My own private idaho (self employ)

[George Herold]

So I've been in this kinda dark place... partly due to BS from my PPoE.
(need not be discussed)
But that looks to finally be behind me!

I went down to visit with Phil H. for a day, (wonderful people!),
and when I came back there was all this good news in the mail.
One says that I can use my unemployment insurance benefits
to apply for the Self-employment Assistance Program.
And I'd like to explore that idea here. (starting own company)

First off it seems like a big lift. Spit balling numbers, if
I'm going to take ~$100k in profit (to pay myself and health insurance
and taxes and..) I'm going to need ~$300k in sales.
(most of my ideas involve fun physics teaching stuff, where
price is paramount.) And I don't see any selling enough.

Maybe I need to think about selling to industry too?
I think my number one, this could sell enough, idea
is a LN flow cryostat*. With a bare-bones cryostat for
~$1-2k, (Dewar, minimal probe and pump.) Then people
could make their own probes, and I can sell different probes
(and electronics).
probes could sell for much more money....

The other bad thing about selling stuff is you've got to
spend ~1/2 your time on marketing... maybe more early on.

I don't mind, and even enjoy some, a little bit of marketing.
but it is what I look at as part of the grunt work.

Thoughts and ideas welcome.

George H.


*typically the variable flow impedance is done with a needle
valve. The needle valve is the expensive, costly to replace bit,
that thumb fingered brutish students can break**.
Part of me thinks.. well let your students learn on this one
(and make it easy to repair) Or some fixed impedance with
variable pressure to change flow.. or something else?
(magneto striction, pwm a solenoid, peizo electric valve?)
** actually I think the latest designs are motor controlled,
with torque sensors or something.

 

On Sat, 25 Jan 2020 13:22:18 -0800 (PST), George Herold
<ggherold@gmail.com> wrote:

So I've been in this kinda dark place... partly due to BS from my PPoE.
(need not be discussed)
But that looks to finally be behind me!

I went down to visit with Phil H. for a day, (wonderful people!),
and when I came back there was all this good news in the mail.
One says that I can use my unemployment insurance benefits
to apply for the Self-employment Assistance Program.
And I'd like to explore that idea here. (starting own company)

First off it seems like a big lift. Spit balling numbers, if
I'm going to take ~$100k in profit (to pay myself and health insurance
and taxes and..) I'm going to need ~$300k in sales.
(most of my ideas involve fun physics teaching stuff, where
price is paramount.) And I don't see any selling enough.

Maybe I need to think about selling to industry too?
I think my number one, this could sell enough, idea
is a LN flow cryostat*. With a bare-bones cryostat for
~$1-2k, (Dewar, minimal probe and pump.) Then people
could make their own probes, and I can sell different probes
(and electronics).
probes could sell for much more money....

The other bad thing about selling stuff is you've got to
spend ~1/2 your time on marketing... maybe more early on.

I don't mind, and even enjoy some, a little bit of marketing.
but it is what I look at as part of the grunt work.

Thoughts and ideas welcome.

George H.


*typically the variable flow impedance is done with a needle
valve. The needle valve is the expensive, costly to replace bit,
that thumb fingered brutish students can break**.
Part of me thinks.. well let your students learn on this one
(and make it easy to repair) Or some fixed impedance with
variable pressure to change flow.. or something else?
(magneto striction, pwm a solenoid, peizo electric valve?)
** actually I think the latest designs are motor controlled,
with torque sensors or something.

Let me know if we can help. Like if you need parts or equipment or
consulting or design reviews or something.

I can send you a gigantic list of the parts we have in stock. We have
a bunch of oscilloscopes too.

Seems like a stepper motor would be good to spin a needle valve.

I wonder if you could push a flexible metal diaphragm across a hole in
a plate.



--

John Larkin Highland Technology, Inc

The cork popped merrily, and Lord Peter rose to his feet.
"Bunter", he said, "I give you a toast. The triumph of Instinct over Reason"

 

[Phil Hobbs]

On 2020-01-25 16:22, George Herold wrote:

So I've been in this kinda dark place... partly due to BS from my PPoE.
(need not be discussed)
But that looks to finally be behind me!

I went down to visit with Phil H. for a day, (wonderful people!),

It was great having you--we've been net-friends for 15 years or so, and
it's good to be able to put a face to a name.

and when I came back there was all this good news in the mail.
One says that I can use my unemployment insurance benefits
to apply for the Self-employment Assistance Program.
And I'd like to explore that idea here. (starting own company)

First off it seems like a big lift. Spit balling numbers, if
I'm going to take ~$100k in profit (to pay myself and health insurance
and taxes and..) I'm going to need ~$300k in sales.
(most of my ideas involve fun physics teaching stuff, where
price is paramount.) And I don't see any selling enough.

ISTM that to start a HW business in that space, you need one or two
champions as customers--folks who have a need and money to spend, and
who believe in you enough to generate POs.

Maybe I need to think about selling to industry too?
I think my number one, this could sell enough, idea
is a LN flow cryostat*. With a bare-bones cryostat for
~$1-2k, (Dewar, minimal probe and pump.) Then people
could make their own probes, and I can sell different probes
(and electronics).
probes could sell for much more money....

Market creation calls for a bunch of patient money.

The other bad thing about selling stuff is you've got to
spend ~1/2 your time on marketing... maybe more early on.

That's another place where the champions come in--you can use them as
references.

I don't mind, and even enjoy some, a little bit of marketing.
but it is what I look at as part of the grunt work.

Yup. Figuring out what you want to be when you grow up is still a thing
when you're 60.


