Techman Posted June 9, 2015 Posted June 9, 2015 I just received two sets of custom (white) KPL buttons. The buttons I received, when lit, look more like ivory or light brown rather than white and don't match any of my existing white buttons. Additionally the amount of light that passes through the button is about half of the previous buttons that I've purchased over the last several years. Just curious if this is an isolated case or if there's a quality control issue with Smarthome.
Teken Posted June 9, 2015 Posted June 9, 2015 This is normal and has been documented many times here and over at the SH forums.Ideals are peaceful - History is violent
G W Posted June 9, 2015 Posted June 9, 2015 Either way, I would not accept them. I ordered a set and had the same problem. I set them back as not the color I ordered.
Techman Posted June 9, 2015 Author Posted June 9, 2015 This is normal and had been documented many times here and over at the SH forums. Don't you mean abnormal. The new buttons are totally unacceptable.
Teken Posted June 9, 2015 Posted June 9, 2015 Don't you mean abnormal. The new buttons are totally unacceptable. Should the custom keys match the OEM keys? Yes . . . But they don't, for a very long time. The custom key are also a different font color. One is green the other is off gray. The difference in back lighting has changed at least three times over the years. If they don't meet your needs I would send them back. Ideals are peaceful - History is violent
apostolakisl Posted June 10, 2015 Posted June 10, 2015 You know for a few hundred bucs you can have one of the Chinese plastics guys make a mold and pump these things out for less than a penny a piece. They can silk screen whatever you want on them for next to nothing also. Of course this only is efficient if you order them by the thousands. But I'm thinking the better plan is to make them out of clear ABS and put transparent stickers with the writing on the inside where it never wears off and allows the ultimate in customizing.
bipto Posted June 10, 2015 Posted June 10, 2015 You know for a few hundred bucs you can have one of the Chinese plastics guys make a mold and pump these things out for less than a penny a piece. They can silk screen whatever you want on them for next to nothing also. Of course this only is efficient if you order them by the thousands. But I'm thinking the better plan is to make them out of clear ABS and put transparent stickers with the writing on the inside where it never wears off and allows the ultimate in customizing. Having made this questionable "investment" a number of times and foreseeing more such purchases in the near future, I absolutely LOVE this plan! Now all we need is a Chinese plastics guy...
apostolakisl Posted June 10, 2015 Posted June 10, 2015 Having made this questionable "investment" a number of times and foreseeing more such purchases in the near future, I absolutely LOVE this plan! Now all we need is a Chinese plastics guy... I've got a plastics guy in China.
bipto Posted June 10, 2015 Posted June 10, 2015 I've got a plastics guy in China. If you're proposing some sort of group buy, I'm all ears... Seriously.
apostolakisl Posted June 10, 2015 Posted June 10, 2015 You need to make a cad drawing and then they'll make a mold. The mold costs depend on the complexity, especially if the need to make slides. It looks like you would need a slide for kpl cover as they have a little lip on the top and bottom. Once you have a mold, little pieces like kpl buttons would be way less than a dime a dozen, especially if ordered thousands at a time. If someone has access to a 3d scanner and wants to send me the cad, I'll get a quote. I can make a cad drawing myself hand measuring, but if I am off by half a millimeter it probably won't snap on.
stusviews Posted June 10, 2015 Posted June 10, 2015 The topic is "Custom KPL Buttons." You won't get those for a dime a dozen
apostolakisl Posted June 10, 2015 Posted June 10, 2015 The topic is "Custom KPL Buttons." You won't get those for a dime a dozen "custom" no, but clear ones yes. It used to be they came clear, but I guess they figured they couldn't charge outlandish fees then for custom buttons since people just customized them at home.
stusviews Posted June 10, 2015 Posted June 10, 2015 I liked the clear buttons. It was fun printing custom graphics for each button. OTOH, the custom printed buttons do look elegant. I took advantage of the $20 price back then.
Teken Posted June 10, 2015 Posted June 10, 2015 OTOH, the custom printed buttons do look elegant. I took advantage of the $20 price back then. I've said this 99999999999999999 times and will continue to say it again. Who ever decided to jack up the prices on those cheap little chicklets needs to be throttled and fired. Even at the $20.XX price point it was still expensive given its 5-8 pieces of plastic! But mere mortals could at least afford to buy a few sets with out having to go for a loan or sell the kids and the dog. They sold more of those custom keys at the $20.XX price point in one month. Then they did in an entire year at the stupid and insane price of 49.XX, 59.XX, or what ever make belief price they deemed OK.
fitzpatri8 Posted June 10, 2015 Posted June 10, 2015 The clear button sets are still available: http://www.smarthome.com/insteon-2401clb-6-or-8-button-change-kit-for-keypadlinc-clear.html The clear ones are easy to customize, but the opaque engraved buttons offer a cleaner install (so long as you don't mix and match between different batches of buttons). I'd love it if they would just find a standard color/opacity and stick with it for all pre-installed, pre-engraved, and custom engraved buttons.
smokegrub Posted June 10, 2015 Posted June 10, 2015 I refuse to pay that price for the buttons. $20 was outrageous but tolerable. Now, no way!
apostolakisl Posted June 10, 2015 Posted June 10, 2015 The clear button sets are still available: http://www.smarthome.com/insteon-2401clb-6-or-8-button-change-kit-for-keypadlinc-clear.html The clear ones are easy to customize, but the opaque engraved buttons offer a cleaner install (so long as you don't mix and match between different batches of buttons). I'd love it if they would just find a standard color/opacity and stick with it for all pre-installed, pre-engraved, and custom engraved buttons. At $5.99 it doesn't make much sense to create a new mold and make our own. The only advantage to having a mold is that you can run them in a whole series of translucent colors. The reason they don't have consistent opacity/color is almost certainly because they are switching suppliers in China constantly going for the cheapest. EDIT: Though the clear ABS that my plastic supplier uses is pretty nice looking. It has just a bit of translucency to it which in my opinion looks a lot better than the full clear gloss finish that smarthome has.
Guest Digger Posted June 13, 2015 Posted June 13, 2015 Color can vary from batch to batch if the are buying raw pellets and mixing in the colorant. Just poor QC which is typical of SH products. Even two keypads next to each other with the stock buttons look different. Even the same versions bought at the same time. Annoying! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Brian H Posted June 13, 2015 Posted June 13, 2015 Like the original White and the now famous Snow White?
Teken Posted June 13, 2015 Posted June 13, 2015 On Topic: The majority of the Insteon consumers really could care less how much the custom keys are being sold for. If the consumer perceives good value (Think Apple over priced items) for their money people will buy it. This has been the case in every market segment we know of. What many of us have a hard time accepting is the end user is getting 5-8 small pieces of plastic! If the fictitious price they were asking for reflected a 25-50 pack item. You know what?? Not a single soul would be complaining or having buyers remorse, none. At the end of the day my hopes are more people will see threads such as these and provide critical feed back to Smarthome. Even better someone who is empowered at Smarthome will read these threads and have a sit down with sales / marketing and consider dropping the price for this particular item. In almost ten years watching this company its hard to say what ultimately will happen. Since it was clear either someone just wanted to move products, super saturate the market, or generate massive revenue for a period. The 2014 X-MAS sale of the famous *4 Packs* were not only outstanding. But, truly showed profit could be made and value offered to the general public. There still might be hope . . . But as I have stated many times before *Hope don't float*
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.