Chapter 266 Electric Kettle and Electric Mosquito Swatter

Chapter 266 Electric Kettle and Electric Mosquito Swatter

Chapter 266 Electric Kettle and Electric Mosquito Swatter
It is naturally impossible for Honor Electronics to only produce front-end technology products, as terminal civilian products are the majority of the market.

In any industry, there are companies with suppliers and end customers. Some of the most powerful suppliers are, to a certain extent, no less powerful than the end brands in terms of scale and influence, but they are a minority.

In most cases, the products of terminal brands, which have hundreds of millions of customers, have the highest profits and the largest market size.

Similar to the automotive industry, although there are world's top 500 suppliers such as Bosch, ZF, and Denso, there is still a big gap compared with the end-end BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen, and Toyota; a few exceptions, such as puppets pushed forward by a certain industry as suppliers, are another matter.

Therefore, the most important thing for the electronics industry is to develop terminal civilian products. As a time traveler, there are many advantages in this regard in the mind, which can be of greater help to terminal civilian products.

"Please speak, Mr. Yang." Wang Zhiqun said hurriedly. He also knew that his boss was best at making inventions.

In the United States, he had heard many people praise sticky notes and trolley cases. These two inventions made life more convenient for many people.
If such operations can be repeated in the electronics field, it will inevitably change the world to a greater extent and generate huge profits, because the rise of the electronics industry itself is a process in which various new products are constantly discovered.

Yang Wendong first asked: "What do you use to boil water at home?"

"A kettle." Wang Zhiqun also immediately responded: "Mr. Yang wants to make an electric kettle?"

"Yes." Yang Wendong nodded.

The electric kettle has actually been around for a long time. It was invented by an American company in the late 19th century, so it is nothing new.

However, this thing essentially burns electricity, and there are relatively few places where electricity is expensive, because it is not as cost-effective as firewood or even gas.

Wang Zhiqun thought for a moment and said, "The structure of an electric kettle is quite simple. It just has a heating wire and it just needs to be powered on. There are manufacturers in Hong Kong who make it now."

"I know." Yang Wendong smiled and said, "But there is a problem. If the water boils, I don't know what to do?"

Wang Zhiqun replied: "Yes, it does. Early electric kettles would keep boiling, but now as soon as the water boils, there is a peculiar design at the spout. When the steam passes through it, it makes a chirping sound. If there is anyone at home, they will definitely know it."

"This is indeed a very good design." Yang Wendong nodded, and then said: "The plan is very good, but the goal is not good. Why only let the kettle make a sound instead of letting the kettle cut off the power by itself?"

People born in the 80s should have memories of early domestic electric kettles, which would chime by themselves after boiling.

It was not until the 21st century that kettles that could turn off their own power gradually appeared.

"Turn off the power yourself?" Wang Zhiqun thought for a moment and said, "This is indeed more convenient and more energy-efficient."

Yang Wendong said: "Yes, that's my idea. A system where the customer doesn't have to worry about anything. When the water boils, the power will be turned off automatically and the water will cool down automatically.
Secondly, it is safer because it will not cause a fire if the water is boiled dry.

Wang Zhiqun thought for a moment and said, "How can we achieve this?"

"What do you think?" Yang Wendong did not answer directly, but asked back.

Wang Zhiqun replied: "You can use temperature control. Once the water temperature reaches a certain level, you can turn off the power to the kettle. Or you can add a delay function so that the water boils for a while before turning off the power."

"You can do this in theory, but the cost is too high. Both the temperature monitoring and the delay control system are probably several times more expensive than the kettle itself." Yang Wendong shook his head and said, "My idea is to use steam to cut off the power, just like the chirping sound."

"Water vapor shock?" Wang Zhiqun was thinking about how to design it, but he couldn't figure it out for a long time.

Yang Wendong added: "The existing kettle cannot achieve this function. We need to change the appearance, which may be like this."

After saying that, Yang Wendong drew out the shape of a common kettle in his previous life on the paper on the table;

Although his drawing skills were very poor and he had no talent for it, he could still draw simple shapes.

"Is this handle on the side?" Wang Zhiqun also saw the function of every part in the portrait.

"Yes." Yang Wendong put down his pen and said, "Now when the kettle is pouring water, the handle is above the steam. Although there is a lid, it can still burn people sometimes.

With this structure, there won’t be any problem when pouring water.”

Wang Zhiqun looked at it for a while and said, "So this design is to use the lid on the top of the kettle to turn off the switch?"

"Not bad." Yang Wendong nodded.

We are all smart people. We naturally cannot imagine something we have never seen, but once we see it, we will roughly know its purpose.

"It's a good design. It is indeed convenient and can cut off the power by itself. It also has low cost." Wang Zhiqun was also shocked. It was such a simple design, but no one thought of it.

Yang Wendong asked again: "Look at this design, is there anything wrong with it?"

"It feels a bit small. If this thing is made bigger, it will be very inconvenient to pour water." After thinking for a while, Wang Zhiqun pointed out a possible problem.

Yang Wendong shook his head and said, "For city dwellers, they don't need such a big kettle. This small one is actually very practical. At most, they just need to boil water once more."

"In that case, I think there will be no problem." Wang Zhiqun added: "I will ask the engineers to design it based on this."

Yang Wendong continued, "Okay, I have a second product that I need you to design." "What product?" Wang Zhiqun asked curiously.