Cheers

Phil Hobbs

--
Dr Philip C D Hobbs
Principal Consultant
ElectroOptical Innovations LLC / Hobbs ElectroOptics
Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics
Briarcliff Manor NY 10510

http://electrooptical.net
http://hobbs-eo.com

 

[George Herold]

On Saturday, January 25, 2020 at 5:40:29 PM UTC-5, jla...@highlandsniptechnology.com wrote:

On Sat, 25 Jan 2020 13:22:18 -0800 (PST), George Herold
ggherold@gmail.com> wrote:

So I've been in this kinda dark place... partly due to BS from my PPoE.
(need not be discussed)
But that looks to finally be behind me!

I went down to visit with Phil H. for a day, (wonderful people!),
and when I came back there was all this good news in the mail.
One says that I can use my unemployment insurance benefits
to apply for the Self-employment Assistance Program.
And I'd like to explore that idea here. (starting own company)

First off it seems like a big lift. Spit balling numbers, if
I'm going to take ~$100k in profit (to pay myself and health insurance
and taxes and..) I'm going to need ~$300k in sales.
(most of my ideas involve fun physics teaching stuff, where
price is paramount.) And I don't see any selling enough.

Maybe I need to think about selling to industry too?
I think my number one, this could sell enough, idea
is a LN flow cryostat*. With a bare-bones cryostat for
~$1-2k, (Dewar, minimal probe and pump.) Then people
could make their own probes, and I can sell different probes
(and electronics).
probes could sell for much more money....

The other bad thing about selling stuff is you've got to
spend ~1/2 your time on marketing... maybe more early on.

I don't mind, and even enjoy some, a little bit of marketing.
but it is what I look at as part of the grunt work.

Thoughts and ideas welcome.

George H.


*typically the variable flow impedance is done with a needle
valve. The needle valve is the expensive, costly to replace bit,
that thumb fingered brutish students can break**.
Part of me thinks.. well let your students learn on this one
(and make it easy to repair) Or some fixed impedance with
variable pressure to change flow.. or something else?
(magneto striction, pwm a solenoid, peizo electric valve?)
** actually I think the latest designs are motor controlled,
with torque sensors or something.

Let me know if we can help. Like if you need parts or equipment or
consulting or design reviews or something.

I can send you a gigantic list of the parts we have in stock. We have
a bunch of oscilloscopes too.

Grin, You are such a sweet heart, thanks.
You remind me that the number zero problem of your own company,
is that you are all alone... no one to bounce ideas off of.
Ideally I might get a job as a lab guy at some uni/ college.
with some interested profs, and students as beta testers.
(Except uni's seem out of control, PC-wise these days.)

Seems like a stepper motor would be good to spin a needle valve.
Yeah... maybe a motorized option, but I like turning things by hand.

I wonder if you could push a flexible metal diaphragm across a hole in
a plate.

Sure with pressure as the pusher. The one thing I hate about any
magnetic valve ideas.. is that it will f with any magnetic measurements.

George H.

--

John Larkin Highland Technology, Inc

The cork popped merrily, and Lord Peter rose to his feet.
"Bunter", he said, "I give you a toast. The triumph of Instinct over Reason"

 

[Rick C]

On Saturday, January 25, 2020 at 7:15:52 PM UTC-5, George Herold wrote:

On Saturday, January 25, 2020 at 5:40:29 PM UTC-5, jla...@highlandsniptechnology.com wrote:

I wonder if you could push a flexible metal diaphragm across a hole in
a plate.
Sure with pressure as the pusher. The one thing I hate about any
magnetic valve ideas.. is that it will f with any magnetic measurements.

There's always pneumatics.

--

Rick C.

- Get 1,000 miles of free Supercharging
- Tesla referral code - https://ts.la/richard11209

 

On Sat, 25 Jan 2020 16:15:48 -0800 (PST), George Herold
<ggherold@gmail.com> wrote:

On Saturday, January 25, 2020 at 5:40:29 PM UTC-5, jla...@highlandsniptechnology.com wrote:
On Sat, 25 Jan 2020 13:22:18 -0800 (PST), George Herold
ggherold@gmail.com> wrote:

So I've been in this kinda dark place... partly due to BS from my PPoE.
(need not be discussed)
But that looks to finally be behind me!

I went down to visit with Phil H. for a day, (wonderful people!),
and when I came back there was all this good news in the mail.
One says that I can use my unemployment insurance benefits
to apply for the Self-employment Assistance Program.
And I'd like to explore that idea here. (starting own company)

First off it seems like a big lift. Spit balling numbers, if
I'm going to take ~$100k in profit (to pay myself and health insurance
and taxes and..) I'm going to need ~$300k in sales.
(most of my ideas involve fun physics teaching stuff, where
price is paramount.) And I don't see any selling enough.

Maybe I need to think about selling to industry too?
I think my number one, this could sell enough, idea
is a LN flow cryostat*. With a bare-bones cryostat for
~$1-2k, (Dewar, minimal probe and pump.) Then people
could make their own probes, and I can sell different probes
(and electronics).
probes could sell for much more money....

The other bad thing about selling stuff is you've got to
spend ~1/2 your time on marketing... maybe more early on.

I don't mind, and even enjoy some, a little bit of marketing.
but it is what I look at as part of the grunt work.

Thoughts and ideas welcome.

George H.


*typically the variable flow impedance is done with a needle
valve. The needle valve is the expensive, costly to replace bit,
that thumb fingered brutish students can break**.
Part of me thinks.. well let your students learn on this one
(and make it easy to repair) Or some fixed impedance with
variable pressure to change flow.. or something else?
(magneto striction, pwm a solenoid, peizo electric valve?)
** actually I think the latest designs are motor controlled,
with torque sensors or something.

