Introducing Alan

@Will ... Well done !

@A84m As Madame Ninndo says, Be gone!

Hi Will,

I'm uncertain what relevance my location nor your wife's occupation has on the discussion so I'll skip those points.

As CochranRobotics correctly points out, holding stock has an inherent cost & associated risks in traditional business models, a cost/risk which invariably works its way into the end user RRP. In no way should these costs add up to more than 10% on top of the RRP. To increase COTS items cost by 300-400% of their respective RRP is in actual fact to increase the natural overhead (skim) associated with holding/dispatching COTS items from 10% to 300-400%. To put that in perspective, if we treated that 10% as an amount rightly due which should be correctly added on to the RRP, that 10% has mutated into 30-40x times what it originally was supposed to be. That 10% fair amount has somehow transformed into 3000-4000%? There is absolutely no grounds to support these business operations as standard business practice, or even remotely legitimate for that matter.

It's not necessary to go over all your figures to explain this mark up, even if you're storing COTS items in a penthouse suite in the Taj Mahal and transiting via limo, it should still be relatively simple to explain.

The business model you have already, & are again pursuing is crowdfunding, and is far removed from traditional business financing operations (minimising costs & risk in the houses favour).

A powerful advantage in crowdfunding is the creator is paid upfront (minus small fee), contrary to traditional business operations. As D.Cochran quite rightly indicated, a business will operate through loans, personal finances & supplier credit. If you are successful through crowdfunding next time you would find Robomodix immediately in credit (thus eliminating associated risk of expenditure you later depend upon recouping).

It is safe to conclude that the majority of successful crowdfunding campaigns do not fall into the category of 'mass-produced'. So it's a safe assumption to state the volume of electronics requiring storage/housed (EZB-V4's, servo's, et al) will be negligible, insofar it can be stored in a safe/secure (alarmed & insured) personal property. To charge or suggest that the storage of such goods would incur a 300-400% mark up on original cost is disingenuous.

Even if the volume of backers was large, to the point storage on personal property were impractical (or impossible), all good suppliers will produce & hold stock of a large order as long as they're provided/in receipt of a signed 'letter of intent'.

Any logical person viewing the Kickstarter campaign will quickly deduce the extortionate attempt at marking up C.O.T.S items 3-4 fold (3000-4000% standard markup). And any rational person would also dismiss explanations as cost of storage, increased weight in shipping, or the phone to suppliers to make an order & transfer monies upon receiving good, or any further excuses as not just folly, but a dishonest attempt at screwing them over for something they can acquire for 25% the cost (compared to Robomodix).

Much worse is those potential backers will not only think "hmm, I think I'll give the electronics kit a miss and just get unassembled parts kit", most sane people will view Robomodix as just a disreputable operation & give any form of the offering a WIDE-BERTH

I don't think many will see it as simply saying "The costs are what they are. I can't give it away, and right now this is what I have to charge with the current arrangements that I have."

After the unfortunate Kickstarter saga anyone with half a brain would see the reward tiers like this; "It's $500-700 for parts only (because I'm $$$ deep into the resin & molds already, I want to recoup that at your expense thanks). for full kit of parts ($700) & $200 worth of electronics I'd need $1325 (packaging, storage, insurance, my dogs medical insurance because a box of parts fell on top of him). For a snip @ $1900 you'll get it fully assembled, just needs painted (Only $575* extra-*while stock lasts). And for a mere $3500 you'll get him built, painted & I'll even through in an unspecified pre-programmed tablet (@ +$1600, adding paint job, and going by the previous markup on electronics, you can expect a tablet PC with RRP of $400-500).

In business, reputation is king, and at this point Will/Robomodix's is shot,... At this stage it doesn't matter how many orphans or cats stuck in trees you save, you won't escape that dishonest reputation.

There are many reasons for this I have already (and previously) alluded to, because of which many investors won't entertain you or Robomodix once you start to talk figures (derived from a faulty calculator), albeit they'll love ALAN, but that's where the intrigue will end,.

