
Ask HN: Manufacturing & selling EspUSB WiFi Keyboard - peterburkimsher
Back in 2016, [cnlohr] designed the EspUSB, a little gadget that fits inside a USB port and works as a wireless keyboard [1]. I plan to use it to help me type Chinese on the virtual keyboard on my phone directly into my laptop that doesn&#x27;t have key engravings, and also for typing on a Raspberry Pi.<p>I waited for 2 years for someone to start manufacturing it and selling it online, until I finally gave up and asked PCBWay to build it for me. It&#x27;s too small to solder by myself. The boards actually work and I&#x27;m really excited! I&#x27;ll write a blog post about it soon. I bought 3 units for personal use.<p>Now I&#x27;ve had 7 people ask me to put them on eBay&#x2F;Tindie&#x2F;CrowdSupply and start selling them. It would be really easy for me to just order 50-100 units from PCBWay, solder programming wires onto test points, install the firmware myself, and ship them on to people. I&#x27;m willing to do that for zero profit, but I&#x27;d have to take revenue to pay for postage.<p>The problem is that the Esp8285 is a WiFi chip, and that&#x27;s an &quot;intentional radiator&quot; that needs $10,000 FCC certification [2]. There is an FCC exception for &quot;home-built devices&quot; in quantities of 5 or fewer. [3] To sell in Europe, they need a CE certification, with different rules and more expense.<p>The people who want to buy these just want a simple &quot;buy&quot; button, not a complicated manufacturing process.<p>My questions are:<p>a. How do I not get sued? If I start a limited liability company, does that protect me?<p>b. If I sell a &quot;firmware-programming service&quot; so that I&#x27;m not actually selling the devices, per se, is that any less illegal?<p>c. What about tax? Everything gets so complicated when money is involved.<p>[1] https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=FPBzOaLbWhM<p>[2] https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.sparkfun.com&#x2F;tutorials&#x2F;398<p>[3] https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.govinfo.gov&#x2F;content&#x2F;pkg&#x2F;CFR-2010-title47-vol1&#x2F;pdf&#x2F;CFR-2010-title47-vol1-sec15-23.pdf
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peterburkimsher
A few other points to note:

The Esp8285 shares a website, which can be reprogrammed without soldering onto
test points. However, the first-time firmware installation must be done over
serial, which needs a soldering iron and 3.3V USB-serial adaptor.

I think there's a world market for maybe 1000 of these devices, selling to
geeks like us; not enough to justify starting a company selling these to
consumers.

Please also email me if you're interested in buying the EspUSB Tiny - I will
be placing another order by the end of the year, whatever method I use to sell
them, and I need to know roughly how many to ask them to build. Also if you're
a salesman who wants to make a quick buck marketing and reselling these, I'd
be very happy to let you handle the business side while I do your
manufacturing.

Why am I doing it for free? Basically because I think it will look good on my
résumé, and I want to start a career in hardware (I studied electronic
engineering, but now I have a job writing software for a small startup). If it
goes really well though, I'd like to do the same for other gadgets of my own
design (e.g. a very small adaptor from miniHDMI on the RPi Zero to HDMI female
- a 1.6mm PCB fits perfectly inside an HDMI plug). If it goes badly and I get
scared off by regulators and sued, then I'll probably give up and stay in
software.