Let me know if we can help. Like if you need parts or equipment or
consulting or design reviews or something.

I can send you a gigantic list of the parts we have in stock. We have
a bunch of oscilloscopes too.
Grin, You are such a sweet heart, thanks.
You remind me that the number zero problem of your own company,
is that you are all alone... no one to bounce ideas off of.

No, I have a few smart electronics and mechanical people to brainstorm
with (and be abused by) and a few good customers who have ideas.

Ideally I might get a job as a lab guy at some uni/ college.
with some interested profs, and students as beta testers.
(Except uni's seem out of control, PC-wise these days.)

The electronics shop of a good physics school is usually fun. I worked
in one, a couple of summers, and learned a lot. It could spin out a
business, too, part-time until it takes off.

Seems like a stepper motor would be good to spin a needle valve.
Yeah... maybe a motorized option, but I like turning things by hand.

I wonder if you could push a flexible metal diaphragm across a hole in
a plate.
Sure with pressure as the pusher.

The harder you push, the more viscous flow damping. Or something.

The one thing I hate about any
>magnetic valve ideas.. is that it will f with any magnetic measurements.

Push with a gas? Or even a liquid, with some thermal hand-waving.


--

John Larkin Highland Technology, Inc

The cork popped merrily, and Lord Peter rose to his feet.
"Bunter", he said, "I give you a toast. The triumph of Instinct over Reason"

 

[George Herold]

On Saturday, January 25, 2020 at 7:08:02 PM UTC-5, Phil Hobbs wrote:

On 2020-01-25 16:22, George Herold wrote:
So I've been in this kinda dark place... partly due to BS from my PPoE.
(need not be discussed)
But that looks to finally be behind me!

I went down to visit with Phil H. for a day, (wonderful people!),

It was great having you--we've been net-friends for 15 years or so, and
it's good to be able to put a face to a name.

and when I came back there was all this good news in the mail.
One says that I can use my unemployment insurance benefits
to apply for the Self-employment Assistance Program.
And I'd like to explore that idea here. (starting own company)

First off it seems like a big lift. Spit balling numbers, if
I'm going to take ~$100k in profit (to pay myself and health insurance
and taxes and..) I'm going to need ~$300k in sales.
(most of my ideas involve fun physics teaching stuff, where
price is paramount.) And I don't see any selling enough.

ISTM that to start a HW business in that space, you need one or two
champions as customers--folks who have a need and money to spend, and
who believe in you enough to generate POs.

Maybe I need to think about selling to industry too?
I think my number one, this could sell enough, idea
is a LN flow cryostat*. With a bare-bones cryostat for
~$1-2k, (Dewar, minimal probe and pump.) Then people
could make their own probes, and I can sell different probes
(and electronics).
probes could sell for much more money....

Market creation calls for a bunch of patient money.

Grin, yeah this is somewhat akin to the cheap razor, with lots of razor
blades to follow, but orthogonal price wise. cheap cryostat, a few
spendy probes to follow.
But in my mind the cryostat has to stand on it's own.
There's a LN2 dewar, a SS tube (1.25" OD... the biggest thin
walled stainless tube you can buy from McMaster.. or elsewhere.)
valve, heater, T sensor at bottom. Laddish clamp to inside
of probe on top.
I've got pieces for most of this but haven't tried it...

I need an OK vacuum pump,

The other bad thing about selling stuff is you've got to
spend ~1/2 your time on marketing... maybe more early on.

That's another place where the champions come in--you can use them as
references.

I don't mind, and even enjoy some, a little bit of marketing.
but it is what I look at as part of the grunt work.

Yup. Figuring out what you want to be when you grow up is still a thing
when you're 60.
It can mostly be any interesting question, measurement, thing.

George H.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

--
Dr Philip C D Hobbs
Principal Consultant
ElectroOptical Innovations LLC / Hobbs ElectroOptics
Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics
Briarcliff Manor NY 10510

http://electrooptical.net
http://hobbs-eo.com

 

[Rick C]

On Saturday, January 25, 2020 at 7:43:11 PM UTC-5, jla...@highlandsniptechnology.com wrote:

On Sat, 25 Jan 2020 16:15:48 -0800 (PST), George Herold
ggherold@gmail.com> wrote:

On Saturday, January 25, 2020 at 5:40:29 PM UTC-5, jla...@highlandsniptechnology.com wrote:
On Sat, 25 Jan 2020 13:22:18 -0800 (PST), George Herold
ggherold@gmail.com> wrote:

So I've been in this kinda dark place... partly due to BS from my PPoE.
(need not be discussed)
But that looks to finally be behind me!

I went down to visit with Phil H. for a day, (wonderful people!),
and when I came back there was all this good news in the mail.
One says that I can use my unemployment insurance benefits
to apply for the Self-employment Assistance Program.
And I'd like to explore that idea here. (starting own company)

First off it seems like a big lift. Spit balling numbers, if
I'm going to take ~$100k in profit (to pay myself and health insurance
and taxes and..) I'm going to need ~$300k in sales.
(most of my ideas involve fun physics teaching stuff, where
price is paramount.) And I don't see any selling enough.

Maybe I need to think about selling to industry too?
I think my number one, this could sell enough, idea
is a LN flow cryostat*. With a bare-bones cryostat for
~$1-2k, (Dewar, minimal probe and pump.) Then people
could make their own probes, and I can sell different probes
(and electronics).
probes could sell for much more money....

The other bad thing about selling stuff is you've got to
spend ~1/2 your time on marketing... maybe more early on.

