The Last Leg
This Kickstarter was about taking an idea we had as a small community of interested technologists (just like many of you) and seeing if there were people "out there" who wanted to join us. We were completely blown away by the response. I personally have never had commercial ambitions in this space and so I never saw AirQualityEgg as a product at this stage. But as "collaborative, community-led" project grows into a group of people large enough to have vastly different viewpoints, expectations, and opinions, things can get messy. For us, that has translated into delays and cost overruns, eating deep into personal time and pocketbooks. It hasn't been a smooth ride.
But, we finally see the finish line!!! Over 600 Eggs have been hand-assembled and shipped so far. We've gotten SO MUCH feedback, and that feedback has ranged from spiteful Internet troll-venom to incredible outpourings of uplifting support. On the whole, the feedback has left us incredibly optimistic and keeps us going strong.
The GOOD NEWS: If you bought an Egg and haven't gotten it yet, we'll be shipping it to you by April 9th (if you are out of the US, it will obviously take a little while to get to you). We have some bulk orders we'll fill after that, but all of you individual backers who have been champing at the bit, your Egg is coming very soon. Seriously, thank you for your patience.
For anyone who ordered a radiation sensor add-on: You will be getting your Egg as I stated above, but it will not have a radiation sensor. We had to prioritize our efforts and resources, and this sensor got pushed to the end. Over the next 4 months (approximately), we will be finishing the design/code, manufacturing, and shipping of these. But they are coming.
If you have any further questions concerning the status of your particular order at any time or to confirm/change your shipping address, you should email support@wickeddevice.com
More to come!
927
Backers
$144,592
pledged of $39,000 goal
0
seconds to go
Funding period
Mar 27, 2012 -
Apr 26, 2012
(30 days)
- First created · 8 backed
- Has not connected Facebook
- Website: sensemake.rs
Pledge $1 or more
155 backers
Application beta tester. Even if you don't collect your own data, you can still benefit from applications developed by the community that uses the aggregate open data from Air Quality Eggs around the world.
Estimated delivery: Jul 2012Pledge $30 or more
16 backers
Represent DIY air quality monitoring with a T-Shirt and Sticker set that we promise will not be lame. Shipping to US address included.
Estimated delivery: May 2012Pledge $40 or more
39 backers
Custom air quality sensor shield for Arduino with ability to sense NO2, CO, temp, humidity. This will allow you to build your own sensor system with your own Arduino and participate in the community by generating data with the same sensors as everyone else. Shipping to US address included.
Estimated delivery: Jul 2012Pledge $53 or more
20 backers
Air quality sensor Arduino shield + shipping costs to any non-US address.
Estimated delivery: Jul 2012Pledge $70 or more
52 backers
Wired (ethernet/power to outside sensor box) air quality sensor box only, in DIY kit form (parts in a bag with tutorial). This will allow you to enjoy the reduced cost of building the sensor system yourself while having all of the necessary parts and instructions delivered to you ready to go. Generate the same data as the rest of the community with the same sensor system. Shipping to US address included.
Estimated delivery: Jul 2012Pledge $83 or more
34 backers
Wired DIY sensor box + shipping costs to any non-US address.
Estimated delivery: Jul 2012Pledge $100 or more
329 backers
Air Quality Egg. Fully assembled, Plug and Play, wireless air quality sensing system. Generates NO2, CO, temperature and humidity data and displays it on a web-based dashboard accessible from anywhere. Shipping to US address included.
Estimated delivery: Jul 2012Pledge $113 or more
147 backers
Air Quality Egg + shipping costs to any non-US address.
Estimated delivery: Jul 2012Pledge $250 or more
101 backers
Air Quality Egg + O3, VOC, Radiation, and Dust/Particulate sensor upgrades. Shipping to US included, add $13 for international shipping.
Estimated delivery: Jul 2012Pledge $2,500 or more
2 backers
Air Quality Egg on-site workshop for 30 people. We will come to you with parts to build 30 wired air quality sensor boxes and build them with you. Travel costs are included to locations in the US and Europe.
Estimated delivery: Aug 2012Pledge $10,000 or more
4 backers
Sensor up a CITY. Let's do a big rally to kick it off. We'll come with 100 Air Quality Eggs, run a clinic, do some talks about sensing/science/community, have an exchange of ideas. Our travel is included to anywhere in US/Europe. 100 people will take home Eggs. Instant critical mass. This is a great way for corporations who want to sponsor this project to get involved, either to give back to the community or engage their own employees in the movement.
Estimated delivery: Aug 2012
Comments
Creator Andy Powell on April 17
@sensemakers No one is on a crusade, you've just been pretty poor at communicating - That's fact. The Bristol team are doing pretty well and appear to be writing code that actually works properly - at least they're testing it.
And as Andra has pointed out... WTF are you doing delivering product to non-kickstarter backers *before* you've even shipped one unit to backers. It seems very clear that you have your priorities in the wrong place. I'm hopeful, although doubtful, that you'll learn from your mistakes, but I'll never get involved with another project you do.
Creator Ian Horswill on April 8
Oops, never mind. I see the other sensors seem to be in the COSM feeds, just not getting reported on the airqualityegg.com page.
Creator Ian Horswill on April 8
Just got my egg. Seems to work well. I know you you said you weren't sending out radiation sensors until later, but what about the other options (O3, particulate, etc.)? I assume those are coming later too?
Creator Andra Waagmeester on April 7
Finally got some data out of my airqualityegg, jeej!! Frequent reboots and frequent resync between the external and base are still required. Here is my output: https://cosm.com/feeds/103525. If you are lucky you will not see a flat line. Next steps are first get a stable output and then make sense of the output. The first readings were so high, that I should be dead immediately. As I expected, the readings are not realy accurate.
