Hey everybody!

I'm starting to get a few communications (via the Facebook group, the web-site, here on Kickstarter, and e-Mail), with people who are getting quite excited about receiving their triggertraps. It has to be said that some people's excitement is less, er, polite than others*.

A bit of background

I just wanted to address the question of shipping dates once again. The key thing to keep in mind is that we've been saying "before Christmas" right from the start of this project (with the hope of getting the TT's shipped out to you earlier). I know November is just around the corner, and that some eager shops have already started stringing up inflateable santas and playing "please buy more stuff" music, but (luckily?) that doesn't mean it's Christmas quite yet.

We've been working really, really hard on making Triggertrap become a reality, but at the same time, is that I've never created a brand new product before in my life. To me, this is part of the excitement of Kickstarter - seeing people make their dreams come true. In this case, it's my dream of creating a photography gadget that more than 1,000 people are eagerly awaiting. It's a beautiful thing - but obviously there's a lot of pressure on me and the rest of the team at Triggertrap Ltd: We're currently in the testing phase, and we really, really don't want to send out a device that doesn't work properly. 

Changes and updates

We keep running into minor setbacks, but for every setback, we are learning another lesson, and are given the opportunity to create a newer, better, faster, and stronger Triggertrap. For example, it turns out that the 168-bit ATmega chip in our original design wasn't beefy enough, so we've swapped it out the much less vegan ATmega328-based chip. We've also done a load of other minor design changes, both as a result of the new chip, and as we figured out that some of the ideas we had originally would work a lot better if we implemented them slightly differently.

We've thrown some new features in for good measure (after people came up with some great suggestions on the Triggertrap.com website), but we've also had to reconsider some of the other features. The bad news is that we won't be able to make it water-resistant, as we had hoped initially. The good news is that if you need the triggertrap to be 100% water-proof, we came up with a cheap solution for that. Another piece of bad news is that we weren't able to accommodate the cable requests for about 2-3% of you - but the good news is that we've sent out/are sending out the components you'll need to build your own cables, and we're giving you an easy way and a more advanced way of doing this. 

Misunderstand me right, ladies and gentlemen: I'm wildly excited about the Triggertrap, and I do want this thing to be as good as it can be within the constraints of time, and budget.

Please do remain patient for just a little while longer: I'm sure that, given the choice, everybody would prefer to wait another couple of weeks for a Triggertrap that works smoothly and can help you create awesome photographs, than the prototype I currently have on my desk, which works well, but does have a couple of annoying niggles that we're working out as we speak. 

So... About that shipping date?

So, finally, the answer to the easily most-asked-question on everybody's minds... Is that if everything goes to plan, we're still aiming to ship these babies out 'before Christmas'.

Stay tuned, stay awesome, and keep an eye on Triggertrap.com for further updates. Of course, I'll also announce it with an update here on Kickstarter when we're ready to start shipping!

Best,

Haje & the rest of Team Triggertrap.

*) Footnote about some e-mails being more polite than others: Most esteemed backers, we're trying our best to deliver an awesome piece of kit. I would say, however, that I am emphatically not here to take abuse from people who don't really understand what Kickstarter is all about. Please let's keep things civil, shall we? Thank you.