Posted: 8/24/2013 6:11:07 PM EDT
|
Piccolo's Tentative Emcomm Plan thread has me itching to start another Emcomm Box project....
Don't really have a project on the table right now... so... maybe.... Using the laser to cut some frames for a 'very generic', 'anybody can use this'.. 'off the shelf' kind of project... maybe... so... what is the box AJ and BD used for their projects ??? If you look on page on page 2 of this thread you'll see what I mean by laser cut frames... something that will easily slip in and out of the arfcom orange (maybe) box.... |
|
MTM Spud7 is the box
I think the Orange Version is called the SpudSux 
ETA:this thread has dimensions listed |
|
aside, an interesting story... i had a home alarm system-related business while i was in college. basically a friend and i purchased alarm system components at a significant discount (approximately cost) from the various alarm system hardware manufacturers (at the time... AT&T, Ademco, ADT, Stanley, GE, Napco, and so on) and packaged them into demonstration kits which were used by alarm company reps to sell systems to customers. the demonstration kits consisted of a hard sided suitcase, which contained some aspects of the vendor hardware (kepyad consoles, IR detectors, magnetic door loop closures, etc) held in place by custom-cut foam. in most designs there was an internal hinged flap of some type that had system features, etc listed, along with a pocket to hold literature about the system. generally the demo kit designs were done in concert with a company's lead sales agents, with input from the hardware manufacturers -- this meant that everyone had buy-in, and some fantastic suggestions came from sales folks "out in the trenches" so to speak. the outer cases were usually off-the-shelf or very close to, this kept the expenses down. inside, we had silkscreened flaps, assembled in house and cut/trimmed using a router jig. stainless piano hinges mounted the fold-out flaps, and silkscreened plastic fascias, again with advertising/features, covered the foam. the typical demo kit could be plugged into the wall AC and the phone jack at the customer home, and all aspects of the alarm system could be demonstrated including a mock conversation via 2-way speaker phone with the monitoring services. you could, with great effect, show how quickly detected motion, for example, was turned around by the monitoring service. with the advent of small, wireless, battery-powered sensors, installation was easy and troubleshooting even easier. this is in contrast to wired systems which cause much installation aggrevation and very much inconvenience the homeowner. once the customer was shown that (a) the system was easy to use, and (b) the house would not be a train wreck of dust and debris after installation, the sale was easy to close. our customers (alarm company sales agents, aka "trunk slammers") loved the demo boxes since it made selling the systems much easier -- and they fed info that back to their hardware suppliers. in turn, the hardware suppliers were eager to give us their hardware at cost (and sometimes less), since doing so directly helped them sell more hardware. our product was high quality, we gladly accepted repair/refurb work (and you should see what these guys put these boxes through -- we had some come back with rainwater in them), we got a great volume deal from UPS (a demo kit weighed from 15 to 35 pounds). it was a good business; my friend finished off his MBA without debt, and i finished engineering school the same way. i kept the business going for about a year after college but by then i had accepted a corporate job and the number of available hours to babysit this enterprise was limited. back to the enclosure: never underestimate cross-marketing opportunities. one day the owner of the company that made our raw cases says "what, exactly, are you guys doing with these hundreds of cases i deliver to you every month?" i tell him to stop by. and so a couple of days later i take him upstairs to where we actually did the assembly work and showed him some sales demo kits we did for AT&T and Ademco. he was dumbstruck. straightaway he says, "listen, i'm going to an injection molding trade show next week; we have a booth etc to show off our stuff. can i bring one of your cases to show folks what *else* people can do with our cases besides put photographic equipment in?" so i snapped the demo kits shut and told him to take both on loan -- with one condition: if anyone asks about who is making the innards of the cases, your guys have to give them our business card. here's a stack. he said, "no problem!" fast forward two months later, we had three new customers, including a point-of-sale credit card scanner manufacturer and a company that made commercial surveilance equipment. these new clients were so easily hooked it almost felt like cheating -- we made abolutely no effort, invested no time, and they came to us, with hat in hand: "can you do *that* for us?" pps: never underestimate what 8hrs/day, 5 days/wk, 50wks/yr use will do to a set of cordless driver/drills and batteries. makita, bosch, AEG, panasonic, milwaukee -- didn't matter, we used and killed them all in short order over the course of 6 yrs. at the time i was buying 1/8" and 5/32" drill bits in hundred bit packs. ar-jedi |
|
fast forward two months later, we had three new customers, including a point-of-sale credit card scanner manufacturer and a company that made commercial surveilance equipment. these new clients were so easily hooked it almost felt like cheating -- we made abolutely no effort, invested no time, and they came to us, with hat in hand: "can you do *that* for us?"
A GREAT success story, arjedi! My hat's off to you! |