BEAM prototype. Request to be a beta tester here.

[Foggy]

Hello Kalle,

I am in the UK and would like to order 1. Please advise how I should pay.

Best wishes.

James.

[jitterjames]

I will send PMs to anyone who has already requested to be a beta tester.

I think we can ship some UK units soon, the US/Canada versions will have to wait a bit longer unless people want to get them with no RF chips.  You can buy the RF chips on ebay and install them later easily though if anyone wants to do that.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/315Mhz-RF-transmitter-and-receiver-link-kit-for-Arduino-ARM-MC-U-remote-control-/180929068100?hash=item2a20367c44

We only have a very limited number of units that we can make right now until we get more ESP8622 boards delivered.

Most stuff comes from China and the Chinese new year slows everything down a lot at this time of year for getting stuff shipped to us.

[vulcanjedi]

LT friend here. Count me in too James / Kalle for beta and production orders. Definitely been looking for something like this and recall the first threads when Kalle's initial prototypical tinkering were up....had no idea its dev was progressing to this. Super excited.
US here. I could/would order the chip if needed.

[mexicanto]

Hi, I am in California
about  months ago i ordered and have it now a bunch of 315 and 433 rf modules, if somebody need one, just let me know, i can give it one for free

how can i order a BEAM (the most complete version, IR, w/o RF) now ?

Thanks (actually, i think i am the first on the beta tester list  )

[jitterjames]

@ Mexicanto: Thanks. You will be included in our first batch.  I will contact you shortly.  It's good that you have RF chips already.

[jitterjames]

NOTICE TO ANYONE WHO IS INTERESTED IN BEING A BETA TESTER:
We have a very limited supply of units that can be made at this point in time.

At the moment we can only make 6 new units.  We will try to send them according to the order in which people expressed interest in this forum thread, if you "qualify" as a beta tester.  Please see below.

In 2 to 4 weeks we hope to be able to make 8 or 9 more.  It will mostly depend on how long it takes us to get parts delivered.  We are waiting for custom printed PCBs and ESP8266 processors, as well as 315Mhz RF transceivers

After that, we will not be sending out any new units until we have a chance to work with all our beta testers.

If we decide to make more after that the price will be increased, and we may have to look at our long term plans to decide if we can realistically do this.  None of us has any experience with this type of thing and there are many considerations if we want to make a large number of units.

If we do not decide to keep making them, we will be sharing the information required (hardware AND software) so that you can make your own, and we will probably also make a large batch of PCBs that we can deliver to you because making only a couple at one time is a waste of money.

For those that want to be one of the first 15 beta testers please take note:
1) We will only be shipping units within Europe and North America.
2) We require our beta testers to be fluent in either English or German so that we can communicate more easily with you and you with us.  Otherwise you are not really able to act as a beta tester who can contribute to the learning process for us.

I'm sorry if this leaves anyone out.  It is not our intention to upset anyone.  This is all an experiment for us right now.   And it should be noted that we are not making any money.  Quite the opposite in fact.

I hope everyone understands.

[jitterjames]

Please don't send private messages.  Requesting on this thread is enough.

Here are some new photos of the work Kalle is currently doing...  Beautiful.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ufcw7gy1vlqwnjq/AADrqBJqzdQpOwLfoSdVm2BKa?dl=0

[MrWolf]

Please add me to this list!! This looks like amazing work as always. We'll done Kalle!  I still use my wireless RGB strip daily

I'm in the UK but and I don't know if it's even possible but having the ability to use both RF bands would be amazing, my stupid projector screen is on non EU band.

You guys rule.

Xxx

[jitterjames]

It might be possible to bodge something together putting both rf transmitters on the same pins but I have no way to really test this because I don't have any 433mhz devices.

Otherwise you would need to use 2 separate Beam devices I guess.

Learning codes for either should not be a problem since you can swap the 2 types of receiver out and learn one frequency at a time.

[mexicanto]

James, I can send you a 433 rf for your testings, in case you need it.

I there any chance to have the sketch source code to do some custom modifications ?

I think i can modify it to have one 315 mhz attached to one pin, and the 433 mhz attached to other
pin, and select what pin i want to use over a software instructions.

the pros and cons (from my point of view) of using 433 and 315 are:

Pros: very cheap, you can get 5 outlets rf controlled for around 30 dolars
cons: the is no way ( as far i know) to know the state of the outlet (not known is it is on or off)

For me, the best scenario is to use the ESP8266 (version 1) it is cheap, but you have to
deal with the power supply, and the relay stuff, but you gain full control of it (known the state of
the switch, schedule, attach sensor for light, presence, you can control it over internet, all in the
esp8266 itself, and can be controlled from the voxcommando)

Thanks.

[Kalle]

Hi mexicanto,


we have already a second pin or better a socket on the PCB availabe (designed for a PIR) - so maybe it is possible to use both transmitters in this way.


At the moment we do not plan to make the sketch open source.

[jitterjames]

Thanks, I already have a 433mhz chip for sending but I don't have any devices to control that work on that frequency.

It would need testing but as I previously stated, we may not need a second pin for sending. It might be possible to send on both frequencies simultaneously with the same pin.

 

[mexicanto]

Hey James, I have this:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DQELHBS?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00
but I dont really need all five, so I can send you two outlets and one remote control for your testings.

[Dave]

Hi mexicanto, I'm not sure if Kalle mentioned it in the description of the BEAM, but there are basically two types of RF-Remotes/Outlets. The "old" ones, where you can choose the code via dip-switch or similar, and the "new" ones (like yours), where the outlets learn the codes from the remote. Currently it is probably not possible to learn codes or generate events from "new" remotes. But it is possible to let the "new" outlets learn a code from the BEAM. So you can use them with BEAM, but you can't use them with BEAM and the remote at the same time.

[jitterjames]

Note:

To people who live in Russia and are interested in becoming beta testers.  We are not willing to ship to Russia at this time because of the difficulty with Russian import customs at the border.  Since we only have a very limited number of prototypes available to ship, we want to make sure that they all get out to beta testers that can start providing us with feedback as soon as possible.  I know it's not fair and I'm sorry about that but it's beyond our control at this point.  Here is just one page that discusses the problem.  It may be a problem in other countries as well and at the moment our intention is to ship only to certain countries in Europe and North America. (We may re-evaluate this on a case by case basis.)

https://www.shipwire.com/w/blog/russian-orders-to-individuals/

Regardless, our first round of devices that we can ship includes only 6 devices and one of them is for me  .  If you have not heard from me yet about becoming a beta tester then you can expect to hear from me when we are ready to prepare our second batch of (hopefully) 8 more units.

Thanks to everyone for their support and understanding.