What do you think about the CyberBricks retail prices?

[chiz_m]

As one of the creators who were given the opportunity to test out Cyberbrick as I mentioned in my post here and someone who had used and been using Arduinos in projects, let me weigh in on some of your thoughts below.

@designrama

IMO, these kits’ retail prices are on the expensive side. One can buy the Arduino equivalent of the same modules and parts for way less.

While I agree with you in terms of the cost of Arduino and the compatible components being cheaper, Cyberbrick’s ease of use make up for the added cost.

Remember that smaller Arduinos like the Micro and Nano do not come with leads and we can’t expect users to be comfortable with soldering wires. If the boards come with leads, they’re usually Dupont pins which are bulky and it’s easy to incorrectly connect wires to the intended pins potentially damaging the board. Cyberbrick components will come with PH1.0 connectors which is smaller and minimizes mistakes in connecting the wires to the board.

As for users configuring the Arduino, you add another level of complexity. It’s overwhelming for users who are first time using Arduinos to install the Arduino IDE, select the correct port, Arduino model, programmer, download the libraries, connect the wire and hope that the PC will detect the board, etc. Cyberbrick takes away all those guess work. Users will just connect to the webserver on the board, upload a json configuration file, follow the hardware connection diagram, update the boards wirelessly, all within the embedded app. No downloading of any IDE nor libraries.

This is what the end-user is paying for.

@designrama

I’m having a hard time believing that people who just want to print and assemble would be willing to spend $50 on modules each time they want to try a new design or spending time disassemble the previous built.

At the minimum, they would buy another set of kit for the RC model but they can reuse the same controller. The embeded app makes it easy to bind the controller to a different model. So theoretically, you can have 10+ models with only one controller.

The boards come with an ESP32 core and a hat. I’m not sure if BL will sell hats individually or always with the core. If they do, then technically, you can leave the hats in the RC models and you just transfer the core to the RC model and enable the configuration that applies to that model.

This is another benefit that Nanos and Micros cannot offer. Traditionally, one will load the sketch in the Arduino IDE and upload it to the board to enable a different configuration. Using the embedded app, the user will just enable the configuration he/she wants to activate. (Assuming the json configuration file has already been imported to the board.)