Week 18: Invention, Intellectual Property and Income

Note: My English writing skills are limited. For this documentation, I have used AI assistance for parts of the translation.

Date: May 27 - June 2, 2026

My Final Project: Smart Reptile Habitat System

Dissemination Plan

This project uses three separate licenses depending on the type of content.

Content License
Hardware design (PCB, 3D models, DXF files) CERN Open Hardware Licence v2 — Weakly Reciprocal (CERN-OHL-W-2.0)
Firmware and software (Arduino, dashboard, Flask) MIT License
Documentation (this site, text, photos) Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0)

Why CERN-OHL-W for hardware: If someone modifies and redistributes the design files, they must keep the same license. But a product built using the design can be sold under any license. This fits the Fab Academy open-source spirit while allowing commercial use.

Why MIT for software: No restrictions on use, modification, or commercial use. I want the firmware to be easy to adapt for any reptile keeper or maker.

Why CC BY 4.0 for documentation: The standard license used across Fab Academy. Anyone can reuse the content if they credit the source.

Business Considerations

Patents

I do not plan to apply for a patent.

This project is not a single new invention — it is a combination of existing technologies (ESP32, SHT31, MQTT, web dashboard). Combining existing technologies in a new way is how most modern innovation works. The cost and time of a patent application is not worth it for a project of this scale.

Trademarks

I do not plan to register a trademark.

The project name "Smart Reptile Habitat System" is descriptive and used only in a personal / open-source context.

Minimum Viable Product (MVP)

If I were to release this as a product, the MVP would be a temperature and humidity monitor only.

  • Core value: real-time sensor data + history graph on a browser dashboard
  • No outputs required to get started — fans, heater, humidifier are all optional add-ons
  • This reduces the setup barrier significantly

Sourcing all output devices (fans, relay, humidifier, heater) and wiring them correctly is difficult for most users. Making every output optional lets users start with just a sensor and expand over time.

Target Users

The primary target is reptile enthusiasts — especially people who:

  • Keep multiple animals in separate terrariums and need to monitor all of them
  • Travel frequently and want to check the terrarium environment remotely from a smartphone

These users already understand the importance of precise temperature and humidity. They are willing to invest time in setup if the result is reliable monitoring.

Market Assessment

This is a niche market. The reptile hobby community is passionate but small. It is unlikely to become a large business.

However, niche communities are often willing to pay a premium for tools that solve their specific problem. A small-scale kit or open-source project shared in the community could build a loyal user base even without large revenue.

The most realistic path is: 1. Publish all files on GitHub 2. Share in Japanese reptile keeper communities (Twitter/X, Discord, reptile forums) 3. Offer a kit through a small maker store if demand arises

Barriers to Entry

The barriers to entry are low. Anyone with basic electronics skills could build a similar system using off-the-shelf modules.

The advantage of this project is not exclusivity — it is documentation quality and ease of reproduction. Being fully open source and well-documented is itself a form of community value.

What Tasks Have Been Completed?

Week Task Status
Week 7 Gecko Shelf (CNC-milled plywood rack) ✅ Complete
Week 8 Reptile Monitor PCB (KiCad + CNC milling + soldering) ✅ Complete
Week 9 SHT31 × 2 sensor reading via I2C ✅ Complete
Week 10 Fan PWM control, OLED display ✅ Complete
Week 11 MQTT publishing over WiFi (ESP32C6) ✅ Complete
Week 13 Gecko emblem mold (silicone + UV resin casting) ✅ Complete
Week 14 Web dashboard (Bootstrap + Chart.js + Flask + SQLite) ✅ Complete

What Tasks Remain?

Task Priority
Integrated firmware (all sensors + 5 outputs + MQTT in one sketch) 🔴 High
Heater and humidifier control testing 🔴 High
Lighting (relay) ON/OFF control testing 🟡 Medium
Final enclosure / housing for control board 🟡 Medium
Real terrarium deployment and long-term test 🟡 Medium
1-minute final video 🔴 High (for presentation)
Summary slide 🔴 High (for presentation)

What's Working? What's Not?

Working ✅

  • Dual SHT31 sensor reading (I2C addresses 0x44 / 0x45)
  • MQTT data publishing from ESP32C6 every 30 seconds
  • Web dashboard: real-time sensor display, 5-device controls, history graph
  • Fan speed control via I2C Motor Driver (PWM)
  • Gecko emblem mold — silicone and UV resin both worked

Not Yet Confirmed ❓

  • 4-pin fan RPM tachometer reading — tachometer pin not yet wired to the PCB
  • Heater panel — not yet tested for safe continuous operation
  • Humidifier — Grove Water Atomization module not yet tested with the final board
  • WiFi stability over 24+ hours — not yet tested

What Questions Need to Be Resolved?

  1. Tachometer signal — Can the ESP32C6 read the 4-pin fan RPM signal reliably? The current PCB does not route the tachometer pin. May need a hardware fix.
  2. Heater safety — Is the PTC heater panel safe to run continuously? Need to measure surface temperature under load.
  3. WiFi stability — Will the MQTT connection stay up for 24+ hours without a watchdog reset?
  4. Humidity retention — Does the terrarium hold humidity well enough that the humidifier doesn't run constantly?

Planned Timeline

Date Milestone
May 6 Week 15: System Integration — connect all hardware and test end-to-end
May 13 Week 16: Wildcard
May 20 Week 17: Applications and Implications
May 27 Week 18: Invention, IP and Income (this page)
June 1 Final video + summary slide ready
June 8–12 Final project presentations

What Have I Learned?

Fab Academy taught me a complete set of digital fabrication skills, which I applied directly to this project:

Skill How I used it
Electronics design (KiCad) Designed the Reptile Monitor PCB from scratch
Electronics production CNC-milled and soldered the board myself
Embedded programming Wrote firmware for XIAO ESP32C6 (sensors, actuators, MQTT)
3D printing Printed motor mount and other mechanical parts
CNC machining Milled the Gecko Shelf from 12 mm plywood
Molding and casting Made a silicone mold and cast the Gecko emblem in UV resin
Networking Set up MQTT over WiFi, WebSocket dashboard
Interface programming Built a real-time web dashboard with Bootstrap and Chart.js
CAD Designed parts in Fusion 360 and JW-CAD

The biggest lesson was that every week's skill connected to the final project. I didn't build separate one-off exercises — I built the actual system piece by piece.

References

Last updated: May 2026