Nancy’s Blog

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!

With the new tariffs on Chinese imports to the US, the cost of Roadrunner Comfort’s electronics just jumped by a factor of 3. Fortunately we have enough inventory in stock to carry us through modest sales this summer. But if these tariffs were to remain at current levels, our price next year would have to jump to around $349 instead of the current $249 price. Of course, we will look at domestic electronics production. We would prefer to produce the electronics locally, or at least in the US Southwest, but prior inquiries indicated this would be prohibitively expensive. But, if things don’t change, either people will end up paying a lot more for the Roadrunner Comfort, or we’ll go out of business.

The silver lining in all this is that the tariffs could work to stop the flow of fentanyl into our country from China. If it costs us our business to make that happen, it may well be worth it.