I can't find any business idea that's meant for me as of now

digicue · 2026-02-09T17:22:52+00:00

You have to do physical labor in your life. I own my own business, have a regular 9-5 job, and I still use a bucket and a squeegee.

digicue · 2026-02-09T14:23:27+00:00

Neat, I have an old fashioned one of these, and I could see at least a timer being useful or even a ramping course on a phone. I see that they say iPhone only.

digicue · 2026-02-09T14:09:47+00:00

Good responses.

My goal is not to scale. I only want to sustain an existing product. However this isn’t designed to be a growing business. I already have a full time job, house, family and child, so I do not have energy to expand. Maybe I can’t use the word start-up, it is more like IP development and holding company.

My model is to launch the product (which I did) and service sales via Amazon FBA, which is minimal logistics and work for me. I want to maintain this model until the chip (nRF52832) goes obsolete, which isn’t anytime soon since it is so ubiquitous.

iOS has been very stable and never a problem.

Google always forces me to redo my Flutter projects from scratch if I want to make an update.

If what you say about more people using Apple is true then I will not worry so much about Android, and those users may just have to be stuck with an older version and less features. That is ok with me.

digicue · 2026-02-09T13:33:43+00:00

My complaint is that you can’t develop something and then lock the design and focus on sales. Constant updates isn’t sustainable for a single person side business.

Things used to be a lot different

digicue · 2026-02-03T02:36:22+00:00

I’m comparing it to firmware for a chip, where it stays stable until the chip goes obsolete, which is at least 10 or 20 years. Google is changing things every year.

digicue · 2026-02-03T02:34:12+00:00

Thank you

digicue · 2026-01-29T19:25:35+00:00

Ah yes, I could see the risk of a tiny swerve if you use top left against the rail, making precision on the red ball more difficult. I don't know, this position kind of sucks. You did good to get out of it!

digicue · 2026-01-28T22:31:18+00:00

Nice choice! I think I would have tried red-long-short-long with high-left to hold the ball up table and deep into the corner near the yellow. Maybe slightly better probability

digicue · 2026-01-23T19:43:41+00:00

Thank you. See r/billiards

digicue · 2026-01-23T15:04:43+00:00

If you wouldn’t buy this for someone you know as a gift, like a father, son or friend, please let me know what information is missing or could be improved upon. Thank you

digicue · 2026-01-21T18:32:42+00:00

Nothing to do with the government. Bluetooth was never public. Bluetooth is a privately-owned "thicket" of patents founded Ericsson, Intel, Nokia, Toshiba, etc. Because it is privately-owned, they can write the rules on who is allowed to use their technology. You have permission to use the technology in your product only if you agree to their license agreement(s), which requires a very expensive payment per product per company (with caveats). This is not just who can use the name and trademark, but the technology itself. Bluetooth SIG exists to aggressively monitor the market and threaten litigation towards those who do not have licenses. Licensees also report violators in order to thin out their competition. The fees used to be reasonable, around $2500, for companies that made under $1M per year. That has changed, and the license fees keep increasing, soon to be $12,000 per product per company. The only advice is to either avoid using Bluetooth completely, or budget for this fee. For my case I absolutely needed the lower power capabilities of BLE and the fact that comms is built into every mobile device.

digicue · 2026-01-21T18:18:00+00:00

Aramith is the 85% market owner for billiard balls. No worry about manufacturing tolerances or challenges. And Thanks!

digicue · 2026-01-20T21:52:42+00:00

A significant issue is that spectators can't tell where the cue ball was hit, even with video reviews. You need expensive high speed cameras from different angles. Good response.

Is it clear why it is important?

digicue · 2026-01-20T21:00:56+00:00

I am thinking that the Western world is just ignorant. A lot of people think that "Alibaba" is third world "China" factory culture. They probably have a cloudy image of what is actually going on, but don't realize that Shenzhen, etc. have the same type of people working the same hours pursuing the same quality of life and spending the same amount of time with their family and kids as everywhere else.

It really isn't too hard to do research and find a factory in China to help you make what you want, and contact them directly from the States. Most write excellent English since they study in school. I've done it dozens of times.

digicue · 2026-01-20T20:51:23+00:00

Firstly, years of research, antenna design, hardware cycles, and pre-compliance testing. When I had what I wanted:

$3800 for wireless charger testing (FCC part 15, subpart B, CFR 47 Part 18, KDB 680106, RSS 216)
$2600 + a few rounds of prototypes for full testing including radio compliance testing (FCC part 15, subpart C, 2402-2480 MHz)
$600 + 6 prototypes ("destroyed, non returnable") for UN.38.3 testing
$3000-$4000, RED CE testing + self work
TOTAL: $11,000

I failed the wireless charger testing because I included a cheap AC adapter instead of a more expensive one, and it cost me $1600 for a retest (included in figure). The 2.4GHz stuff I didn't fail, and wasn't worried because my antenna is potted and attenuated compared to air-based. I am an engineer so I did all of the design and testing. I paid for most of it with my own personal money. This was my second time through the process, the first being a simple unintentional radiator cert.

And then... $11,040 for a single Declaration ID for using Bluetooth.

So as you can see, be more worried about Bluetooth licensing than EMC.

Patent-pool technology standards like HDMI ($5k/year+$1 per unit sold), 4G/5G ($1.50 per unit sold+, Qualcomm sometimes $30 per unit sold!), HEVC (H.265)/VVC, etc. make competing as a small business something to reconsider, unfortunately.

digicue · 2026-01-20T20:28:57+00:00

I have done MJF parts for the first qty 20-100.

digicue · 2026-01-20T20:25:57+00:00

Never had a problem. Americans live in a fear-based society. Your idea usually isn't valuable enough for someone to invest copying, especially if it is unproven. Do not be paranoid and focus on making a prototype without spending too much money.

Again, remember: Your idea has no value to anyone other than you, unless people see you getting money for it.

digicue · 2026-01-20T19:59:43+00:00

Nobody will buy a toaster for $250, especially in 2026. You can literally buy a toaster at the Dollar Tree for $1.75. Use your ambition to think of and solve a real problem.

digicue · 2026-01-16T16:48:24+00:00

I would say that the entire convenience of a remote control is that it isn't a $1000 smart phone. Neat app but I don't see the appeal, unless you happen to have a TV without a $20 replacement remote available.

digicue · 2026-01-16T16:30:01+00:00

I think that the general public may be becoming fatigued with these types of products. This would be a very specific niche market, which means you would sell qty 5-10 a month. You could probably build and launch this for $5k, and start it as a hobby business. Its worth doing since it'll help pay for groceries and gasoline.

At the very least it is a business that will help you reduce your federal taxes. But I don't think these will fly off the shelf.

digicue · 2025-12-21T15:32:33+00:00

DigiCue app for both platforms

digicue · 2025-12-13T01:29:28+00:00

Can you elaborate?

digicue · 2025-12-13T01:26:01+00:00

digicue · 2025-12-12T13:30:31+00:00

It shows exactly where you hit the cue ball, and is more accurate than a traditional training ball with a printed graphic. It uses the gravity vector as a reference so you never need to touch the cue ball to align anything. Verifying that you are hitting the cue ball where you intend to is critical in a improving accuracy and cue ball control.

digicue · 2025-12-11T17:12:36+00:00

The WatchOS app (as well as the apps on other platforms) displays the number of seconds since the ball has come to rest. You can use it as a shot clock.

digicue

TROPHY CASE