The archive · Hardware & Devices · Product decision · 2024–2026
Toaster bets a no-radio, years-battery camera beats cloud cams; HN 843 pts
Toaster LLC sells Photon, a $200 no-radio camera rated for 50,000 photos per charge; Show HN drew 843 points and 299 comments.
Toaster LLC
What the business is
Photon is a $200, 47 x 36 x 31 mm open-source still camera sold by one-person company Toaster LLC: an aluminum-body device rated for at least 50,000 photos per charge with battery life measured in years, no Bluetooth, Wi-Fi or cellular radios, time-based and PIR motion-based capture, a 130-degree field of view, RAW 2304 x 1296 images stored in a 20,197-photo ring buffer, and a Mac-only companion app, Photon Transfer.
How it started
Dave, a San Jose hardware/software engineer who worked at Apple and startups before founding Toaster LLC, built Photon as a deliberately un-smart camera. The product page states the bet in headlines: battery life 'measured in years', 50,000 photos on a single charge, and 'simply unhackable' because the device has no Bluetooth, Wi-Fi or cellular at all — subscription-free and open source, aimed at time-lapses and motion capture such as catching a garage thief or documenting a construction project.
What happened
The launch thread mixed praise with pushback: commenters asked for sample images, called the Mac-only companion app a self-imposed limit, and pointed at the fine print that low-light performance was a work in progress and the PIR sensor triggers on wind-blown grass outdoors. The founder answered in-thread that about 120 units were pre-assembled and the first orders went out that week; that the battery connects through a low-profile Pico-EZmate connector; that an MSP430 manages an ICE40 FPGA streaming RAW pixels into the SD ring buffer; and that below 2% charge the camera enters a 'battery trap' that stops capture. He defended 'exclusively for Mac' as an in-group quality signal rather than a cross-platform compromise, and commenters noted that an EEVblog mailbag segment had already covered the camera.
How it ended up
Still live as of 2026-09-05: the Photon page still offers the camera at $200 with its fine print intact, Photon Transfer remains listed on the App Store, and the GitHub repo publishes the code, Eagle PCB files and Fusion 360 enclosure files. The record discloses no revenue figures, so with roughly 120 units pre-assembled at launch this remains a one-person hardware bet.
Background
Photon is a deliberately un-smart camera from Toaster LLC, a one-person company in San Jose run by Dave, a hardware/software engineer who previously worked at Apple and startups. The device is 47 x 36 x 31 mm, machined from aluminum, costs $200, and is rated for at least 50,000 photos on one charge — battery life measured in years — because it has no Bluetooth, Wi-Fi or cellular radios at all. Photos are RAW 2304 x 1296 frames stored in a 20,197-photo ring buffer on SD, captured on a schedule or by a PIR motion sensor.
The bet is that the smart-camera era went wrong for unattended use: cloud sync, subscriptions and recharging all presume someone is watching. Photon's page sells the absence of those things — 'simply unhackable' because photos cannot leave the device without physical access, subscription-free, and fully open source so the claim is checkable. The companion software is exclusively for Mac, a deliberate in-group quality signal from a founder who argues cross-platform GUI software rarely follows Mac conventions.
Launched as a Show HN on 2024-06-03, Photon drew 843 points and 299 comments. The founder said about 120 units were pre-assembled and the first orders shipped during launch week; the discussion pressed on missing sample images, Mac-only software, low-light performance and outdoor motion triggers, while an EEVblog mailbag segment also covered the camera. As of the 2026-09-04 crawl the $200 product page, the Photon Transfer App Store listing and the open-source repo — code, Eagle PCB files and Fusion 360 enclosure files — were all still live.
What has to be true
- Concrete traction: the 2024-06-03 Show HN drew 843 points and 299 comments, and the product page, App Store listing and open-source repo were live at the 2026-09-04 crawl.
- A distinctive counter-bet: a camera with no radios at all turns 'fewer features' into security, battery life in years and zero subscription revenue.
- Real execution detail in the record: about 120 pre-assembled units, first orders shipped during launch week, and a concrete MSP430-plus-FPGA architecture for low-power RAW capture.
- Public stress test: the thread challenged sample images, Mac-only software, low-light quality and outdoor PIR behavior, so the bet's weak points are documented rather than hidden.
What can be applied
Against connected cameras, subtraction is the product: no radios, no cloud and no subscription become security, longevity and honesty; pre-assembling ~120 units lets one person ship a hardware bet.
Aftermath
As of 2026-09-05 Toaster LLC still sells Photon: the page offers the $200 camera with its fine print intact (low-light performance a work in progress, motion triggers on grass), Photon Transfer remains on the App Store, and the GitHub repo publishes the full code and hardware design files. The founder's launch-week comments described roughly 120 pre-assembled units with first orders shipped, but the record discloses no revenue, follow-on products or team growth, so this remains a one-person hardware bet whose market size is unproven.
Sources
- Show HN: I made a tiny camera with super long battery life
- toasterllc/Photon — Code / PCB / enclosure for the Photon camera
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