It’s not due any time soon, but rather in 2026, so there’s no reason to wait and buy the classic version as soon as it’s available.
Fake photo of the “Medieval” machine
On the electronics front, I’ve received some boards from PCBWay (the first ones were made by Philippe himself) and they work… badly.
Well, if Paul uses them, they work, but if I use them, they resist.
We’ve solved the problem: they’re all moving to Paul’s house.
The “high definition” model is now alive and ready ready to face thehe spotlights.
All that remains is to film a demonstration for television (Facebook channel).
Finally, some very good news on the industrialization and production front: I’ve found the right partner.
The only hitch: he’s in Normandy.
So I won’t be able to use the“Produit en Bretagne” logo, but at least the machine will be“Made in France“.
Other machines
The LEGO machine is coming along nicely.
We’re going to try and finish it next Saturday with Loïc, and we’re waiting for quotes for the bricks.
If all goes to plan, it could be ready for Christmas, and we’ll be announcing the news during Maker Faire Lille on October 19, 2024.
As for Maker Faire, don’t forget to come and see the giant machine François-Xavier and I are building – especially François-Xavier, who thinks big (visit his exhibition at Espace Art et Liberté inCharenton-Le-Pont from September 26).
The knob (20cm diameter) of the giant machine.
As for the cardboard machine, I informed buyers that I was reserving this version for the workshops I organize with young and old alike.
I offered to send them the LEGO version instead (or refund their money, of course).
ONE-MILLION-DOLLARS
At first I thought I’d launch the project quietly, as I did with the MiniMit or the TagTagTag kits, but seeing such positive and enthusiastic feedback, I figured the machine could become a success ( 🇫🇷!) and decided to aim high: reach the million 💰 on Kickstarter.
So I imitated Léon Marchand: I decided to go and train in the United States, and a few weeks ago I joined the Launchboom gas pedal. Launchboom.
It’s another world, folks.
Here are a few of my colleagues’ projects (the beach towel with phone pocket is not a huge success).
My life is now punctuated by “Office Hours”, a sort of discussion where everyone presents their current issues (usually the cost of acquisition).
These discussions take place in the evening, as Launchboom lives in San Diego.
For the moment, I don’t have any issues, so I stay at the back of the room and listen.
Next step: launch the “pre-launch”, which consists of testing the “audience/messages/visuals” mix using Meta ads and a $1 booking page in exchange for a substantial discount on the final price.
Do you follow?
We have to hurry because this year there’s an election (November 9, I checked), which is driving up the price of Meta ads.
I had considered launching the Machine before Christmas, but given my unreasonable ambitions ($1M), it seems more appropriate to wait until January, when people will have “Recover From Christmas Gifts” (verbatim).
The period after Thanksgiving is not very conducive to deferred purchases.
A new financing model?
While I can finance the design and industrialization, I had no idea I would need to invest so much in marketing.
The question is how to raise these funds, bearing in mind that we need to move fast and that our needs are not huge (we need to finance pre-launch marketing expenses and the launch of the Kickstarter campaign).
I first thought of the classic “Tech” model, i.e. an investment in exchange for capital (with a current account contribution rather than a capital increase) and I already have an investor (Thanks Bertrand!).
My friend Michel also suggested that I take inspiration from film financing, i.e. a model where producers receive a share of the “receipts” (and are credited in the credits!) in exchange for an investment.
I’m not aware of any technology projects financed in this way, but they may exist.
For those of you just arriving, the first episode on the history of the ultimate machine is here, the second on the makers is here and the third, which tells the whole story, is here.
The Machine
Did you know that there’s a town called“La Machine“?
It’s in the Nièvre region and owes its name to a machine called the baritel, which they used in the past to extract coal.
Its inhabitants are called Machinois and Machinoises.
Soundtrack
“I bought myself a machine A machine that doesn’t make anything A 10-cent gadget No doubt I needed it.”
You’ll remember that it still needed to be tested, but now it’s done: it works very well.
Thank you Philippe, thank you Paul!
All that remains is to make a few for those who have ordered a Paper-toy, and to offer it in two other formats: for the “Classic” edition and for the “Lego” edition.
M.a.r.k.e.t.i.n.g.
