[JonnieCache]

Me too. I see he has done well with his kickstarter project.

What on earth is he going to do with >$26,000? It doesn't cost that much to produce and ship the promised goodies to the backers, and it's not like he's going to need to spend a lot on marketing the thing. I guess he could just pay his living expenses for a bit while he works on it.

What's the general etiquette/precedent on kickstarter when someone receives backing vastly in excess of their goal? Is it acceptable to just plough the cash into whatever you want?

[noonespecial]

The etiquette is that you keep your promises to everyone who donated. This can be harder than it seems. There are some things that you can build 100 of for $5000 in a timely manner that you just can't build 1000 of for $50000 without a much larger lead time and a very different skill set.

[JonnieCache]

In this case, he is simply (I realise that this isn't actually simple) shipping out PCBs in antistatic bags to hackers, so he should be in a good position. I imagine that scales fairly well. Apparently the documentation is already done too.

If you are sensible choosing who you go to, there are many shops in china who can pretty much do the whole job for you.

There are even a couple of startups who act as intermediaries between manufacturers and hackers who have produced boards like this that they want to sell in small to medium runs, but I can't seem to remember their names.

[noonespecial]

If you are sensible choosing who you go to, there are many shops in china who can pretty much do the whole job for you.

That's the skill set of which I speak. Getting a shop in China to actually produce a working product for you should be a major of its own at MIT.

[rogerallen]

That is just sweet, sweet profit for him as far as I'm concerned. As long as I get my product, I'm happy. He can spend it on hookers & blow if he wants. :^)

But, then again I'm a first-time kickstarter user, so perhaps greybeards from there have a different opinion.