AWR Nano Challenge Donation Thread

I have decided to start this thread as a challange to AWR to complete the Nano project by the end of the month. Since he as a problem with timelines, I thought I'd give him one so he would know that it's a good thing to do what you say.

So, if Mr. AWR can get every Nano sent out by November 30, 2006, I will donate $100 to CPF. Hopefully others will join in on the fun and we can help motivate him to finish his project. Won't cost you anything either 'cause he'll never make it. But don't promise anything you aren't willing to donate 'cause you don't want to be an AWR after all.

Verification will be easy, all he has to do is tell us he sent them all out. We'll hear about it if they didn't make it to their destinations.

I put my proposed gift in the ......final chapter thread. I stand by my offer. Good call to start this independent thread.

A shame really... the Nano arrives (maybe) to be obsoleted by the XR-E. The Nano has aggitated me because I have been waiting for the BAM! Quad Mag drop-in mod due for release in October, 2005. I weathered the delays to the spring of 2006, the summer of 2006, the fall of 2006 and then another delay.

The great part of the huge delay was I started to purchase parts for it in December, 2005. Spent top dollar to get the best parts (HA-III bored Mag, Kiu HA-III strike bezel with glow epoxy, 8AA-2D battery holder, PowerEx 2700mAH batteries, thermal epoxy, lens glass etc) Once the time line slipped in September to "spring 2007" I jumped on the Cree XR-E/McR19/MaxFlex lists, cut my losses and have started to build my own BAM! I am learning with the P3 bin emitters on smaller lights while waiting for the Q2 bins and MaxFlex regulator. My 500 lumen XRE Quad running at lower than 7 watts will be complete by the end of December...my hope is to burn away the darkest day of the year with Crees.

Will the BAM! ever see the light of day? (darkness of night?) Not sure but I support AWR to actually build one. He has to SHOW the light, post beamshots and post a picture of a dozen of them lit up and ready to ship. They will have to run Q bin XR-E LEDs but with all the delays, the beast can show up with those LEDs. I would like to give one to my LEO brother-in-law...although 18 months late, better late than never.

I have a flicker of hope for AWR and his designs...on the other hand I don't have a $$$ payment floating around for almost two years either.

Okay, I want in on the fun.... if he succeeds, a buck to CPF per Nano shipped!

:buddies:

I'll play. I will donate 10 WahWang 3W emitters if the Nov 30 deadline is met.

Thurmond

I will also donate $100 to CPF.

It's time to put this project to bed!


WP

I will get a CPF Diamond supporter icon if the Nanos are all shipped by the end of November 2006.

Best wishes to all.

OK, I'll bite too:

One HA RED pineapple body

to be drawn among the nano buyers if they are delivered on time per Turd Rules.

C'mon Andrew, don't dissapoint the people that still trust in you...


Pablo

Well i can put this challenge to rest right now.. Things are looking very good to have all the heads made and quiet a lot of everything assembled.. logistically, not likely possible to actually have them all made and shipped by the end of nov, but i'm actually going to see if it is.. There will be however, some very nice timely updates and real progress without any 'randomly chosen' deadline.. though even though there is some mean spirit there, i don't mind having a little fire lit to as Don said it 'put this baby to bed'.. no doubt about it.

Any of you think you're ready for that, multiply that feeling by 80 and enter my world.

So.. as i'm about to post on the nano thread.. just finished machining the last head.. i have at least 15 spares.. i will start assembling pills as soon as tomorrow.. the heads will be polished next week for mass assembly.

I will make an ernest effort to see if it's even remotely possible to pull off the november miracle, and post some joy.. no-joy posts..

-awr

I will donate $500 worth of lights to the CPF community if all paid nanos are shipped by
the end of November. :thumbsup:

It's been TWO long years. I watched my firstborn grow up and a second
follow up. It's time people got what they paid for.

I have no doubt all the nano's will get delivered at some point in time.

my question is .... what about everyone else that put forth their hard earn $$$ for other AWR projects? high probability those funds have already been spent attempting to finish nano project.

I'm still puzzled as to why this has not been finished. others like Miller mods have churned out simular ARC AAA mods during the two years Nano project has dragged on.

AWR has just posted yet another declaration Nano is just about to be finished and delivered.
http://candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?p=1681662#post1681662

action.... not words are needed. what about the other AWR prepaid projects?

Actually, no on the money for other projects question.. it is primarily the reason nano has taken so long.. it boils down to that the nano project will cost me $4000-5000 by the time i'm done.. and i've had to earn the cash slowly to keep things breathing. Fortunately i have one project that has continual sales.. has a reasonable labor overhead and manages to eek out enough profit to CPR the nano and it will be done, it will have some major progress soon.. A lot of people could have just cashed out some savings for a bailout unfortunately the nano situation i just had to keep chugging with other projects which barely pull enough income to pay the phone bill much less bail out the nano.. but given enough time it is working.

The other pre-payed projecT is the HDM6 which has PAHLENTY of 'heat' on it.. but that's it.. HDM6 will be shipping and nanos as well before any new projects.. i've had the smartpak boards for months waiting to get caught up, for example.

It does boil down to some simple math some times.. starving artist.. goes waaaaayy over budget and need to bail it out himself... that's the summary of the time-frame of the nano... Had i had a 'sugardaddy' to bail me out, could have been done maybe half a year ago with the current solution.. the parts were all designed like april or something... it took 'til august to get the $ to get the new parts machined.. I don't really keep secrets whatsoever.. when there is news, i post.. when not, i don't.. when i don't post for 'too long' somebody slaps me on the *** and i get some work done and post.

fortunately there have been some HUGE milestones recently passed.

1) after a huuuuugee delay and more than a month of parts being lost by USPS i finally get a big batch of peak parts..

