, and made by really dependable hardware manufacturers.


theres another idea i have worked on since about march last year and i suggested my idea to safety commission of nj to not get any responce back, the idea involves cutoff switch for trash chutes, what gave me the idea was from a drunk college kid going down the chute on i guess a dare or got beat up and forced down, and possibly died while getting compacted. if i had thougth of the idea and possibly drew it out and made it, that kid john fiocco jr would have survived.

i guess part of that is my fault (the invention) i have not yet drew anything due to drawing by hand makes whatever i do look like trash(no pun intended) and try to explain things in detail to patent offices or to intrested companies.

as you can tell, wish i had a CAD program, then drawing would be somewhat possible.

I was just passing through the thread.... have you tried http://sketchup.google.com. Unfortunately(sic) for me, I've gone right off XP at the mo, and there isn't a Linux version (yet?).
A quick browse through the Ubuntu packages throws up several free CAD packages. QCAD http://www.ribbonsoft.com/qcad.html is available under Windows/OSX/Linux/Unix, but it sounds only 2d.

yes i have heard of that one, that is also included in google earth 4 (windows) as optional update, i did have it on one machine then i thin it got removed during a restore, if you have google earth 4 and latest updates and 3d buidlings inabled, the 3d buildings were designed using that,

thanks for the suggestion lau

I came up with a system for automatic horse riding. Here is how it works:

The system is called SCGV (Services de Chevaux a Grand Vitesse). French for High Speed Horse Service.

Basically the system consists of low power radio beacons (NDBs, similar to the ones used by aviation) and a reciever device worn by the horse on his head.

The NDBs output two audio tones, one at 400 hertz, and the other at 550 hertz, twice per second.

The horse hears the tones and responds appropriately. Based on his position relative from the beacon, he will hear one tone louder than the other. This tells him whether to turn left or right. To stop and start, the rider (who rides in a train carrage that the horse pulls) presses a button that produces a certian tone. The horse hears this, and starts or stops based on what he hears.

In this system, you don't go to a stable or a barn, you go go the CGV station. The horse pulls up to the platform.

What do you think of it? I am trying to find a horse and some radio equipment so I can see how well it works.

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfile ... _id=105292

Here's something, but I have no idea how to use it.

Ideas happen all of the time. Thinking is unavoidable. Troubleshooting and building a working prototype are the main problems. Lack of money and unexpected real-world variables are also problems.