EZ3D (Phoenix3D) is dead. Interesting read about how not to run a kickstarter.
Actually I read it as being about how not to commit to doing something you don’t know how to do yet. Hopefully they will incorporate what they’ve learned and understand where their skills are lacking and then have a much better shot the next time the do something like this.
That said, resin casting (their choice for parts) is an endeavor all its own with a great deal of chemistry involved. I started a long time ago casting parts for robots (starting with an Alumilite starter kit and moving from there) with a lot of interesting experience along the way. This guy (http://lcamtuf.coredump.cx/gcnc/full/) just blew me away but helps give a sense of the effort involved.
@Makible
What’s interesting to me is that these dudes raised a good chunk of money without a viable plan to produce their product.
Kickstarter in a nutshell.
Price was too low if the majority of their money went to component parts.
Was there a story there? I can’t read a site that’s not reachable.
I get a “your connection is not private” warning in Chrome.
“This Connection is Untrusted” in Firefox
Unfortunately, crowdfunding encourages people that don’t know what they’re doing to panhandle for money. And there are way too many people that still back projects even when the red flags are spelled out to them.
You can ignore and continue, the website is safe. They just have expired certificates, so don’t buy any printers. Har har.
OK, thanks. Yeah, it doesn’t look like they had any clue what they were doing. That’s why I look at the experience of the team and watch for slights of hand and other possible red flags. Even though I don’t plan on buying a machine this way, people need to be told of the warning signs.
Yes, when I decided to get a 'printer two year ago i l;earned about such failed campaigns. So at the San Mateo Faire I looked for open source people who had already had a successful program.
the fact that they used both kickstarter and indiegogo make it seem like a scam
Yeah. They claimed to expect only 50 backers, then claimed surprise at getting so many orders, so they went another with preorders without managing their existing backlog. They don’t really add up. By their own admission, they weren’t nearly as prepared as they should have been. Clearly, they also didn’t research or test the plastic resin molding build option.
That sucks for all involved. At least they tried. And sounds like tried damn hard to hold to their promise. I remember looking at the kit and knowing this would happen from the beginning. It was just to cheap. The components cost almost as much as the printer. There was just no way to be viable.
Either way it says alot that they could come out and make the statement and own up to their mistakes.
I always loved this article:
There are so many folks who get excited about a product, but forget about all the boring business stuff that can help prevent things like this from happening.