Your opinion on openinverter funding

[johu]

So currently this project is funded by hardware sales and Patreon. Those two combined probably yield an hourly salary of 3€ or so
I still want to do open source as much as possible and I don't want to generate revenue using ads.

Therefor I would like to suggest an experiment: making all cost and working hours involved fully transparent.
So first the donations would be used for covering costs (like blown Analog Discovery, prototyping cost, running the server). I would also include the margin from selling hardware.
Once cost is covered every additional donation is used as my hourly salary.

So you would see the following parameters

• Recurring cost (% covered)
• Equipment cost (% covered)
• Sales profit (€)
• Working hours (h)
• Hourly salary (€/h, running average)

Both one-time and recurring donations would be accepted using paypal, payoneer and SEPA. Not sure about bitcoin?
I think it might be more motivating to donate towards a specific target than just throwing in money.

What do you think, is it worth the effort? Do you have other suggestions?

[sfk]

That's really up to you but I think anyone who is supporting you financially trusts that you know what you're doing and are being responsible with the money given.

I think people who contribute do so because they believe in the goal and are perhaps unable to contribute intellectually in the Qualified Electrical Engineering sense.

[arber333]

Hm
I still have desire to extend range for our Ampera car. I have made a test Y cable to access battery and i intend to install it soon.
I would still need a control brain for the charge pump with two voltage comparators and some hysteresis. Current would be adaptable through code.
It could also use Wifi or 3G module to report status online.
Really for hardware i would actually use a rev1 or rev2 board i still have here and dont use anymore.
If you are interested you could correct the code and switch some I/Os from inverter brain and use it for charging purpose. If we set this correctly we could even use this as house chademo charger or solar controller etc...

What i am proposing is to finance charge pumps software development (up to reasonable amount), hardware is already available and i will provide test subject/object... Someone might join us and in the end we could publish working design as DIY.

To everyone interested... this could also make excelent 22kW Level 2 charger.

[dima]

Well, advertising maybe an option (if done right) maybe not google but private submissions from EV shops for a monthly fee? Maybe Opencart item for purchase and phphBB extention?

[doobedoobedo]

I don't think anyone thinks you're sat around puffing on cigars and eating lobster from all the money you're making off of this, so I'm not sure what you'd achieve other than showing how hard it is to start making money in a very niche market.

I do think you're on the right track trying to build a community around your work, the more accessible your products are, the more traction they'll get. That may also mean the need to do what everyone (meaning at least me) hates and do a bit more documentation for setting up a starting point for common configurations, so people can feel confident that they can get a working configuration without too much hassle.

You have a good product, the wifi interface really sets it apart, so maybe bring more attention to that on your main site? Or maybe even run some banners for yourself at the top of this forum? At the very least provide a link back to your shop.

I'm also with dima on the advertising.

[nailgg]

You have a good product, the wifi interface really sets it apart, so maybe bring more attention to that on your main site? Or maybe even run some banners for yourself at the top of this forum? At the very least provide a link back to your shop.

I agree with @doobedoobedo, I also think you're being a bit modest. Before running ads from other shops, why not run ads for your own shop in this forum? I'm pretty sure that as the community here grows, more people from Google will end up here and will see the shop. The Patrons can increase the amount they are donating up to a certain point, but the main revenue source must be the shop, in my opinion

[Kevin Sharpe]

I don't think it's worth your time documenting these expenses because most people only care about the end result (working hardware, software, and support). My suggestion is use external advertising on this site and give members the option of turning off adds by paying a monthly subscription.

[dima]

A quick sample tryout banner added

[johu]

Thank you very much for your thoughtful replies. I'm kind of relieved you didn't like my initial idea, it surely would have been extra work.
And thank you for designing the banner, thats cool Can you make one that shows a populated board?

Of course focus should be on sell-able products. That comes with its own set of challenges once you leave kit territory.
What would be a "good" source of ads that are related and not too intrusive?

[Lee Malo]

I am a Automotive shop owner and if I donated money to you I would not care about the financial breakdown . It would be great if you had a advertising tier cost because I would be interested .

[johu]

Thanks for your interest Lee.
So tier pricing. Anyone? Bueller?
I'll browse around for something appropriate and report back