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It’s the Tingbot Team…with another fresh new update!

This month, we’re full on stoked with the bustle on our new developer Slack channel. So stoked that we’d like to share with the rest of you some of the stuff that’s been going on.

We’ll also be filling you in on where you’re Tingbots are at in the manufacturing process so please do read on!

The Community Creates

On the software front, Joe and our open source crew have been busy building Tide and the python libraries.

Tide-Electron (for Windows/Linux) is coming along nicely, while it’s not feature-complete, it’s starting to feel like a real application! Great work this month from @Rob4001 and thanks to @stefanjanssen for helping out on the Windows side.

@furbrain has been doing great work on the python-libraries, writing the tricky code so you don’t have to™!

We also saw some cool apps from community member @whistlemaster - we can’t wait to try this Timer app out on the Tingbot!

Interested in getting involved? Join us in the Slack channel - http://slack.tingbot.com

Making Modules

It’s taken a wee bit longer than we anticipated BUT our sample Tingbot modules and button boards are almost with us! ＼(＾O＾)／

The manufacturer in Shenzhen is finishing up 5 sample units of each by Monday and they should be with us by the end of next week. Once we have fully checked them over we can push the button and and set the full run in motion. We are really excited for these and will be posting an update with images of our samples, checks and tests.

The Master Mould

Behold! The steel mould for the side caps is complete and raring to go…

We have been careful to make room for tweaks so that when our sample modules arrive we can make the perfect friction fit. A few early samples with the mould have been done and they are shaping up really well.

A couple of our sample modules and button boards will be sent to Northumberland (where the mould making and manufacturing is taking place) so that they can make accurate tolerance adjustments. Once we are fully satisfied with the results then we are good to go. We are going to be taking a trip to the manufacturer so we can see the injection results for ourselves and get some great photos of the process for you guys.

The next few weeks are going to be awesome with everything finally coming together.

Oi, where’s my Tingbot!?

When we started the campaign the plan was to deliver the product by the end of May. Well, here we are! As you may have guessed from on the last few updates, we’re not able to ship just yet. There have been a couple of unforeseen things that needed tweaking (especially with the release of the Pi3) to make the case the best it can be. We have also made slight improvements to the module board that knocked on production by a few weeks.

This should add an extra month or two but rest assured we are well on our way to getting your Tingbots to you. Thanks everyone for your patience and messages of support!

Cheers for now,

- The Tingbot Team