A garbage gadget rant
Discussion
I'll keep this one suitably generic, a detailed rant naming names and with teardown pictures is one for another place and time.
The gadget itself is a UK designed and assembled wearable 'medical' device (in commas as not it's not actually tested/makes no specific claims) which by its nature probably tends to target an older crowd.
Now to me the claims & marketing all smelled a bit evangelical & scamtastic but apparently it did do something and recipient was happy enough. Though that could be the placebo effect.
Of course alarm bells should go off when something only has a 6 month (very) limited warranty despite not being particularly cheap.
So a wearable device for vulnerable users...
Which isn't waterproof. Or splash proof. Or even vaguely sealed - simple, weak ABS injected case that has gaps big enough to see the guts.
Which took 4 iterations to start having a charge light. Though the PCB had provisioned for it (plus extra charger protection). Skimming the fractions of a penny!
Where the integrated battery will go spicy pillow inside 12 months, not that the user will know or be able to do anything about it. Toxic combination of cheap Chinese smartwatch battery, a sealed unit, and a decontented lipo charger design poorly implemented. And a crap battery run time from day 1.
Where the on/off switch *will* break, partially because using ABS as a flexible integrated pusher is a bad idea, partially because miniature SMT momentary side switches aren't robust enough to take direct load, and partially because amateur designers obviously don't understand clearances so if the user doesn't push it off then the pressure from adjacent parts will.
Where the all the design must have been done by one or more amateurs - crappy case, crappy internal packaging, crappy PCB layout - again with no clue about clearances (fractional millimeters between some bits that shouldn't).
Toy design - sold as being clever, but is a very basic USB lipo charger, a 555 timer(!), a phone vibration motor and some discretes to support it & provide the on/off.
Noisy - how can something with 5 parts all pushed & clipped together start to buzz and rattle after a bit of use??
The only question is whether the switch, battery or a duff vibration motor will kill it first. At which point it's scrap because even though it's expensive enough to try and with skill you can do it, it *will* just break again.
I hate this thing. I hate the crappy unsuitable design. I hate the crappy 'engineering' (it barely qualifies as such). I hate the inflated price. I hate the lack of support. I hate the marketing.
It'd be tempting to eat their lunch - there's no patent/design protection/medical certification - could knock the same basic thing out, without the flaws and with better features, for good margin at a lower price. But not sure I'm cynical enough to beat evangelical marketing to that audience.
Or...
Just use a generic Chinese smartwatch with suitable software, get extra features, a longer runtime and a lower price for no risk.
Anyway this thing really pissed me off. Garbage sold to the vulnerable at healthy markup.
The gadget itself is a UK designed and assembled wearable 'medical' device (in commas as not it's not actually tested/makes no specific claims) which by its nature probably tends to target an older crowd.
Now to me the claims & marketing all smelled a bit evangelical & scamtastic but apparently it did do something and recipient was happy enough. Though that could be the placebo effect.
Of course alarm bells should go off when something only has a 6 month (very) limited warranty despite not being particularly cheap.
So a wearable device for vulnerable users...
Which isn't waterproof. Or splash proof. Or even vaguely sealed - simple, weak ABS injected case that has gaps big enough to see the guts.
Which took 4 iterations to start having a charge light. Though the PCB had provisioned for it (plus extra charger protection). Skimming the fractions of a penny!
Where the integrated battery will go spicy pillow inside 12 months, not that the user will know or be able to do anything about it. Toxic combination of cheap Chinese smartwatch battery, a sealed unit, and a decontented lipo charger design poorly implemented. And a crap battery run time from day 1.
Where the on/off switch *will* break, partially because using ABS as a flexible integrated pusher is a bad idea, partially because miniature SMT momentary side switches aren't robust enough to take direct load, and partially because amateur designers obviously don't understand clearances so if the user doesn't push it off then the pressure from adjacent parts will.
Where the all the design must have been done by one or more amateurs - crappy case, crappy internal packaging, crappy PCB layout - again with no clue about clearances (fractional millimeters between some bits that shouldn't).
Toy design - sold as being clever, but is a very basic USB lipo charger, a 555 timer(!), a phone vibration motor and some discretes to support it & provide the on/off.
Noisy - how can something with 5 parts all pushed & clipped together start to buzz and rattle after a bit of use??
The only question is whether the switch, battery or a duff vibration motor will kill it first. At which point it's scrap because even though it's expensive enough to try and with skill you can do it, it *will* just break again.
I hate this thing. I hate the crappy unsuitable design. I hate the crappy 'engineering' (it barely qualifies as such). I hate the inflated price. I hate the lack of support. I hate the marketing.
It'd be tempting to eat their lunch - there's no patent/design protection/medical certification - could knock the same basic thing out, without the flaws and with better features, for good margin at a lower price. But not sure I'm cynical enough to beat evangelical marketing to that audience.
Or...
Just use a generic Chinese smartwatch with suitable software, get extra features, a longer runtime and a lower price for no risk.
Anyway this thing really pissed me off. Garbage sold to the vulnerable at healthy markup.
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