Product #2 - Will it come out?

Bear with me. I just need to vent out because I am very disappointed with the progress and help. Also, I think this is my swansong on the world of modeling & electronics.

OK. I am back on track or rather, sort of. This is my second product. I was scheduling it to be released by September this year but now, it seems to be too optimistic. To be honest, it should have been out in August. I cannot use the excuse of my Mom anymore nor my sudden depression.

To tell you the truth, my business venture is a failure. I was initially so excited when we were doing the first product which is for a Cylon Raider. A lot of delays and missed opportunities happened. And in the end, I am very frustrated that the kit is not selling as well as I thought it would be and I still do not have a fully painted model to show. I was such a fool to believe in all the Sales talk. And I am months behind in my Bills. As predicted, my car would be the first to go. Its alright for the rest of them because they have a job and so, they can take their own sweet time do help me. Or not. It is very frustrating to be given excuses again and again why there were so many delays. I really feel like a dog, waiting at the table, begging for favours. Oh, if only I had an airbrush or even a proper place to cast resins!

And so, I am actually having second thoughts about coming up with the second product. It took me so long as I was literally scraping up enough cash to pay for the prototyping. But let me show you what I have done so far...

This is the 'teaser' video which we have put out quite sometime ago.

I have reworked the circuit by adding in more components. The end result is that the leftmost LED is now very bright. But the additional components now makes the circuit board very dense.

 Although the circuit diagram looks very simple, its the design of the board that is important.

My initial spec was to use normal components which would speed up manufacturing times but now, I have to resort back to using SMD components. Here, you can see the size difference between a normal transistor (Left) and its SMD counterpart (right)

Initial mockup of the board looks promising. Just a little tweak here and there.

This is a what if should the user decides to mount the board on the sloping bottom. Not encouraged.

And this is how the board mounts on the other model

So far, I have checked and made sure the circuit is correct before sending them off to be prototyped. With any luck, it should be ready for me to work on it by next week. But i think, that is as far as I can go with this there are a few problems which is stopping me:

1. No money. For the first product, it wiped out some four figure sum which left me broke. So, for this product, the startup cost would be the same if not, more. Where to get the money? I am not sure. I was planning on the first product being able to help but I was wrong. All it got me was a month's grace on my car's installment.

2. The special surprise is not ready and I have not heard from them yet. The first guy is waiting for his cheque and the second guy, well, I do not want to elaborate. All I need is just to test if the part can reflect light and if it works, I will work out a business deal with you. Its that simple.

3. I hate asking people for help. It took me more than four months and there is still nothing to show. In fact, this is the greatest obstacle I am facing. If you cannot do it or this is not on your priority list, at least tell me earlier. Don't disappoint me every time I come to see you. Yes, I have COME to see you. I need YOUR help. I am BEGGING you. And it is not easy for me to keep on smiling amd listening to your whims and stories while being slapped on the face.

My Wife sums it all up when I talked to her, "Are you really sure you want to do this, again?"

You know, I think I should stop all this and start looking for a job. No more model kits. Even if there is, I will do it for myself. The first product was very difficult to assemble and is labour intensive. I mean, what is the point of telling me that everyone will buy and I am getting famous, etc when at the end of the day, the kits are stockpiling behind me.

What is the frakking point?