Kickstarter Project Using the Solidoodle for Printing Parts

Color me impressed!!   Nice job!

No, you know this is my first project that I have looked for backing this way and I had no idea what to expect.  I've always sought funding with cold calling and don't have time for that now. I had no idea how to gauge the interest level and the all or nothing deal kickstarter really scared me.  I really need at least 3 or 4 times that much and would like a lot more, but thought this would be a good start. I have also acquired a couple of small outside resources.  I really love working on these things and would have a blast creating a startup based on products like this. I have been talking to a few lawyers about advice on patenting it and would like to pursue it based on the funding I get, but hopefully it won't be too late!  I tried sharing much less information, but kickstarter wouldn't let it launch without more details...  Anyways, definitely appreciate the feedback!

Appreciate the advice. I am definitely looking into the provisional patent. The big overall picture is that I am trying to get this project funded to make it and if other people want one or the other rewards its great!  With the funding and previous funding I've been slowly building my own robotics manufacturing lab. The next project that I would spin off this will be to finish building a robotics lab and offer the small line up of robots I've built as rewards. I'm on a big time crunch for this project and it is the first video I ever attempted to make. One of my best friends is a professional videographer and he will be helping me make future videos for this and other projects. I didn't love the video, but it took me a night to make and I scrapped together iPhone  footage i never intended to share from the last 6 months to put it together. But your right the quality isn't there on the video. Reminds me of solidoodles first promo video before they blew up in April and May.

Thanks a lot Jon. It is funny, I built two or three copters this size just to practice flying with this weight and size.  The first few test runs on the first prototype with this were terrifying cause I funded it mostly myself and there weren't backups. I just imagined my 2 grand crashing to the ground, with my family behind me wondering if I was going to crash our utility bills along with it. Really an amazing experience!  I dropped my transmitter the first time it took off real well and thank goodness I wasn't in acrobat mode. The ground threw the throttle up and thing just took off like a bat out of hell. I gained control and was able to maneuver it great. If that didn't happen I'm not sure I ever would've got over my fear of really flying it.

Solidoodle is very proud of this project, and we have contributed to the fund. Please let us know how this turns out - it looks awesome.

Thanks all for the support and feedback! Please keep it coming. I am in talks to get a provisional patent now, so I am really trying to network to up the backing and get advice on any design changes.  I am kind of walking a tightrope of trying to share enough to generate support and not so much to give everything away.

@Cmetzel I have a lot more detailed and zoomed video I would love to share, but I think I am going to wait just a little bit longer. Depending on progress, I hope to be able to share more in the near future. As someone completely unfamiliar with how all this works, I am just following the best advice I can get.

Cool can't wait, I understand your hesitation at the moment.

How much is a provisional patent these days, if you used a lawyer how much did that run.  I've got some inventions in the later stages of prototyping that I'll be patenting soon.

I spent $200 for advice and filing. Since I had everything documented really well, it didn't take much time and was easy to do. I think lawyers may charge a lot.

http://www.uspto.gov/patents/resources/ … rovapp.jsp

The only concerning part was that it stipulates it can't be used for design inventions, but I was assured this doesn't fall into this category.

Very nice.

I'll be printing my second custom one today! I have about 5 of them laying around now, but nothing like designing and printing your own. I'm making a water proof one this time since it seems to rain about every day here...

I think the experience is all relative...  I almost gave up on launching because it was a decent bit of work to get this going, but I had so much documentation that it wasn't terrible.  I guess it is all relative on what you think is small.  I am using this mostly to fund my own project and offering rewards that others might be interested in.  Mostly it is a good way to build experience and credibility on kickstarter so when I launch a larger project, hopefully it will look like I know what I am doing. 

In retrospect, I needed to ask for money.  They say that usually it funds or it doesn't and it is based more on interest level rather than amount of money asked.  You don't see very many fail at 85% funded and unless you are selling a great product you don't see a ton funding 800-900%.  If your project is to support something your trying to do, people slow way down on funding once the goal is reached. I guess what I am trying to say is think long and hard about how much you are asking for. 

All that being said, it has been really amazing!  People I know helped get the ball rolling for the first half day, but most of the interest and funding otherwise has been from online searches and the project spreading through communities like this.  As a reference, I didn't do a ton of social networking and my video has almost 5000 views on it.  The coolest part has been the amount of good contacts I have made from private messages on the project.  Lots of great ideas, requests to work on other projects, encouragement, and offers for help in other ways.

All help is appreciated!    I think the more backers you have, the more you get. It's kind of like a snowball effect. I am all about hand held electronic devices.  $10k seems like it might be a nice sweet spot.  They lay around my office like toys in a kids play room. Let me know if you have any other questions about the process. Ill be going through the wrap up procedure this week. Make sure to keep posted on when you expect to launch.

I think it would be nice if we could have a way to have private threads or something similar to bounce design ideas off each other without fear of them getting stolen. I guess it would be easy enough to send pms but it would be nice to have a section for invite only projects that are confidential but easy to share.