-
on March 7
Ryo Chijiiwa
backed a project
i-voltmeter (Canceled) by Dean DeVolpi
i-voltmeter is a new, $40.00, open source, open app, voltmeter that transmits via Bluetooth wireless to cell phones, computers and pads
Funding Canceled (04/04/2012) -
on January 16
Ryo Chijiiwa
Posted project update #32Minor issue with DC bezels
As a couple of you have reported, some kits that shipped more recently included DC port bezels with port openings that were too small. This made it difficult for the DC barrel jacks to fit through the holes when installing the solar charger circuit. I would like to apologize if you encountered this issue when assembling your kit.
What happened was that, of all the components, the bezels are one of the components that have undergone the most design tweaks. The height of the bezels are adjusted from batch to batch to compensate for variances in thicknesses of bamboo we get, which affects the overall height of the enclosure "walls." Additionally, I've been making the ports progressively smaller to try and eliminate gaps, to improve overall fit. At some point, I went too far. The port openings are short by less than 0.5mm (1/64"), but that's enough to make assembly a bit more difficult than it needs to be.
Fortunately, the solution isn't too difficult. I've updated the instructions with a work-around, which shouldn't add more than a couple of extra minutes to assembly. Of course, for those of you who didn't expect to run into this problem, it may have taken much longer to find a solution. I apologize for this flaw, and I'd like to thank those of you who pointed out the issue for doing so. The design files have also been modified to fix this issue in future kits.
Post Comment -
on January 13
Ryo Chijiiwa
commented on a project update@Craig - The second batch of batteries showed up this week (finally!) so I'll be able to start shipping out spare batteries soon. Just need to figure out the logistics...
-
on January 8
Ryo Chijiiwa
Posted project update #31New(ish) Year Update!
Happy New(ish) Year! It's been a while since I've posted an update, so I thought I'd take a minute to tell you that, well, there's not much to report. As they say, no news is good news, right?
We continued to make, pack and ship kits up until the new year, and just kept going. I'm quite happy to say that I'm seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Basically all kits for the $70, $80, $90 and $140 levels have been shipped, and there are only about 10 kits left for the $115 level as well. Deluxe Edition kits were sent to all $500 backers, and the Limited Edition kits will ship to $250 and $500 level backers by the end of this week. The $25-level rewards should also (finally!) ship this week.
Once the rewards kits have been shipped, we'll switch modes and put more effort into selling the remaining kits through our store. Costs so far have ended up being much higher than projected, so I'll need to sell the remaining inventory to pay back debt and maybe pay my "volunteers". Hopefully there'll be enough money to fund the next project, but more on that later!
3 of 5View Previous Comments-
-
Scot Shinderman on January 9
Just received the kit over the weekend, assembled and charging my iPhone within an hour! Thanks for a great project!
-
Craig Dunn on January 13
Any updates on those secondary batteries for those of us that received only one (at the time) so that everyone could get a completed kit sent out? I believe you were waiting for that original batch of batteries to be corrected and resent, so you didn't have enough to fulfill all the kits with at least one battery if you included the second battery (for those kits that included a second one). No rush, but I just wanted to check back in on that. Thanks!
-
Ryo Chijiiwa on January 13
@Craig - The second batch of batteries showed up this week (finally!) so I'll be able to start shipping out spare batteries soon. Just need to figure out the logistics...
-
Post Comment -
-
on December 30
Ryo Chijiiwa
commented on a project@marc - I think you got the Beta kit, which shipped with short and long screws. The short screws should be to screw on the top and bottom plates, while the long screws should be used for the circuits. If you didn't get the right number of short/long screws, let me know and I can send you new ones. BTW, I realized having two different length screws was confusing, so all kits now ship with only long screws.
-
on December 26
Ryo Chijiiwa
commented on a project updateTerry - I expect to have all reward kits shipped out by mid-January, if not sooner.
-
on December 23
Ryo Chijiiwa
Posted project update #30Pre-holiday Update
It's been a while since my last update, so I thought I'd post a quick update. The replacement bamboo showed up on Monday, so we're well stocked for now. There may have been a small number of kits sent out where the fit wasn't quite as good as I'd like due to extreme variances in the thickness of bamboo we used, but we now know to look out for that and change the dimensions of parts accordingly. We're still constrained by laser time, but we've added one more member to our team, and he'll be checked out on the laser next week, so hopefully that'll increase our throughput. My mom is also in town from Japan for the holidays, and she's been pressed into service too (that's her in the photo below).
So, all in all, we're making steady progress. Here are the numbers of kits shipped, broken down by reward level:
- $70 rewards: 3 of 5 shipped
- $80 rewards: 12 of 14 shipped
- $90 rewards: 69 of 74 shipped
- $115 rewards: 8 of 58 shipped
- $140 rewards: 61 of 74 shipped
The Limited Edition engravings are also complete, so those will ship out very soon to the $250 and $500 backers. (Actually, I'll do another post just on what I ended up doing with the Limited Edition, because I think it's pretty cool...)
