Dyson turned down my suggestion :(

[p1t1o]

Unfortunately, Dyson will not be designing a miniature cyclone keyboard vacuum.

But its sorely needed and a perfectly miniature Dyson would have been so cool, amirite!

 

Spoiler

Hello Dyson!

 

This is just a short note to suggest that Dyson should investigate producing a miniature desktop vacuum cleaner for keyboards/personal electronics.

 

It is a market that has decent appeal, as there are multiple variants available today, and it is of course, a rather ubiquitous problem.

 

The problem is though, that every model (that I have seen) available today is based on a very poorly performing design, manufactured with terrible tolerances, that makes a lot of noise, but that is actually incapable of producing the necessary pressure-drop to pick up more than the lightest, free-est dust particles. The suction and mass-flow are so low that even if your dirt was restricted to open, flat areas, cleaning any meaningful area takes an age and you would still be having trouble picking it up, and the whole idea is that it should be capable of working under far worse conditions - sucking ingrained dirt out of the small, restricted niches that you find on keyboards or other personal electronics.

 

Please use your expertise at creating powerful, loss-free and compact suction devices to attack this gap in the market!

 

It should be as small as possible, and of course affordable as a consumer electronic-cleanliness solution. It doesnt have to be able to suck the paint off a new car, but it should be able to suck dust+detritus from behind the keys of a standard keyboard. Another test would be, can it suck the dust and hair from the gaps in the heatsinks you find in a personal computer.

 

(The personal computer has many uses for a tiny vacuum that many computer enthusiasts would find very useful)

 

Thanks!

 

Kind Regards,

Pete

 

PS: Why yes I'd LOVE to work for Dyson! But in the absence of a vacancy for "ideas guy" I'd settle for the tiny vacuum cleaner!

 

Spoiler

Hello Pete,

Thank you for your email.

As a company which is founded on re-thinking things from first principles, we appreciate the importance of encouraging others to think in innovative ways.

 You are probably aware that Sir James Dyson takes great pride in encouraging the development of new technology through the Work of the James Dyson foundation and the James Dyson Award.

 Sir James Dyson, along with our engineers put all of their time and resource into researching and developing Dyson’s own inventions so unfortunately, we cannot look at your suggestion or indeed any invention from a third party.

 Should you have any further queries or if you are interested in finding out more about our new products, please don’t hesitate to contact us again via Email, Online Chat at www.dyson.co.uk or over the phone on 0800 298 0298.

http://www.dyson.co.uk/shop/vacuum-cleaners.aspx

 Georgi

Owner Support

Dyson UK

 

[cubinator]

So basically what he's saying is you should email Sir Dyson directly. 

 

[TheEpicSquared]

Sounds very much like a standard copy+paste email response, if I'm being honest

[Shpaget]

I don't think even a large 2 kW vacuum cleaner I have is enough to meet your spec, so I don't see how could a small portable thing achieve that.

An air compressor, on the other hand, is perfectly suitable for this task and in absence of such a device a small can of compressed air will do just as well. You can have a can for under $2.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DB8NSG6/ref=s9_acsd_topr_hd_bw_b3Htt5X_c_x_w?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=merchandised-search-4&pf_rd_r=3JMX4EDSDFXQW9WJHW6S&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=a6f20ec7-5849-5294-a05a-d077fd625212&pf_rd_i=3012916011

Honestly, I wouldn't buy an overpriced, blinged out, engineered to fail Dyson product that would most likely cost more than a compressor.

[p1t1o]

1 hour ago, TheEpicSquared said:

Sounds very much like a standard copy+paste email response, if I'm being honest

True, true, but i posted it for the humour value that they replied at all! In fact they were very prompt!

 

39 minutes ago, Shpaget said:

I don't think even a large 2 kW vacuum cleaner I have is enough to meet your spec, so I don't see how could a small portable thing achieve that.

An air compressor, on the other hand, is perfectly suitable for this task and in absence of such a device a small can of compressed air will do just as well. You can have a can for under $2.

You dont think a 2kW floor unit could suck the dust out of a keyboard? The issue with compressed air is that it blows the dirt somewhere else, which is fine for some things, but not for everything.

But anyway its moot, theres a reason this is in "Lounge" and not "Science" I definitely didnt think it through at all. Only wrote to them to kill a few mins. And I suppose the technically non-zero probability that they'd actually make one (that I could afford) anyway, despite the rather off-the-cuff suggestion.

 

 

[Shpaget]

Yeah, sucking sucks at long distance. Blowing, on the other hand, doesn't blow .

There is just too much of airflow going all around the key on a keyboard and too little where it matters. Blowing is much more directional.

[DAL59]

Thought title refereed to freeman dyson. 

I thought you had a new idea for a dyson sphere...

[0111narwhalz]

10 hours ago, DAL59 said:

Thought title refereed to freeman dyson. 

Wait, they're not the same person? I thought the vacuums were a fundraising venture to make his spheres a reality.

[Green Baron]

Keyboard archaeology:

Like the Milankovic cycles on earth a keyboard goes through a daily, weekly and yearly cycle, building up corresponding strata of residuals. We shouldn't destroy this cultural heritage ....

[p1t1o]

I notice that they didnt touch on my job application that I appended to the bottom of the email, I presume they will be in contact shortly to discuss terms.

 

 

[YNM]

I guess car vacuum cleaner would work ?

[NSEP]

Doesn't spraying air into a keyboard work too?

[p1t1o]

7 hours ago, YNM said:

I guess car vacuum cleaner would work ?

 

1 hour ago, NSEP said:

Doesn't spraying air into a keyboard work too?

 

Guys...guys...I didnt write to Dyson because I couldnt figure out a way to remove dust from my keyboard!

I wrote them because I want to do it with an (actually workable) tiny hoover!

And how cute would a perfectly miniaturised Dyson be!

 

Edited January 30, 2018 by p1t1o