|
2010-08-26 05:29:59 (7097 views) Eyelets were added to an elastic band using small patches of non-stretchable textile to prevent the eyelets from coming off.
The idea was to lock the band in place using plastic locks such as this one.
Unfortunately the band is now too thick to be mounted on a DL2000 so the next step will be to
a) try this again with thinner materials and check how comfortable we can get this to feel while being tight enough to prevent removal
b) try to just mount a simple buckle without the eyelets as a plan B
2010-08-25 07:57:46 (7194 views) We have already received two samples of the bodyband. Unfortunately due to the fact that it's stretchable (same material as top quality men's underwear elastic bands) the eyelets they added for us keep coming off!
The simple way to solve this is to just use non-stretchable material, however this feels a lot different (less like an expensive pair of comfy underwear, more like a regular piece of textile). The stretchable material feels really nice.
We've asked them to make another sample, adding...
2010-08-25 01:53:38 (6682 views) 
Doing it professionally this time, and no room for errors. Slight redesign as the old color scheme for the remote was a bit "funerary".
Here's the photoshopped preview. But your monitor can't capture the whole gamut of printable colors so it will look slightly different. And, we've worked on the old overlay - the new one should look thicker and more professional.
By the way, many printed colors are a lot more beautiful than their electronic counterparts!
2010-08-24 06:04:26 (6310 views) Just got the modified USB enclosures; the boss was enlarged to create more "interference" meaning that when you push the two halves together they lock tightly.
Now either the manufacturer winged this and just used hand tools, or they did this with surgical precision and quite a bit of foresight.
The issue is, all four bosses have unequal diameters (by a small fraction of a mm, not visible with the naked eye). So they create different levels of interference. One is perfect, the other 3 are progressively too loose.
Well, if they planned this it was a smart move because this way we do not risk ruining the mold (if they make one of the bosses too thick there will be no way to fix it - you can only add material by mold modifications, not remove it, except in very easy cases). And, we get to try four diameters in no more than 2 steps.
...
2010-08-24 05:57:59 (6063 views) All right... the overlays... we mailed tons of vendors trying to get back on track after the problem with those expensive "stickers" they cheated us with.
And now we have a very confident and reliable guy who also speaks English well enough to talk about... problems.
We had considered these overlays to be unrelated to everything else. After all they're just thick stickers with a plastic coating, right? So we designed the plastic, went ahead with the mold, and then proceeded to send our design off for manufacturing.
But we're now told the ...
2010-08-23 07:11:34 (6730 views) Friends, though we're planning to start sending out units within a month or so, it appears there will be some latency issues with some components.
It wasn't long ago that our microcontrollers disappeared from all online shops; fortunately we were able to get a batch directly from the manufacturer. These are a bit special due to the features required by our product (self reprogramming etc)
We just spoke to the RF manufacturer, who told us that the RF modules now have a wait time of 6-8 weeks. They are saving enough parts for us to create a few tens of units, thanks to prior arrangements and the fact that we've built a semi-friendly relationship. However this will affect product availability in the short term.
They are saying their lead times depend on RF circuitry lead times. Both the main chip and some passive components (precision stuff, necessary for antenna impedance matching etc) have a wait time of 18-22 weeks for big orders.
They explained that the ipod, ipad and android phones are selling so fast that a few companies have bought out all the stock for many of the parts used. Some manufacturers even refused the million dollar orders that these businesses were giving them, because they didn't want their latency to go sky high and lose other clients.
Seems the whole world is out of parts right now; according to them this is something that happens in cycles (our luck as usual).
Unfortunately the RF stuff is really critical, the product is designed around it, and there are all manner of FCC issues, so those parts can't come from another vendor...
How this affects us... We will need to put as much cash in the bank as fast as possible when we start selling, so we can put in as big an order as possible with them and ensure that the lead time doesn't go to waste and that supply doesn't get interrupted more than once (or ever, ideally, if we can pull that off). Hopefully the delay given by component lead times will coincide with the "dead time" where we're setting up fulfillment and sending stuff through customs.
Just another hassle in dealing with hardware!
We've spent the last two years slowly crawling up to the top of this roller coaster, and now looking down it looks like the tracks have holes...
So as we try to carefully plan our orders, we're keeping our fingers crossed and preparing for a rough ride!!
|
