Just for grins, translate a few common phrases into another language, maybe then into a third, then back into God's English. You'll get a chuckle at some of the things that are lost, added and bent, in translation. But you know that.

ただ笑顔、再入力し、神の英語第三、その後に、おそらく、別の言語に翻訳され、いくつかの一般的なフレーズ。あなたが翻訳に曲げを追加して、いくつかのものが失われて含み笑いを取得します。しかし、あなたは知っている。

(Just smile, re-enter, English third, then of God, perhaps, been translated into another language, and common phrases some. You add a bending translation, I get the chuckle some things are lost. But, you know.)

BTW, I'm an arrogant American, not so much arrogant English. We're superior, you know.

Hell, getting someone that can read/write good English is a challenge. (You'd think by now they could produce decent product use instructions for basic mass produced things like electronic watches, universal remotes, etc. but NO).

Because despite our arrogance as English consumers, it makes 0 difference to them as they don't market 'to us'.. they market to other Chinese ODM's, who can read their product specs and documentation just fine .

I've worked with chinese fabs - and dealt with this before.
There is - despite our beliefs otherwise - next to NO Business Case to produce english documentation.

Take for example say the AllWinner A10/A20 - the chip found in 1000's of those Chinese Android Tablets.
English Speakers come to them with the argument 'But if you had decent english documentation, we could sell 100,000 of these units!'.

To which the Chinese ODM (Original Design Manufacturer) responds - "Who cares - I sold 100,000 just on Monday to Shenzen.. and another order for 200,000 is on the way for Wednesday"...

Anyway - my point is - despite "us" 'needing' English - The provision of 'quality english documentation' does *nothing* for their Unit Sales - so thus, like it would be in an English Business - Not bothered with as there is no value proposition in doing so! They can sell 10,000,000 units domestically, and *maybe* 200,000 of each product Internationally...

Learn to read Chinese or drive Machine Translators - because as the Chinese Middle-Class grows, the Chinese Tech Giants will care even less and less about the pesky 'English' speakers...  Its *us* that needs to learn to deal with them, not the other way around...

And I don't like having to learn new languages either.. but right now, we need to accept - certainly within the Technology Industry - that English Speakers are fast becoming irrelevant despite our belief that the tech world needs to bow down to the teeny tiny infinitesimal market that we represent...

TL;DR - You will never get 'decent' english documentation and what we get now will further diminish, because we represent right now about 20% of chinese tech giants markets, and that figure is diminishing....

Its the equivalent of someone trying to argue if Texas Instruments produced documentation in Farsi they'd sell enough units to justify the expense/time/effort...

I have no plans to take that route with my products. I will source local or at least American plastic molders, a small shop to solder/wire wrap my components and keep final assy and QC in house. But, I have no intentions of making 10,000 at a whack nor on a ridiculously short lead time. If I can't make money like that, I won't do it.

Dealing with the Chinese is, you're right, an exercise in frustration. Hell, getting someone that can read/write good English is a challenge. (You'd think by now they could produce decent product use instructions for basic mass produced things like electronic watches, universal remotes, etc. but NO).

Heartlander wrote:

I'm guessing he has a Chinese company in the wings to produce them based on that volume. They may have even created the plastic proof of concept. Injection molded styrene, cheaper than laser cut acrylic. He's got a turnkey price, probably $89-100 per unit. The CHinese buy their way into hot markets, whatever the profit or loss. They are anxious to get roots into 3D and a scanner is a great entre for them. This guy will pay thm to make one and produce a few thousand and then the Chinese will sell knockoffs on Ebay, T-Mart and such for $49 a piece within six months.

This is a lot harder than one might think. Heartlander, what's your experience working with China based companies?

^^ +1

We have designed and imported 'items' from china and while it is easy to hand them a design and say go to work it is a crap shoot when your product comes in and the design is slightly changed or reversed and the specs for the material are different... and now you are sitting on 10000 widgets that don't look like the widgets you wanted

I'm guessing he has a Chinese company in the wings to produce them based on that volume. They may have even created the plastic proof of concept. Injection molded styrene, cheaper than laser cut acrylic. He's got a turnkey price, probably $89-100 per unit. The CHinese buy their way into hot markets, whatever the profit or loss. They are anxious to get roots into 3D and a scanner is a great entre for them. This guy will pay thm to make one and produce a few thousand and then the Chinese will sell knockoffs on Ebay, T-Mart and such for $49 a piece within six months.

This is a lot harder than one might think. Heartlander, what's your experience working with China based companies?

What software is being used, do you know? Anyone?

Things not listed:
Power supply - $5 (I guess he could power it from the USB bus but that's kinda sketchy)
Arduino shield to drive stepper motor - $15

Shipping (i'm guessing this is included, he doesn't say) - $15 (probably more, actually)

Total: $175, assuming he has no bearings in the turntable, which is probably not a great design decision since the perpendicularity of the axis of rotation is so important.

He'll get about $185 after igg fees. So that's $10/per to build, test, package, and cover any unforeseen incidentals. He might do a bit better on those prices in volume, but not too much.

Bigger concern is how he's gonna build up to 10,000 of these in 45 days (he'll get the funds in early November, says he'll ship in late December).

It just doesn't add up to me.

Surely the BOM wouldn't be too much.

* Some Lasercut acrylic
* Webcam
* 2 x Cheap lasers
* Basic Arduino board
* Direct Drive stepper motor

If I had the know-how to make it work I'm sure I could get that well under $200 off the shelf. I may be wrong, I haven't actually looked.

I'm not sure it is possible to keep the BOM cost under $199 with quantities that low. I guess it is easier since he doesn't have a full description of what's included...

This looks like a really interesting little project. I higher performance 3D scanner for almost 1/10th the cost of Makerbot's.

For us hobbyists this could be just the ticket.