Does anyone know a good marketplace for shit like batteries, RGB LEDS, wiring and soldering tools?
I have a project in mind to start a business, it involves rechargeable RGB LEDs. I'd like to make a prototype but I don't know where to buy individual components. Help me out?
Oh forgot to mention, I'm in Canada so anything preferably North American or even in the United states would help.
digikey
They definitely were the first result on Google, any reason behind them or did you just see them first.
It's the go to. If you are in Toronto you can try sayal but really limited selection compared to the suggested sites above.
Thanks lads. I had another question..
how can I request custom components? Typically Aluminum channels are used to displace the light from RGBs, but they mostly come in thin strips. is there a place I can send my design specifications to create what I need?
Any business based off “rechargeable rgb LEDs” is just asking to be cloned by china fyi. Do you really think you’re gonna make something by being spoonfed on PrepHole that can’t be copied in 20 minutes by Chinese nerds that grew up in sweatshops actually learning how to do shit? And when they do copy your shit there’s basically frick all you can do about it, china doesn’t give a frick about us ip, copyright, patent, etc and an led strip isn’t patentable anyway. If it was you certainly wouldn’t be coming to PrepHole to be asking how to get parts from digikey lmao. And tbf they’ll only bother if it actually sells. Plus, let’s be real, you can’t handle looking up how to order custom parts from McMaster or misumi, you aren’t gonna file for a copyright or trademark.
Like what is stopping you bro? Just go to mcmaster.com and look at pricing for strips of aluminum. If you need custom lengths email them. Or try misumi.com, they’ll def cut to length. It’ll cost extra but they will cut perfectly, like to an insane degree of precision. Something tells me you can’t cut things very well.
If you need something more complex than aluminum strips cut to length then you need actual custom parts. Then you need to get into CAD and working with machinists and that’s where you’ll find it a lot harder to get spoonfed. Better brush up on tutorials, no one’s gonna do your cad for free. What did you mean by “design specifications”? Were you going to send them a drawing on a post it note? A description of a dream you had?
Also fwiw aluminum doesn’t diffuse light dumbass. How could it? It’s opaque. Aluminum channels are often used to hold led strips because they are widely available, dissipate heat, come in a size that is pretty perfect, and can hold a piece of plastic over the leds which actually diffuses the light. Note that the plastic needs to be imperfect to scatter the rays of light (thus diffusion) typically frosted.
Hey thanks for the help, honestly I'm not disagreeing with you but if everyone worried about chinese copycats then nobody would make shit here. and besides, it'll only start to be copied IF and AFTER I get sales.
>Something tells me you can’t cut things very well.
dawg I'm surprised you haven't caught on to the fact that I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing, no skills in engineering, don't got CAD, I've only soldered once in my life 15 years ago. but that's what's fun, I'm learning as I go.
>Also fwiw aluminum doesn’t diffuse light dumbass
aha yeah that's embarressing, I googled "rgb ligh channel" a dozen times and they kept giving me the fricking aluminum brackets but not the "Frost Acrylic" I was looking for. I mean i know now, but it would've been nice to see your message as it might've saved me an hour lol I genuinely thought somehow Aluminum was involved lmao.
Anyway I'm covered for how to assemble m device, but I have questions on batteries and there's very few places for forums that provide help.
Arrivederci senpai
Again, you seem to have no clue on how to look up information with access to a database of the collective knowledge of mankind. There are literally hundreds of resources for wiring batteries to LEDs. The arduino forums, stackexchange, subreddits related to this shit are full of this shit. They get clogged up with dipshits like you that ask the same set of overly vague and/or easily searched questions all the time.
Fwiw your problem is most likely that you’ve done no basic research and you’re expecting someone else to just solve things for you. Do you want to know how to choose a battery for your led project? Learn a little bit about how batteries work and how diodes are powered. Learn about voltage, amperage, resistance, the various types of battery chemistries and why they are selected for certain applications, etc. it sounds like a lot but for what you’re doing it’s really like a page and a half of info dude. You don’t need to be an electrical engineer but you also need to do more than the absolute bare minimum. You want it to be a business, act like it.
also the problem with china copying you, from someone who has prototyped and sold products, is that you will sink costs into development. Especially since it’s your first time and you clearly don’t know what you’re doing. Let’s say your unit price retail is $100; you get your shit together and whip up a prototype that costs $75. The first prototype always costs a lot because you’re ordering parts one off, you frick things up like ordering wrong parts, breaking things, making wrong cuts or connections, etc. your first prototype will hopefully work because it’s just some led bullshit and not some complex nonsense but maybe not; then your prototype costs rise. Then you price out vendors to get reasonable small runs of parts bc this is probably going to be some small time hand assembled thing. You’re in the hole like $500-1000 dollars already for an unestablished, unproven product that still needs to pay for advertising and get further in the hole. Once sales start coming in you’re just trying to get to 0 then china starts eating your shit
This assumes you’re hand assembling them too. If you’re lazy and send it off to be manufactured by a Chinese plant then you’re also losing a percentage of sales to them and surprise! A shockingly similar product to yours shows up on aliexpress 3 weeks after yours debuts for 20-40% cheaper because they don’t have to pay you a fat American salary.
It might be different if you had something proprietary but you don’t, let’s be real. If you do then it’s a game of getting established in the market before clones come out and adding features faster than they can clone them. But then you have to be clever bc they’re real good at breaking into shit, reverse engineering, and creating “good enough” facsimiles
Is being an arrogant c**t really necessary?
have I not been humble? I know I'm asking dumb questions, but I'm seeking knowledge from experts and enthusiasts like yourself because I have loads of respect for you people. just do be the courtesy of giving me the benefit of the doubt.
And Chinese copycats matter so little dude. Do you understand how little it matters *what* product is being sold? All that matters is *how* it's sold.
Do you really think white girls want to save money on a $10 Tumbler from Aliexpress because they just really love cups? FRICK no, They WANT to pay $200 and wait at 3am outside Target to get an authentic limited edition Stanley Tumbler that's baby blue, with a 4 pack of straws for fricking $16.
Do you know why? because Stanley's Marketing department are really fricking good at their jobs.
My product idea could be copied EASILY. But it doesn't. fricking. matter.
because at the end of the day it's now *What* I'm selling, it's *how* I'm selling it. I'm banking on a marketing strategy and Advertising Campaign.
I could just be a douchebag, start a drop shipping service and sell crap from aliexpress and suck off other business ideas. But I don't want that. It was on a whim that I decided to stop playing video games and find a diy hobby. Yeah, I'm at level 0 in a new hobby, but I'm not moronic dude. I'm more experienced than you realize.
So please, My question was answered, I've been doing independent research in my own time. by the time it took you to answer the question from the start I had already realized my mistake and figured out the problem. You don't need to keep lingering in this finished thread trying to give me unwanted advice.
Digikey
Mouser
McMaster-Carr
>Canada
If you're in Montreal, try Abra electronics, Addison. In Laval there is also Maddison (oddly only related by name to the former). In Longueuil there is Mastervox.
Start with a working prototype before declaring your little art and crafts project "an idea to start a business."