I don't mind, and even enjoy some, a little bit of marketing.
but it is what I look at as part of the grunt work.

Thoughts and ideas welcome.

George H.


*typically the variable flow impedance is done with a needle
valve. The needle valve is the expensive, costly to replace bit,
that thumb fingered brutish students can break**.
Part of me thinks.. well let your students learn on this one
(and make it easy to repair) Or some fixed impedance with
variable pressure to change flow.. or something else?
(magneto striction, pwm a solenoid, peizo electric valve?)
** actually I think the latest designs are motor controlled,
with torque sensors or something.

Let me know if we can help. Like if you need parts or equipment or
consulting or design reviews or something.

I can send you a gigantic list of the parts we have in stock. We have
a bunch of oscilloscopes too.
Grin, You are such a sweet heart, thanks.
You remind me that the number zero problem of your own company,
is that you are all alone... no one to bounce ideas off of.

No, I have a few smart electronics and mechanical people to brainstorm
with (and be abused by) and a few good customers who have ideas.


Ideally I might get a job as a lab guy at some uni/ college.
with some interested profs, and students as beta testers.
(Except uni's seem out of control, PC-wise these days.)

The electronics shop of a good physics school is usually fun. I worked
in one, a couple of summers, and learned a lot. It could spin out a
business, too, part-time until it takes off.

Bouncing ideas is important. No man is a engineering island. That was one of the things I missed working by myself. I couldn't even find anyone to review my PCB layout or before that schematic. It makes a difference.

--

Rick C.

+ Get 1,000 miles of free Supercharging
+ Tesla referral code - https://ts.la/richard11209

 

[Bill Sloman]

On Sunday, January 26, 2020 at 11:43:11 AM UTC+11, jla...@highlandsniptechnology.com wrote:

On Sat, 25 Jan 2020 16:15:48 -0800 (PST), George Herold
ggherold@gmail.com> wrote:

On Saturday, January 25, 2020 at 5:40:29 PM UTC-5, jla...@highlandsniptechnology.com wrote:
On Sat, 25 Jan 2020 13:22:18 -0800 (PST), George Herold
ggherold@gmail.com> wrote:

So I've been in this kinda dark place... partly due to BS from my PPoE.
(need not be discussed)
But that looks to finally be behind me!

I went down to visit with Phil H. for a day, (wonderful people!),
and when I came back there was all this good news in the mail.
One says that I can use my unemployment insurance benefits
to apply for the Self-employment Assistance Program.
And I'd like to explore that idea here. (starting own company)

First off it seems like a big lift. Spit balling numbers, if
I'm going to take ~$100k in profit (to pay myself and health insurance
and taxes and..) I'm going to need ~$300k in sales.
(most of my ideas involve fun physics teaching stuff, where
price is paramount.) And I don't see any selling enough.

Maybe I need to think about selling to industry too?
I think my number one, this could sell enough, idea
is a LN flow cryostat*. With a bare-bones cryostat for
~$1-2k, (Dewar, minimal probe and pump.) Then people
could make their own probes, and I can sell different probes
(and electronics).
probes could sell for much more money....

The other bad thing about selling stuff is you've got to
spend ~1/2 your time on marketing... maybe more early on.

I don't mind, and even enjoy some, a little bit of marketing.
but it is what I look at as part of the grunt work.

Thoughts and ideas welcome.

*typically the variable flow impedance is done with a needle
valve. The needle valve is the expensive, costly to replace bit,
that thumb fingered brutish students can break**.
Part of me thinks.. well let your students learn on this one
(and make it easy to repair) Or some fixed impedance with
variable pressure to change flow.. or something else?
(magneto striction, pwm a solenoid, peizo electric valve?)
** actually I think the latest designs are motor controlled,
with torque sensors or something.

Let me know if we can help. Like if you need parts or equipment or
consulting or design reviews or something.

I can send you a gigantic list of the parts we have in stock. We have
a bunch of oscilloscopes too.
Grin, You are such a sweet heart, thanks.
You remind me that the number zero problem of your own company,
is that you are all alone... no one to bounce ideas off of.

No, I have a few smart electronics and mechanical people to brainstorm
with (and be abused by) and a few good customers who have ideas.

Ideally I might get a job as a lab guy at some uni/ college.
with some interested profs, and students as beta testers.
(Except uni's seem out of control, PC-wise these days.)

The electronics shop of a good physics school is usually fun. I worked
in one, a couple of summers, and learned a lot. It could spin out a
business, too, part-time until it takes off.

Horace Darwin did it first. He was Charles Darwin's youngest son, and an engineer.

He essentially took over the Cavendish Laboratory workshop (in Cambridge UK) and grew it into Cambridge Instruments

https://www.amazon.com/Darwins-Cambridge-Scientific-Instrument-1878-1968/dp/0852745699

The book covers the period from 1878 to 1968 (when the company was taken over by Kent Instruments, who made a hash of it. I was working for Kent Instruments in 1974 when they were taken over by Brown Boveri, and the money-losing rump of Cambridge Instruments was floated off. When I joined it in 1982, it had been through a merger with Metals Research of Cambridge - which hadn't worked well, and the residue had been taken over by Terence Gooding, who eventually fused it with Leica.

Seems like a stepper motor would be good to spin a needle valve.
Yeah... maybe a motorized option, but I like turning things by hand.

I wonder if you could push a flexible metal diaphragm across a hole in
a plate.
Sure with pressure as the pusher.

The harder you push, the more viscous flow damping. Or something.

The one thing I hate about any
magnetic valve ideas.. is that it will f with any magnetic measurements.

