Innovation! I seek advice please!

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delmag
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Innovation! I seek advice please!

Post by delmag »

Hello all Gurus of things electronic. For a short moment in time, I belive that I may be onto an idea that, based on my "man on the street research", would find broad appeal in an inncrediblly(or cediblly) large industry, and extensive practical application for the average Guy. Based on my understanding of the electronics industry, all items needed for this device are inexpensive and exist as currently manufactured sub-assem's. It aint' no invention, but if packaged right and marketed properly, this simple system would sell repeatedly to every customer. My business needs several right now. An aquaintance in my Ind. would need hundreds, and people like us probably account for +10% of the working public.
I hope I dont sound like I'm off the deep end, but I need advice from those familliar with interfacing with manufacturers, COPYRIGHTING, I DONT THINK IT IS PATENTABLE. and marketing. and every other dang thing that I might get myself neck deep in. Thankyou!
cato
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Re: Innovation! I seek advice please!

Post by cato »

Every invention is a collection of parts that already exist. If the parts have never been assembled the way you want to assemble them, and you seem to think thats the case, it probably IS patentable. <p>Go here http://patft.uspto.gov/netahtml/search-bool.html (by the way, the server seems to be down at the moment, but I'm sure the link will be working by Monday) and do a QUICK Search using a combination of words that would be included in a description of your gadget (and preferably only in a description of your gadget) to see what similar devices have been Patented.<p>You can copyright any software you write, but I don't think you can copyright an assembly of parts.<p>[ October 04, 2003: Message edited by: cato ]<p>[ October 04, 2003: Message edited by: cato ]<p>[ October 04, 2003: Message edited by: cato ]<p>[ October 04, 2003: Message edited by: cato ]<p>[ October 04, 2003: Message edited by: cato ]</p>
cato
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Re: Innovation! I seek advice please!

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You should also be aware that your "Market Research" (any public use or disclosure of the Invention) may have started a 1 Year clock that might preclude you from getting a Patent. So get something filed before the 1 year anniversary of any discussions you may have had with others. Public disclosures may have already prevented you from getting patents in some foreign countries<p>[ October 04, 2003: Message edited by: cato ]<p>[ October 04, 2003: Message edited by: cato ]</p>
delmag
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Re: Innovation! I seek advice please!

Post by delmag »

Thankyou CATO! You seem very astute! I am curently reading "In the trenches" from Feb. 03 issue of N&Volts By the way, every little thing needed to make this work is in that issue, I'm sure! I drive piling for a living,( it's not rocket science... it's ROCK science!) Anyway... I have lots of practice building assemblies that must withstand the best efforts of Pilebucks wielding monsterously large destructive, dirty and dangerous tools, to DESTROY.
I would love to create a dynamic energy monitor that would measure the total energy imparted upon a pile during the process of installation.
It would be fixtured on the pile and measure the acceleration imparted by the hammer, distance traveled, and cumulatively assess the total kips or foot pounds of energy invested in the instalation. A fun project that I could use to WOW the engineers who always worry about those things. But the REAL opportunity is this device that I may be able to kitbash, but... I am a little technically challenged, (if I can't adjust it with a twenty pound sledge hammer, It may be to delicate for me!)
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Joseph
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Re: Innovation! I seek advice please!

Post by Joseph »

Hello, pile driving is an interesting process to do. There may be quite few inaccessble variables which may throw off the calculations you desire, like for example, the hardness and solidness of the ground under the pole.
delmag
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Re: Innovation! I seek advice please!

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Joseph: The common system for installation measurements relies on a device called a Saximeter. I depends on audio measurement of the time interval beetween hammer strikes.
The knowns must be: type of hammer, piston weight, throttle setting, weight of driven element, and miscellaneous inefficiencies.
This data is gathered along with blows per foot visual counts and tossed into the witches brew called WAVE EQUASION, Voila!
I think it would be fun to try using an accelerometer attached to the pile that could measure the acc/dec and time interval. Adding weight of pile to log total installed energy to a measured depth.
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Joseph
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Re: Innovation! I seek advice please!

Post by Joseph »

Ahh, it does make sense that the algorithim could be able to infer the needed information. The magnitude of the acc/dec along with the time intervals ivolved could be used to calculate the depth gained. Good that it seems that I didn't throw you off.
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