2021 Accomplishments

It’s strange how goals change through a year, and 2020/2021 were certainly no exceptions. After getting vaccinated this summer, I traveled so see friends in Idaho, and saw Glacier National Park (the park’s Iceberg Lake is pictured above), which was amazing.

At that point it seemed like things were quickly getting back to some sense of normal, which seems in retrospect to be not entirely true. While my personal interactions and day-to-day tasks are now fairly typical (or were, as they’ve very recently become more out of wack), there are still some major residual effects, including supply chain issues.

Last year I set goals at the beginning, and added one midway though. I actually sketched up this project on a plane to Idaho, which I’ll discuss further down.

Looking back on my notebook per Business Goals:

• Business income > X – Did not meet, but came close enough to support my family.
• Ad revenue > X – Did not meet. Honestly, with changes in various payment systems, I don’t see this happening any time soon.
• Product Profit > X – While the first two were negatives, I blew this one out of the water (or at least based on my gross, it seems I did). This was largely thanks to my EZ Fan 2 board selling well on Tindie, and a the JC Pro Macro 2 Kickstarter project that I did late in the year.
• Order and Sell 1 PCBA Design – Huge success here, as I actually was able to sell 3.
• YouTube > 6000 Subs – Got over 5000, which is neat, but would still have to put this in the technically failed category.

In June I added another goal, which was to design and build a new macro keyboard, with the goal being to eventually sell it. I sold the resulting “JC Pro Macro” on Tindie with some success, and did a quick sequel to it, the JCPM 2 via the aforementioned Kickstarter. This raised $16,607, blowing away my stated project goal.

So for the first time, selling physical objects has become a meaningful part of my business. I enjoy writing about technology and such, but love actually building things, so I’m quite happy with this development. On the other hand, I’ve found that selling a product you’ve designed is probably 20% actually designing it, and 80% marketing, purchasing, manufacturing, and other related tasks.

What’s neat about this type of project is that I can use a wide range of disparate skills and business contacts that I’ve developed over the years to accomplish a goal. These projects also gave me a lot to write about for that part of my business. Perhaps the lesson is to never stop learning and exploring opportunities. You never know what skills will come in handy.

As far as 2021 Non-Business Goals go:

• Weight consistently under 240 lbs – I weigh in at about 245, about equal to, or even a little higher than, this time last year, so not a success. That being said, during the last two years I seem to be in the best shape I’ve been in for more than a decade. I literally had to put more holes in my belt to keep it tight, so I think I’m heading in the right direction.
• 35 pushups, support in sit position with only hands for 5 seconds – While I haven’t strictly tested either, I don’t think either is possible for me at this point.
• Reduce back pain – I have some back issues, and I had down on my goals to get healthier in this sense. Via working out, a new chair, and new bed (some time ago), it seems to have gotten better, even if it’s not perfect. I was also doing inversions on a Roman sit up chair early in the year, but largely slacked off there.

So all failures on these publicly shared goals

2022 Goals

• Business Profit > X – I set this at roughly the same level as what I made in 2021. While lower than my 2021 goal, it was generally enough to sustain myself and family, and I want to concentrate on growing my business selling physical “things.”
• Product Gross > X – This I put at roughly 2x what I grossed this year. Seems like a stretch, but perhaps reasonable, as I should get some sales from products introduced in 2021. Hopefully I can keep this momentum going, and in the long-term use it to increase my overall business profit to higher levels than previously attained.
• 1 New Customer or Platform – Customers ebb and flow, so I’ll keep putting myself out there. Perhaps this will be a new writing customer, or I could expand my business to a new method of distribution.
• Sell 1 New Product – I’ve got something in mind, so this shouldn’t be too hard to accomplish. Stay tuned – Twitter @jeremyscook is probably the best way to follow me.
• Improve Podcast – I do a podcast with Pat Regan, which starting in 2022 is known as the Create/Invent podcast. I’d invite you to subscribe there, either on YouTube directly, or via the methods linked on the page. Formerly, it was The Creativity Podcast, but I feel like that doesn’t convey our technology and making focus as well as it should. I’ve ordered some additional sound insulation, so hopefully I can make at least a marginal improvement in sound quality, and stickers to help promote our brand.

