Kickstarter

Hi folks!

We'd like to update you on the current progress of OpenVizsla.

When we started on this project, we realized that it would be an expensive and time-consuming process, though we didn't anticipate it would take almost a year (or more). 

We have had a few problems along the way which have set things back over the months, but now there is certainly light at the end of the tunnel!

As we've mentioned before, commercial High-Speed USB protocol analyzers (that exist on the market today) are really expensive for what they are.  This is partially due to the R&D effort that these companies have had to put into developing and perfecting their products, and this cost is spread out over a relatively small amount of devices sold. They also require highly trained technical support for their customers, who are often desperately in need of a working solution to troubleshoot a product that is on its way out the door.  There is little market competition, and most of the customers have deep pockets and just need something they can rely on and use immediately.

With OpenVizsla we want to disrupt that so that we can put high-speed analysis (and not only analysis of USB) into the hands of people that need it the most. We see an unmet need -- for a lower-priced device that is also more flexible, for a wide range of uses (and users!).

We've had to work on OpenVizsla in our spare time as our day jobs (that are also in tech) want the most out of us, but we've found the time to work on OpenVizsla as much as we can. 

Creating a product like this is quite a large task, we have to arrange PCBs to be made, order components, deliver components to the manufacturing partner and then  deal with transport logistics. This may sound simple (and it usually is for an average home project), but OpenVizsla isn’t one of those simple boards, it is a multi-layer, high-speed board and it has around 150 components that need to be handled correctly. 

When we set out to make OpenVizsla we wanted all of the prototype boards to be machine manufactured so that the manufacturing bugs can be ironed out way in advance.

We had a run of prototypes made, and we started the process of getting those R&D boards into the hands of the Core development team.  In the process of doing so, we discovered some inconsistencies in manufacturing; rather than send out known-broken boards, we’ve been working with our manufacturing partners and parts vendors to achieve the most consistent and dependable boards possible. To do otherwise will make development of the firmware a nightmare!  It’s been a very good lesson in Design For Manufacturability (which has come with some costs, in both time and money!).

We were able to work around some of the problems with manual rework of the boards (reworking dual-row QFN parts and rerouting some signals), but other issues have required making entirely new PCBs (and assembling them, etc).

We are now in the process of manufacturing the final development & prototype board, when those boards are back from manufacturing we'll know very quickly if we've solved the problems that we had previously and we’ll be back on track.

We also have a concurrent task that is running right now, this being the final production board layout.. 

Currently the OpenVizsla unit is a large board specifically designed and manufactured for easy access to test-points and component pins (along with populated debug connectors etc), this is being reduced in size so that the OpenVizsla will be a nice size and will look perfect on your desk.  

We'll take care of debug/JTAG connectors in the production device in a nice way (so that you'll still be able to hack and modify it any way you see fit).

The transition over to the new board isn’t as daunting as it sounds, as we’ve proven the other parts of the board work, so it is a case of reducing the size and rerouting accordingly. We don’t anticipate as many problems with this part of the process (famous last words!) :)

If all goes well, we will have these boards in 2-3 weeks, and then can move on to the final board design. We are also (right now) waiting on t-shirts, muckspreader boards/badges and other bits and pieces! 

Thanks to you all for being so patient, it is appreciated and we think that when you see the final result you’ll agree it was worth the wait, this pain and delay right now will help the next engineers and hackers code, reverse-engineer and implement the products of tomorrow. And you have made that happen!

We've included some images (although they are very similar to what we've shown before) but hardware shots are always nice!