Mini update

Dear backers,

Today’s update will be a shorter one since we received the updated PCBs yesterday, which means we couldn’t assemble them in time for the update.

DEVELOPMENT STATUS

We made a few adjustments to the PCB (aka the green wafer) to improve the antenna’s performance. We had to adjust the internal mechanical structure of the earbuds and modify the electronic circuit so the RF would perform better in this kind of environment. It’s hard for us to provide more details without disclosing what could be the secret sauce to our antenna’s performance. Our senior engineer’s (Sylvain) sense is that we could possibly start pre-production with those new PCBs. However, as we all experienced in the past, it is not guaranteed that they will be the final R&D PCBs.

For you to better understand what the inherent difficulty is, here are the two hardest things about getting the connectivity right:

• Antenna location (most important)
  • In an ideal environment, an antenna needs to be big and have free space all around for maximum power.
  • Due to the nature of the project, we have neither of them. Having an AirPods-like design makes it easier to get a good connection. It’s easy because the antenna is at the end of the stick. This location provides decent size to the antenna and plenty of free space around it. We just don’t like their design.

• Antenna type
  • There are numerous types of antennas available for earbuds. Because of our form factor, we have fewer options that we can work with. This adds many layers of complexity to the process.

It’s not impossible to get a great connectivity with truly wireless earbuds, it’s just simply extremely hard. Even established companies are struggling.

UPDATES

I have decided to revert back to monthly updates. To start pre-production, the Bluetooth connectivity is really the only remaining bottleneck. Again, as a CPA I’ve made the cashflow exercise and we’re in good financial health to do the production. Updates might come more often than once a month, especially if we have interesting breakthroughs to share. We value relevant and timely content so that’s what I feel is the best

WEBSITE

Some of you might have noticed that our website is displaying a 10-12 weeks shipping estimate. We put that out because we need to display some kind of shipping estimate. While it is technically possible to achieve this, it’s definitely not guaranteed. That’s why I don’t publicly announce a shipping date to our backers since I’m not yet highly confident of this shipment date. We will add more precision about our shipping estimate on our website in the coming days.

Cheers guys,

Chris