Aug 28: Group Buy is now closed.
Aug 29-Sept 4: Orders will be tallied, numbers will be finalized and parts will be ordered.
Sept 7: PCB and skeleton cases ordered. Most hardware ordered. Getting final quote and delivery time for acrylic cases.
Sept 16: PCBs and skeleton cases are being manufactured. ETA mid-October. Still waiting on final quotes and ETA from acrylic manufacturer. Still need to order a few hardware pieces (screws).
Sept 30: Received quotes from acrylic manufacturer. Reviewing over the weekend. Lead time is estimated at 3 weeks. I will have a few samples made, but case production will likely not complete until the end of October. All hardware except screws have arrived.
Oct 8: I approved the quotes from the manufacturer earlier this week, and requested some samples. I have not heard back from the manufacturer. I was hoping production would start this week, but it looks like it will be next week at the earliest. My confidence in an early November completion has dropped. I will now estimate the cases to be completed by mid November.
Oct 12: Acrylic sample pieces are being made. PCB flash testing complete. SMD assembly now commencing.
Oct 25: Acrylic samples have still not been finished... The manufacturer assures me that they will be done today or tomorrow. PCBs and Skeleton cases have finished manufacturing and are being packaged for shipment. VIA firmware is now fully functional, including remapping of encoder knobs!
Nov 1: I picked up acrylic samples from the manufacturer on Oct 28. There were a few blemishes that will be addressed for the production run, but overall the pieces looked good. I will have a call with the manufacterer tomorrow to go over the details of production including expected delivery timeline. PCBs and FR4 skeleton cases have arrived. I will be sorting through them this week.
Nov 5: Orders containing only PCBs and/or only Skeleton Case kits have been dropped off for shipping. Acrylic production should begin next week.
Nov 26: Production on acrylic parts has begun. Since I will be out of town until Dec 8, I have set completion date to Dec 9.
Dec 9: Picked up acrylic pieces today. I will be doing QC this weekend and early next week.
Group Buy pre-order perion: July 24 - Aug 28
Dec 12: QC part 1 has wrapped up. The result is 50 pieces need to be remade. All matte clear and black arcylic cases are affected. Unaffected orders will begin shipping withing the next two weeks.
Jan 9: Acrylic manufacturer says that remakes will be ready by Friday, Jan 13. If all goes well, all orders should ship by the end of January 2023.
I noticed while building one of the acrylic boards that the 13mm standoffs that are used to secure the feet/risers might be too long in some cases. The risers are supposed to be 4.5mm (3/16") thick, but there is some variance in the material thickness, and many of the pieces are only ~4.2mm thick, making the total height of the three risers between ~12mm and ~13mm instead of the specified 13.5mm. This was not an issue with the prototypes, so I didn't catch it. I have ordered 12mm standoffs, which will go out with the remake batches (matte clear, black, etc.).
Jan 23: Remakes received. QC over the next few days. 12mm standoffs have not shipped yet. and the delay is likely caused by China's New Year holiday.
Feb 24: 12mm standoffs finally arrived, but I discovered that the remade acrylic bottom pieces were cut incorrectly, which I did not notice during my initial QC. Matte Clear and Matte Black cases will be further delayed until they can be reremade.
April 7: After extensive delays, the final remakes are in hand and being inspected. All remaining orders will be packages this weekend and shipped within the next few days.
April 9: All orders have now shipped. Extras will be announced in a few weeks.
Acrylic Cases: Quality control
[////////////////////////////100%] Complete April 8
PCBs: In hand and ready to go
[////////////////////////////100%] Arrived Nov 1
Skeleton Cases/FR4 Plates: In hand and ready to go
[////////////////////////////100%] Arrived Nov 1
Hardware (Screws, standoffs, etc.): Received
[////////////////////////////100%] Arrived: Oct 14 (12mm Standoffs arrived Feb 24)
Sorting/Quality Control of Acrylic: Awaiting Remakes
[////////////////////////////100%] Completed April 8
Shipping Progress: Complete
[////////////////////////////100%] Completed April 9
For questions and more updates please visit the Discord.