I am looking into alternative to the airquality egg. Anyone found some nice alternatives? Thanks to the COSM website I ran into http://www.arexx.com/templogger/html/en/info.htm which overs wireless CO2 meter. Any other suggestion on alternatives to the AQE would be highly appreciated.
Creator Bashar Abdullah on March 31
@sensemakers I already did... twice. Feb 14, and March 17, from same email I backed from. I will email once more. Hope this time someone will actually read it.
Creator Andra Waagmeester on March 28
Sorry @sensemakers the only one who is disparaging the project is yourself. Stop being so melodramatic all the time. Nobody is having a crusade against your project. You raised quite some expectations, of which most are not met yet.
The fact that people still bother to complain here, should be a sign to you that people still care. I finally got my FTDI cable in the mail this week and if I manage to flash my egg, I will blog about it and will try to be as enthusiastic as I was in the beginning. For now my position remains skeptical.
Regarding the prerelease on an event in Bristol for a lower price, even if the organizer brought its own funding, in my opinion is plain wrong! In my book the whole idea behind kickstarter is that people invest in you hoping the project succeeds. It can't be the case that, especially when you are 1 year behind in schedule you deliver to people outside the scope of the kickstarter pledge. Again if this was the implementation of the $2500 kickstarter pledge, then just say so!
Creator #Sensemakers on March 26
@andy @andra In your crusade to disparage the project, you are actually attacking someone from the Egg community in Bristol, who took their own time to put together an event and bought all the Eggs themselves, then raised their own funding locally from participants. They subsidized some of the cost from local business sponsorship to lower the price. They also received prototype boards with no enclosures. Then a few of us flew there with our own sponsorship to help run the event for free. Quite the scandal.
Creator #Sensemakers on March 26
@bashar Please email support@wickeddevice.com
Creator Bashar Abdullah on March 26
I got an email back in Feb 10 saying my item was shipped, still no sign of it. I emailed you guys twice and no reply at all. What's up with that?
Creator Andy Powell on March 26
@Andra
They did an event in Bristol in the UK, eggs were £40/£60 depending on when you signed up. See https://airqualityeggbristol.eventwax.com/air-quality-egg-bristol - specifically
"For individuals, the “Early Bird Ticket” costs 40GBP and the “Standard Ticket” costs 60GBP. Both tickets include an egg which you will be able to take home and install after the workshop. "
Creator Andra Waagmeester on March 25
@andy powel. Is it really true that the aqe on one of their events was available for a lower price then through kickstarter? That is quite an accusation. Initially, I also decided to stop backing up projects because of the failure to deliver by the aqe guys, but that would be unfair to all the other people who "just did a kickstarter project". My last pledge (just before receiving the plastic box with electronics) was on the StormFly, which is of similar complexity as the AQE. I am going to let the progress of that project be indicative, whether I should keep continuing supporting kickstarter projects or not.
Creator #Sensemakers on March 25
@Gavin, Yes the latest firmware goes on all the Eggs as they ship.
Creator Andy Powell on March 21
"spiteful Internet troll-venom "
Probably due to how bad your communication was.
You seem to think that just because someone disagrees with you they are an internet troll. You're wrong. People have had every right to complain about your inability to communicate with people who invested their hard earned money into this project.
Those that finally got their eggs then found that they wouldn't work because the code on them didn't work properly - You hand assembled all these devices and you didn't test even a few and then go
"Hmm, there's an issue. Oh, let's test a few more. Oh this is a real problem, let's fix it".
Instead, you left people who purchased fully built eggs, ie those that are probably the least likely to be able to fix any issues or have the confidence to plug "some wires" into their PC to reflash their egg in the lurch.
Here we are, nearly a year on from your estimated delivery timescale and you *still* haven't delivered all the eggs.
Of course, the backers could have just gone to one of your events and purchased an egg direct instead for a lot less than the price on Kickstarter, and they would have been able to use them - of course, if everyone had, you wouldn't have been able to deliver the eggs.
I was bitterly disappointed in this project and the lack of communication - it stopped me backing other Kickstarter projects, I know I'm not the only one.
Andra is right, stop feeling sorry for yourselves, MTFU and learn from your mistakes.
Creator Andra Waagmeester on March 21
Again the victim card is pulled. I am not buying it. This is a community project as you say. So the community response when given expectations are not met, is part of the game. Calling that trolling venom, is weak. In a world where you can buy raspberry pies for $20, it is surprising to say the least that with almost $150.000 in cash you can't deliver.
It is really blunt to all other kickstarter projects to start an update with a rethoric picture stating that "One does not simply do a kickstarter project." This is a blow in the face to all the other projects on kickstarter that just simply did a project. If you can't stand the heat stay out of the kitchen.
You got quite some funding and with that comes some responsibility, which you have been evading for quite some time now.
Please stop feeling sorry for yourself and start explaining in detail why it is taking so long to deliver. Instead of stating that you had cost overruns and other "just" reason, why not just give the real details? It would be interesting to know for example what the final total cost of manufacturing and delivery is. You simply owe this openness to other community lead project, since openness remains the adagio in community projects
Creator Gavin Chester on March 21
Hurrah. Not sure why the internet troll venom came in but the only issue for me was lack of progress updates. The update in Jan said they were shipping but I guess not.
There were comments the firmware needed updating, will this be the case with all the eggs still to ship or will they have the latest firmware on them?
Creator Cam MacDuff on March 20
Yah. Thanks!