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by slhomme 1588 days ago
https://getgumball.com

My wife and I started an online/offline shop last year. When our very first orders came in, it was the best feeling ever! I wanted some kind of celebration device that would turn on and play some celebrating music each time this happened. So I started learning IoT / hardware and build a cool retro-looking police light that I can plug into our WooCommerce/Shopify/Zapier accounts (or really anything else with webhooks). This was such a fun project and people wanted to get some for their own. So I'm working on making it a "real" product. I don't care if it becomes a "success" or not, I'm already so happy to use it for my own and my friends.
3 comments
stevekemp 1588 days ago
Cute project. Minor typo in this sentence:

"We’e going to produce 100 of them."

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slhomme 1588 days ago
Nice catch, thanks! Just fixed it. I'm still working on that website, a lot of the copy is still kind of temporary.
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dhr 1588 days ago
This is so awesome!

Any recommendations on how to get started learning IoT and hardware?

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slhomme 1588 days ago
Thanks! I knew absolutely nothing about IoT and hardware before this, but quickly realized how big and welcoming the community is. This made things very motivating and enjoyable to get started (but still quite overwhelming!). I personally started by diving into the Arduino ecosystem and the world of micro controllers, particularly the esp8266 and esp32. It's all open-sourced and there are tones of tutorials to help you get started. The most challenging part for me so far has been to go from a "DIY prototype" for personal use to a "certified, safe commercial product". It's been a LOT more challenging than I thought, and took way longer to get there. But very fun to say the least.
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fm2606 1588 days ago
After you get the "certified" product up and running maybe look at selling it as a kit for the DIYer.
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tony-allan 1588 days ago
My favourite website is Adafruit! They have stuff to buy, lots of learning resources and CircuitPython (a MicroPython fork with lots of libraries).
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alientida 1588 days ago
Will you support Amazon sales?
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slhomme 1588 days ago
Yes, at least via websites like Zapier, integromat etc. I haven't looked at it yet, but I'm sure it's very possible to do it natively from Amazon via webhooks too. So I'd say 95% yes!
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