Push with a gas? Or even a liquid, with some thermal hand-waving.

It's all a bit silly. If you've got liquid nitrogen it's always boiling off very cold nitrogen gas. If you want a higher flow rate, drop a resistor into the cryostat and boil off a bit more.

You can't actually throttle the gas flow - if you did the cryostat would burst - and it's easy to increase gas volume by boiling off more gas.

--
Bill Sloman, Sydney

 

[Robert Baer]

George Herold wrote:

So I've been in this kinda dark place... partly due to BS from my PPoE.
(need not be discussed)
But that looks to finally be behind me!

I went down to visit with Phil H. for a day, (wonderful people!),
and when I came back there was all this good news in the mail.
One says that I can use my unemployment insurance benefits
to apply for the Self-employment Assistance Program.
And I'd like to explore that idea here. (starting own company)

* Look carefully at ALL of the gotchas, (may i swear) FEEs, interest
rates,etc.

First off it seems like a big lift. Spit balling numbers, if
I'm going to take ~$100k in profit (to pay myself and health insurance
and taxes and..) I'm going to need ~$300k in sales.
(most of my ideas involve fun physics teaching stuff, where
price is paramount.) And I don't see any selling enough.

Maybe I need to think about selling to industry too?
I think my number one, this could sell enough, idea
is a LN flow cryostat*. With a bare-bones cryostat for
~$1-2k, (Dewar, minimal probe and pump.) Then people
could make their own probes, and I can sell different probes
(and electronics).
probes could sell for much more money....

The other bad thing about selling stuff is you've got to
spend ~1/2 your time on marketing... maybe more early on.

* Create a memorable name to use, and register a website using that.
The website is your sales tool.

No matter how good that website may be, expect hundreds of SEO types
that will diss it, saying what they can do to improve it. The scam part
is placement of your site name in hundreds of (what i call referral) ad
sites; damn near all of them are completely unknown (and unused).

Have a good developer, maybe one paid Manta and Google ad, use GA for
tracking.

Use PayPal for selling; any other merchandiser will charge a rather
large MONTHLY _fee_ just to exist.

Formally copyright the site name; that is cheap insurance.
See circular 4:
Registrations online
$35 Single Application (single author, same claimant, one work, not for
hire)
$55 Standard Application (all other filings)

The copyright law, regulations, and the Compendium are available on
the Copyright Office website at www.copyright.gov.

I don't mind, and even enjoy some, a little bit of marketing.
but it is what I look at as part of the grunt work.

Thoughts and ideas welcome.

George H.


*typically the variable flow impedance is done with a needle
valve. The needle valve is the expensive, costly to replace bit,
that thumb fingered brutish students can break**.
Part of me thinks.. well let your students learn on this one
(and make it easy to repair) Or some fixed impedance with
variable pressure to change flow.. or something else?
(magneto striction, pwm a solenoid, peizo electric valve?)
** actually I think the latest designs are motor controlled,
with torque sensors or something.

 

[Tom Gardner]

On 25/01/20 21:22, George Herold wrote:

The other bad thing about selling stuff is you've got to
spend ~1/2 your time on marketing... maybe more early on.

And all the other administrivia Even if someone
else is doing all that guff, and engineer operates
at full throttle for about 30%-40% of their time.
The rest is "unproductive" meetings etc. Hence in
the absence of better information, multiply your
first estimate by 2.5-3.5

I've seen a couple of startups make one mistake;
I suspect you are too smart, but here it is anyway...

The founder(s) are trapped by the glitz of being
"self-employed CEOs", and spend money on unnecessary
/visible/ trappings, e.g. cars, boardroom furniture,
and the like.

They feel great and "energised", but none of that
gets money in the door.

More successfully...

I've also seen successful R&D consultancies that
only buy the minimum of equipment, i.e. equipment
that is guaranteed to be useful on every project.

Any equipment that doesn't fall into that category
is bought on a project-by-project basis and after
the project it is part of the deliverable to the
client.

Good luck; all startups need that.

 

[Piglet]

On 26/01/2020 00:15, George Herold wrote:

Sure with pressure as the pusher. The one thing I hate about any
magnetic valve ideas.. is that it will f with any magnetic measurements.

George H.

Good luck George.

Getting movement without magnetic fields makes me wonder again about
Nitinol* "muscle wire" - always seemed a great solution looking for a
problem to solve. But possibly not right for your app, as far as I know
it is bang-bang only with no proportional control, slow in the hundreds
of milliseconds, and being thermally driven probably a complete mismatch
for cryo N2 valves!

piglet

*For those unfamiliar a shape memory alloy wire that switches between
two states and corresponding lengths with temperature. Passing a current
to self heat makes a sort of electrical-mechanical transducer.

 

On Sun, 26 Jan 2020 09:21:58 +0000, Tom Gardner
<spamjunk@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote:

On 25/01/20 21:22, George Herold wrote:
The other bad thing about selling stuff is you've got to
spend ~1/2 your time on marketing... maybe more early on.

And all the other administrivia Even if someone
else is doing all that guff, and engineer operates
at full throttle for about 30%-40% of their time.
The rest is "unproductive" meetings etc. Hence in
the absence of better information, multiply your
first estimate by 2.5-3.5

I've seen a couple of startups make one mistake;
I suspect you are too smart, but here it is anyway...

The founder(s) are trapped by the glitz of being
"self-employed CEOs", and spend money on unnecessary
/visible/ trappings, e.g. cars, boardroom furniture,
and the like.

Some people think that the appearance of success (hence buying all
that glitzy expensive stuff) is success. It's the opposite.