Non-Business Goals:

• Weight consistently under 240 lbs – As noted earlier, I’m actually in pretty decent shape at 245 lbs. In fact that’s what I weighted in college when I could still dunk a basketball. Nonetheless, the CDC apparently disagrees per their calculator shown below, and I feel like if I could get to where I’m consistently in the 230s I’d look fairly trim.
• Support in a sit position – Basically I’m looking to do something like what’s described here, supporting myself in a sitting position with only my hands. Not necessarily a full “L-sit,” but even having the knees tucked and off the ground, without any sort of bars I’d count as a success.

So for non-business/fitness goals this year I’m trying to keep things simple. Maybe I can remember and stick to two things. I’d also like to improve my baritone ukulele skills, which is a little hard to quantify, but I’ll just leave this hear perhaps for me to refer back to in a year or so:

Originally tweeted by Jeremy Cook (@JeremySCook) on December 24, 2021.

In other vague goals, I’ve planted a number of fruit-bearing trees and bushes in my yard during the past year or so: A Barbados cherry tree, Persian/Mexican Lime, Key Lime, Calamondin, blackberry, and blueberry, as well as continuing to collect pineapples. Hopefully by this time next year I’ll have reaped some of the literal fruits of these labors, which should pay off for years to come.

So all that being said, I hope you have a great 2022. It’s been a weird few years, but you never know what the future will bring, for better or worse!

With the addition of a small speaker and a solenoid as the percussion section, I was able to make it into a little “one man band.” It can of course still control computer functions, and doesn’t actually need to be hooked up to the computer to act as an instrument. Check it out in the video below:

As mentioned in the video, the project was sponsored by PCBWay. Besides being involved with other PCBs used here, they made an adapter board that breaks out the power/ground/IO nicely.

So while I intended to buy a bunk bed, after some searching and consideration I decided to build one myself. All that being said, I’m extremely happy with how it turned out, as it’s very solid, looks good (IMO), and cost around $300 not including slats/actual bedding.

You can see the build process in the video below. For now, I put a bit more information in the description there about the cuts and materials used if you’d like to try something similar:

In addition, the device breaks out two GPIO as well as +5V and GND, allowing you to power a small display screen, or do pretty much anything else you’d like with them. The boards will be available for sale on my Tindie store, and you can check out more details on GitHub.

My Experience Shipping

My original EZ Fan board, which used through-hole components, was small and somewhat successful. I wondered, however, if with surface-mount components and low-profile headers I could make it so small that it would fit inside a standard envelope for shipping via USPS via a single stamp. To qualify as a standard letter, an envelope’s thickness needs to be a maximum of 1/4 inch, and the weight needs to be an ounce or less. Both seemed reasonable with a bit of work.

Shipping as a Letter: Too Clever by Half?

Sometimes is great and needed, but other times there is a reason “we’ve always done it this way.” While I was generally able to get boards to customers in an envelope, as you’ve probably guessed, damage was also possible during the process. I don’t think this happened often, but even if it’s very intermittent, damaged goods are not great for your reputation, and a basic envelope is likely not what the customer is expecting (plus it took a bit of work to get things lined up correctly in their cardboard sheath).

Secondly, while it appears that this method is acceptable for domestic mail–consider that there’s little difference between such a product and an electronic greeting card–the USPS international letter rate is specific about the contents’ value being $0.00. While one could put the appropriate international postage on a letter-shaped package and see what happens, it appears you’d be skirting the restrictions.

Of course, this refinement process wasn’t entirely a bad thing, by designing my product around postage restrictions, this also made my board even smaller. This characteristic is quite beneficial for their intended use as a sort of low-profile inline signal amplifier.

Machine Printed Labels, Padded Mailer

Hand writing labels on each package isn’t optimal either. While one might argue it gives each package a personal touch, I thought it looked a bit unprofessional. Plus I don’t particularly enjoy producing my scrawling print anyway. One alternative is to copy order details from Tindie and print it out, then cut it to shape and tape it on before applying postage. That, however, hardly seems worth the effort.

One could also print the packing slip, clip it to each package, and take it to your local post office or private mailing outfit. Taking it to such an establishment gives you the benefit of guidance on rates. It also means taking a trip somewhere and spending your valuable time.

