[HN Gopher] Iguanaworks has closed and our products are no longe...
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Iguanaworks has closed and our products are no longer sold
Author : ripe
Score : 88 points
Date : 2026-04-05 13:18 UTC (9 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (iguanaworks.net)
(TXT) w3m dump (iguanaworks.net)
| buckle8017 wrote:
| Presumably there just isn't that much use for that anymore.
|
| Most remotes seem to be RF not ir these days.
| ovi256 wrote:
| Especially given the hardware has no moat and there are a
| zillion IR transceivers on Aliexpress. It's not a good market.
| Aurornis wrote:
| Sad to see someone's small business close, but these products are
| in a difficult position of being both extremely niche and very
| simple. Someone went to some effort to source a nice dongle
| enclosure and do some printing on it, but beyond that the
| hardware is something that anyone with a little PCB experience
| could replicate it in a day. I wouldn't be surprised if these
| were just sourced from a generic manufacturer in China and they
| asked for custom printing.
|
| If there's demand this would be a good project for someone to
| make and have ready to build PCBs you could order from OSH Park
| or even a fully project that you could have JLC build and
| populate.
| antonvs wrote:
| This company and product line launched nearly 20 years ago
| (2007) and doesn't seem to have changed much since. That's
| quite a long time for something like this. If the owners had
| wanted the business to continue (perhaps they didn't), some
| diversification could have achieved that relatively easily.
| altairprime wrote:
| Your assumption here is that they wanted it to continue
| making money, rather than (for example) reacting to the
| influx of new orders from HA's announcement by shutting it
| down. Perhaps a working source of revenue is being
| voluntarily terminated rather than having starved to death?
| analog31 wrote:
| I have a tiny business that makes a gadget for musicians: Think
| something like an effects pedal. I publish my schematics, have
| shared PCB files, and even offer to give you some of the parts
| that are hard to get. A few people have built their own, and
| share their results in web forum threads about my product.
|
| Very few people have taken the bait. I think we techies over-
| estimate the ability and inclination of people to make
| something. Even most programmers don't want to solder. They may
| still be technically inclined, but want to be involved at a
| higher level: Buying the basic stuff and using it as a basis
| for even more elaborate things.
| charcircuit wrote:
| >I think we techies over-estimate the ability and inclination
| of people to make something.
|
| But that was never the worry. The worry is a competitor
| undercutting you because they do not have to recoup R&D.
| clbrmbr wrote:
| A few tricks to beat this are community, brand, an app that
| only works with the official version (hard to pull off and
| sad), and going more niche.
| StayTrue wrote:
| If you offered me schematics and PCB designs for a tool I
| desired, I might be /more/ inclined to give you money just to
| support you. Nothing to do with my ability or interest in DIY
| (I also design and sell electronics).
| justsomehnguy wrote:
| > I think we techies over-estimate the ability and
| inclination of people to make something.
|
| If you replace 'we techies' with 'most folks' (and especially
| with 'folks who didn't do a thing with their hands in thei$
| lives') nothing would change.
| The_SamminAter wrote:
| I love learning from and building that type of thing (plus
| have some musician friends who can never have too many
| gadgets). Would you be willing to share a link?
|
| Note: if you don't want to create a link to yourself, you
| could also email me at <my username>0_AT_protonmail_._com
| rlam2x51 wrote:
| Home Assistant* introduced support for infrared a few days ago.
| Not sure if it would be a good idea to stay in business for a bit
| longer and see if the Home Assistant community boost the sales.
|
| I am personally interested in an IR Sender to make my old Hifi
| Setup smarter.
|
| * https://www.home-assistant.io/blog/2026/04/01/release-20264/
| tclancy wrote:
| Yes, same exact boat, I was just starting to think about
| looking for a small, cheap device in this space for HA.
| rlam2x51 wrote:
| Let me know if you find one! I wanted to wait for a few
| months to let the experienced smart homers pave the way.
| spl757 wrote:
| I used a Flirc many years ago for my mythtv DVR and it worked
| great. https://flirc.tv/
|
| edit: I used the receiver, but they do make a remote. It
| looks cool but I have no experience with it.
| teddyh wrote:
| I'm guessing that modern hardware are all controlled by privacy-
| invading apps, communicating via the company's servers.
| aeonik wrote:
| Well damn, I didn't know about this until now, and I could
| actually use one.
|
| Is there any alternative?
| toast0 wrote:
| I've had reasonable luck with microsoft's windows media center
| remote receivers and lirc. Although they don't all work the
| same. The first one I got was easier to use than later ones...
|
| And frustation with atsc 3 and the media landscape led to me
| abandoning my htpcs.
| bookofjoe wrote:
| eBay
| spl757 wrote:
| I've used Flirc
| tomjuggler wrote:
| Awww I have one of those. It still works after more than 10
| years!
|
| Maybe that's what happened, everyone who needed one bought and we
| don't need an upgrade
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(page generated 2026-04-05 23:01 UTC)