Crowdfunding is honestly your (and ALAN's) last chance to succeed, I just hope you give this campaign a bit more thought & exercise a little more business nous compared to the last campaign.

Check out the fanboys. It's not Apple you know guys?.. ??

I look forward to my stl's ??

I won't even begin to read your manifesto. I'm sure it's the same crap you've dished out over the past few months. You're beating a dead horse man. Have fun building your very unique and individual android head. I won't engage with you again. And I plead that everyone else do the same so this troll will evaporate.

Will, you have no need to explain yourself to this guy.

His constant mouth diarrhea is getting boring. I'M GONE.

@Will, Well done. I was wondering how long it would take you to blow this guy off and stop being "Mr nice because of potential customers".

What this clown doesn't understand is that no matter how much he and his like minded friends would like it, there is no limit on profit percentage. At least in free market countries like the USA. They just don't want to understand the economics behind it. In reality virtually all business owners plow any extra profit (whether it's 10% or 100%) into building the business by making the products better and hiring people like him so they can earn money of their own. Look at DJ and EZ Robot for example. Heck DJ is the lowest paid employee in the company and he started out in his bedroom just a few years ago. Now look at where his company is! In his own life A84M has actually profited from this concept by quitting a job he couldn't profit at and going to work for someone else who was able to make it work. It's just a guess but I'd bet he was pissed off at the "system" for not "giving" him success in his chosen carrier path when it was probably his lack of talent or his own ideology that did him in. Socialist's like him want to limit profit and give away any extra prophet above a very clear level to the "poor" and the government. His Socialist concept actually turns you as a business owner into a slave and limits his ability to raise himself above the dependence status. Capitalism is not ideology, it's simple facts and figures of economics. Facts that are proven to work to pull many more people out of dependency then any other social concept ever conceived, ever.

Sorry for bringing ideologies into this but A84M opened the door himself each time he screamed how greedy and self serving Will is. I thought it was time for a economics lesson.

Hi Dave,

I don't know what my work history remains pertinent to the discussion?

Anyway, for those of us that find the Robomodix offering a bit 'too rich' for our pockets but still LOVE the capabilities of the EZB-V4, try this link to design file repository (incl stl files for the open-source iCub; https://svn.robotology.eu/repos/iCubHardware-pub/trunk/mechanics/public/icub1_icub2/prodoc/

if you would like to jump right in & begin printing iCubs head & to save you searching the large volume of files to find the head, here are the reference number for head pieces; RC_IST_009_P_077 rc_iit_010_p_067 rc_ist_009_p_076_r_A1

1st file is front face 2nd file is back of head 3rd file is internal mount eyelids

iCub is completely open-source and costs complete circa 1/3 million $

This offers an extremely affordable alternative (& equally aesthetically pleasing head) to explore human/robot interactions based on one of the worlds most advanced robotics platforms. This alternative will also hopefully encourage further sales of EZB-V4's via direct sales (cutting out the 'middleman'/con-artist) strongly contributing towards the future development of EZ-robot products.

Albeit, fans of this very competent alternative platform may need to start our own 'poor-mans corner' here on the EZ-robot forum

Hope this helps someone out there with an interest in robotics & moreover the EZB-V4 platform that otherwise could not contribute due to prohibitive expense involved with 'some' platforms.

Thanks

Quote:

equally aesthetically pleasing head

Funny...

A84M, Your work history and where you ended up is a reflection of your social ideals and the result of your choices. You've had the opportunity to comment stating those ideals and opinions in this thread by attacking Will based on those ideals. You don't get to spout out your twisted logic as the truth here and expect to shut up people by saying "you don't see how it pertinent to the discussion". You've already gone there and opened that door. My retort was a reply to your comments. Now that I've had my responce to your comments we can both shut up and move on.

Move on to this: What did you just post above after you basically told me to shut up? It looks like Spam. Is there a cost and company involved? Are you getting a kickback? How are you involved in all this? It this a way for people to pirate other peoples and corporation's hard and well deserved work? confused Maybe you should start a new thread with your new "find" and leave Will's thread to his project and not yours.