The Top 10 Crowd Funded Projects People Have Been Duped By?

[EEVblog]

As the title says...
What (tech only I guess?) projects should be on the list.
i.e. ones that actually made their target (or used flexible funding) and really has no chance in hell of working as claimed or being delivered?, so people got duped.
Solar Roadways probably has to make the #1 spot

[MLXXXp]

Mµ Thermal Imager
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/mu-thermal-camera-a-great-tool-to-save-on-energy-costs

Soap router
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/soaprouter/soap-first-smart-router-w-touch-display-powered-by

[SeanB]

+1 for that! I can see the uses for rugged solar panels, but roadways are not one of them.

Mu thermal is just a slow motion train wreck.

[tom66]

Arguably OUYA, although they did deliver:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ouya/ouya-a-new-kind-of-video-game-console?ref=discovery

[CanadianAvenger]

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/myidkey/myidkey-passwords-at-the-tip-of-your-finger

This one died from feature creep and gross mis-management

[Bored@Work]

There are just too many.

Just looking at the recently funded projects at Indigogo results in many candidates https://www.indiegogo.com/explore?filter_browse_balance=true&filter_category=Technology&filter_quick=most_funded

[AndyC_772]

I guess the answer depends whether we're talking about:

a) scams in which punters were intentionally defrauded, or
b) projects which were launched with honourable intentions but which were doomed to fail because they just weren't feasible, or
c) projects which could have succeeded but for the developers' lack of skill and ability to bring them to market?

[tom66]

Medically/scientifically impossible, but still received $1million USD:
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/healbe-gobe-the-only-way-to-automatically-measure-calorie-intake

[Artlav]

Arguably OUYA, although they did deliver:

Delivered?!
They promised an open-source gaming console, with a wide selection of free games.
They delivered a piece of crap that won't even start without putting your credit card data into it, and almost no playable games at all.

Good thing i had a backup plan for a nephew's christmas present...

[EEVblog]

I guess the answer depends whether we're talking about:
a) scams in which punters were intentionally defrauded, or
b) projects which were launched with honourable intentions but which were doomed to fail because they just weren't feasible, or

Given that you can't prove a), you have to lump them all into b)

c) projects which could have succeeded but for the developers' lack of skill and ability to bring them to market?

Not really. I'm talking about the ones that simply weren't technically feasible.
Or feasible from a cost point of view and hence were doomed to failure.

[MacAttak]

Mµ Thermal Imager
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/mu-thermal-camera-a-great-tool-to-save-on-energy-costs

Soap router
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/soaprouter/soap-first-smart-router-w-touch-display-powered-by

Mu definitely. But what about the soap router makes it bad? (I haven't been following that one)

It sounds a lot like the Almond+, which is now starting to ship. The Almond+ is a little late, but they did keep backers updated throughout the process. So there can't be a tech reason for the other project to be unfeasible.

[Psi]

Arguably OUYA, although they did deliver:

Delivered?!
They promised an open-source gaming console, with a wide selection of free games.
They delivered a piece of crap that won't even start without putting your credit card data into it, and almost no playable games at all.

Good thing i had a backup plan for a nephew's christmas present...

Apparently XBMC or the Google Play Store can be installed instead, and work well for a alternative use of the box.

[tom66]

Mµ Thermal Imager
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/mu-thermal-camera-a-great-tool-to-save-on-energy-costs

Soap router
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/soaprouter/soap-first-smart-router-w-touch-display-powered-by

Mu definitely. But what about the soap router makes it bad? (I haven't been following that one)

A short list...
 - Insufficient funds and time to bring quantity of products to the market
 - Lying about development prototypes (copying Novena board, not showing current prototype)
 - They started with an Ethernet shield for an Arduino. I just don't...
 - Fake PCB layouts showing they haven't a clue
 - Enormous software development which is still TBC
 - Unrealistic features such as on-the-fly antivirus (for a gigabit router)

[MacAttak]

Ah OK. So in that case, the project owners are just wholly inept at best, and lying bastards at worst.

[Legit-Design]

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/crowd-funded-projects/full-android-watch/ 

ORSTO (ostro?)

The sad thing is this guy would have gotten away with it IF he just kept his mouth shut. But he started hinting stupid things while the campaign was still ongoing.    It went something like "don't worry we lost money on this too"
After that he called indiegogo people "unprofessional". He also came on this forum sockpuppeting!  After that I was waiting we will see the same thing maybe with mu thermal... too bad mu thermal people were smart enough to just ignore everyone.

Mr. Orsto Deservers special place for doing EVERYTHING wrong.   
This one goes into eevblog.com/forum history books as epic.... FAIL

EDIT: This one was rare occurrence where indiegogo people were actually smart enough to call it quits, if I remember correctly this one already reached it's funding and he started switching the designs around? Must be really bad when indiegogo shuts something down?