I constantly have, supposedly, more important things to do than concentrate on subjects such as positioning, targets, visual communication, slogans, sales strategy or advertising budget…
But I take care of myself.
Rather than go it alone and pretend to reinvent marketing, I decided to do things “by the book”, as the Americans say.
And I chose this book.
So now, watch out!
The serious business begins.
We’re on the fast track to success and fortune (provided we follow the book’s method, of course).
Positioning and targets (👈 that’s you)
“Product imagery (it’s better in English)
Texts and slogans
Testing different Facebook and Instagram ads
1€ pre-booking tunnel
Launch
You see, I’ve learned my lesson.
For example, here’s a first example of an advertisement (thanks Séverine for the texts and slogans).
As for the visuals, i.e. the product photos, the photos of the product in situation and the video, I was waiting to receive the mock-up produced by MPA-Proto.
Here it is.
I have no excuse now.
That’s all for today, but before you head back to the beach, I’d like to take two minutes of your time to find out your target profile.
I’m a bit ashamed to call you that, but in the marketing world that’s what we call our friends!
For those of you just arriving, the first episode on the history of the ultimate machine is here, and the second on makers is here.
January
So I started working on it in January 2024.
In the dreariness.
The vague aim was to build a prototype that would demonstrate the living side of the machine, but with a different, unusual shape.
Sunday mechanic
As for the mechanics, there’s no shortage of 3D files.
I drew on them to understand the mechanism.
It’s pretty straightforward, you may say, but mechanics isn’t my strong point: during my engineering studies, I remember having to study the plans for a mixer tap for two hours without being able to figure out where the hot water went (on the other hand, I did get ink stains all over the place with my Rotring).
So I fired up the Prusa again and, on January 12, decided to do something I never do: take an online course on Autodesk Fusion.
Up until then, I’d been using TinkerCad, but now I felt I had to step up a gear.
So I spent about fifteen hours listening to and watching a guy called Nicolasexplainthe various functions of Fusion.
The first results weren’t great, but at least I had some idea of how it was all going to work.
And I decided to use just one motor, whereas many boxes have two: one to lift the lid and the other to push back the switch.
Initial tests showed me that it was possible to do both with a single motor, while retaining the possibility of creating a language with the opening movements (the living side).
A first attempt at a… strange shape
To escape the traditional box shape, I designed a first prototype that looked, how shall I say… nondescript.
I think I’d just figured out how to make revolutionary objects with Fusion.
I painted it yellow, and the arm pink, because there was enough gray outside.
You can see it all in this video.
The first problem with this prototype was that the scotch tape holding the lid inevitably provoked the remark “that’s nice, but are you going to keep the scotch there?”.
A second problem arose from the fact that the wires coming out of the box inevitably provoked the remark “but are there going to be all those wires there?”.
Ah, and I’d also started work on a cardboard version, with an idea in the back of my mind.
February
First job: the electronics (the monster)
Following the yellow prototype, it was time to integrate the electronics into the box.
I used boards that already contained the components, breakboards that we connected as best we could with small cables, making immoderate use of the glue gun, all the while praying that it would work.
Second project: the first prototype
The next step was to make a real box, with a real lid guaranteed to be tapeless, and which would integrate the electronics, motor, switch and arm.
I opted for brass hinges and tried out some skeuomorphic-inspired sounds – a track later abandoned, but by then I was so happy!
You can see it all in action in this video.
March
This first version was “good enough”, as we say in the Yonne, but using brass hinges screwed on and then glued with pistocolle didn’t strike me as an elegant solution.
After watching dozens and dozens of tutorials, I finally designed a hinge without brass or glue, in pure plastic.
Victory!
I’ve also reworked the circuit board, transforming it from a magma of wires into a somewhat clean card.
It’s very easy to do (I use EasyEDA) and very inexpensive to have made.
On this board, you’ll find an rp2040 board, an audio amp, a board that converts the battery’s 3.7V to 5V and a board that charges the battery.
The whole thing works well enough for a prototype (i.e. badly).
Here’s what it looks like.
It’s better, isn’t it?
In any case, all these efforts have finally resulted in a first prototype that can be shown.
This was immediately followed by another, slightly smaller prototype that would fit the bill perfectly.
I was finally able to put all my ideas together in a first video, modestly named“Concepts“.
