
Ask HN: Communities to learn about creating sensor/hardware products? - mettamage
I want to create a back rest of a chair that is pressure sensitive (and then apply machine learning to identify medical issues).<p>What are good resources to learn about creating pressure sensitive chairs? I suppose I could join a hacker space? Any online communities one would recommend?<p>Two notes:<p>1. Pressure sensitive sensors can be replaced for &lt;any sensor&gt;.<p>2. Backrest of chair can be replaced for &lt;any physical product that allows you to sow sensors in them such as pressure sensitive sensors&gt;.
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mindcrime
You may find helpful people/info at one or more of:

[https://electronics.stackexchange.com/](https://electronics.stackexchange.com/)

[https://arduino.stackexchange.com/](https://arduino.stackexchange.com/)

[https://raspberrypi.stackexchange.com/](https://raspberrypi.stackexchange.com/)

[https://www.reddit.com/r/electronics/](https://www.reddit.com/r/electronics/)

[http://www.reddit.com/r/hwstartups/](http://www.reddit.com/r/hwstartups/)

[http://www.reddit.com/r/AskElectronics/](http://www.reddit.com/r/AskElectronics/)

[https://hackaday.com/](https://hackaday.com/)

[https://forum.nutsvolts.com/](https://forum.nutsvolts.com/)

[https://circuitcellar.com/](https://circuitcellar.com/)

[https://www.eetimes.com/](https://www.eetimes.com/)

[https://makezine.com/](https://makezine.com/)

You might also find this book interesting:

[https://www.amazon.com/Hardware-Hacker-Adventures-Making-
Bre...](https://www.amazon.com/Hardware-Hacker-Adventures-Making-
Breaking/dp/159327758X/)

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mettamage
<edit> Also browsed all the other websites you recommended. I bookmarked a lot
of them. They all look really interesting. </edit>

Thanks for that book! I read 25% of it (couldn't afford more time). It was
_really_ interesting to see how the manufacturing process in China went, how
he biohacked a virus [1], and how he hacked hardware through UV exposure. This
book was actually tangentially related to my idea but not fully. I think
that's for the better because with that book a new world opened up for me.

I think I developed a taste for electrical engineering. Life keeps getting
more and more interesting, it is a pity that our lives are so short and that
most obligatory education methods (e.g. high school) are so ineffective.

[1] Referring to DNA as bits and pairs of bits as functions and how 'function
calls' were made with repeating sequences since they always(ish) encode to the
same protein and ribosomes make that translation.

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tlb
You should start with market validation. Would ___% of people say, "I'd pay
$___ for a chair that could measure my ___?" What would the answers to those
blanks have to be for there to be a good business opportunity?

If the answers suggest that you could eventually sell millions of smart
chairs, you still need to start with a small, local, initial market to refine
the product. Assume the initial 100 prototype chairs you make will cost 10x
more than the eventual price. Who would pay 10x more? They'd have to be
fanatical about their posture. Such people probably exist: perhaps some kind
of body-builder by night, accountant by day.

~~~
mettamage
Thanks, seems like I'd need to go to my university and deploy a simple survey.
Not that it's necessarily geared at students but I see a subsection of them
being in the target market.

Though, the market demand has been validated by the fact that there's an
industry around it. My product idea merely differentiates it. Would it be
possible to email you some questions about my actual idea? I'd really
appreciate a bit of brainstorming with fellow HN'ers.

My email is in my profile.

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nicholas73
If you are lucky, you can contact a manufacturer of pressure sensor and hope
that 1) they will answer a small customer 2) the guy answering really knows
his stuff. Big names in the space would be Honeywell or TE Connectivity.

As so happens I worked with pressure sensors before. My slightly above noob
answer would be that most pressure sensors aren't suitable for you both in
form factor and cost. Normally built to connect to some tube.

A load cell that goes into a scale might work, but that could get expensive if
you need many data points.

If you need MANY data points and have low accuracy requirements (like if you
want to draw a heat map) you could create a network of piezoelectric films.
Piezoelectric materials generate a charge upon pressure. This would be
trickier to make if there isn't one on market.

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matt_the_bass
Don’t forget to make it IoT!

In all seriousness, particle.io has some very good forums. They are mostly
product specific, but a great product to start with for novice embedded
developers.

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mettamage
Currently I have found that YouTube gave me the best resources! I am a bit
surprised by that (it was better than Google), at least when it comes to
getting me started.

What I am mostly impressed with [1].

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JBSHqUcaG4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JBSHqUcaG4)

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tony-allan
hackster.io is a great resource for projects.

For example: [https://www.hackster.io/user5175647213/prankchair-the-
best-a...](https://www.hackster.io/user5175647213/prankchair-the-best-april-
fool-s-prank-8f1a62)

This doesn't help with your exact needs but there are lots of idea's that are
discussed.

~~~
mettamage
Oh that looks awesome, will look around there. Thanks!

