A crucial upcoming month

Hello guys,

We got the earbuds’ plastic parts just in time for this update, so we prepared a short video showing them off to you. Enjoy!

Of course, this was just a snapshot of the whole month, dig down below for a more complete picture.

DEVELOPMENT STATUS
We’ll try to be more focused on videos in these next updates, so you can get a better feeling of what’s going on behind the scenes.

So let’s see what we have in store for you:

• Earbuds and charger mold results
  About 3 weeks ago, the “first shot” of the earbuds’ mold was built. It was good, but not good enough for us to use as an ‘almost final’ prototype. A few days ago, we received the “2nd shot”, which are new plastic parts from the improved molds. They are super good. It’s not yet final, but it’s getting pretty close. Concerning the charging case, the “first shot” is on its way.

The plastic parts (and custom tips)

The charger’s mold, on its end, is almost finished. This mold is definitely less complex than the earbuds’ one so the process is a lot more straightforward.

• Custom audio tips final drawings
  It’s done! We received the tips along with the plastic parts. They are black for now and we’re working on an almost transparent version.
• Battery usage and waterproof membranes testing (we’ll explain this more in the next update)
• Firmware
  Most of the month was actually spent on the firmware. The basic functions work (play-pause-on-off) but the more advanced options need more development (automatic pairing, skip, previous track, etc.)
  Our Bluetooth firmware supplier made a huge update to his product so we had to update almost every part of our code.
  
  Our junior engineer (Cédric) is working around the clock to make a smooth firmware

SHIPPING ESTIMATE
As we all experienced, the shipping estimate has been somewhat of a moving target since we can’t accurately estimate the time it takes to accomplish what has never been done. We have our senior engineer’s (Sylvain) knowledge and experience (30+ years) dealing with new technology projects, but for groundbreaking tech, such as our PCB and waterproofing technique, it’s not enough. There are uncertainties we would like to tackle faster. Unfortunately, it’s easier said than done.

The remaining technical uncertainties remaining are:

• Getting rock solid connectivity across more than just a couple of prototypes
  We made a solid connectivity on very few units. With the new plastic shells on hand, we’ll be able to produce the critical mass of units needed to know our results are reliable enough for mass production.
  Even though we feel the connectivity is pretty much nailed down, we consulted with another RF (wireless) specialist. The manufacturer of the antenna we use invited us to a meeting with their top engineers.

The engineers provided a few insights that could help if needed.

• Waterproofing the unit
  Last year, we consulted with the biggest mechanical assembly firm to plan the waterproofing aspect of the earbuds, and they told us exactly what to do. We designed the earbuds according to these needs. To achieve this, we’re using ultrasonic welding to ‘glue’ the pieces together. This mechanical process needs to be super precise to work correctly. The precision of the mold is paramount for that type of welding. We have a great mold maker so we’re confident he can pull it off.
• Manual mechanical assembly
  The PCB is so thin and small, dexterity is crucial for its manipulation. The PCB has to be positioned by the factory’s workers in a very specific way. We’ll be there in person to monitor the manufacturing process, but it’s still an uncertainty we’re facing.

That being said, the reviewed shipping estimate we’re about to give you, as you’re expecting, is only an approximation based on recent developments. Shipping is now scheduled for October 2018, which is the most reasonable estimate we can do at this point. This is caused primarily by the decision of the molds manufacturer of making new molds (instead of the one he already had), which pushed delivery by an extra 6 weeks. This month is going to be crucial to fine tune the electronics into the new shells, because yes, the plastic material is impacting the connectivity. However, this plastic material is so much more wireless friendly than the 3D printed shells.

GDPR

If you’re like us, you probably received about a gazillion emails from companies telling you how they are now compliant with EU’s GDPR. You should read this but to paraphrase Elon Musk: ‘Boring! Next topic’.

On our end, we reviewed what we had to do and have put in place a couple of measures.

Among these, we made a list of all the places where we have personal information about you. Obviously, there is Indiegogo and our e-commerce store, but also the internal files we have for shipping planning and color selection.

In any of these files, the maximum information we have on anyone is the full name, the email, the billing address, the shipping address, the payment method, the amount paid, the product chosen and the transaction id. We do not store any credit card information.

We need this information to be able to ship you the product and for accounting purposes.

All the emails we send are to inform you of the progress we’re making in developing the product. In this sense, they are transactional emails and not promotional. If you wish to opt-out of receiving these transactional emails, you can do so by clicking on the unsubscribe link at the bottom of this message or by following the steps explained here.

In this case, you won’t receive anything from us until we’re ready to ship your earbuds. However, we don’t recommend that since there will be options to choose from (will be eventually revealed).

Enough about GDPR and that’s it for this month.

Take care guys!

Chris & the Phazon team