I had made another video with other sound tests, which you can see here.
My lover then suggested a name for the useless box: la machine.
I immediately finalized the logo (well, I found a suitable font for it), registered the trademark “la machine” (since refused) and bought the domain name la-machine.fr.
I’ve also had some badges made.
If you’re interested, I’m offering some to the first 20 who let me know!
April
Elium Studio
Elium Studio is a product design agency: it designs Withings products, Freeboxes, subway displays, McDonald’s utensils and a host of other things.
I’ve known Pierre Garner for a long time.
I wanted Elium to work on the design of the box.
After consulting his team, Pierre agreed to the project, and in mid-April, I rang them up for the brief.
The workshops
Remember the cardboard prototype?
I had an idea: to use it for workshops with children.
Every year, I run a workshop at the Arbalète school in Paris (with my son Armand), during which the children build a small electronic object that they can take home.
Last year, it was a little robot made of plastic cups, which lit up and turned its head when touched.
This year, they made a useless box.
Thispaper version had to be designed more seriously.
Fortunately, I was familiar with the world of paper toys, since I’d already made (with Marc) cardboard objects with electronics inside.
It was called reaDIYmate.
We had to make an electronic board, buy the equipment, bring out the Cricut to cut out the cardboard and test the assembly to make sure it could be done in 3 hours. The result: the kids were able to take their useless box home and, for the nerdiest among them (or their brothers, sisters or parents), reprogram it.
A second opportunity also arose in a kindergarten class where the poetess Séverine Daucourt was in residence.
The children composed poems which they said aloud, and the recordings were put “in the box”, so that they could be heard again and again.
At the end of April, I had lunch (as I often do) with my friend Paul Guyot.
For those who don’t know him, he was the CTO of Violet, the company linked to the Nabaztag.
He’s done lots of things since then, but it was he who in 2019 wrote the iconic Nabaztag services in Python for the kit TagTagTag.
I showed him the prototype and he offered to help me with the software, which, although it looked simple, needed to be approached professionally.
I had gone for a well-known microcontroller (the rp2040), but it consumes a lot of power when it sleeps.
It snores a lot, so to speak.
And power consumption is an important issue for the box – I doubt people think about recharging their machine every night.
Autonomy is a matter of months.
So Paul suggested that I get another processor (an ESP32 C3 for the experts), which has the advantage of consuming very little power when it’s not doing anything.
The rp2040 is English, the C3 is Chinese.
I don’t know what to make of it.
He’s also encouraged me to use Erlang, but that’s something he recommends for every new project. Erlang is a functional language, close to LISP.
LISP was used by AI pioneers such as Marvin Minsky, inventor of the useless box.
Do you follow?
So, we’re off to Erlang, now all I (and you) have to do is learn it.
Paul has also offered to give a lecture on the machine at the Erlang festival in Berlin in October.
If you’re in Berlin on October 20, 2024, come and listen to Paul: the name of the talk is “La Machine: The Useless Box reloaded with Erlang and AtomVM“.
May
Part of May was spent shipping TagTagTag cards from the 2024 production batch.
Nothing to do with the machine, although sometimes I feel like I’m making a Nabaztag of sorts again: it’s useless, it plays sounds and there’s something moving.
Friends
I still had time to finalize the appeal to friends of the machine: a video and a first website made with the means at hand, which took me an infinite amount of time.
By contacting people interested in the Nabaztag, Minimit and Multiplié, I quickly had 300 friends. Maybe including you.
Interesting
I went to London to attend Russell Davis’ fabulous (vaguely annual) Interesting conference.
I took the opportunity to seeEnzo Mari ‘s exhibitionat the Design Museum and visit a few stores to spot what useless electronic gizmos were occupying the market.
At Selfridges, I found these Bluetooth speakers with a few keyboard keys and a mini-screen, all for £129.95.
I thought, with the machine, I might have a chance.
Electronics (seriously)
It was time to get down to business with the electronics.
That’s where Philippe Debadier came in.
Philippe Debadier is the engineer who designed the Nabaztag’s electronics long ago, and hundreds of other electronic boards since.
He agreed to help me and designed the one for the machine.
The schematic, the routing (routing means going from a theoretical electrical diagram to a real-life board) and the prototypes are complete.
Still to be tested.
Thanks Philippe!
