“I read how you intend to discontinue the relay on the OPSi board. It sounded like primarily a cost decision”
Well, it’s partly to save cost, but the primary reason is that very few people make use of the relay, so we don’t want to keep an expensive feature that few people use. Also we are in the process of developing a standalone open-source garage door opener, so I hope not to keep overlapping features between different products.
I appreciate your suggestions, but honestly the lessons we learned from a business point of view is that it’s better to not offer a variety of versions of the same product. The reason is that keeping different versions make it harder for users to choose, and it’s difficult to predict demand and expected inventory of each version so it’s harder to remain profitable. Already we’ve been getting questions all the time about the difference between OpenSprinkler, OSPi and OSBo, and creating further divisions in OSPi will just make the situations worse. Someone with hacking skills can always create a customized, hackable version themselves, and enjoy the making process. For us, it’s a big investment to make a entirely new version, with new enclosure, and without knowing the size of the market in the first place. Hope this makes sense.