Virt2real results of the year, or "The main question of life, the universe and all that"

Preamble

Bearing in mind the questions habrayuzerov to one of their previous posts, in a nutshell I will remind you about what I mean. We are a team of virt2real, tech-enthusiasts, who love to create all sorts of things with remote control and video surveillance via the Internet. Managed webcam , racing via the Internet , then developing your own microcontroller , collecting pre-orders , collecting orders and issuing circulation , Bond car .



Usually we only publish the results of our work, and are laconic about what is happening "behind the scenes." Therefore, during periods of "silence on the air," questions begin to arrive to us - say, are you alive at all. In this article, I wanted to highlight the internal kitchen team. There will be no clever conclusions and references to the fundamental works on project management - the article turned out to be essentially documentary. A description of our path, the rake and its bumps that hurt.
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Emotions

The first thing I want to say is that the project turned out to be significantly, just incredibly more difficult than we expected. This hardware problems, and a giant "plug" with the software, and production issues. I want to express very, very many emotions. In order not to dilute the whole article with them, I will try to concentrate them in a small metaphorical description.

You know, at the start of the project, we felt like a vigorous, brisk, experienced hunting dog that goes out into the open field to drive the next hare. We went out into the field, saw a hare in the distance - hurray-hurray! Drive, adrenaline, excitement! And rushed. Only now we were approaching the hare somehow slowly. Having run and started getting tired, we realized that the hare was very far away, and not exactly look like a hare ... It turned out very close that this is such a healthy buffalo! Well, we grabbed his nose at full speed, and he easily pulled us off the ground. After a long battle, we are dented, the paws are sprained, broken, the skin is torn. But the buffalo was already tired and fell to its knees. Actually, we are preparing for the final blow.

Public start

Capture in the story the end of 2012. By that moment, we brought the first batch of 10 virtual-tape to the working state, which allowed us to test it in various usage scenarios. The result was the first article on Habré .

What started here! We were overwhelmed with letters, questions and suggestions. The reviews were very different from “Is it cool where to buy?” To “We also planned this a long time ago, but we didn’t reach it” and “Nafig need it?”. But the vast majority of reviews were positive, which greatly added to our pep. Separately, I want to point out a whole wave of letters from people who have their own projects and tasks, asking us how to use the virtual music. From smart intercoms and the video recorder in a car to control of diesel generators and agrorobots. There were offers of help - on development, production and software. Several retail and online stores were asked to cooperate. The first financing proposals came as well - these were both funds and “there is an uncle who is familiar with money, let's talk”. The near future seemed bright and cloudless.

Reinforcement in the team and lin startup

In the first wave of letters, we received a letter from Anatoly, who later joined our team. I must say that we are all “turned” on the technical side of the issue, and Anatoly brought with him a lean-startup methodology. From it we learned a few interesting techniques and tools. For example, to the question “What is this decision for you?” We used to start a long story about the possibilities of the board, choking in technical details and a list of applications. And each time the story turned out to be different, both in content and in duration. After trying the lean canvas tool and storming the whole team, we came up with the phrase “An inexpensive platform for quickly building systems with remote control and video surveillance via WiFi, cellular networks and the Internet”. It seems to be one sentence, but to “squeeze” everything that I want to say in one phrase was unrealistically difficult. We also thought hard about who needs this solution (DIY geeks and corporate customers have turned out), what can be earned, market niche, etc. etc. In general, it helped a lot to figure out and articulate what we have done and what we can do about it.

Pre-order collection

Among the flow of questions dominated one - how much will it cost and how to buy. Here you could go on a classic way - to find money, make a small print run and try to sell it. And you could first try to figure out who is ready to buy a virtual, without being spent on circulation. Roughly speaking, count those who wish.

Said and done: estimated the cost of the kit with a circulation of 1000 pieces, created a page with pre-order (landing page) and began to collect pre-orders. Here is the page itself .

Video filmed at home by Serega Gol, this is a separate funny story. They decided not to complicate the page with a large number of fields and options, did not set a captcha - the goal was to give the opportunity to quickly and simply leave a pre-order. Of course, there were jokers who sent orders on behalf of Putin for 100,500 pieces, or from addresses like sdfsdf@sdfsdf.ru ​​Later, the whole list had to be worked out manually, since many made typos in their mail address (mal.ru, gmal.com, etc.). d). During the first day, about 1000 pre-orders were collected (in total, about 2000 during the collection).