While there are likely other similar operations out there, I started using a service called Pirate Ship to purchase my USPS postage. They’ve got a very streamlined setup, allowing me to copy addresses from Tindie, paste on their site, and print labels. Initially, I printed them out on a standard 2D printer, which works acceptably when dealing with a small number of packages.

Label Printer: A Logistics Super Power

Printing out labels that need to be cut and taped to an item is OK, but being able to copy/paste/buy/print/slap label on package with tracking is truly an amazing feeling. It’s as if I’ve obtained some sort of new teleportation power, allowing me to send packages at will to a far-off land. To temper this enthusiasm, the reality is that the $100-$150 for a label printer (mine, Amazon) will take a long time to pay off in terms of saved labor.

Am I happy with my purchase? Definitely. Is it the right choice for you? That depends. In reality, I should probably factor that, as well as shipping materials, and even my “handling” into the shipping rate, though I suspect few Tindie sellers consider this thoroughly.

Conclusion

So that’s my experience so far shipping from the US domestically and to other countries. Two wrap things up, I’ll say that:

• It’s an amazing feeling when people want to spend their actual money on a product that you designed. With the proper setup and inventory, when a purchase is made you have to do little more than click a few buttons, drop purchased items in a package, and get paid.
• While international shipping can be expensive, I’ve been pleasantly surprised that a sizeable portion of my orders are from outside the US. If you’ve got a product to sell, don’t forget to set up a few international options!

All that being said, one question still lingers for me. If there is a way to ship things more cheaply than the tracked USPS rate, is saving a few bucks worth a bit more ambiguity about when it will show up? Is it worth the potential hassle of lost packages on my end?

Feel free to ping me with your thoughts on this shipping question via Twitter @JeremySCook, or you can email me: hi@jeremyscook.com. I’m planning to publish a more generalized version of this article on Tindie’s blog, so if you have any other tips, do let me know and perhaps I can share them there!

For even more discussion on selling and shipping on Tindie, The Creativity Podcast–of which I’m a host–had head Tindarian Jasmine on recently to discuss the finer points of this pursuit!

*Note that Amazon links are affiliate, meaning I get a small % of purchases. The printer, however, is fantastic. FYI, it comes with a small sample roll of labels, but I just changed to this full-sized roll (Amazon), which seems to work well.

The frame is made out of MDF, harboard, and acrylic, and the lighting is provided by a strip of ESP8266-controlled WS2812B LEDs via WLED firmware. The CAD file is found here, and you can see the whole story in the video below. Enjoy!

I’ve had this project on my mind for some time, so it’s interesting to see it come to fruition. As seen in the video, I should probably do something with the dual plug-in power supplies. I also wonder if the light shining like that will be distracting, as depending on how I’m sitting it can be in my eye line.

Perhaps more modification is on the way, though I doubt I’ll do another video on it!

While I planned to build this bench and not even make a video about it, and didn’t really document the “static” installation, I thought it’d be neat to be able to turn the intensity up and down via an Arduino analog output/MOSFET, and use a PIR sensor to make it respond to my presence. You can see the build process in the video below:

PCBWay sponsored the project, and constructed the Grounduino Arduino Nano baseplate that I used here. Quality was quite good, and delivery was quick as well.

At this point I wish I’d documented the actual bench build a bit more, as several little projects have sprung up from it. It seems this kind of frame is really great for modification/enhancement, and I actually put up a new playlist to document related “desk” projects.

In fact, this overhead lighting isn’t entirely complete yet, as I’ve got more PIR sensors and addressable LEDs in the works that make this system even more interactive. So be sure to stay tuned!

Note that link to Amazon is affiliate. PCBWay sponsored this project.

For my first clip, I put up an update on my fume extractor, where I added activated charcoal to help remove fumes before venting to the atmosphere. Quite effective, though I definitely don’t trust it for venting indoors:

For my second video, I put up a video about manufacturing dominoes from a Domino’s box. Because, why not?

So I hope you’ll check out and even consider subscribing to this new channel. The style is a bit different, more like a vlog or what have you. So it’s a little less produced, with a bit more of me on-screen.

Should be a nice fast format, and hopefully a bit of fun. And no, I have no immediate plans to cook anything with the laser, though you might consider the cardboard pizza box “food adjacent.”