One guy that I know of got some investors to join up, and first thing
bought a private jet. Next thing, they fired him.

(One common mistake is to give up too much equity early on, often to
less than savory/competent partners.)

They feel great and "energised", but none of that
gets money in the door.

More successfully...

I've also seen successful R&D consultancies that
only buy the minimum of equipment, i.e. equipment
that is guaranteed to be useful on every project.

General-purpose equipment is good to have around. These days, a suite
of good test equipment isn't very expensive.

Any equipment that doesn't fall into that category
is bought on a project-by-project basis and after
the project it is part of the deliverable to the
client.

NO! Keep all the toys! Well, you can provide custom test sets at large
additional cost. Price them separately; they may find that they want
several.

Good luck; all startups need that.

One can certainly be a consultant, and sell the IP and designs and
equipment on a one-time basis. That gets a company started, and some
people can do that forever. But that requires constant selling, and is
often feast-famine stressful. Selling products is a better long-term
force multiplier.



--

John Larkin Highland Technology, Inc

The cork popped merrily, and Lord Peter rose to his feet.
"Bunter", he said, "I give you a toast. The triumph of Instinct over Reason"

 

[Tom Gardner]

On 26/01/20 16:16, jlarkin@highlandsniptechnology.com wrote:

On Sun, 26 Jan 2020 09:21:58 +0000, Tom Gardner
spamjunk@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote:

On 25/01/20 21:22, George Herold wrote:
The other bad thing about selling stuff is you've got to
spend ~1/2 your time on marketing... maybe more early on.

And all the other administrivia Even if someone
else is doing all that guff, and engineer operates
at full throttle for about 30%-40% of their time.
The rest is "unproductive" meetings etc. Hence in
the absence of better information, multiply your
first estimate by 2.5-3.5

I've seen a couple of startups make one mistake;
I suspect you are too smart, but here it is anyway...

The founder(s) are trapped by the glitz of being
"self-employed CEOs", and spend money on unnecessary
/visible/ trappings, e.g. cars, boardroom furniture,
and the like.

Some people think that the appearance of success (hence buying all
that glitzy expensive stuff) is success. It's the opposite.

One guy that I know of got some investors to join up, and first thing
bought a private jet. Next thing, they fired him.

(One common mistake is to give up too much equity early on, often to
less than savory/competent partners.)


They feel great and "energised", but none of that
gets money in the door.

More successfully...

I've also seen successful R&D consultancies that
only buy the minimum of equipment, i.e. equipment
that is guaranteed to be useful on every project.

General-purpose equipment is good to have around. These days, a suite
of good test equipment isn't very expensive.

No conflict there.

Any equipment that doesn't fall into that category
is bought on a project-by-project basis and after
the project it is part of the deliverable to the
client.

NO! Keep all the toys! Well, you can provide custom test sets at large
additional cost. Price them separately; they may find that they want
several.

I would expect custom test sets would be part of the
project deliverables, presuming the clients want to
continue with the work after the R&D is handed over.
Pricing duplicates separately is optional, of course.

The consultancies I know had clients that wanted to
own any "project specific" equipment that had been
bought for the project and they had paid for as part
of the project cost. Quite reasonable, really.

In addition, space for storage of rarely used equipment
can be a problem.

Good luck; all startups need that.

One can certainly be a consultant, and sell the IP and designs and
equipment on a one-time basis. That gets a company started, and some
people can do that forever. But that requires constant selling, and is
often feast-famine stressful. Selling products is a better long-term
force multiplier.

Contract anything is always a nice clear cut example of the
"job shop scheduling" problems. Those problems are reduced
with larger organisations, more projects, and smaller projects.

 

[George Herold]

On Saturday, January 25, 2020 at 8:54:02 PM UTC-5, Robert Baer wrote:

George Herold wrote:
So I've been in this kinda dark place... partly due to BS from my PPoE.
(need not be discussed)
But that looks to finally be behind me!

I went down to visit with Phil H. for a day, (wonderful people!),
and when I came back there was all this good news in the mail.
One says that I can use my unemployment insurance benefits
to apply for the Self-employment Assistance Program.
And I'd like to explore that idea here. (starting own company)
* Look carefully at ALL of the gotchas, (may i swear) FEEs, interest
rates,etc.


First off it seems like a big lift. Spit balling numbers, if
I'm going to take ~$100k in profit (to pay myself and health insurance
and taxes and..) I'm going to need ~$300k in sales.
(most of my ideas involve fun physics teaching stuff, where
price is paramount.) And I don't see any selling enough.

Maybe I need to think about selling to industry too?
I think my number one, this could sell enough, idea
is a LN flow cryostat*. With a bare-bones cryostat for
~$1-2k, (Dewar, minimal probe and pump.) Then people
could make their own probes, and I can sell different probes
(and electronics).
probes could sell for much more money....

The other bad thing about selling stuff is you've got to
spend ~1/2 your time on marketing... maybe more early on.
* Create a memorable name to use, and register a website using that.
The website is your sales tool.

No matter how good that website may be, expect hundreds of SEO types
that will diss it, saying what they can do to improve it. The scam part
is placement of your site name in hundreds of (what i call referral) ad
sites; damn near all of them are completely unknown (and unused).

Have a good developer, maybe one paid Manta and Google ad, use GA for
tracking.

Use PayPal for selling; any other merchandiser will charge a rather
large MONTHLY _fee_ just to exist.

Formally copyright the site name; that is cheap insurance.
See circular 4:
Registrations online
$35 Single Application (single author, same claimant, one work, not for
hire)
$55 Standard Application (all other filings)

Yeah... thanks for all of that Robert. I know nothing about
making my own website.. so that's another thing.
At my PPoE I always wanted to make a 'repair/problem' online forum...
which I pictured as mostly my email correspondence with customers
made public.

