Ooo, yea the connector, that was tough! We have a proprietary design there so we can't share everything but I will include some info on the connector in the next posts of this blog series :).
433 karma · joined March 26, 2012
We found that buying a 3D printer was essential. They only cost a few hundred dollars and instead of getting a piece for $50 in a couple days, we can print something for a couple dollars in a few hours.
For testing the final design, we still use 3D print services to get really nice prints. But for the initial iteration it's nice to do it as quickly and as cheaply as possible.
Sidenote: We also rigged up a system so that we can run the 3D printer over night and print multiple parts. We will probably write a post on that.
We have found the metal connector to be pretty resistant. But we have one year full warranty, so if anything breaks for any reason we will send you a replacement immediately. :)
Yea, it's just friction and the pogo pins at the bottom! It took us a long time to get that fit quite right but now it never falls out. I'll give you a refund and let you keep CoBattery if you buy it and can shake out the battery :)
> How do you deal with the lightning port being used the headphone jack?
I actually have the iPhone 7 and I've totally switched to Bluetooth earbuds. And you can actually pull out the connector if you do want to plug in, but it's definitely a better experience to just move to Bluetooth.
We are working on a version of CoBattery that will have an old-style audio jack. But it's tough to source the audio-lightning components!
Reprap for anyone reading this is totally awesome. I didn't include it in my post but Reprap is an open source 3D-printer that can make itself...
It's basically the hardware version of the singularity: http://reprap.org/
The batteries are each 3,000 mAh.
I glossed over that pre-CAD prototyping in the post since we built those first "duct-tape prototypes" a long, long time ago. So we don't have pictures readily accessible and it was harder to remember the exact process.
To start with, I think we modified another battery case and basically stuck batteries on the back to try out swapping.
I'll think about how to incorporate that step into the post and see if I can dig up some old photos.
We are actually proud that our case is slimmer than most other battery cases on the market. We didn't want our case to be bulky so we designed our own custom lightning connector that snugly fits the phone: https://cobattery.com/connector
What don't you like about the case's look?
Let me know if y'all have any questions. I would love to see this post help other people start hacking on hardware, so I'll answer anything I can.
I think that's actually a key part of what makes CoBattery special. The case is designed for battery swapping and when you buy CoBattery you have everything you need to start swapping.
I also wrote up a basic, but goofy, post on "What is a battery": https://cobattery.com/blog/what-is-a-battery
If you have any specific questions, feel free to email me at victor@cobattery.com
So for the battery, we are actually using a modified version of an older Samsung battery (not the Note 7 haha).
That's something that we didn't want to reinvent. So we are working with a factory who has made these batteries in the past.
I didn't include more about the battery in this post. Is that something you'd enjoy reading more about?
It says you asked 100 campaigns. Does that mean you got 100 answers or you only 100 campaigns? I'm curious as to how the bias of who responded to you would affect your data.
How do you compare Gen9 and Twist? Do you use each for a specific type of synthesis?
That last line about Twist delivering 400 base pairs has to be wrong, right? Do they mean 400 million?
One needed improvement: display the offending line on errors. Then you don't have to toggle between file and console to contextualize the errors.
It sounds really awesome but it's very hard to tell if it's going to be more annoying or more useful. Maybe it would be useful to have some example linting errors on the homepage.
Either way, I really love the idea!
The one thing that really confuses me is the pricing structure. Why do you need to pay each month? Paying $300 for one year of usage seems pretty steep.
It's service pricing but it seems like one-time service/purchase.
They are generating actionable sales leads primarily for enterprise business. But I used the trial just as an individual, and that was also sort of fun and more useful than I would've expected!
A good alternative to this is a Beep. Beep sells devices that plug into any speakers audio jack to let you stream music from your phone. What's better is that it also syncs up multiple units so you can have your music in sync across your house.
We've used them in our office a few times and love them. https://www.thisisbeep.com
You can read some answers as to why Quora joined YC here: http://www.quora.com/Why-did-Quora-join-the-2014-Y-Combinato....
I am using an iPhone 5 so it might be different...