Radioactive@Home: About our HUGE delay...

On behalf of Ryszard Korczyk [ryszard.korczyk]:

First of all I would like to apologise to everyone for such a massive delay. When we started collecting money for 3rd batch of detectors we decided, a little too enthusiastically, to release a new revision of the detector. We've had mastered the manufacturing process for ver.2. Version 3 had been released in a small prototypical batch. Version 3 also appealed to many people visually, and this fact weighed heavily on our decision. Nobody however realised how long would it take to prepare a longer production run. There also were a couple of issues that were discovered in beta version, that also needed to be taken care of. Another cause for the delay was our attempt to reduce manufacturing costs. We do all the production on our own and some processes, especially preparation of transformers and chassis takes quite a lot of time. The chassis looks interesting, but it requires processing on a CNC machine. Caps require reaming and the openings need to be drilled through. Lastly, the labeling sticker needs to be applied and a hole for LCD display needs to be cut out. The printed circuit boards are also manufactured by us. Reputable manufacturing workshops demanded prohibitively high prices for production of such relatively small batch, with profitability threshold at 1000+ boards. Smaller and cheaper workshops on the other hand had high defect rates. PCBs manufactured by them had short circuits, rotated elements and overheated laminates. We decided therefore to manufacture PCBs by ourselves using a template for application of soldering paste and an oven for actual soldering. This too proved to be difficult at first. Too much paste on microcontroller's pins caused short-circuits. In effect I've had to remove the processor from each PCB, clean it, and solder it again (here's another delay). Before installing the PCB in chassis, it's edges need grinding, so that it fits in the pipe. In other words, a couple of unplanned issues summed up into a bigger delay. On top of that, I planned to work on detectors after my day job. I assumed I'd have to work 8 hours a day, but my employee pressed me hard, and I often had to devote more than 10 hours a day to my job. There were days where I would start at 7 a.m. and finish at 2 a.m. the following day. During such periods there was no chance to do anything with detectors, sometimes even for a week or so. How I am going to amend the situation: I am in no way backing away from the project. I commited to it, and I'm going to finish what I started. Trust me, there is still quite a lot of work with these detectors. Things at work start coming back to normal, and I can now expect to have a couple of hours each day to work on them. I'm planning to take a couple of days off too. I also started to organise a team of people who will help me to press forward. I also need to evaluate if I can utilise Szopler's and kotfryc's eagerness to help. Just today I have prepared a software update which enables displaying on the LCD converter's voltage, USB voltage and USB communication status. That should help in debugging if any users report problems. It's enough to hold down the button during powering up, and debug data will be displayed instead of 'Radioactive@home'. This update also delayed the deliveries as I didn't want to ship detectors without any means of diagnosing them. Schedule: Approximately 45 detectors are completed, 40 PCB's are ready without transformers and waiting to be tested. Another 50 PCBs with RC elements and 50 empty PCBs. We are also expecting a shipment of another 100 PCBs from the manufacturer. I have a dozen or so transformers ready for installation. Next Sunday I plan on manufacturing a number of those, as I managed to optimise this process recently. I declare to make 10 daily, but I want to do as much as 20 if possible. However, there might be days when I'm travelling due to my daytime job (Dec 6th and 7th). Next Saturday I plan to devote entirely to detectors' production. Having two other people to help I expect to do at least 40 pcs. I am also constantly looking for ways to improve our processes. Last, but not least, please hold your emotions. This does not work well on morale. I admit I screwed up, and I am doing whatever I can to do my part. Please take notice, that we do not profit from manufacturing detectors, we donate our time and try to make detectors as cheap as possible, so that everyone can afford them. Our detectors are much more sophisticated than QCN detectors, which consist of a cable, a chassis and a PCB with an accelerometer and a couple of elements. From now on I am going to provide you with daily status updates. Getting back to soldering USB cables.

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