Hello Pebble Tracker community — we are happy to report that final product testing is now complete and mass production is underway! We have been working around the clock amidst unprecedented supply-chain issues and chip shortages that have made it incredibly challenging for electronics manufacturers around the world, but we are almost at the finish line. We expect to complete mass production and certification by mid-October, after which all units will be shipped to the Crowd Supply warehouse and then to you as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience!

Production Units & Final Testing

Since our last update in July, we have manufactured our first production trial run of 25 Pebble Trackers, which were rigorously tested for performance, accuracy, and resiliency. We are happy to report our production units performed extremely well, passing all performance and resiliency testing requirements and proving that Pebble Tracker is ready for primetime. With dozens of unique parts that needed to be welded, assembled, and tested, we’re extremely excited to move on to the mass production process, where hundreds of Pebble Trackers will be manufactured each week.

A picture is worth a thousand words, so take a behind-the-scenes look at the Pebble Tracker manufacturing and testing process below!

Certifications

As a product that will be used by builders from around the world, Pebble Tracker requires a lot of certifications. And we mean a lot! CE, FCC, SRRC, ROHS, and UKDA certifications are now underway and expected to be completed by the end of September. The purpose of these certifications is to ensure that safety, health, and environmental protection requirements are met, as well as to protect against hazardous substances, radiation, and other negative externalities. We are proud that Pebble Tracker was designed to operate in an environmentally responsible fashion that can be used internationally as a globally certified product.

Device Management Portal, SDKs, and Protocols

In addition to manufacturing and certifications, our team has been working diligently on incredible complementary software and firmware for Pebble Tracker. We are truly going the extra mile to ensure Pebble Tracker delivers a fantastic user experience for both builders and users. First off, we have built a user-friendly IoT portal that will make onboarding for device owners a breeze – check out the initial design screenshots below. To ensure a fantastic developer experience for Pebble Tracker, we have also been busy building new software and SDKs that will complement Pebble Tracker: in addition to the previous embedded developer documentation, you can now start browsing the work-in-progress blockchain development documentation to get an idea of what it will look like to build blockchain applications based on Pebble Tracker. As usual, you can browse the source code via our GitHub repository. Finally, we are working on multiple operation modes for the firmware, such as "no-battery", "low-power", and "always-on" modes.

If you’re itching to get started developing on Pebble Tracker, you can check out our new Pebble Tracker data generator, which generates signed GPS, climate, motion, and light data that can be transmitted to the IoTeX Network, simulating a real Pebble device. The IoTeX network will in turn verify the data and make it available to conventional apps or decentralized blockchain apps (Dapps). Ask for a simulated device identity in our Discord, give it a try, and let us know your feedback!

The Finish Line Is In Sight

From all of us here at IoTeX, we want to thank you for your patience and outpouring of support. As the blockchain industry finally starts to garner global attention, we know that the most important applications of this technology are yet to come. We truly believe Pebble Tracker will jumpstart an entirely new category of decentralized use cases that connect the physical and digital worlds like never before. By providing 100% verifiable, real-world data to the blockchain, we will witness the first-ever applications that allow people to earn digital assets based on their real-world actions.

We can’t wait to see what you build! Stay tuned for more updates from the IoTeX team, and reach out to us on Discord with any questions.