Whats the deal?
I am seeking $50,000.00 in funding to help put an order in for a second batch of HackHD cameras. The first batch of units is almost sold out and I am trying to ensure that I have enough supply to not only continue to meet the existing demand, but to support the demand I intend to create by putting some real effort into marketing. The YouTube video I put up is not considered "real" effort as you may have noticed. This business was funded on all cash, no loans, so capital is the biggest limitation that I am encountering. It would be nice to be able to have several thousand units of these in stock and ready to start selling hundreds a day of. I believe that the product currently has the potential to gain some really high market share in hobby, RC, security, and robotics industries as well as enter the mainstream consumer and sports industry by eventually investing in a waterproof/shockproof case.
The HackHD is a finished product that can be found on www.hackhd.com. I have already teamed up with a manufacturer and the next batch of units is only a deposit away.
If the $50,000.00 goal is not reached by May 31st, 2013, I will still use the funds received help place the order, only it will be for a smaller quantity which will not allow me to take full advantage of getting this great product known to the market. Every little bit still counts.
History
As a kid, I always loved to take things apart to figure out how they are made. This progressed in my teenage years of making electronic products have different uses such as taking a voice activation circuit out of a tape recorder and converting it into a voice activated alarm using the buzzer from a newly broken smoke alarm or wiring up my webcams circuit board into my computer speakers to keep an eye out for my brothers sneaking into my room. The result often left me with many expensive paper weights (once valuable products now useless and with a voided manufacturer’s warranty). Now 28 years old, this simple curiosity has cost me several thousand dollars which I consider hard knock education with no regrets.
The idea of the HackHD came to mind when I wanted to have a high definition security camera aimed at the shipping area of my mail order retail company to prevent employee theft and to verify the contents put into each shipped package. This was around the time that GoPro cameras were becoming popular and I thought it would be a good camera for the job. The biggest problem was that the GoPro records to SD cards which can only record 4 or so hours of HD video for every 32GB’s of memory. I didn't want to have to take out and save the contents of the SD card to my computer hard drive several times a day so I needed to make it so the camera only recorded on motion and automatically synced to my computer once a day to back up the videos without me having to do anything but take care of initial setup. This was going to be done with a GoPro camera, motion sensor, Arduino, relay board, and a computer with macro software to move the contents of the SD card after the relay board disconnects it from the GoPro and connects it to my computer and back. To make a long story short, this didn’t even make it past stage one as when I tried to solder a couple wires to the GoPro circuit board, where the record switch rests, I messed up the soldering and completely ruined the board.
After several months of designing, researching, and developing, HackHD was soon born with the concept of recording real 1080P HD quality video to a microSD card but having screw pin terminals easily connect only to the components needed. The 9 pin terminals include ground, voltage in (for battery or DC power), switch (to control on/off/record/stop operations), 3.7V out (to conveniently power accessories such as a flash), video out (to transmit the video to a view finder, DVR, wireless transmitter, etc. in real time), L.E.D. out (to display the status of the camera), and audio in (to override the onboard microphone with a professional camera or alternative audio source).
The possibilities are endless but here are some major advantages that the HackHD has over retail based cameras =
- No need to limit yourself to a small battery, why not just connect several of them in parallel for longer lasting power, or even a car battery (with a step down converter to 3.7V) for several months of operation, not to mention simply connecting it to a DC power source for endless power.
- The one button operation allows all aspects of the camera operation to take place. You can turn the camera on/off and record/stop in 2 different modes. The switch is triggered every time Pin 3 is grounded, this can be done with a button, a relay, microcontroller, various sensors, etc.
- The HackHD is extremely light weight so is perfect for the RC hobby industry (remote control helicopters, drones, airplanes). We also had a research company use these on a high-altitude balloon, you can view the results at their page here = http://www.edgeresearchlab.org/our-projects/edge2-01-sept-2012/hackhd-camera/
- You can easily attach various M12 lenses to the HackHD. We offer almost 50 different size lenses including pinhole, zoom, varifocal, and more. By adding a pinhole lens, the HackHD becomes the first true 1080P HD pinhole camera on the market. That adds endless possibilities for the security, spy, and reality TV industry, especially now that you can make the L.E.D. optional instead of having to permanently poke it out with a screwdriver. M12 is the same size lens used on the GoPro’s which people choosing to upgrade spend about an hour carefully opening up its casing to install, thus voiding the warranty. The lenses can be swapped on the HackHD’s in under a minute.
- The HackHD offers a continuous recording option and supports SDXC cards (currently up to 256GB). Continuous recording mode will delete the oldest video on the SD card when the memory runs out thus allowing the end user to always have the last several hours (depending on SD card size).
I will stop there as my intentions are not to use this fundraising page as a marketing campaign, especially when my main issue is not being able to meet the supply with the demand.
Other Ways You Can Help
If you’re unable to contribute, other ways you can help is by like us on Facebook, following us on Twitter, or simply telling your friends about the HackHD camera and/or this fundraising campaign.
Perks
All perks will be delivered as soon as the next batch of cameras arrive in Los Angeles. I am expecting this batch sometime in June 2013 or possibly earlier. All perks include free worldwide shipping. Stickers will ship by USPS first class mail, cameras will ship by USPS priority mail.
