As you probably noticed, the GetWired crowdfunding campaign wrapped up almost two weeks ago. Nonetheless, it is still keeping us quite busy. Over the past week, we have been working hard to review our designs (and to introduce a few small but significant improvements). We have also prepared a shopping list with all of the electronic parts we will need and contacted our manufacturers to confirm their terms. As you can see, we’ve made a lot of progress, but there is one very important thing we have not yet done, and we’d like to fix right now. We would like to say

Thank you!

to all of our backers. Your support means a lot to us. It has allowed us to continue developing GetWired and to manufacture a sizeable batch. Below, you will find some interesting details we would like to share with you.

Campaign Summary in Numbers

I recently came up with the idea to summarize our campaign using numbers. Have a look at the result:

• 1 sponsor (PCBWay)
• 1 pandemic raging during the campaign
• 2 different 3D-printable enclosures
• 4 months of preparation
• 4 hardware designs
• 8 articles about GetWired in the media
• 9 different pledge levels
• 9 campaign updates
• 29 backers from eight countries
• 47 days of crowdfunding
• 67 photos and diagrams on the campaign page and in campaign updates
• 69 different electronic parts among the four designs
• 99 seconds of campaign video
• 206 subscribers
• 500+ modules to manufacture
• 6,217 dollars raised
• 20,000 electronic parts in total (give or take)

Manufacturing Progress

OK, let’s leave the curiosities behind and move on to some important facts about the manufacturing process.

Parts Sourcing

Our main goal now is to manufacture the modules ASAP and get them ready to be shipped to our backers. As was mentioned before, we’ve once again reviewed our designs and prepared a BOM for the whole campaign batch. We have consulted with our supplier about current prices and availability of the parts we need. The markets are crazy right now (as are component prices and exchange rates), but as of this moment, our first batch is fully funded. It appears that we will even have some funds left over. Don’t worry, we won’t waste them!

According to the prediction we made in our original manufacturing plan, the greatest risk to our venture comes from parts availability (or lack thereof). Unfortunately, we were right. We already know that we will have to wait until May to receive the ATmega328PB microcontrollers. Hopefully, all other parts will reach us sooner. We will keep you informed about all delays resulting from parts shortages in upcoming updates.

Changes to the Original Manufacturing Plan

As mentioned previously, we found a sponsor. PCBWay, a well-known PCB manufacturer based in China, offered to fabricate our PCBs free-of-charge. We are familiar with the high quality of their work, as we’ve made a few orders from them in the past, so we are going to accept their generous offer. As a result, we have to change our original manufacturing plan, which assumed that we would carry out the entire manufacturing process here in Poland. Now, obviously, at least a part of it will be taking place in China. We are still analyzing the problem and trying to determine which assembly option would be the best in terms of quality, cost, and lead times. Expect new information on this matter soon!