If anyone's visited or even heard of the Scum and Villainy Cantina, they'll know it was the vision of a big fan who wanted to build something cool and offer it as a service to fans. It's really a great place and I personally love it. I went there when it was just a pop-up bar and afterwards when they decided to stay open indefinitely.
Now I hear word of another Star Wars themed bar that will be popping up in Hollywood (as well as New york and DC) and wondered why somebody just couldn't come up with their own original idea and let things be.
And then I got it. I understood. To a point.
Last week (last post), I decided to post in general about products that I am making that are similar to those being produced by UKSWrath. There were some that called me a recaster for what I was trying to do. Although it was wrong of me to knock his price points or in any way demean his product, the situation started with events on FISD that caught my attention.
I've been apprehensive about publishing this post, but ultimately this is my personal blog, and a space that I feel I should be able to talk about topics I want in regards to my armor builds and overcoming difficulties in the build, even if those difficulties are more social and less technical.
An Apology to UKSWrath / Tony
Firstly, while I have done so privately, I'd like to apologize to UKSWrath / Tony for besmirching his work. Even though we use off-the-shelf tech for these systems, they are very tedious to make. Adding other items like more quick connects makes it even moreso and, frankly, I should probably be charging more for my work (and I probably will) since it can take a few hours to put together a hearing assist system from start to finish (installing it can take another hour or two, depending on the buckets). If you've read my previous blogs, you know that the hearing assists have to be built component by component, by each resistor, capacitor, and jack. It's certainly no easy task for anyone, especially someone who builds a lot of these devices each month.When I announced that I intended to sell my own product to people through the Anovos Facebook group, I knew there might be consequences. Heck, I'll admit that not talking to the person already making fan kits on FISD/ Whitearmor, and knocking his price point was probably not the best way to go about it, do the general attitudes in the cosplay community about people who "recast" or make clone items, or people who don't "respect" the work of those already doing business.
Being First to Market in the Cosplay World
Although Tony might not have been the first guy to figure out how to make hearing assist (because I honestly don't know), he was arguably the first guy to offer them for sale on FISD. Out of respect for the guy that did it first, members generally don't compete with other members doing ongoing sales for the same or very similar products. Some could argue that this creates a monopoly. Could I compete with Tony on FISD? Sure, but arguably we're currently making very similar products. Do I want to deal with the drama or politics that entails, or being the pariah of FISD? No. That's far too stressful.And seeing my artist friends who constantly have to fight off other artists, or even large corporations, from keeping people from cloning their ideas, I completely get that.
But as a guy who feels like an artist who was plagiarized, I also feel it.
The Hearing Assist Filter Issue
When I was a child our school hosted a craft fair. I found a salt dough recipe for my best friend and I to make little Nintendo character knick knacks to sell at the fair. In the end, however, he took the dough recipe, made them himself, and shut me out.
If anything, the thing with which I took issue and led me down the path of selling my own product, beyond my wife being unemployed for a few months, was developing an improvement on an old design - not reinventing the wheel per say, but making it easier to roll.
One of my big issues was the noise filter in the hearing assist systems, and its commercialization. While I argue that the final result was because of my published work, UKSWrath will argue that he'd been looking for the solution for a while and had spent quite a sum of money looking for the right combo of filter and USB battery to work with the hearing assist without producing EM noise if fans were also being used on the same battery.
That being said, I don't know if I wholly believe in the coincidence. Those who read my blog will know that I initially found a solution to the EM noise issue (running fans and a hearing assist on the same power supply) was published on 29 November 2016, after messing around with my hearing assist build for days and taking a break for Thanksgiving.
Tracing the threads from Whitearmor alone is suspect:
- I started talking about my solution on 2nd March 2017 when I saw a thread about a FISD member in the UK trying to do what I had already blogged about. Before this, USKWrath had said it couldn't be done, despite having spent $200 researching the issue.
- I finally published my work on 11 May 2017 on the same thread.
- Thereafter, around 22 May 2017, USKWrath started selling a 5V USB-powered Hearing Assist with an EM filter on his Sales thread.
This is the reason my hearing assist is similar to his because, arguably, I developed the concept first.
My Outstanding Objection
When I originally saw the Velleman MK136, and thought it would be great to add to a bucket, I Google searched the idea and and read up on Tony's threads (among other sources) to improve my design Similarly, Tony probably read up on my work and improved his designs.
The difference is that Tony does so commercially. And while I posted my ideas in the hopes of showing off my work and helping others builders (arguably builders that couldn't afford Tony's work) overcoming similar issues, my intent wasn't to help somebody else earn a profit on my work. Anyone who's an artist, creator, or inventory can understand. And although he reportedly spent a lot of money in R&D, I honestly don't think he could have made that final breakthrough without my contribution.
No Right Answer
Obviously Tony and I aren't the only ones making product or publishing work. Many people reference this YouTube video from 18 July 2012 about helmet electronics, which was also a huge inspiration to me. There are guys who've been making fans "for years" coming out of the woodwork. Some of these people, like the FISD members who handed down the Echo Fan business to USKWrath, work for a profit, some don't. But those that do have arguably been inspired by, or used work from, others before them. People have been borrowing and improving on each other's' ideas since the dawn of time.
Personally, I'm a fan of the free market, competing by price point and innovation, and letting customers decide. But when we start dealing with loyal fanbases, the muddled idea of originality, and trying to break into inferred monopolies where somebody who's already established is being infringed upon, it's a large ball of worms.
Going Forward
I respect Tony, and don't doubt that he spent a bit of R&D trying to figure out how everything works, but to be wholly honest, the timing was and is suspect. Arguably, he just may have figured out one particular USB power bank that works well with the solution I penned.
Instead, I will do limited commissions on a case by case basis. You can find my Sales page here:
https://obsidiustk.blogspot.com/p/tksnakes-5v-systems.html
There will always be competition for any builder, like those improving on old designs or creating wholly new systems that could undercut what Tony, myself, and others are doing. But I also believe that there will never be a "one size fits all" solution, especially when it comes to price point. New systems are typically priced higher for customers that need the bleeding edge. People who can't afford that will get the next best thing. Although there might be systems in the future that can replace the MK136-based designs, there's no telling when they'll be to market, or how expensive they might be.
In that same vein, I also intend to diversify my product offerings by making products different from those sold by Tony and others. I'll be looking into different fan offerings, cutting down on feedback when using hearing assists with helmet speakers, etc. Consider the hearing assist EM filter as the first in a series of innovations to come.
Adversely, this lamentably means that I will be remiss on blogging about helmet electronics or construction methods, since I'm not interested in any further ideas being used for somebody else's business venture. If someone is going to make earnings off of my innovations, it will be me and those with whom I select to partner.
I'll be putting my current two products (and others to come), on a page connected to the blog as to keep that page updated. Because this blog was originally meant to be about building armor, this will probably be the last time I blog about my products unless I have to announce a change to page host or URL.
Next blog, I hop to have something more positive or lighthearted to talk about. Until then...