Yang Wendong asked with a smile: "How do you deal with mosquitoes in summer?"

"Mosquitoes?" Wang Zhiqun was puzzled and said, "Usually, we light mosquito coils or seal the room and spray mosquito repellent."

"That's fine, but what if you're outdoors? Or if you see a mosquito, what should you do?" Yang Wendong asked again.

Mosquito coils and mosquito repellents have been available in this era, but they are not cheap. There are some folk remedies, but they can easily cause fires.

When he first traveled to the shantytown, Yang Wendong could only endure being bitten by mosquitoes for a while. However, life was hard at the time, so he didn't care about contributing a little blood to the mosquitoes.

Later, when his business became prosperous, he naturally used conventional methods to kill mosquitoes. However, even if he was the richest man in the world, he could not escape the troubles of mosquitoes and would occasionally be bitten by them.

Wang Zhiqun said: "If you are outdoors, you can only shoot with your hands."

"Yes, I also used my hands to take pictures." Yang Wendong nodded and said, "But don't you think that using your hands to take pictures is too inefficient? It also requires hand-eye coordination, and most of the time, you can't take pictures correctly?"

"Yes, I often fail to take the photo." Wang Zhiqun paused and asked, "Is the second product Mr. Yang mentioned used to kill mosquitoes?"

“Yes,” Yang Wendong said, “We look at the issue of swatting mosquitoes from two directions;

First, the area of ​​the hand is limited, so I have to make something similar to a badminton racket with a large enough area so that when people see a mosquito, they can hit it quickly.

The second question, I think you should have guessed it?"

"I guessed it." Wang Zhiqun frowned and said, "It's easy to hit a mosquito with something the size of a badminton racket, but how do you kill it? You can't just rely on the force of impact, right? Or two boards colliding? It doesn't seem to work either."

"That's right." Yang Wendong reminded him again: "Don't forget, I'm planning to make electronic products. Swatting mosquitoes doesn't require electricity, so what do you mean by requiring electricity?"

"Use electricity to kill mosquitoes?" Wang Zhiqun suddenly felt enlightened.

A badminton racket with electrified front end can easily kill mosquitoes with a high probability of hitting them.

"To be precise, it is high voltage electricity." Yang Wendong continued, "I am going to name this thing an electric mosquito swatter, but there is a technical problem that I don't quite understand. The power source of this product must be ordinary batteries. So, can we convert the electricity from ordinary batteries into high voltage electricity?"

He had the idea of ​​the electric mosquito swatter as early as 58. After making his first fortune by selling mouse traps, he considered many small things, and the electric mosquito swatter was one of them.

But considering the research and development of this kind of thing, there will be many difficulties. It's not just the electrical problem, but also the control unit, the upper grid, the plastic handle, the plastic body, etc. on the electric mosquito swatter.

Each one requires a lot of money to make molds, design, and test, and there may even be safety risks. This was too much work for him who only had a few tens of thousands of Hong Kong dollars at the time.

Later, the Post-it Note was invented, but due to insufficient production capacity, the idea was frozen. Until today, when the foundation of Hong Kong's electronics industry was gradually taking shape, he picked up the idea again.

The electric mosquito swatter may not become a global hit product, but it is enough for Honor Electronics to fire the first shot, and that is enough.

"This is not difficult. Many remote ignition devices also convert low voltage into high voltage electricity." Wang Zhiqun analyzed, "But this kind of technology on the market is generally short-term instantaneous high voltage.

What we need to do is similar to the high-voltage power grid, ensuring that there is electricity for a long time, which may consume the battery faster. "

"Let's make it first." Yang Wendong nodded and said, "Battery power consumption is indeed a problem, but we can use rechargeable batteries, but the cost will be higher;

But we can set a higher price in the early stage. We still have a certain pricing power for new products, and we don’t have any competitors.”

The batteries of this era are very expensive, and their power capacity is far less than that of batteries in previous generations. If they are replaced every day, there will not be much of a market for any product.

Fortunately, we already have rechargeable batteries, which at least provide a backup plan; of course, rechargeable batteries are more expensive, but the more they can be reused, the more cost-effective it is.

What is different from the electric kettle is that this thing is a creative product. Although there may be many piracy problems, at least it can only be produced by ourselves.

"Okay." Wang Zhiqun added, "Both of these products have very simple electronic structures and can be developed in Hong Kong. It's just that some of the external molds may take some time to make."

Yang Wendong said: "I will ask the purchasing department of Changxing Industrial to cooperate with you in this matter. They have enough suppliers, whether it is plastic parts or metal parts."

"That's great." Wang Zhiqun said with a smile, "This way we can get twice the result with half the effort."

Yang Wendong added: "Then make these two simple products as soon as possible."

In his mind, there are still many more creative small appliances;
But most of these electrical appliances have some technical content. Perhaps in the mainland in the past, some of these things could be made in any small factory, but this is absolutely impossible in Hong Kong today.

One is that the technology in this era is not good enough; the second is that Hong Kong is seriously lacking in electronic talents; and the third is that Hong Kong does not have an industrial chain.

Therefore, the first step of the electronics industry is to make simple products with some creativity, open up the market, obtain capital flow feedback, and then slowly discover or cultivate talents to enter the next R&D cycle.
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(End of this chapter)