2) after like six months in the works i get the new heatsinks!

3) after re-inventing and re-engineering my hack for a vertical lathe out of a 1/2" router bit i cut by hand and a $30 drill press.. i finally get all the heads cut into beautiful parabolas.

What people sometimes loose sight of is that i don't have resources to 'have somebody do this' or 'have somebody do that'.. nano was not a project like anything else... there are other modders that make handfuls of lights... ask them to make 160 of them by hand once.

I agree with basically everything you said CY.. actions are key and you can hold me to it.. in-fact I still have a bit of a 'score' to settle with you.. (that is not to be taken badly)... My challenge to myself is to get caught up and get an HDM6 in your hands to evaluate.. you can be the judge yourself... being in the 'nano1' list would get you a special deal (as would be the same of anybody else).. and i have an extra special deal just for you... POST PAY... and not just meaning pay once i have it in stock.. you can check it out and try it.. and only pay if you really like it.. just send it back if you don't and i'll even pay shipping both ways.

-awr

This is really exciting. Just think how great you're gonna feel to get your first project done and you will actually be donating some serious cash and goods to CPF at the same time for which you will get the majority if not all the credit for. All you have to do is "suck it up" and not sleep for the next 22 days. I don't see how you can't do it with statements like "There will be major motion the next week and i expect to see assembled heads going together by next weekend... quite possibly all of them."

That means by the 18th all the heads will be done. Seems to me that leaves 12 days to ship them out since the head is.. what?.. most everything in the build? What's after that? sticking a battery in and screwing the tube on right?

I can't wait for the hero in you to accomplish this feat while making me eat my unflattering words. All you need is a little motivation and elbow grease and CPF benefits. And you'll be well on your way in starting completion of the next project.

As my drafting teacher in high school used to say, stop talkin' and start chalkin'.

andrewwynn said:

Actually, no on the money for other projects question.. it is primarily the reason nano has taken so long.. it boils down to that the nano project will cost me $4000-5000 by the time i'm done..

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I'm rather confused, and just out of curiosity: If this Nano project is costing you on the ballpark of $4000-5000 dollars out pocket, where'd the money people paid for these light go? I find hard to believe that you're subsidizing these lights for people.

I have a (rather large) grain of salt to donate to the cause, just because

Maybe if you talked to MillerMods, he'd be able to orient you along? He's dished out several (improved?) flavors of what the Nano seem to be; he did it in record time, and people seem to rave about them.

t.f.. unfortunately there are more logistical problems... charger shells... magnets, donuts, etc.. but like i said.. going to see what i can do.

green... take a project estimated to take 3-4mo and spread it out over 24... 'cost overruns galore' and hiring help to bail out the project.. the 4-5G figure is conservative.. in reality i don't want to know.

belleeeeiive me i wish it wasn't true!

-awr

Andrew, in one of the other threads you mentioned the Draco development costed in thousands - perhaps 5 figures, that most of the development for it was self funded and the Nano was done on a shoestring budget.

Since there were over 150 Nanos prepaid at over $100 each, that puts the Nano revenue at $15,000. I would not call that a shoestring budget.

At some point in a project, you discover that a process or design adjustment would result in a better product, however, at an additional expense or delays. At some point, you have to resist the urge to rework and complete the product using the current design so it can be delivered. For the Nano that point was when people started venting over delays in the project (or perhaps a little sooner).

More often than not, an 80% solution delivered now is better than the 99% solution delivered months down the road (or not at all).

yup i know the math.. $15,000 in $20,000 out.. in any event.. the complexity of the whole situation could never be understood from an outside observer, which is what leads to the misgivings. The problem basically was the initial concept was 'undeliverable' so it was re-worked 'til the point where it could be deliverable.. sadly it took for dang ever... but the issues of 'how' are solved finally and just recently.
-awr

andrewwynn said:

Actually, no on the money for other projects question.. it is primarily the reason nano has taken so long.. it boils down to that the nano project will cost me $4000-5000 by the time i'm done.. and i've had to earn the cash slowly to keep things breathing. Fortunately i have one project that has continual sales.. has a reasonable labor overhead and manages to eek out enough profit to CPR the nano and it will be done, it will have some major progress soon.. A lot of people could have just cashed out some savings for a bailout unfortunately the nano situation i just had to keep chugging with other projects which barely pull enough income to pay the phone bill much less bail out the nano.. but given enough time it is working.


The other pre-payed projecT is the HDM6 which has PAHLENTY of 'heat' on it.. but that's it.. HDM6 will be shipping and nanos as well before any new projects.. i've had the smartpak boards for months waiting to get caught up, for example.

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AWR, you contradict yourself, often in the same post. I guess the smartpak boards were free, no? I avoided your projects because I saw you coming a mile away. The only redemption on this forum lies in your hands, and I don't mean at the keyboard. Your incessant posting only proves everyone else's posts and besides you keep letting the facts slip out. You are financing your profiteering off misallocated funds, while you step on members and pollute the forums. I cannot even read through your posts any more. It is painful for me and it must be for you too.

andrewwynn said:

yup i know the math.. $15,000 in $20,000 out.. in any event.. the complexity of the whole situation could never be understood from an outside observer, which is what leads to the misgivings. The problem basically was the initial concept was 'undeliverable' so it was re-worked 'til the point where it could be deliverable.. sadly it took for dang ever... but the issues of 'how' are solved finally and just recently.
-awr

Click to expand...

You mean you were selling nothing more than a concept? You should be thanking the gods this happened on CPF or you'd probably have your a-- sued off by now.

To be fair the initial buyers knew he was selling a "dead bug" type circuit. Later it became a circuit board type circuit.

Greg

Billson said:

You mean you were selling nothing more than a concept? You should be thanking the gods this happened on CPF or you'd probably have your a-- sued off by now.

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