I must say, it was the most exciting day. Mandrazh, alarm, waiting for a miracle ... Words are difficult to convey. I periodically informed the team about the current number of pre-orders. I tried to bring an order counter on the site - it didn't work out right away, but made a “crutch” and the counter was visible to the team logged in to the site with the necessary rights (hello to the webform module for the 6th Drupal). After hitting an article in the top 10, the stream became very active - sometimes several orders per second. In fact, this collection became for us the measure of the viability of the idea - if there were about a hundred pre-orders, then we should think things over and understand what we missed. But when the counter passed first over 100, then over 300, and finally, overcame the mark of 500 pre-orders - it became much easier for the soul.

About the press

On the day of the collection of pre-orders, calls from various publications began and letters fell down. The next day we went to the publications on quite serious portals - here are some links that we managed to fix. We managed to get acquainted with many publications, because the topic turned out to be interesting. Some portals said that they had a higher click rate on our news than other news on that day. Of course, all this added positive and improved the mood of the team. There was a feeling that here it is, happiness - pre-orders are coming, they are writing about us in the news, and right now everything will start to develop simply rapidly.

About money

From all that happened, we concluded that the product is in demand, interesting and has a very real future. It was a small thing - to find money for circulation and release it. In December 2012, we created the legal entity LLC “Virtual” and set to the next stage. And here we were waiting for a large number of great discoveries.

As I wrote above, many people who wanted to take part in the project turned to us. I would divide them into several groups.

Fraudsters and "zhivchiki" different types.

The first group, a few but bright. Some said, for example, "This is secret and secret information - but we have a project, the state allocated 10 billion for technical means to help people with disabilities, we can’t say any more, but there’s definitely a lot of money - let's cooperate." The second call has already changed the amounts and the task, and the emphasis has always been on unthinkable money. The instinct prompted that this was some sort of crap, and such appeals were quickly cut off with the phrases “send your technical requirements - we will see, we will discuss.” I suppose that comrades of this kind simply wanted to disengage some money for “preparing tender documentation for a hundred thousand million” or the like - a well-known scheme in IT procurement. There were several complaints from comrades who offered to help get a loan from banks, despite the lack of collateral, but for that wanting 15% of the loan amount. There were unexpected requests like "We have a project here, a lot of money has been allocated, but there is no solution - and you will make your printed circuit board round, of a different color, remove your names - and we will say that this is our product." No kidding - they actually asked to make a virtualka round! In general, only the cold head and rational thinking save here. But, we must pay tribute, many of the callers are well-versed in the conduct of such negotiations - the feeling that such activity is their profile.

Private investors.

The second group is perhaps the most surprised people. I do not in any way generalize - just share my impressions from my talk experience. Maybe I just met the "wrong" representatives. Either the format of our articles and the presentation of the material attracted people of a certain nature of character - I don’t try to judge. In preparation for the meetings, I expected to see vigorous, lively entrepreneurs who have very real money, sharp questions about the project and are ready to discuss the conditions. In fact, it turned out that I communicated with intermediaries who informed me that they could try to find and attract money from there and from there. All these conversations left the impression that I was trying to sell a used car through Avito, with a touch of suspicion and discomfort.

And the main cherry on the cake was that none of them understood the essence of the project - all people were “non-core”, having a distant idea about electronics in general. They hardly understood that we had created a platform for creating ready-made solutions. All the conversations went on the plane, “but let us work together with you to develop such an end product and make it a huge circulation”. They were taken to the creative on the subject of incredible new smart devices that will conquer the world (does he really come from our posts?). Translation of the conversation in the plane "Great idea! So here is our ready-made platform - develop a ready-made device on it, replicate and earn money on it, because we have already created the heaviest electronic part ”did not work. After several such meetings, I began to conduct filtering preliminary correspondence by e-mail and telephone conversations, which allowed us to cut off the useless meetings in advance. Adequate representative of this group of investors was just one person who, after a detailed conversation, said “this is really very interesting, but not mine”.

Investment funds.

