Announcing the ORDuino !

[frob]

Of course I can't comprehend how you guys engineer any of this stuff in your "spare" time

LOL neither can i, which is why we decided to switch to doing this full time and make the "day jobs" into part-time gigs.

LAVA update -
My new full-time helper and I are working feverishly to complete assembly, packing, order processing and shipping on these - expecting to be all caught up today. all shipping notices should go out by this evening, for everyone who ordered only LAVA's. If you ordered both LAVA and ORDuinos you might receive the LAVA first separately, it seems easier to organize shipping that way for now - if so there wont be an extra charge on separate shipments.
The LAVA, being over 8" x8" in size, is the biggest PCB design i've done so far... which leads me to the biggest "lesson learned" in this venture:
*always* check to make sure your PCB actually fits in the reflow oven when planning in-house short-run production.
Thankfully there aren't too many parts to mount, but doing the assembly manually was/is painstakingly slow due to the size of the board and the amount of time needed to pre-heat it and get the individual standoffs to soak in enough heat to nicely flow the high-temp lead-free solder paste, one by one.
So I've taken time off from the "day gigs" and enlisted a helper to "Git-R-Done". After the first couple dozen LAVA's were done & tested, things are going pretty smoothly now.

ORDuinos:
Soon as the last LAVA's for the current order backlog are tested and shipped (today) we're switching back to these full-time. the remainder of the proto batch will take a couple more days to build & test, but with 2 of us on it full time, there's little left to get in the way of shipping these-
There was a mysterious problem with reprogramming the AVR mega via USB which i think i have figured out, but i need to do some more testing this weekend before i'm satisfied its 100% good. Also want to do a burn-in test on all the ORDuinos before they go out, to make absolutely sure that what you receive will be of the highest quality and reliability. All boards will be fully tested here before they get shipped.

The other big lesson here is the time required to manage order processing & shipping in "B2C" mode; getting this automated through the website very soon will be a high priority after all the backlog is taken care of. Previously Ive done a lot of B2B projects manually, which is very different. when you have only a couple customers and shipments are pallet-loads of PCB's the admin work on that is trivial.

[JakeS]

Hi frob,

Are you taking new orders for ORDuino and LAVA?

Thanks
Jake

[frob]

HiJake,
we're still taking orders on LAVA's as there tons left in stock an were set up for testing & shipping pretty productively now.
ORDuinos - not for now, but that will likely change in a week or so- check back then please.

Cheers
Frantz

Hi frob,
Are you taking new orders for ORDuino and LAVA?
Thanks
Jake

[frob]

Blue LAVA production testing

Sorry the phone picture is a bit fuzzy, and doesn't to the super-bright LED's justice, they saturate the camera sensor so they look more white than blue in pictures. This is showing the LAVA at peak temp of ~118C after a few minutes of running full on at 12V. at this temp current draw is 7.86 Amps.

[tango282]

Thanks for the update......I am sure some choice words were rediscovered that day

[aleith]

Thanks for all of your hard work and effort! Good News, thanks for the update.
Can't wait to get a hold of the boards. Hopefully we can hoist a pint together and celebrate your continued success.
Cheers,
Andy

[Gijs]

Hi Frantz,

I didnt receive a mail yet for my lava. Did you receive my correct payment?

Cheers,
Gijs

[frob]

Hi Gijs,
Yes got your payment, and your LAVA shipped yesterday - i'll PM you tracking info - not sure why you didn't get email notice - let me know if you still didn't get it from the Canada Post system by monday.
Cheers
Frantz

Hi Frantz,
I didnt receive a mail yet for my lava. Did you receive my correct payment?
Cheers,
Gijs

[WhiteB0rd]

Hi Gijs,
Yes got your payment, and your LAVA shipped yesterday - i'll PM you tracking info - not sure why you didn't get email notice - let me know if you still didn't get it from the Canada Post system by monday.
Cheers
Frantz

Hi Frantz,
I didnt receive a mail yet for my lava. Did you receive my correct payment?
Cheers,
Gijs

Hi Frantz:

Same question, I prepayed, but have not gotten an email. Is everything OK, or do I still owe you something?



WB

[frob]

Hi Frantz:
Same question, I prepayed, but have not gotten an email. Is everything OK, or do I still owe you something?
WB

Hi WB - everything is cool - all prepayments are complete- if you don't see an email by monday just PM me, i'll resend manually.