George H.

The copyright law, regulations, and the Compendium are available on
the Copyright Office website at www.copyright.gov.


I don't mind, and even enjoy some, a little bit of marketing.
but it is what I look at as part of the grunt work.

Thoughts and ideas welcome.

George H.


*typically the variable flow impedance is done with a needle
valve. The needle valve is the expensive, costly to replace bit,
that thumb fingered brutish students can break**.
Part of me thinks.. well let your students learn on this one
(and make it easy to repair) Or some fixed impedance with
variable pressure to change flow.. or something else?
(magneto striction, pwm a solenoid, peizo electric valve?)
** actually I think the latest designs are motor controlled,
with torque sensors or something.

 

[George Herold]

On Sunday, January 26, 2020 at 4:22:03 AM UTC-5, Tom Gardner wrote:

On 25/01/20 21:22, George Herold wrote:
The other bad thing about selling stuff is you've got to
spend ~1/2 your time on marketing... maybe more early on.

And all the other administrivia Even if someone
else is doing all that guff, and engineer operates
at full throttle for about 30%-40% of their time.
The rest is "unproductive" meetings etc. Hence in
the absence of better information, multiply your
first estimate by 2.5-3.5

I've seen a couple of startups make one mistake;
I suspect you are too smart, but here it is anyway...

The founder(s) are trapped by the glitz of being
"self-employed CEOs", and spend money on unnecessary
/visible/ trappings, e.g. cars, boardroom furniture,
and the like.

They feel great and "energised", but none of that
gets money in the door.

More successfully...

I've also seen successful R&D consultancies that
only buy the minimum of equipment, i.e. equipment
that is guaranteed to be useful on every project.

Any equipment that doesn't fall into that category
is bought on a project-by-project basis and after
the project it is part of the deliverable to the
client.

Good luck; all startups need that.

Huh, no I won't be purposely buy un-needed stuff.
If I was to do this LN2 thing, the first thing I'd need is
a leak detector. (Or an RGA and pumping station.)

I think I'm mostly trying to talk myself out of this idea.
If I could work 1/2 time for someone else and 1/2+ for myself
that might work.
George h.

 

[Phil Hobbs]

On 2020-01-26 06:06, Piglet wrote:

On 26/01/2020 00:15, George Herold wrote:
Sure with pressure as the pusher.  The one thing I hate about any
magnetic valve ideas.. is that it will f with any magnetic measurements.

George H.

Good luck George.

Getting movement without magnetic fields makes me wonder again about
Nitinol* "muscle wire" - always seemed a great solution looking for a
problem to solve. But possibly not right for your app, as far as I know
it is bang-bang only with no proportional control, slow in the hundreds
of milliseconds, and being thermally driven probably a complete mismatch
for cryo N2 valves!

piglet

*For those unfamiliar a shape memory alloy wire that switches between
two states and corresponding lengths with temperature. Passing a current
to self heat makes a sort of electrical-mechanical transducer.

Nitinol goes much faster if you use a thin gauge and dunk it in oil--you
can get audio rates out of it. I have a couple of Blue Sky 'Collimeter'
units, which are shear-plate collimation testers dithered by a bit of
Nitinol wire driving a flexure pivot.

It'll give you nice smooth bidirectional motion if you have some sort of
feedback. There's a resistance change associated with the phase
transition, but I don't know how repeatable that is.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

--
Dr Philip C D Hobbs
Principal Consultant
ElectroOptical Innovations LLC / Hobbs ElectroOptics
Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics
Briarcliff Manor NY 10510

http://electrooptical.net
http://hobbs-eo.com

 

[George Herold]

On Sunday, January 26, 2020 at 6:06:44 AM UTC-5, piglet wrote:

On 26/01/2020 00:15, George Herold wrote:
Sure with pressure as the pusher. The one thing I hate about any
magnetic valve ideas.. is that it will f with any magnetic measurements.

George H.

Good luck George.

Getting movement without magnetic fields makes me wonder again about
Nitinol* "muscle wire" - always seemed a great solution looking for a
problem to solve. But possibly not right for your app, as far as I know
it is bang-bang only with no proportional control, slow in the hundreds
of milliseconds, and being thermally driven probably a complete mismatch
for cryo N2 valves!

Grin... yeah, there would have to be some thermally insulating connection
between the nitinol and the valve.

piglet

*For those unfamiliar a shape memory alloy wire that switches between
two states and corresponding lengths with temperature. Passing a current
to self heat makes a sort of electrical-mechanical transducer.

Oh, I didn't know it would self heat... that's fun. (well and needs some
electrical insulation on the ends.)

Re: selling something. I don't think I can put all my eggs into
the "I'm going to sell something basket." Too many of my plans/ ideas
are half baked and untested. Besides getting the flow cryostat going
there's gotta be at least one 'killer' probe/ experiment.
And I'm not sure what the first one might be.

Hall bar on semi-conductor... Ge would be the best, because
the interesting physics matches the temp. range of the probe.
but also Si.

Phase transition in magnetite... google that (the wiki article sucks.)
I know much less about this.. but it is cool!

I-V vs T for various commercial semi's.. diodes and transistors.

George h.

 

[George Herold]

On Sunday, January 26, 2020 at 11:16:31 AM UTC-5, jla...@highlandsniptechnology.com wrote:

On Sun, 26 Jan 2020 09:21:58 +0000, Tom Gardner
spamjunk@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote:

On 25/01/20 21:22, George Herold wrote:
The other bad thing about selling stuff is you've got to
spend ~1/2 your time on marketing... maybe more early on.

