I've talked with Noah Sussman several times about selling indie electronics/hardware projects* on Etsy. He says: "Yes, game on!" (I'm paraphrasing.) He's a cool guy to know, regardless. http://twitter.com/noahsussman
* I'm potentially searching for a place to sell my "Robot that plays Angry Birds" (http://bitbeam.org/bitbeam-robots-invade-pycon). I go back and forth on whether I should roll my own store, or use a site like Tindie/Etsy/Kickstarter/Inventables, or all of the above. :-)
Awesome - I've been wondering why a service like this doesn't exist for a while. I recon their a quite a lot of people who don't have the technical skills to built their own stuff but need something less finished that a full commercial product - this could be a great outlet for something like that.
Regulations perhaps might be a issue? Do all electronics sold to a consumer require extensive testing? Here in Australia i'd be surprised if there wasn't a truckload of hoops to jump through for electronics.
Soon we will need a qualified electrician to install light bulbs, who knows who difficult it is to sell a electronic device as a independent. Hopefully I'm being overly pessimistic.
Unfinished products, ie kits are generally exempt. This came as a leaflet with a TI dev-kit I just bought:
This EVM is provided to you by TI and is intended for your INTERNAL ENGINEERING DEVELOPMENT OR
EVALUATION PURPOSES ONLY. It is provided ”AS IS” and ”WITH ALL FAULTS.” It is not considered by TI to
be fit for commercial use. As such, the EVM may be incomplete in terms of required design−, marketing−, and/or
manufacturing−related protective considerations, including product safety measures typically found in the end
product. As a prototype, the EVM does not fall within the scope of the European Union directive on
electromagnetic compatibility and therefore may not meet the technical requirements of the directive.
Electronics sold direct to end users must comply with FCC, CE LVD/EMC and other regulations. The vast majority of the hobby market ignores this though, and they don't get enforced much except for intentional transmitters.
In the US products with switching frequencies faster than 9 khz are supposed to be tested for FCC part 15 compliance but you are not required to have CE or UL testing.
However most retailers will not carry a product that does not have a CE or UL mark
Cool idea! One thing you should do is add some feedback when someone tries to reserve a username that is already taken. It currently just refreshes the page. I wasn't sure if it worked for me until I tried something different.
This is seriously awesome. I don't have a 3D printer or any real facilities for making electronics, but I can't wait to see what kinds of things people make. :)