So, that's basically it for now. We have 6 hours of laser time scheduled for tomorrow, and I have another 4 hours reserved for Saturday. I'm going to take Sunday and Monday off, but will be back at it on Tuesday. I think we're on track to get most of the kits shipped by the end of the month/year.
Ok, I should go to bed now... I need to get up in 6 hours to make it to my 9am laser reservation... Yikes!
Hope y'all have a happy holidays!
-
-
Terry Smith on December 23
I do look forward to the kit . I am building a ham radio kit now . I am eager to see the solar panel as it might work for my low power ham radio battery... happy holidays Terry kj4ezx
-
Terry Smith on December 26
will I get my unit before Feb? I will be leaving on an extended trip and would like to know if it will be shipped before 27 Feb 2012
-
Ryo Chijiiwa on December 26
Terry - I expect to have all reward kits shipped out by mid-January, if not sooner.
-
Post Comment - $70 rewards: 3 of 5 shipped
-
on December 14
Ryo Chijiiwa
commented on a project@Jacob -- With one or two exceptions, all solar hacker edition kits have shipped (most of them were in the batch from this past weekend). I'll message you your tracking number.
-
on December 14
Ryo Chijiiwa
Posted project update #29Lurching along
While the plan/hope was to ramp up production so that we could get most of the kits out in time for Christmas, unfortunately, things haven't been quite so simple...
We encountered a setback last Friday when we received a shipment of 96 square feet of bamboo ply-board (enough to last us for a while), only to find that they were unusable. Since this was the first big shipment from this particular vendor, I don't know if we were unlucky and hit a bad batch, but the boards were basically coming apart even before we put them through the laser cutter, and not surprisingly, over half the pieces we cut were obviously not of a shippable quality, and the rest were of dubious quality as well.
So, that pretty much derailed my plans to cut a bunch of parts over the weekend. We still managed to get 24 kits packed up using parts we had in stock, but then production basically came to a screeching halt since we had no bamboo to work with. I was hoping to be able to get sheets from my secondary source on Monday, but as luck would have it, they were out of stock. Fortunately, they were expecting a shipment imminently, and I was able to pick up some material today. I am also working with the original vendor to get new material that will hopefully be of a better quality, so hopefully my bamboo shortage will be resolved soon.
The other constraint is laser time. I'm doing all the laser cutting at TechShop, which is a shared workspace, and I can only reserve a 2 hour block each day. While I can usually also jump on the laser when it's not being used, the machines have been constantly booked this week with people working on various projects for the holidays. I'm working around this by reserving 2 hour blocks at two different locations. Today, I spent an hour in Menlo Park, then drove down to San Jose to get a total of 4 hours. Tomorrow, I also have two hours in San Jose and two hours in Menlo Park. However, the drive can take up to an hour during rush hour, so while I get more laser time this way, I then have less time to do everything else.
So, between shortages in bamboo and laser time, I expect to only be able to ship 30-40 kits this week, out of the ~150 that are still remaining. I will continue to ship kits as quickly as possible all though next week, but many of those may not get to you until after the holidays. I apologize for the delays, and will be sure to keep you updated with any further developments.
3 of 4View Previous Comments-
-
Craig Dunn on December 14
As a Beta kit backer, let me just add that these are very much worth the wait. If you read my feedback on the main comments tab, you will find that everything about this project is thoughtfully and superbly done. The fact that Ryo is unwilling to use or send out inferior quality components should be seen as his further commitment to providing the best kit possible. I imagine he is just as frustrated as any of us with having delays due to third-party suppliers being slow, making mistakes, or sending low-quality items. I'm just glad he has been more than communicative throughout this process....sharing both the good AND the not-so-good...making the entire project very transparent.
-
The SBW on December 14
Ryo
If you decide to make a 'this guy can wait list' put me on it, I haven't even bought my ipad yet so no worries if other backers are whining for theirs, send them out first.
Sten -
Nohurtme on December 15
I also volunteer for the "this guy can wait" list, I didn't need the kit for any particular occasion, I just thought it'd be a cool gadget to have :). I have to commend you on your dedication though, it's awesome that you're putting so much effort into getting this done and refusing to use inferior bamboo but to get things out quicker. Just seeing this kind of effort is really inspiring, keep up the great work!
-
Post Comment -
-
on December 9
Ryo Chijiiwa
commented on a projectCraig: 1) Nope, both jacks are the same. 2) Most Apple devices will work best from the "i-devices" port, and will likely not charge at all from the other port (one exception is the iPhone 4S, which will charge from the other port if you use the jumper). The one advantage of the "stock" configuration is that it should be safe to charge two devices at once. But devices plugged into the stock "USB 2" port may charge very slowly, or in rare cases, not charge at all. 3) The rule of thumb is, Apple devices in the i-devices port, all others in the other port. But you might need to experiment a bit (and please report back results!).
Ryo Chijiiwa
Menlo Park, CA
Ryo has a degree in Computer Science from the University of Chicago. In 2009, after spending several years working in Silicon Valley at companies like Yahoo! and Google, he left the corporate world to go live in the woods, where he eventually learned... view more
In my case it was a bit of a snug fit, but wasn't too much trouble. I've got it all assembled now, and it looks and works great so far!