June
Elium Studio (again)
On June 17, I had an appointment with Elium for a presentation of the initial work.
I’m not going to show you every track.
You might prefer others, and now is not the time for doubts.
The design is inspired by Memphis.
Not Memphis Tennessee, but the Memphis movement.
The Memphis group was founded in the 1980s around the Italian designer Ettore Sottsass (there’s a podcast about him here).
It’s a happy coincidence because two years ago, I saw the exhibition devoted to him at the Centre Georges Pompidou and bought the catalog entitled “L’objet Magique“.
Here’s a sneak preview of the machine’s design and possible variations.
Elium also produced a working prototype using the electronics from my second prototype.
A video can be seen here (it’s a prototype without a battery, for those of you bothered by the USB cable).
We’re now entering the industrialization phase, which involves finding a manufacturer and working out all the details of how to attach the components to the inside of the box (you don’t want to know how it fits, do you?).
As always, there’s the question of where to make them.
For the moment, we’re talking to a Norman manufacturer (even though I’m from Brittany) and a Chinese manufacturer (even though I’m from Brittany).
The site (seriously)
May also saw the start of work on the site, the real one – not the friends’ – by Pascale Moise, who, among other things, is the author of Minimit, but who is above all a site developer.
She came up with the idea of a site that opens when you press a button.
Paper toy edition
Following the various workshops mentioned above, I refined the cardboard version of the machine to make a very limited series (no more than a dozen objects, hand-crafted) for those who want to have fun right away, but above all to test out the various choreographies of movement and sound to be devised over the coming months.
It’s a do-it-yourself version, based on the same electronic architecture as the final version (but without the battery), and I imagine it will sell for around €100, with a 50% discount on the final version of the machine when it becomes available.
If you’d like to know more, or if you’re interested, drop me a line!
Here’s the kit and what the cardboard machine looks like (it could become a collector’s item, who knows!).
And Lego?
Until now, Loïc has been busy finishing his Master’s degree (that’s done), and in June he began the first trials of the Lego version.
We spent an afternoon working out how to integrate the motor, arm and switch, which will be done using specific 3D-printed parts.
There will be around 300 parts in the kit, including of course the electronics, motor, loudspeaker, battery and… the switch.
Maker Faire
With my friend François Xavier Faucher (FXF), whom many of you know from the fabulous Toyfab blog, we decided to take a stand at Maker Faire Lille and make a giant useless box.
It’s the weekend of November 19/20, and it’s in Lille.
Come one, come all!
Here’s a first idea from FXF.
He knows how to do things in a big way.
Next
Now that the electronics are complete, the software already has its Github repository (all the code will be open-source), the website is well underway and the design is set, two very big issues remain: machine behavior and financing.
Behaviors
Paul has developed a behavioral description language involving arm choreography and sound sequence launch, but I haven’t had time to work on that yet.
I need to have a clearer idea, if only of the artistic direction.
At the moment, I’m wavering between the moo box and IRCAM: I think I’m going to have to tighten things up a bit.
There’s a lot of work to be done, because each machine is unique: the idea is to have enough sounds and behaviors so that, at the time of manufacture, we can draw a few hundred at random for each box.
So we have to find a way of creating thousands of movements and sounds.
This is what I’d like to test with the “Paper toy” edition.
Production financing (a.k.a. Money)
There are two types of cost in the production of electronic objects: investment costs, known in the jargon as NRE (Non Recurring Expenses), and unit costs linked to the manufacture of each machine.
In the case of electronic board manufacture, there is very little investment to be made; on the other hand, in the case of plastic parts, if injection methods are used, molds have to be made, the cost of which depends on the design.
And the cube design requires more complex tooling than the average.
So there are two options: finance the production myself, or sell pre-sales to cover investment and production costs.
For a long time, I thought I could release the product by self-financing the project, as I did with the MiniMit.
Marketing would have been really simplified: you buy it and receive it straight away.
But when I calculated the investment needed to produce the machine, I realized that it wouldn’t be possible (you always need a little blindness to get started).
Unless a friend here wants to invest or help out, I’m going to go for a pre-sales system via a participatory funding campaign (Kickstarter a priori).
I’m pretty familiar with these systems andthiswill bemysixth campaign!
