Hello Pebble Tracker backers! The COVID-19 pandemic has caused major disruptions worldwide, and electronics manufacturing has been one of the most impacted industries. From global chip shortages to supply chain delays to labor shortages, our world is going through unprecedented times. Amidst these hurdles, our team has worked around the clock to get Pebble Trackers manufactured and into your hands as soon as possible. The manufacturing process is in-progress and we anticipate all Pebble Trackers will be shipped by the end of Q3 2021 — thank you for your patience!

In addition to coordinating with our supplier and manufacturing partners over the past months, we have added a multitude of new hardware and complementary firmware/software to Pebble Tracker. We are truly going the extra mile to ensure Pebble Tracker delivers a fantastic user experience for both developers and users!

Manufacturing is underway, bringing Pebble Tracker from design to reality.

As we previewed in our last update, we have added a sleek and functional case to the Pebble Tracker, which will be included for free for all backers. The case provides 3 convenient buttons for user-friendly navigation, a shiny 0.96 inch Blue OLED display with 128x64 px resolution, and easy-to-access Micro-USB and SIM Card slots. To match our new case design, we have also re-positioned the climate sensor to minimize interference of the device’s on-board temperature on sensor readings. Rounding out the new hardware features, we have included a built-in lithium ion battery so you can start using Pebble Tracker immediately once it’s in your hands.

Pebble Tracker Demo units are ready, mass production is next!

On the firmware/software side, we have been working diligently on a number of new features, including firmware catering to different modes of operation (e.g., no-battery, low-power, always-on), a user-friendly device onboarding portal to register a decentralized identity (DID) for your Pebble Tracker, and a variety of decentralized applications (Dapps) such as Pebble GO on the IoTeX blockchain. If you’re itching to get started with developing on Pebble Tracker, you can check out our new Pebble Tracker Simulator, which simulates the verifiable GPS, climate, motion, and light data that is captured/signed by a Pebble Tracker and publishes this signed data to any MQTT endpoint — give it a try and let us know your feedback!

Behind-the-scenes pictures of the manufacturing facility and process.

What’s Next?

With case molding, PCB production, and assembly/testing now underway, we are looking forward to the final stages of the manufacturing process. In the near future, we will complete our final product certifications and finalize our case and PCB assembly/testing before kicking off mass production. Once manufactured, all Pebble Trackers will be shipped to the Crowd Supply warehouse and finally delivered to all of our backers worldwide. We are working tirelessly to deliver you the best product possible and can’t wait to see what innovative things you will build with Pebble Tracker! Stay tuned for more updates from the IoTeX team soon — thank you so much for your support.