Ask HN: What's a side project you built to make money that hasn't?
I built an LED framework for ESP32, and started building LED lamps that use it. I’ve sold more than I expected, but made less money than I’d hoped.<p>It’s taken years and countless hours of my time but it’s really fun and I’ve learned a lot.<p>The project is expanding into an IDE and online pattern gallery, and all sorts of fun additions. People are joining and making really impressive works with it. But it can be tough to keep the momentum going sometimes.<p>What has been nice is that even when I was the only person using it, the result was still something I could enjoy - there’s no network effect required to make something cool for my living room.<p>Turning a side project into a business is tough. I’ve been working with a factory to produce them in quantity. This has been a struggle. “Hardware is hard”, and manufacturers are not fun to work with, at least compared with software.<p>But at the end of the day the thing is in people’s houses and they like it.<p>Here’s the lamp I’ve been making: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;shop.soulmatelights.com&#x2F;products&#x2F;square" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;shop.soulmatelights.com&#x2F;products&#x2F;square</a> and the IDE I’m building is at <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;editor.soulmatelights.com&#x2F;tutorial" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;editor.soulmatelights.com&#x2F;tutorial</a>