[EEVblog]

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/crowd-funded-projects/full-android-watch/ 
ORSTO (ostro?)
He also came on this forum sockpuppeting!

Yep, and flat out lied to me, even when I caught him out and had the proof. What a dick.
Indiegogo have even removed that project page, so everything is lost unless it's been archived.

[Legit-Design]

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/crowd-funded-projects/full-android-watch/ 
ORSTO (ostro?)
He also came on this forum sockpuppeting!

Yep, and flat out lied to me, even when I caught him out and had the proof. What a dick.
Indiegogo have even removed that project page, so everything is lost unless it's been archived.

He changed all the facts around literally every day... all the pictures were hosted on his own site. All the marketing things were on his pictures. If someone had just saved all the pictures, would be fun to watch how they evolved.

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/crowd-funded-projects/?sort=views;desc
This narrows the search...

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/crowd-funded-projects/sticknfind-bluetooth-low-energy-(ble)-tracking-tags/
Radio devices never work as advertised. Everyone saying otherwise is lying marketing.

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/crowd-funded-projects/stuff-on-indiegogo-that-manages-funding/
SafeSleeve: The All-in-One Radiation Blocking Laptop Case
Dave touched this on his walkabout rant while talking about snake oil and such things. Ok, it might make some people happy. 

[Legit-Design]

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/emospark-first-a-i-home-console#home

Hmm they invented siri that can do smart decisions ?

Early in March an Indiegogo campaign raised $178,000 for EmoSpark, which allows users to “create and interact with an emotionally concise intelligence.” The product video looks like it was composed in a fit of saccharine inspiration after someone saw the movie Her. The campaign was savaged online (http://www.reddit.com/r/kickstarter/comments/1y8stq/emospark_indiegogo_campaign_is_a_scam_they_are/) for its vague product descriptions, the inability to produce a prototype and suspicions that it had massively overstated what it could do.

Also remember this: http://pando.com/2014/04/03/after-pando-shows-clear-evidence-of-fraud-on-indiegogo-company-responds-by-deleting-anti-fraud-guarantee/ ?
Indiegogo are almost as bad as the scammers themselves? Doesn't matter if you don't do it yourself, but you let others do it on your watch in your service?

http://pando.com/2014/04/04/revealed-healbe-isnt-indiegogos-first-giant-medical-scam/ Same as with orsto... indiegogo has ability to swipe scams from the face of the earth. That is after they test it on people to see if anyone notices or cares. If no one notices -> Good scam is a good scam.

[miguelvp]

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/crowd-funded-projects/full-android-watch/ 
ORSTO (ostro?)
He also came on this forum sockpuppeting!

Yep, and flat out lied to me, even when I caught him out and had the proof. What a dick.
Indiegogo have even removed that project page, so everything is lost unless it's been archived.

Apparently Indiegogo pulled the rug under them so no moneys were lost I would think:
https://web.archive.org/web/20130802082626/http://www.orsto.com/

This is the only capture from the way back machine I can get for that project:
https://web.archive.org/web/20130707155118/http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/orsto-x1-2inch-colour-touch-voice-recognition-mobile-phone-watch

No pictures videos, but at least something.

Edit: btw they seem to still be in business
http://www.orsto.com/

[deth502]

Edit: btw they seem to still be in business
http://www.orsto.com/

just posted 2 new vids yesterday. as of my checking, 1 view on one and 8 views on the other.

https://www.youtube.com/user/orsto1/videos

[Legit-Design]

This looks familiar.

https://www.youtube.com/user/orsto1 just scroll down... all his retarded guerilla marketing comments are still there... You know you have it bad when you have to go on similar products youtube comments to promote your product 

[BartManInNZ]

"It has crossed the line into outright fraud."
I agree with this as well, but what  be done about it as outsiders looking in at this slow motion train-wreck people are throwing their money at to get on board?

[vk6zgo]

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/crowd-funded-projects/sticknfind-bluetooth-low-energy-(ble)-tracking-tags/

These sort of gadgets seem to be very popular,though at least this one has a real battery,& doesn't pretend to harvest power to keep it going.

At the end of the day,they are all updates of the venerable (pun intended) "Clap".
At least the Clap was easy to activate without any extra equipment.

All these things require you to know where your smartphone is before you can find anything.
There is a quicker,(& free) answer,------just put all the things you need to find next to your phone!

[janoc]

OpenVizsla, perhaps not outright scam, but the end effect is the same:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/bushing/openvizsla-open-source-usb-protocol-analyzer

Oh and Clang was an epic (non-electronic) fail:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/260688528/clang

[tom66]

4 years for OpenViszla but it does look like they are actually delivering?