And all the other administrivia Even if someone
else is doing all that guff, and engineer operates
at full throttle for about 30%-40% of their time.
The rest is "unproductive" meetings etc. Hence in
the absence of better information, multiply your
first estimate by 2.5-3.5

I've seen a couple of startups make one mistake;
I suspect you are too smart, but here it is anyway...

The founder(s) are trapped by the glitz of being
"self-employed CEOs", and spend money on unnecessary
/visible/ trappings, e.g. cars, boardroom furniture,
and the like.

Some people think that the appearance of success (hence buying all
that glitzy expensive stuff) is success. It's the opposite.

One guy that I know of got some investors to join up, and first thing
bought a private jet. Next thing, they fired him.

(One common mistake is to give up too much equity early on, often to
less than savory/competent partners.)


They feel great and "energised", but none of that
gets money in the door.

More successfully...

I've also seen successful R&D consultancies that
only buy the minimum of equipment, i.e. equipment
that is guaranteed to be useful on every project.

General-purpose equipment is good to have around. These days, a suite
of good test equipment isn't very expensive.


Any equipment that doesn't fall into that category
is bought on a project-by-project basis and after
the project it is part of the deliverable to the
client.

NO! Keep all the toys! Well, you can provide custom test sets at large
additional cost. Price them separately; they may find that they want
several.

Yeah, a bad thing about losing my job, was losing most of my toys.
(I've got some power supplies, rigol scope and rigol sig. gen.
and as you say parts are pretty cheap these days.)

George H.

Good luck; all startups need that.

One can certainly be a consultant, and sell the IP and designs and
equipment on a one-time basis. That gets a company started, and some
people can do that forever. But that requires constant selling, and is
often feast-famine stressful. Selling products is a better long-term
force multiplier.

Right, you need a few horses in the stable for sales (at least at the
low volume level I'm contemplating.) to be semi-stable.

The other thing I think about is fun little pcb's and a part's bag/ list.
There's lot's of rather mundane circuits you can think about,
(gain, filtering)
fun ones are rev. biased led spads, and fast edge TDR's

Some standard box for little circuits would be nice.
Phil, what do you pay for your 'stomp' boxes.
(two piece dicast )

George H.

--

John Larkin Highland Technology, Inc

The cork popped merrily, and Lord Peter rose to his feet.
"Bunter", he said, "I give you a toast. The triumph of Instinct over Reason"

 

[Phil Hobbs]

On 2020-01-26 15:42, George Herold wrote:

On Sunday, January 26, 2020 at 11:16:31 AM UTC-5, jla...@highlandsniptechnology.com wrote:
On Sun, 26 Jan 2020 09:21:58 +0000, Tom Gardner
spamjunk@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote:

On 25/01/20 21:22, George Herold wrote:
The other bad thing about selling stuff is you've got to
spend ~1/2 your time on marketing... maybe more early on.

And all the other administrivia Even if someone
else is doing all that guff, and engineer operates
at full throttle for about 30%-40% of their time.
The rest is "unproductive" meetings etc. Hence in
the absence of better information, multiply your
first estimate by 2.5-3.5

I've seen a couple of startups make one mistake;
I suspect you are too smart, but here it is anyway...

The founder(s) are trapped by the glitz of being
"self-employed CEOs", and spend money on unnecessary
/visible/ trappings, e.g. cars, boardroom furniture,
and the like.

Some people think that the appearance of success (hence buying all
that glitzy expensive stuff) is success. It's the opposite.

One guy that I know of got some investors to join up, and first thing
bought a private jet. Next thing, they fired him.

(One common mistake is to give up too much equity early on, often to
less than savory/competent partners.)


They feel great and "energised", but none of that
gets money in the door.

More successfully...

I've also seen successful R&D consultancies that
only buy the minimum of equipment, i.e. equipment
that is guaranteed to be useful on every project.

General-purpose equipment is good to have around. These days, a suite
of good test equipment isn't very expensive.


Any equipment that doesn't fall into that category
is bought on a project-by-project basis and after
the project it is part of the deliverable to the
client.

NO! Keep all the toys! Well, you can provide custom test sets at large
additional cost. Price them separately; they may find that they want
several.
Yeah, a bad thing about losing my job, was losing most of my toys.
(I've got some power supplies, rigol scope and rigol sig. gen.
and as you say parts are pretty cheap these days.)

George H.



Good luck; all startups need that.

One can certainly be a consultant, and sell the IP and designs and
equipment on a one-time basis. That gets a company started, and some
people can do that forever. But that requires constant selling, and is
often feast-famine stressful. Selling products is a better long-term
force multiplier.
Right, you need a few horses in the stable for sales (at least at the
low volume level I'm contemplating.) to be semi-stable.

The other thing I think about is fun little pcb's and a part's bag/ list.
There's lot's of rather mundane circuits you can think about,
(gain, filtering)
fun ones are rev. biased led spads, and fast edge TDR's

Some standard box for little circuits would be nice.
Phil, what do you pay for your 'stomp' boxes.
(two piece dicast )

They're cheap--five or ten bucks depending on size. BTW once you have a
web site up, you can do pretty good SEO by adding your contact info and
a few keywords to your Usenet posts--SED is widely mirrored. (See below.)

Cheers

Phil Hobbs


--
Dr Philip C D Hobbs
Principal Consultant
ElectroOptical Innovations LLC / Hobbs ElectroOptics
Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics
Briarcliff Manor NY 10510

http://electrooptical.net
http://hobbs-eo.com