To a growing number of people, reading an analog clock is becomming more difficult. In any given population, only a certain percent of them will be able to program a VCR.
The issue isn't reaching out to a broader audience, per se', but being able to indentify a large enough audience to make it worth while. I like Einstein's quote: "It should be as simple as possible, and no simpler."
Hopefully the person building the robot knows enough to think for themselves, hense the part in the above quote: "... and no simpler."
Again, on the site: "a little skill, and some good old fashioned scrounging." should speak volumes.
You can't make a product aimed at everyone unless it does nothing. A pet rock for instance, has a very broad appeal. As you add specifying features, you narrow your market. It just so happens that the hobby market is pretty specific to people who like to build things.
Out of 1000 people interested in building a robot themselves, how many do you think would have a problem building something out of angle aluminum and toy car wheels? If you say 10, that's 1% and not a problem. If you say 100, that's 10% and still not a real problem. If you say 350, that's 35% and still not a problem. If you say 800, then that's 80% not a problem if the overall population of the set is a few million.
You can't market to everyone, you have to identify your audience.
That is a choice people will make.
I do, and I'll tell you why. You and I could probabely build the equivilent device for a similar amount of money. That is a bad starting point for a consumer item. When you deliver a product to consumers, it should be something better than they can build for themselves and far cheaper.
Do you have *any* idea of what it would cost your or I to hand wirewrap a PC motherboard? Buying a PC motherboard is a no brainer because the economies of scale have made it much cheaper.
The whitebox robot offers no real advantage for the experimenter. It may save some time, but it doesn't save any real money, and to the hobbiest, it isn't "thiers." Don't underestimate that hobbiests want the pride of accomplishment.
True, but an easly remedied sort of thing for a hobbiest. One of the things I want to stress on the web site is that this is a minimalist sort of thing and that the builders should feel free to improve at will.
"Most" of whom?
Have you ever watched cooking shows or automotive shows? There is an expectation of a certain level of pre-existing criteria. The $500 dollar robot is just such a project.
Again, "This old house" assumes you own the tools, doesn't it?
and my $500 robot is an ideal, a target. When I've found and identified all the peices that bring it in under $500 then I'm done. Does that mean you wouldn't want to make it better? Does that mean it is not a good source for code and techniques?
It isn't so much a "Build *this* robot" as it is "build *your* robot" project.