The campaign is already well funded and we’ve started procuring key components early. To make LoStik a success and to get it in as many hands as possible we spent a good deal of time sourcing parts from the US and China. We pre-purchased a lot of parts when it was clear the campaign was going to be successful — in part so that we could ensure quick delivery on campaign completion, but also because of the new US and Chinese trade tariffs. It’s hard to predict the effects of these trade tariffs, but the possibility of seeing a 25% cost increase for many key comments could greatly threaten the price point which have committed to for our backers. If you are interested in reading more about the potential effects of the trade war on makers, I really recommend checking out Bunnie Huang’s blog post on the topic.

On a cost related note — the enclosure we’re using is a great enclosure, but the price of machining a single quarter inch (6.5mm) hole would more than double the cost of the enclosure. Given the simple machining requirements we decided to take on this task ourselves. To do so a 3D printed jig was created and securely mounted to a table-top drill press. This method has produced great, repeatable results. I recruited one of my good friend’s kids to help out with the task. He’s excited to make a little summer cash.

We’ve spent quite a bit of time procuring the right parts, and optimizing our cost so that Third Venture can provide all of our backers with a great product that is priced well.

We’ve also been hard at work adding new code samples and improving existing ones. If you’re interested in contributing or just getting up to speed with how to interface with the LoStik, checkout our Github repository and subscribe for updates.

The first production PCBs have been delivered and we plan on starting a short-run over the next couple of weeks to work out any kinks so stay tuned for further updates.