Maelstrom Fan Controller

A second late posting, but I’m starting to get things caught up. Almost a week ago I posted a video that referenced a “product” launch site called the Maelstrom Controller. I also launched Google Ads and Facebook Ads at the same time. And the whole thing is quite sparse. The video shows it’s function way more in depth and I even go into explaining how it works. Let’s be honest, smart plugs and dimmer switches are not rocket science here. The only difference is that instead of wifi it’s ANT+ and instead of a simple SSR (solid state relay), it’s a Triac and optoisolators for timing and “firing angle control”.

So I know that it’s not the most genius idea in the world, but it’s kind of cool. At this point it auto shuts off and starts up so the prototype doesn’t need to ever be touched, unplugged, switched off, etc. However the prototype is still a dev board and a breakout of a Robotdyn Triac module. So you can go build one yourselves really, but that’s not the point.

The video takes care of most of it but I’ll add a little to the reasoning here.

Most people think they have a solution to a problem, and for whatever reason they seem to believe they know best. Engineering folk are particularly susceptible to this, but the reality is that their idea’s don’t represent the market.

Before I tried the Maelstrom controller, I went to a lot of different bike shops locally asking if I could talk to customers. Almost 100% said no, and almost 100% would give me “exactly what the customer would do”… except that’s wrong. Most shops were adamant they know how my customers would respond to my “interview”. The shop failed to understand two major points. The interview was NOT a survey (#surveyssucks, thanks Craig Elias) and therefore the answer wasn’t exactly what I wanted to talk about, but I wanted to discover their problems. The second thing is that the shop was not my customer. A customer is someone who exchanges money for goods and services, specifically the one you are offering. The shops viewpoint is valuable, but they aren’t the ones exchanging money, so really I shouldn’t care what they think.

So, while several of the owners were supper supportive they didn’t want to interrupt the experience in shop. So the idea that prompted this is on hold.

However, I had my little fan controller prototype and figured I’d try the other approach. The internet approach. I had cyclists feedback and some were saying cool, and some saying stupid. You’ll always have detractors.

I built a website, asked friends for feedback, eventually one gave a lot of feedback and I revamped the whole thing. Made a youtube video that goes with my (soon to fail maybe) attempt at a weekly video and started asking for feedback.

And for a week almost I’ve gathered data. I now have a percentage of people who see the ads and then go to the site, and a percentage that click pre-order and fill out the pre-pre-order forum as I’m starting to call it. I don’t want to take anyone’s money until I have something that is close to a product in hand, even if that isn’t super fancy. These are early adopters and almost all of them are here for the idea. They prove a concept. Too many failed companies are out their taking money and don’t know how to deliver hardware.

So I’m in data processing mode now.