The third group, the most numerous. By the nature of my main activity, I had never come across investment matters before. There were many discoveries about the blurring of shares, investment rounds, a bunch of new terms from the investment sphere. On Habré many articles on this topic - I will not repeat. One thing was clear - simply “igniting” investors with beautiful words is unrealistic. We need a standard set - at least a presentation and a business plan. Here a new player in the team actively joined - Anatoly. We made the presentation, while decently digging into the stories of similar electronic projects (Arduino, BeagleBone, Raspberry). Well, the business plan at the initial stage of creation caused very contradictory thoughts. We are a working team that has created a product and is actively looking for a business model. We tested the first hypothesis - there is a DIY market for us. This is all a lin startup. Those. we still don’t even know for sure whether those markets that we see will work in the right direction, or whether new ones will open up. But without numbers, the conversation is useless, so a spherical horse in a vacuum was thought out, and a business plan was built on the basis of this model. Beautiful volumetric multi-parameter model, with which you can play and watch the development in various scenarios. Based on it, a business valuation was made and the necessary funds were calculated. And the negotiations began.

We were able to talk with the majority of Russian funds. I’ll say right away that we didn’t cooperate with any fund. The most interesting observations turned out as follows.

First, our project tore the pattern of our focus. We are apparatchiki. With us it will not be possible to play the game “planted five programmers and in a year the project is worth a billion”. Iron is getting slower, thousands of times higher than the price of an error, a huge amount of risk at all stages. And at the same time, substantial money is required from the very beginning.

Secondly, there was a problem with the examination. We were told about this right and they didn’t have anyone to turn to in order to evaluate your decision. Nevertheless, two foundations found third-party experts who in the entire solution saw only the TI DaVinci processor and gave a detailed report on the performance of its ARM core. To consider the product as a platform for some reason did not happen. After negotiations, one of the funds had long thought and then disappeared from the radar. And after a while, 4 other funds themselves turned to us - they say that you are interesting, let's talk. It turned out that the first fund, not understanding what we are (remember the joke about the bun and the bear - “How did you say that ?!”) - quietly gave us to others so that they could try to figure it out and give their assessment.

Thirdly, we again broke the pattern of a typical project development. We came to this conclusion by analyzing a dozen meetings and suspecting that we have some kind of system error that leads to a dead end.
The essence is this: the project has the development of the actual product (idea), and the development of the entire structural binding - the team, legal entity, resources, management model, etc. Related structure and internal activities. So, it turned out that from the point of view of organizational development we are a team of enthusiasts from different cities, in which almost everyone works in their regular jobs. Not even an office. And from the point of view of the product, instead of “we have an idea, we need to put it on a piece of paper,” we have already passed the idea stage, technical development, prototype implementation in hardware, debugging of the prototype, production of the first small series and preparation of the serial product. And we needed funds already for the circulation of the finished product. Well, it’s as if a first-grader son came up to his dad and said, “I need the money - I dug a hole near the forest, filled the foundation and built the first floor of the ten-story building according to my project - I need to complete 19 more floors. And yes, and most of the apartments already have those who want it. ” Something like this. We received the most accurate formulation of this situation in Skolkovo - there was a good, sensible conversation. We have already passed the stages of development at which it was possible to receive a grant specifically for the development of an idea. All done at their own expense. And we are at the stage when funds are already allocated for production - with some of the funding coming from the fund, and some from outside investors. And that some companies are deliberately trying to pretend to be "small" projects in order to obtain funds for production under the guise of funds for product development. I hope I have not told any secrets here.

The conclusion on communication with the funds was the following: we will go through one more stage ourselves, remove the “distortions” in development and we can return to this topic. In the meantime, we ourselves with a mustache.

Shortly from the money to the production ...

In the meantime, we decided to run the entire production chain in a small run - 100 pieces. They decided to order it there and exactly so that the production of the first thousand went along the beaten track. Let me remind you that the first ten boards (conditionally, we call them “green”) were made entirely in Russia. In order to finally determine the production, it was decided to give the circulation to several companies in Russia that came to us themselves, and to work out a variant with China.

