The Monulator
Steampunks, IT crowd, data visualization geeks! I have something interesting for you: The Monulator. It's a riff on my first product, the Chronulator, a clock which tells the time using analog panel meters. However, the Monulator reports whatever information you want – chance of precipitation, time until your next meeting, Twitter mentions, CPU load, stock market change, or a million other things.
The Monulator is controlled via USB from a computer (laptop, desktop, server, Android, etc.). It can also display any color using its RGB LED. Imagine a Monulator showing you some fun or important information, at a glance, color-coded.
The Monulator is an open-source hardware and software design, so it's eminently hackable.
I have several working prototypes already. I have also started discussions with a manufacturing partner. But there are a few details I still need to work out, and I'd love to get advice from the InterWebs. Here's what I'm wondering:
- What information would be cool to show on a Monulator?
- How should I fund an initial manufacturing batch? Kickstarter?
- How important is a case?
- Is 0 to 100 a good default scale?
- Who wants to help me test the hardware and write software?
- How do I make the meter faces interchangeable?
Let me know what you think! Comment below, send me an e-mail at ideas@sharebrained.com, or follow me on Twitter.
Comments
Looks like fun!
What information would be cool to show on a Monulator? • Of the ones you mentioned, I like % precipitation and CPU • # emails received • Time remaining until you're off work :) • Computer Fan Speed • # of active users on your website via Analytics
How should I fund an initial manufacturing batch? Kickstarter? • Sure!
How important is a case? • I'd say not at all since these will be hacked into a variety of situations. However, I'm sure the option of a case would be nice to some people.
Is 0 to 100 a good default scale? • Yes
Who wants to help me test the hardware and write software? • I could maybe help with graphics
How do I make the meter faces interchangeable? • Don't you already have a template for these? That's all someone would need to make a new face.
Other thoughts: • I love the idea of the rgb led, but these gauges don't seem made for it. I wonder if there is a better placement for the LED, or different gauges that could be used. • If you could combine this with arduino or a raspberry pi, maybe you could avoid being tethered to a PC
I feel an optional enclosure is important, so it can look like a nice thing if you want (I would).
I'd want to use it to display traffic data from my router (I already have a shell script that can get the values), maybe with different colors to indicate in/out, or color indicating the level of traffic. 0-100 would be just fine for that.
I love it!
The obvious answer is the current funding level on Kickstarter (with some sort of live web cam on the Kickstarter page). :-)
I recommend it.
Shipping without a case limits your market considerably, in my opinion. Maybe have both with and without options on Kickstarter and use the pledge period as market research.
I like it. It would be nice to have a template available for people to print their own.
Count me in.
I guess that depends on the meter.
I'd prefer micro over mini USB.
Looking forward to it! I'd track my RSS feed count. Ideally it would be a log scale. No need for a case. Kickstarter would certainly get it visible. I'd imagine you'd find the backing you need immediately, especially if you ship with a couple sample apps.
[…] also just launched a new design, the Monulator, which can be wired up to report anything you want: "chance of precipitation, time until your […]
Jared!
I love this to bits. Already can think of twenty different things I could do with it. So there's an order for twenty right there! Ha ha.
What information would be cool to show on a Monulator?
With some of the things I'm building at the moment I can think of several different things. "Scare factor" on one. "Badassness" on one of my car projects - this will measure the loudness of the engine and stereo (also whether AD/DC is playing or Justin Bieber) There are so many possibilities. I'm also pottering away on a conversation machine which registers how well a conversation is going.
How should I fund an initial manufacturing batch? Kickstarter?
Everyone is going the kickstarer route and I'm seeing those guys getting some serious coin. I think it's important that you make this thing as sexy as possible and as appealing to as wide a market as you can. How will this appeal to Joe and Jolenia Public? The appeal of a clock is immediate but what will be the best use of this in their life? A tweet meter? A Facebook friend leveler? Calorie counter?
How important is a case?
Sex sells. But personally - as you know - I'd be building my own cases as you know.
Is 0 to 100 a good default scale?
Yes.
Who wants to help me test the hardware and write software?
I'd love to help test the hardware. Also will this kit be something that can be controlled by an arduino?
How do I make the meter faces interchangeable?
Send me an email and we can have a chat about this. I'm sure I could make you up something that would work for you. Let's chat. Also I need to have a chat about getting some more bespoke Chronulator kits.
Love your work!
@Nick Ward: So sad I let your brilliant and thoughtful reply languish in my comment queue for over ten days!
Information sources: Thanks for the ideas! I'm thinking in addition to USB support, I need Wi-Fi as an optional way of sourcing information. And perhaps an analog-to-digital converter for digitizing analog signals (like your "loudness" idea).
Funding: I think Kickstarter will be my route. I could probably self-fund, but Kickstarter provides a great marketing avenue. Kickstarter projects often gross far over the initial goal, and enable upgrades to the design. My first upgrade will likely be a case – injection molding is steep.
Case: I may make the case an optional item. If the Kickstarter hits a certain goal, I'd have enough money to engage an industrial designer and pay for the tooling. But before that point, everybody just gets the raw meter. I was entertaining doing a radical case design where the plastic structure of the meter is replaced by the case, but it occurs to me this will limit use of the product – you won't be able to mount a bunch of Monulators in a rack panel, or do as you do, and put it in a super-wicked setting.
Default Scale: 0 to 100 it is! I don't think it's too much to ask the initial round of investors to use a screwdriver to swap faces if they want a different scale. I do need to be careful which meters I source, as some are harder to reassemble than others (mostly having to do with the design of the needle bumpers/limiters).
Arduino: My present design is Arduino-compatible. But frankly, I'm quite disappointed by the cost-vs-value of Atmel AVR8 microcontrollers (used in all existing Arduino designs). For the price of a whimpy Atmel AVR8, I can get really awesome, feature-packed ARM processors – more RAM, more flash, more serial ports, higher clock speed, 32-bit addressing, Von Neumann architecture, blah blah blah. Yes, I lose out on the Arduino IDE, but perhaps I port the Maple IDE (which is Arduino-like and ARM-based).
I'll e-mail you a copy of this comment, and we can take it from there…