I waited for 2 years for someone to start manufacturing it and selling it online, until I finally gave up and asked PCBWay to build it for me. It's too small to solder by myself. The boards actually work and I'm really excited! I'll write a blog post about it soon. I bought 3 units for personal use.
Now I've had 7 people ask me to put them on eBay/Tindie/CrowdSupply and start selling them. It would be really easy for me to just order 50-100 units from PCBWay, solder programming wires onto test points, install the firmware myself, and ship them on to people. I'm willing to do that for zero profit, but I'd have to take revenue to pay for postage.
The problem is that the Esp8285 is a WiFi chip, and that's an "intentional radiator" that needs $10,000 FCC certification [2]. There is an FCC exception for "home-built devices" in quantities of 5 or fewer. [3] To sell in Europe, they need a CE certification, with different rules and more expense.
The people who want to buy these just want a simple "buy" button, not a complicated manufacturing process.
My questions are:
a. How do I not get sued? If I start a limited liability company, does that protect me?
b. If I sell a "firmware-programming service" so that I'm not actually selling the devices, per se, is that any less illegal?
c. What about tax? Everything gets so complicated when money is involved.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPBzOaLbWhM
[2] https://www.sparkfun.com/tutorials/398
[3] https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CFR-2010-title47-vol1/pdf/CFR-2010-title47-vol1-sec15-23.pdf
The Esp8285 shares a website, which can be reprogrammed without soldering onto test points. However, the first-time firmware installation must be done over serial, which needs a soldering iron and 3.3V USB-serial adaptor.
I think there's a world market for maybe 1000 of these devices, selling to geeks like us; not enough to justify starting a company selling these to consumers.
Please also email me if you're interested in buying the EspUSB Tiny - I will be placing another order by the end of the year, whatever method I use to sell them, and I need to know roughly how many to ask them to build. Also if you're a salesman who wants to make a quick buck marketing and reselling these, I'd be very happy to let you handle the business side while I do your manufacturing.
Why am I doing it for free? Basically because I think it will look good on my résumé, and I want to start a career in hardware (I studied electronic engineering, but now I have a job writing software for a small startup). If it goes really well though, I'd like to do the same for other gadgets of my own design (e.g. a very small adaptor from miniHDMI on the RPi Zero to HDMI female - a 1.6mm PCB fits perfectly inside an HDMI plug). If it goes badly and I get scared off by regulators and sued, then I'll probably give up and stay in software.