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Inside a Stackmat

Stefan

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It appears to me that this patent also covers the use of the timer, although all I really have to go by here is the picture and the abstract.

Yeah, but I think the patent is for the whole thing. Including mat, timer, cups and even the stacking routines(!). I don't think every part is automatically patented on its own. And shouldn't patents be for innovation? The whole thing might've been innovative, but a mere timer?
 

fundash

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Looks very cheap to make, I would say considerably less than what it is sold for...

That's generally a good business plan... charge more than the costs to produce it:fp

People dont sell things for how much theyre worth.
They well according to how much people are willing to pay.

I sort of hope some ko company sees this thread and makes a cheap one that is accurate. Looking at the inside of this thing makes me willing to pay alot less...

http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/6940783/description.html
shut up you guys, almost EVERYTHING costs only cents to actually produce/manufacture the parts, but there are many, and I mean MANY more things involved! My dad is an inventor and owns a toy company. (uberstix.com) One thing is shipping, the price MUST be raised to compensate for all the thousands of them being sent out every hour, also, the shipping for the stuff to make things itself. That is a huge amount of materials coming into the factory. Thats all I can think of now. (I would tell more it he were here right now) But, just think of how much those wo alone rack up the price.
 

Dene

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Looks very cheap to make, I would say considerably less than what it is sold for...

You, and everyone else that agrees with you is a complete idiot. Yes, the parts would be cheap. Have you no sense of economics? Seriously, learn to live in the real world. Do you honestly think that chunk of plastic on your desk costs $10??? It probably costs 30c.

EDIT: Just to be clear, I was refering to a 3x3 cube.
 

FatBoyXPC

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Making a timer is very simple: get a 555 timer chip (cheap), a resistor, and a potentiometer (variable resistor basically). You can use the resistor and cap to make a timer, whether you want it fast or slow. To get it at a 1/100th of a second cycle, you can A) hook the output up to an oscilloscope or B) get an LED and measure it by eye, but that's not near as accurate (and you should probably do 1sec intervals at that point).

Anyway, Stefan: You might want to actually measure the little switches to see what size they are, I've seen them come in a few different sizes, but I'm not sure how many there are in total (probably quite a few different sizes).
 

Stefan

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Stefan

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Looks very cheap to make, I would say considerably less than what it is sold for...

You, and everyone else that agrees with you is a complete idiot. Yes, the parts would be cheap. Have you no sense of economics? Seriously, learn to live in the real world. Do you honestly think that chunk of plastic on your desk costs $10??? It probably costs 30c.

Ok I'm confused. Do you disagree or agree with him?
 

Dene

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Looks very cheap to make, I would say considerably less than what it is sold for...

You, and everyone else that agrees with you is a complete idiot. Yes, the parts would be cheap. Have you no sense of economics? Seriously, learn to live in the real world. Do you honestly think that chunk of plastic on your desk costs $10??? It probably costs 30c.

Ok I'm confused. Do you disagree or agree with him?

I agree that the parts would cost a lot less than the price that it would sell for. I disagree with his strong implication that he is now being ripped off because of that, for various reasons, but the most obvious being that a profit needs to be made.
 

Zubon

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People are usually pretty surprised when they find out just how cheap the components of their gadgets are.

I used to muck around with 555 timer ICs and it is pretty easy to make any circuit that involves timing something. I also used to copy the circuit diagrams of analogue guitar effect pedals and make my own knockoffs for $10 instead of $200.

Stefan, thanks for this thread. I have a first generation stackmat timer and I want to connect it to my computer and CCT timer. I wanted to have a look at the circuit board of a timer with the data port as it should be a simple case of soldering wires somewhere.

When I get time, Ill crack open my timer and compare it to yours.
 

FatBoyXPC

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I used to muck around with 555 timer ICs and it is pretty easy to make any circuit that involves timing something. I also used to copy the circuit diagrams of analogue guitar effect pedals and make my own knockoffs for $10 instead of $200.

The hard part about that is finding the right type of case to use for a foot pedal :/
 

Zubon

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I used to muck around with 555 timer ICs and it is pretty easy to make any circuit that involves timing something. I also used to copy the circuit diagrams of analogue guitar effect pedals and make my own knockoffs for $10 instead of $200.

The hard part about that is finding the right type of case to use for a foot pedal :/

For stuff I just threw together, I used old tin cans as cases. Electromagnetically shielded and tough enough to step on.

The hardest part was getting heavy duty switches that still allowed a passive bypass.
 

Stefan

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Are you going to straight up desolder and resolder on the new switch, or just mess with that metal plate? How'd the super glue ordeal work out?
Just the plate, as I don't have soldering equipment/experience. Super glue didn't help, I just tried it and it broke with the first press.

I agree that the parts would cost a lot less than the price that it would sell for. I disagree with his strong implication that he is now being ripped off because of that
Yeah, I just found it funny. That implication was there but I didn't find it strong, and it looked like:
A: It's cheap to make.
B: You're an idiot. It's cheap to make.

Stefan, thanks for this thread. I have a first generation stackmat timer and I want to connect it to my computer and CCT timer. I wanted to have a look at the circuit board of a timer with the data port as it should be a simple case of soldering wires somewhere.
The first generation had it already. Are we talking about the same? This:

2004_41.jpg

 
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Zubon

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When I said first generation, I meant first of the current design. It is just like yours but doesn't have the data cable jack.

Picked up one of those speedstacking kits with cups and the mat for under $10. Threw away the cups and got a cheap timer. When I heard about CCT timer and computer connectivity, I regretted not getting the expensive version.
 
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andyt1992

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TAKE THE PLATES OUT OF THE SAVE AND DOWN BUTTON :)

And @Toire Dakku - LED's hardly use any power to light up you could light 10 continuosly for almost a month off 2 - AA Batteries. So no it wouldnt noticeably make a difference.
 
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andyt1992

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:( thought i could save you some £££ but instead hastily typed rubbish without looking first. try somestuff like folded paper or cut up an old credit card or library pass or something.
 

Stefan

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Um, actually it wasn't so rubbish. Right after I posted, I actually tried it and while it's certainly much smaller than it should be, it seems to work reliably (connects when pressed, doesn't connect when not pressed). I'll still see if I can get a cheap correct size plate in the nearby store, but otherwise I'll try the smaller one for now. Thanks.
 

Stefan

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Ok... I ended up buying two of these button switches at that nearby electronics store. Took their discs out, put them in in my stackmat, assembled everything, and now it works fine again. Mission accomplished.

10.jpg
 
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