Puppet Show and Electronics!

Off late working with start-ups is full of surprises. I am sharing my experience of designing a novel puppet show design by an entrepreneur who is so creative and I changed my usual way of working and became his design engineer!

The entrepreneur is an expert mime artist, who has developed an absolutely low-cost portable puppet show system. Due to the IP issues, I am not detailing the system. This guy, a relative of my close friend and colleague, reached out to me showing me the prototype that he showed was so simple and stunning, the kid in me started thinking about where it can be used.

The prototype used a simple lighting system based on cheap Torch Light, which restricts the time it can be on and installation. So he reached out to me basically to make it usable for large-volume manufacturing.

The system was based on low-cost martial (no details due to IP!) and the challenge we have to design a lighting system which is very low cost and easily available.

The torch that was used was cheap, it was proving the design but can't be used for 2 hour show. That is where the challenge is. Initially, I got distracted by the lens in the torch but as we started experimenting (this guy used to spend time with me in my lab trying to figure out what to do!)

As we progressed we realised the design can be simplified and just a LED with a good battery back will do the job. Then the next challenge was the battery system. The first version we tried was a kludge and this guy managed to get a huge order for this system. So the pressure was on us to find a workable battery

I was trying to get a system that will have electronics+Battery and also the features he wanted like the right intensity and switch to power on and off. Above all charging mechanism. So I finally found a unit meeting the exact unit and the unit was costing a lot. We tried with that unit and that is working. When I looked at the electronics I found I we design an equivalent design in India will cost the same and getting the unit from China looked like an easy option. We di find a vendor who was giving us a good price.

Here is where my personality got into dual mode. As a product designer, I was against importing and using it in the design. But if this unit reaches the kids for playing I see;

1. They will stop playing with their mobiles
2. Their creativity will grow and they can build and tell stories fulfilling their imagination and creativity
3. Above they will be rooted back to the Indian Way of storytelling

So I decided and told him we will go with the imported one for the first time going against my engineer mode as the impact will be better on the next generation.

In fact, I went through a split issue when I have to design a Power Supply for EV Motor controllers. I could get a Chinese module for 50 Cents but If I want to design it the IC alone is 3.5 USD. So I was forced to use the Chinese module. This made me think that there is something that we don't know is making these modules cheap and I understand that these components are heavily subsidized. Maybe the time has come for GoI to look at this model to encourage Indian companies to do the same!

Let me what you feel!

PS: When the product is launched I Will share a video for you all to see how creative is this!