Tue Oct 18 '16 Announcement
about 8 years ago
– Tue, Oct 18, 2016 at 07:11:19 AM
Hi all!
We are extremely busy these days and there is so many things happening that we have a hard time summarizing what we have been up to since last time!
Tech update
Last time we wrote we had an issue with the refreshment rate of the screen as the integrated BT chip didn’t give us a satisfying output. We had some different ideas on how to solve this and our engineers came up with a solution that doesn’t need a second CPU. This is great as that would have added a lot of complexity and development time.
As this little hick up ended rather well we now have a final component stack that we know will do the job in its final form factor. Knowing this made it possible to agree on a final, manufacturable layout of the pins motherboard which in its turn has made it possible to finalize the mechanical design - on a CAD-level. This process has been done together with the engineers who are responsible for setting up the manufacturing line. Iterating our boards with the responsible factory engineer factory has been a way to minimize delays.
The renderings below are based on the final mech design. Some minor changes might be done but this is to 90 % how the first batch of pins will look like.
Upcoming Milestones
Olof will be in Hong Kong early November to visit the factory and overlook the manufacturing of a first set of customer samples. If everything goes according to plan we will have 5 pins in our hands 4th November.
If we are satisfied with the first set we will manufacture 10 - 15 more of these customer samples to test the final mech design during a couple of weeks. Final adjustments can made if needed.
Earlier this week we ordered a first lager batch of display samples in order to manufacture a pre-series of 80 - 100 pins in december. The pre-serie is for setting up production lines and test stations etc.
And then when we hit January we are going to start producing a first batch of 2000 pins which predominantly is going out to you backers in February. When we first did our planning for this project we didn’t take the Chinese New Year into account. The official holiday is only a couple of days but our manufacturer closes the factory during two weeks so the workers can get home to their families. It is a little too early to say but as the factory is closed between 20 January and 5 February we can’t guarantee that our production won't get affected by the holiday.
Mon Aug 29 '16 Announcement
about 8 years ago
– Mon, Aug 29, 2016 at 08:32:18 AM
Dear all!
We hope that you have had a great summer! Some of us here in Sweden have been lucky enough to get some downtime to stock up on energy for the coming months. Last week was the take off for the finalization of the mechanical design and what we hope to be the final firmware and drivers for the screen.
Mechanical Design Update - The Flat Tire Challenge and Twist Needle
We have two major challenges with the mechanical design at the moment. First out is the flat tire challenge. Not everybody knows that a round screen is in fact octagonal and all of them (as far as we know at least) come with a dead surface often referred to the flat tire.
There are different ways of designing the case around the screen, and there are many things to take into consideration. Some manufacturers have left the flat tire visible (Motorola 360 for instance) but we don’t see that as a solution and are therefore re-doing the casing somewhat so we can give you a completely round pin. It will “steal” some pixels from the screen but we think that we have managed to minimize it as much as possible without having to make the rim much bigger. We will have some iterations going back and forth between the industrial designer and the mechanical engineer in the coming weeks in order to perfect this. Will make new prints as well in order do showcase this.
The Twist Needle is by far the best solution we have found when we have explored different ways to attach the needle. As the needle is designed now it has one flaw, and that is that the ducts where the needle will slide in steals a too much space inside of the casing. That makes it difficult for us to fit the components and the battery inside without making the pin thicker and/or wider. And we really don’t want to do that!
During the coming weeks we will show the progress of the work around this and we will hopefully have some great iterations going forward!
Firmware and Drivers and energy optimization
The firmware and drivers are coming together and we aim to have a first good set of screen tests on Tuesday next week for moving pictures. We have some inconsistencies in the data sheets that we have been given from the manufacturers and in the worst case we might have to consider adding a separate CPU for the screen. This would add some complexity and it cramps up the space inside the pin but if we can’t reach a good enough refresh rate on the screen it will be needed. We will keep you posted.
Cheers!
Tue Jul 5 '16 Announcement
over 8 years ago
– Tue, Jul 05, 2016 at 08:21:02 AM
Dear Backers, Friends and Family
We thought that you may want to be updated on what’s going on. It may be July, but that doesn’t mean that we’ve checked-out for the summer!
There are lots of things going on, and we’d like to share some of the cool things that we are doing with you.
We are currently in London, again. You may wonder why we’re in London, and the reason being is that we are here meeting with a company called TopShop.
TopShop is a multinational style setter and fashion retailer and has been around since 1964. TopShop has over 500 locations across the globe and sells all types of clothing to suit your fashion needs. http://www.topshop.com/
We were asked to come to London to meet with some of their bigwigs who, it turns out, seem pretty interested in Pins Collective and what we are doing within the area of wearables.
We’ll be in London for the coming ten days, during which we’ll meet TopShop’s design gurus, their brand people and other really interesting and experienced people.
We will also have some hardware sessions with CRL where we will focus on the pins mechanical design in general and how to attach the pin to fabrics (i.e. on how to switch from needle to magnet to necklace)
We’ll keep you posted on the goings on through all of our social media sites!
In the meantime, get out there and enjoy the summer!
Olof, Kristoffer and Peter
Fri Jun 10 '16 Announcement
over 8 years ago
– Fri, Jun 10, 2016 at 08:28:12 AM
Dear Backers, Friends and Followers,
We hope that you are all gearing up for a great summer!
We’re sorry that you haven’t heard much from us for a while, but things have been pretty busy since we sent out our latest update! Most of the things have been happening behind the scenes and are not that visually spectacular
Development progress
On the development side of things we’ve been working frantically writing a new Bluetooth API for the BT LE-chip that we will be using in mass-production. We’ve hit some potholes on the road in the form of limitation difficulties with the Low Energy Bluetooth. But these issues are ironed out as we are writing this!
We are also finishing the final firmware and drivers for the pin and screen, which will be implemented on our new engineering boards that are to be finalized during June.
Moreover we’ve less remarkable things as finalization of the demands of the hardware in order to have a firm set of final test cases and processes to rely on when testing the product.
Deliveries
We were always clear with you that we aimed for a realistic time plan and this far we are ahead of schedule and have been able to squeeze the project a lot more than we hoped for. That said, we also know that there is a long way to go and that hardware projects are complex. So for now we are sticking with our projections of deliveries in February.
Other great news
The Pins Collective team has grown in the past few weeks. We’d like to take the opportunity to welcome Kristoffer and Peter who will play some pretty important roles in bringing Pins Collective from its current state to success! Welcome J
We’ve saved the best news for last. Pins Collective has been asked to participate in a wearables bootcamp with some pretty major players. We’ll be in London for the coming weeks and we hope that the bootcamp will give us lots of insightful information and design ideas oft the final shapes of the pin.
We can’t disclose who it is or what we will be doing at the moment but we promise to keep you posted. When possible we’ll upload images and other fun stuff from our stay in London on our Facebook, and Instagram accounts.
Stay tuned!
