Etsy for electronics? More like B.I.Y.
June 28, 2017 7:07 AM Subscribe
I want arduino type things (animatronics and audio "devices"), but I want someone else to build it for me (perhaps with specific elements to my design). Is there a central place I can find these?
Oh, also, try Metafilter Jobs?
posted by Alterscape at 7:21 AM on June 28, 2017
posted by Alterscape at 7:21 AM on June 28, 2017
I'm gonna answer the question in your title separately from the question in the text:
The best Etsy for Electronics that I've seen is https://www.tindie.com/. For a while, they were basically billing themselves as such. But they really are more a marketplace for specific products, not for custom or semi-custom stuff. That said, you MAY have luck contacting someone selling something similar to what you want, and asking if they'd modify it at some cost.
Otherwise, job boards, communities of animatronics and electronics enthusiasts on the internet, and local hackerspaces are all good places to look. Unless you're offering to pay a reasonably competitive engineering hourly rate, though, you're probably going to get a lot more folks willing to help you learn how to engineer it yourself, than you are folks who will engineer it for you.
posted by Zuph at 7:53 AM on June 28, 2017 [2 favorites]
The best Etsy for Electronics that I've seen is https://www.tindie.com/. For a while, they were basically billing themselves as such. But they really are more a marketplace for specific products, not for custom or semi-custom stuff. That said, you MAY have luck contacting someone selling something similar to what you want, and asking if they'd modify it at some cost.
Otherwise, job boards, communities of animatronics and electronics enthusiasts on the internet, and local hackerspaces are all good places to look. Unless you're offering to pay a reasonably competitive engineering hourly rate, though, you're probably going to get a lot more folks willing to help you learn how to engineer it yourself, than you are folks who will engineer it for you.
posted by Zuph at 7:53 AM on June 28, 2017 [2 favorites]
The hackaday forums have a "Requests and Commisions" section that might be helpful.
posted by quinndexter at 2:32 AM on June 30, 2017
posted by quinndexter at 2:32 AM on June 30, 2017
This thread is closed to new comments.
I and many other folks here could very likely do this for you, but because the designer would be selling only one unit instead of designing something that is duplicated multiple hundreds or thousands of times, the designer would have to charge you the full value of the design time, rather than splitting that cost across many units. Since it's a one-off too, the designer will have to handle your support requests too (and won't have access to acquired wisdom troubleshooting the design before for other customers). It's not an ideal gig unless something about the project makes it extremely compelling to the designer.
Anyhow, reach out to your local hackerspace? That's where you are likely to find the kind of people who have the skills you need and do this for fun.
posted by Alterscape at 7:21 AM on June 28, 2017 [1 favorite]