Hey backers,
So we finished understanding the new software and we saw a performance improvement, but it was not enough. Sylvain had to turn in a particular way the earbud in his ear to get a great signal strength. Let’s just say it’s not convenient.
BTW, Sylvain had to go the hospital for kidney stone. Fortunately, he recovered rather quickly.
Okay, it’s time to stop flirting with the tuning and get a major change for our lack of reliable connectivity.
We are now currently looking at 2 antenna options:
For some context:
Sylvain is still wondering how the heck he made it work really great in China back in November 2017. At the time, it was a total blessing, we finally made it work. We got back in Canada and could not quite get the same performance. We fixed many things but the connectivity was still choppy. What the hell happened?? Unfortunately, we can’t even tell today why it worked so well. This blessing would now become a curse since we spent many months trying to get the same performance, without satisfactory results.
Realizing we have done everything we could to optimize, we need to make a big change to the type of antenna.
The NFMI antenna would require changing our PCBs design and getting to know better this environment so we estimate 3 months of development. We are receiving samples in the next week to find out more.
Early in the project, around March 2016 I would say, I suggested to Sylvain that to speed up the development, we should use a new type of antenna, the NFMI antenna. I noticed that competitors were struggling with Bluetooth and some were switching to NFMI. He briefly took a look at it and dismissed it. He said he was 100% sure it would work with Bluetooth alone. Reminder: Sylvain has 30+ years of experience in many projects, including wireless and audio. Being new in this electronic world, I did not have enough confidence to go with my own suggestion. A few days ago, I was pretty mad when Sylvain told me we should now use this tech instead. BTW, I still believe Sylvain is a great engineer, he (we) simply made a giant mistake.
Moving on, the other option is “simply” a bigger antenna. This requires minor change on the PCB and a slight design variation. We’re estimating a 1-2 months development for this tech.
We are already tinkering with this tech. We even made 3D prints to see how it fits and the look of the new design. We had to put more height on the top surface for a better signal strength. You’ll notice that the modification is barely visible.
Again, delays are hard on you and us. We thank you for your patience & support.
Alright everyone, we wish you a great summer!
Chris & the Phazon team