Express yourself with a digital pin that lets you to create, share and wear images & animated gif's!
Latest Updates from Our Project:
Fri Mar 3 '17 Announcement
over 7 years ago
– Fri, Mar 03, 2017 at 01:48:30 AM
Firmware issues and hardware progress
Sorry for a late update, we have been waiting for some information to come in in order to write this. We had the first shot in the moulding tool and have since made some altering on the tool as is quite common. We have now ordered a first set of 100 pieces of plastic that will be used to do initial assembly tests. We have also made new PCBs that are to be used in the final product and they look promising (see images below).
Firmware
We contracted a development company for the firmware here in Stockholm. As we told you in previous update Chris who was doing the BT integration got ill and had to leave the project. This was due to stress related issues and caused us a serious delay, as you all know. What has become clear since then is that not only did Chris become ill; he hadn’t come as close to complete the firmware as the company had claimed. Early November they claimed that they needed a week more to complete the firmware. 12 December they weren’t finished and after getting a new developer in place, having him re-assessing Chris progress and getting a new time plan in place we have ended up with an estimate of 300 hours of firmware development from late January and onwards – at least. This hurts – a lot!
So the plan of making a pre-series in early march is not going to work, as there is no point in welding a batch of pins without a functioning firmware. The core functionality of the BT upload is now estimated to be complete 17 March and that’s the first point when we can produce a pre-series. Based on the pre-series we will have to make new decisions. The time schedule for shipping the pins is going to be postponed due to this and then we will be able to give more firm shipping dates.
Everybody told us that hardware is hard – for us it is the software that is hard. We will keep you updated on the progress,
//Olof
Thu Jan 12 '17 Announcement
almost 8 years ago
– Thu, Jan 12, 2017 at 03:06:53 AM
A Glimpse of the app
Hi All,
A short progress update. We want to give you a glimpse of the current state of the app looks like. We have come a bit further with the Android version than iOS. There are still some development needed on the integration side (due to Chris absence and lack of replacement - see previous update). But check out the video below. We will invite you to a beta eventually where you can give feedback and request features, report bugs etc.
Someone asked about early access and we are working on it but and will deliver as soon as we know that the format have been finalized. Size and formats will be communicated to you guys as soon as we are certain on them our self. We don’t want to get you starting on making, or adapting, a lot of juicy gifs and then force you to twerk them again due to format changes. You will also get invites so you can start creating accounts and uploading your artworks once we feel that it makes sense engaging you.
P.S. If you find 2 minutes of happy ukulele annoying - please turn the video sound off ;)
All the best
Olof & Team PC
Mon Jan 9 '17 Announcement
almost 8 years ago
– Mon, Jan 09, 2017 at 05:25:01 AM
Share with Friends - Get Free Pins
Great news guys! We've just managed to activate the referral program on IndieGoGo. This means you can share our campaign with friends and get stuff in return if they purchase something.
These are the referral levels:
Level 1 ($200) - You get a bundle of 7 premium GIF:s by professional artist that you can wear on your pin
Level 2 ($480) - Level 1 + Glossy white or matte black pin (you choose)
Level 3 ($960) - All lower levels + Silver Pin
Level 4 ($1440) - All lower levels + Gold Pin
The amounts in parentheses are the referred value to reach each level. For example if 3 of your friends buys the black/white pin for $69 each, then you reach level 1 (69*3 = 207).
How to Become a Referrer
To start collecting referral value all you need to do is this:
Use the share buttons on the top of our campaign page and share with your networks (see image below).
Every person that follows your link and buys a perk adds to your referral value.
Good luck referring! We truly appreciate it. Kristoffer and the Pins Collective Team
Wed Jan 4 '17 Announcement
almost 8 years ago
– Wed, Jan 04, 2017 at 03:13:44 AM
Dear all,
We hope that you all have enjoyed some well deserved holidays.. At Pins we have had a couple of stressful weeks due to something we weren’t able to foresee. A week into December our firmware developer Chris got ill and had to leave the project. He is now on a long term sick leave and won't return to the project. Needless to say the first week was spent making sure Chris’s situation is going to be ok. Since then we have worked to find a replacement for him, someone who can continue the work on the code he has written up until now.
It is hard enough finding a senior firmware developer and doing so in December during the holidays has proven even more challenging. Yesterday however, we found a senior developer who can replace Chris but unfortunately we have lost more than a month's time just on the firmware development and it will take a couple of weeks to get Bertil (our new developer) up and running.
New time frame
As you all probably understand, we won't be able to ship in February. We have reworked our timeplan and taking a pessimistic time frame we can have a mass production line up and running in late april and make the first batch to our Kickstarter backers after one week of production.
For us this is a huge set back as we have gone from producing our pre-series this week to have eight weeks of more waiting for a first batch. Components have been bought, the MVPs of the apps are completed and we were more or less ready to launch everything we have worked on for two years.
But there is no way to ship your pins without a complete firmware and as we’ve already has kept it simple, there is really not many features to peal off in order to save time.
Thank you for your understanding and we will continue to update you along the process!
Mon Nov 28 '16 Announcement
almost 8 years ago
– Mon, Nov 28, 2016 at 02:40:36 AM
Pin ONE is here
Hi All!
Awesome news below! We have made some great progress since last time we wrote. Olof visited the manufacturer in Huizhou, China, we have chosen to work with.
Foggy/misty/polluted morning in Huizhou...
He came back with first factory samples of the pin which we have loaded with a early firmware version. Mechanical and electrical designs are very near the end result and we will get updated 3D-prints with minor adjustments and new needles late next week. We have recorded a first clip for you so you can see how the final result will look like!
(IndieGoGo has issues with the adding Youtube clips so please use link below)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MZo2Q-bb4I
Firmware Progression
The hardware part of this project is running along quite smoothly. The firmware part has taken some more time for us to complete than we originally planned for. We are very near a fully functioning firmware and we waited with this update somewhat due to the fact that we wanted to show you the full workflow from app to pin. Christopher who has put in a lot of hours into it needs some more time debugging the Bluetooth so you have to manage with a still picture this update. Next update we aim for the full workflow from MVP of app to pin!
Mech Design and tooling
As we are very close to a final version of the mech design we started tooling three days ago. The tooling process takes about seven weeks from ordering the tool. Our aim is to produce a first batch of plastic parts in the first week of January so we can do a pre-series of pins before the Chinese New Year.
14.09 Grams (49.7 oz.) - well within our 16 grams cap!
The Pin Factory in Huizhou (ok they manufacture other stuff as well...)