A crowdfunding campaign means going from 400 friends to 5,000! The key to success is to reach your goal on the very first day, otherwise you’ll get bogged down pretty quickly, and you’ll have to pull out all the stops, which will be a real pain for everyone involved.
How do you go from 400 to 5000 friends? Well, that’s the 1,000 franc question, and if there are any digital marketing experts out there, I’d love to give you a call and have a chat, because if mechanics aren’t my forte, neither is marketing!
☀️
Thank you all for reading this far!
Let me know if you’d like a badge, if you’re interested in paper toys, and don’t hesitate to help me expand our community!
After the commercial versions, it’s time for the “indie” versions: there are dozens of different versions of the machine created in their own corners by makers from all over the world.
Here’s a selection.
If you can’t find your favorite machine, feel free to add it to the Discord.
A very agitated version (the third version)
Inspired by Hal 9000 (I don’t understand why it’s in a gym, though)
A classic version (still available buy a few)Halloween versionLots of means of expression in this one (a bit like the first)An “ultimate” version of the first version in LegoHe’s not so much a maker as an artist.Don’t be afraid to go overboard.Nuclear power plant control panel version
🎓 A Silly & Useless Machines course 🎓
You’ve watched all the videos and still want more?
Yes !
In particular: I’m waiting for a first version of the industrialized electronics, the first design tracks are out (!!!) and the software developed by Paul (in Erlang) is already running on the Paper-Toy version.
I wonder if I won’t be planning a livestream to showcase it all.
To be continued!
That’s it!
That’s all for today.
We’ll see you back here or at the coffee machine.
If you know anyone who might be interested in the machine, don’t hesitate to pass on the address(la-machine.fr) or post it on your social networks (favorites). Thank you!
The machine was invented by one of the pioneers of artificial intelligence: Marvin Minsky.
He recounts in a video that he was an intern at Bell Labs in the summer of 1952, working hard to invent “new gadgets”. Among them, what he called the ultimate machine.
One day Arthur C. Clarke, the science fiction writer who, among other things, wrote the screenplay for 2001: A Space Odyssey (Marvin Minsky was also one of Kubrick’s advisors, by the way), saw the machine in Shannon’s office and wrote the following:
“Nothing could be simpler. It is merely a small wooden casket, the size and shape of a cigar box, with a single switch on one face. When you throw the switch, there is an angry, purposeful buzzing. The lid slowly rises, and from beneath it emerges a hand. The hand reaches down, turns the switch off and retreats into the box. With the finality of a closing coffin, the lid snaps shut, the buzzing ceases and peace reigns once more. The psychological effect, if you do not know what to expect, is devastating. There is something unspeakably sinister about a machine that does nothing – absolutely nothing – except switch itself off.”
If we want to stay with the celebrities who have talked about the machine: the philosopher Ivan Illich(whose principle of counter-productivity is very interesting) talks about it in his book Deschooling Society: he compares our society to the machine, no less.
“Our society resembles the ultimate machine which I once saw in a New York toy shop. It was a metal casket which, when you touched a switch, snapped open to reveal a mechanical hand. Chromed fingers reached out for the lid, pulled it down, and locked it from the inside. It was a box; you expected to be able to take something out of it; yet all it contained was a mechanism for closing the cover. This contraption is the opposite of Pandora’s box.”
And then, we can end the name dropping with this episode of the Fargo series in which Gloria finds a strange box.
All right, then.
But did anyone think this was a good business idea?
What the internet tells us is that there were at least two attempts at commercialization in the 1960s.
I don’t know if this little box was very successful, because pretty soon he moved on to the money-making version: the one seen in The Prisoner, episode “The General”.
In 2024, all you have to do is type “useless box” into your search engine, and you’ll easily come across the various versions available from a distributor simply called“Useless Box Store“, which doesn’t skimp on marketing to promote its benefits!
here’s also a Sri Lankan company, Robotszu, which markets some pretty spectacular versions!
Including this one!
But above all, the machine has been the subject of hundreds of variations by the “makers” community.
And there are some real nuggets out there.
See you soon!
☕️ Le café du commerce ☕️
There’s the newsletter, but there’s also the café du commerce, a place where you can chat, see and talk to each other if you need to.
It’s a Discord server.
You’ll find the invitation link below.
