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Canada
Asked — Edited

Question For Dj

DJ,

I know many people like me who are fairly new wonder "How did you simply just make a microcontroller, and then make a kit to sell it for $200 each?"

To make something as simple as the ez-b and then sell it for $200 you must be fairly successful.

What was it like to build the ez-b and ez-builder?


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#1  
I do not sell a microcontroller for $200. EZ-Robot sells a kit which includes ARC software, camera, servos and more for $169.

The software is the most expensive part to create :). The software takes a dozen hours per day for 3 years - totaling nearly half a million dollars in salaries.

I feel very successful in the fact that i'm achieving my goal to help others build their dream robot. Financially, i'm the lowest paid employee of EZ-Robot. I would make more money if I worked at a restaurant, or as a janitor at your school. I take a very small pay cheque so I can put money back into EZ-Robot. Growing EZ-Robot is more important to me than money.:D

You can find out more here: http://www.ez-robot.com/About/Get-To-Know-Us.aspx?id=5
#2  
We appreciate you, and what you have done, D.J.

:)
#3  
That's exactly what I'm doing DJ, no salary and any income goes back into more tools and equipment.
United Kingdom
#4  
It's like I always say on the few occasions people have said I should be on the payroll, the satisfaction in helping others achieve their goals and dreams is reward enough. And I'm sure that DJ feels the same warm fuzzy feeling each time he sees another robot built or sees another person finally realizing they can achieve their dream.

Sell a man a fish and he will eat for a day, give a man the tools and support needed to build a robot to catch fish and he will have a well stocked freezer for the rest of his life:)

It's obvious from the recent price drop, the personal support and constant updates to the software that EZ-Robot.inc are not in it for the money, at least to me it's obvious.
#5  
I've just recently joined this community and am very greatful for the time and effort DJ and his staff have put into this EZ-robot kit. I look forward to getting mine (arrived yesterday) up and running in one of my creations.
Thank you EZ-B staff!
Canada
#6  
Great question Technopro! and standing O to all replys:)
#7  
I actually started a robot club from my old high school ( graduated 5 years ago) all thanks to EZ-B and Arduino. It is really nice to see urban low income kids passionate and excited about building robots, tinkering with electronics parts. Something it more beneficial to help others than profits. Money only goes so far.

Thank you DJ, We really appreciate all your hard works.
#8  
I also think @Technopro question was misunderstood, I think he meant what was DJ thoughts process like when he was developing the micro-controller for the EZ-B along with the EZ-board. How in the world did he create such a complex yet simple platform for all to use.
#9  
Mostly pjdatechy.
"what was DJ thoughts process like when he was developing the micro-controller for the EZ-B along with the EZ-Board. How in the world did he create such a complex yet simple platform for all to use."
United Kingdom
#10  
Personally speaking (and I hear a lot of devs say it too), the coding is the easy part. Once you figure out what you want to achieve, how you will achieve it then you just need to change parts of it so that it's flexible. Not to take anything away from the awesomeness of ARC but making it configurable for multiple users was probably the easiest part for DJ.

Each control is pretty much going to be the same from user to user, the only changes are the EZ-B board/port number. It's all very much like in my Ping Roam script where I have the variables set at the start for the ports and settings. The script itself could be complex or it could be simple, it's irrelevant.

Each of the ARC native controls is like a script (I'm using this as an example as you can look at one of my scripts and you can see the complex parts but also see how easily it is to adapt to your own circumstances). Options for those parts which could change, like port number or minimum distance, phrase, timings, min and max positions or whatever are added in. That can be done for any complex algorithm with ease.
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