The making of the BLF UC4 charger: the start of a new venture, INTEREST LIST, UPDATE 7 (Well, ramping stopped :/ )

Please add me to the list as well BlueSwordM for 1 unit

Up to date interest list

Total quantity (at the moment): 297

Put me down for one. Thanks

For what it’s worth, I suspect that many readers understood that you had tongue firmly in cheek, but it’s always difficult to convey undertones to everyone, especially those who may not use English as their primary language. Emoticons help, but there are still tons of things lost in translation, even if no translation occurs.

I’m being facetious about half the time and thus am misunderstood nearly half the time :wink: .

At least I’m in good company :smiley:

I had a college chemistry professor that encouraged us to use a :slight_smile: when emailing him so he knew we were not upset (even if we were) so he could sleep better.

I try to keep it light as this is my hobby and I do it for fun. I’ve “met” lots of great people here, and am frequently impressed by the helpful and friendly responses I see.

I have heard people say that sarcasm is not really a “thing” in many Asian cultures.

I am interested!

I’m in for one.

Interested in one. Thanks

Interested!

Interested.

I’m interested.

Small update:

The reason for no update is that I have not received any response from the manufacturer because of Chinese holidays.

I’m in…

in for one

Up to date interest list Total quantity (at the moment): 306



Is the idea of making possible for text/notifications during(in case of any charging troubles)/after charging abandoned?
Could we use a version of Panic button/GSM Alarm System to push one way notifications?

I found this interesting project: BlaspBerry 3G and Lora cellular phone which does not need a cellular coverage to work :wink:

or…

maybe something like a FireChat app to send messages (Hong Kong protesters use a mesh network)

In for one

Not sure about other countries, but most carriers in the US have an email to sms/mms bridge. In my experience, sending emails is typically easier than SMS and doesn’t require cell service to make it work (just internet access).

The discussion I started above about this feature brought up some security concerns related to connecting a Chinese sourced “black box” to your home network and giving it internet access, or possibly the danger of the device itself being hacked if allowed to connect to the internet. I’m not sure how we’d be able to overcome these concerns satisfactorily apart from 100% opensource code and mod-ability. I do think it would be a valuable feature if it can be worked out.

I’m starting to lean towards some kind of output that would allow this to be connected to a computer. If you could read things like voltage, current, status, etc over something like a serial port (or USB?), you could connect this to a computer which would be better equipped to do the notifications (and also make fancy graphs). This would remove much of the security burden from the charger itself, and protect the idiots innocent who might blindly trust a potentially compromised device on their network. As far as computers, I’m thinking something as simple as a Raspberry Pi Zero (typically $5ish… this is what runs the show on that “BlaspBerry” you linked to in your post… you can see it in the gif too, just look for the green board when he shows the back) would be sufficient for all of this added functionality if we had a way to talk to the charger.

Interested? Yes. I’ll wait until the reviews are in even if that means missing the presales and group buys.

I think I might have been added to the interest list in error - I’m absolutely interested in the project, but it’s far too early for me to be interested in the product. I’m still skeptical that the features can be delivered at the promised price without compromising safety or quality.