Nancy’s Blog

I’m going to give myself just a few minutes to write here. I’m finishing samples of the final new product for photo and looking into local professionals to put a more comely perspective on our product’s appearance. 3D printing can’t produce the same surface finish as molded plastic but it avoids nearly all tooling cost, we just have to buy printers. We’ve got the latest from Bambu Lab on the way, expecting to see further refinement to the layering process resulting in more regular surface patterns which means even nicer looking product.

I’m very excited about our new product, it’s more compact with improved features, performance and longevity. We’ve had to change the material we use to print some of the parts, we’ve seen some heat-related plastic deformities (send yours back now for updated parts, no charge, we split shipping). So the organically-derived plastics can’t quite make it in hot environments. We’re now using, in addition to PLA, PETG for the back wall and smaller internal parts. PETG avoids the toxic fumes of ABS (of which most plastic electronic enclosures are or were made) and it’s not too difficult to print so it’s the best choice for now.

It’s production startup time. I’ve ordered long lead parts and will order another production run of 100 just as soon as those key parts are in ND stock. Will be reaching out to service providers and distributors in January with a good offer. Hopefully we will grow quantities sooner rather than later (I won’t be around forever! There’s a lot of savings to be had by just moving most people to relatively inexpensive, smarter controls. The energy saving per unit installed is small, but will continue indefinitely. That’s the investment we’re backing.

As usual, marketing has been taking a back seat to development. We’re making many improvements large and small to the product, and looking forward to building on this foundation. We’re in the process of moving our codebase to GitHub, the standard environment for open development. We now include, among other things, two excellent developers contributing extensively to the project. We all would love to get paid someday, and I’ll add a donate button to our pages at some point. But we need to get these out there, get people using them, integrate more capabilities. We expect to maintain this hardware platform for many years, in part so that we can focus on some nice ancillary capabilities. Stay tuned.

Speaking of stock, we still have a few of last year’s model in stock, and we’ll be selling them for $199. Readers just email me (nancy@nangeroni.net) and I’ll set you up with, and guarantee with stellar service, the most advanced, efficient, controller, available today. No bragg just truth. While the folks at Seeley are doing some great work on the coolers themselves, we’re the only ones servicing the installed base of swamp coolers which work well and can be made even better with our enhanced thermal control. We’re all 5 stars so far, planning on staying that way. Join us in promoting the most efficient home cooling solution. Keep your swamp cooler, make sure you’re getting a truly smart, widely compatible heat pump. These things do better when they can collaborate. And that’s the vision.

It’s nice to take some time to let you know what’s cooking here. We’re moving towards putting one of the best available smart silicon in your home, setting you up with superior comfort and efficiency cooling in a package whose capabilities will grow significantly with a commitment towards providing long term returns through open development. To that end, we’re setting up an organization we’re calling the Evaporative Cooling Coalition,

“A business-oriented non-profit advocacy group working to promote the retention and adoption of evaporative cooling technologies. We support smart cooling practices that save energy, reduce costs, and protect the climate. Our members include manufacturers, installers, engineers, programmers, and end users who believe in the power savings of sustainable comfort. This is currently an all-volunteer effort.”

http://evaporativecoolingcoalition.org

Time’s up. That took forever! 😅😉 Thanks for reading this.

~ Nancy

As September nears, the time to install a new Evaporative Cooler controller slips back to next spring. Sales peter out, and that’s good, I’ve got other things to focus on. Right now that’s the firmware. There have been, I am sorry (but not surprised) to say, a few bugs along the way this year. Right now I’m preparing what will hopefully be the final release for 2025, polishing and testing like crazy. This is the most fun part of the design, when you can take the time to make everything just so.

A few of our customers have been amazingly patient with bugs they came across. They seem to understand that it’s a mountain we’ve been scaling. So far it’s been nothing but pleasure helping people solve their problems, and it’s led to some nice design improvements. I especially appreciate those who allowed me into their homes so that I could see firsthand what they were dealing with.

When I began working with TLC Plumbing a couple of years ago, their manager said I couldn’t have direct contact with customers. I made the mistake of agreeing to that condition. Things didn’t work out very well. I won’t repeat that mistake.

Thank you to all who ordered controllers after reading about this effort in the Albuquerque Journal. I will remain grateful for the publicity and purchases, just as I remain grateful to Frank Reinow and the staff and students at New Mexico Tech for getting me started with all this.

For now I’m primarily focusing on firmware. Tweaking, polishing, and exercising it to its limits. This thing needs to be rock solid. Nobody wants to have to worry about their cooler. It should just work, and how to work it should be easy and obvious for everyone.

I owe deep gratitude to the Journal for publicizing my invention. I’m hoping to be able to run a regular advertisement there as a thank-you.

Before the journal article there was Will Pierce, and his Evaporative Cooler Forecaster app. We’ve been talking every Tuesday about how to make our concoctions work together. Then there’s David Perkowski, who has vowed to get our device working with Matter and beyond so that we can be one more smart home appliance that you can talk to. Then, we just might get even smarter. Stay tuned.

Meanwhile, I’d like to make some improvements to our mechanical design, so I’ll do a posting on Reddit and see if there’s any interest. [I’ve changed my mind – this is going to wait until next year and the RC3 design, which will have a different housing – NRN] I’d like to make the physical design open source and let people customize to their hearts’ content. Since it’s 3D printed, someone could buy a controller then redesign the enclosure to look like a kitty holding a tablet, or a spaceship ascending. First, though, I need a professional-calibre mechanical engineer to check it out and suggest some ways to implement improvements I’d like to see.

The journal referred to my ‘invention’; it feels weird to me to call it that. When I was a kid I wanted to grow up to be an inventor. It seemed like a good way to make a living, no boss but yourself, play with cool scientific toys. Then I soured on inventors, maybe because they were so thoroughly ridiculed on TV. But Gordene kindly calls me an inventor, and maybe it’s time for me to take pride in that, too.

As an engineer, I always worked a job, first as an employee then as a contractor. Either way, I was expected to be there and get my work done. Now my work is never done! And I love it. As my collaborations with others grow, it becomes more fun. And what started out as a simply immodest dream is growing.

Thanks to all who have bought product, encouraged me, written reviews, and forgiven me and the controller for our inadequacies. And thanks to those adventurers who, years ago, allowed me to install pilot units in their homes!