I will say briefly: the production estimates obtained in Russia turned out to be significantly higher than the retail prices that we had already expected and announced. Well, just very expensive. As it turned out later, companies that declared that they would even make a 10-layer fee to us in Russia, order it in the same China and bring it here, already to the assembly. Somewhat upset by the approach of some industries "and you tell me the price you want - we will build on it." There is an understandable task, all technical documentation, volume is known - well, estimate, tell your price. It's like coming to the store “Give a loaf of bread! “And how much are you ready to take?” Okay, they would give you a choice - if it’s more expensive than that, then it’s cheaper, and if you don’t test it, you will save, but there will be risks. Loss of time and nerves.



Production in China - we stopped at it. Here I’ll digress into this moment: we are used to doing everything ourselves. Within the framework of limited resources, we develop the hardware ourselves, we make our sites ourselves, we draw the design ourselves (yes, we know that everything is bad, but then we do have it all), we saw our Linux ourselves and make examples. The external designer was attracted only for the design of the page of pre-orders and logo assistance. Therefore, for example, they wanted to organize production in China from scratch - with trips, choice of factories, purchases, etc. But here we are lucky. Through Habr we met with Dmitry Dzhe , who helped us organize all the production. It can be considered an advertisement, but we got everything we wanted. We were clear every step, the entire chain of procurement, production, delivery. In each case, we had a choice - for example, we take a NAND flash here from a trusted supplier but more expensive, or it’s cheaper here, but it could be a rejection. We directly contacted suppliers in China and discussed the information received with Dima. We found out which RAM is better considering what is being produced and sold in China compared to Korea (where the quality is, and where the rejected chips are from brand manufacturers). What operations to do on the machine and which manually. The fact that our partners have a compatriot residing in Hong Kong who solves all the problems there is just a godsend. By the way, this is one of the developers of Radio-86RK ... We discussed the specifics of factories - they are more expensive there, but they buy components themselves and bear full responsibility, here they are cheaper, but the purchase of components is ours, and this is a saving. These will make weekly fees, but more expensive, others - in three weeks, but cheaper.

Current problems - for example, the replacement of a purchased batch of crumbling, in which the Chinese mixed up the prefix "miles" and "mega" in the resistor nominal value - were also solved promptly and bloodlessly. In the end, even such a thing as the notification of the FSB was officially made for us.
With this one hundred, we got the first break-in problems, and not only the break-in problems. It should be noted that the design of the virtualka has greatly changed - this required a serious reworking of the circuit and a change in the board's construction. Surprises could float from anywhere. And they surfaced. One hardware error sneaked out of the green version - so the first hundred had to be “patched” by cutting one track and prokidyvaniem “hairs”. The calculated values ​​of some resistors turned out to be incorrect - this was found during the tests of GPIO operation, to which the first version of the normal driver appeared. We changed the camera module - for the same money a module was found with high resolution. Hence the writing of a new driver. And all this time, work was actively going on with the creation of a normal Linux kernel 3.9 - it turned out that no one had done this work before us, everything that exists on the Internet lives on the kernels of many years ago. In general, there was a lot of fun.

... and to Bond's car

All this time, in parallel, Seryoga was doing the Bond wheelbarrow. March 11 was born topic .

Resonance from the article simply crushed us. We did not expect that in addition to the national press and TV article will be translated into English and will cause a sensation in the west. Most of the information in the “Press about us” section is about Bond’s wheelbarrow. In addition to the references to such monsters as Wired, Gizmodo and National Post, we were very pleased with the article on topgear and, of course, on the Croatian website PlayBoy. Film crews came from our TV, RussiaToday and foreigners (Discovery Channel). Enthusiasts from automotive projects began to contact us. After this event, we redesigned the site (in fact, we launched a new one on Drupal 7th) and included support for Russian and English, although we are not yet in time to translate everything. The old site remained at old.virt2real.ru .

Wheelbarrow Bond greatly added fame to the project, but did not bring direct money. But it helped to get the second custom project, which added funds to us for the production of circulation.

... and a little about the Great Depression

In the spring played another risk - we are all in permanent jobs. In this regard, the debugging process with the first hundred was delayed for a very long time. During the collection of pre-orders, we indicated spring as the starting date for deliveries, but we made a big mistake. Sometimes the work stopped for several weeks because of the work in the hands of one of the team members. The number of tasks that had to be solved grew exponentially - but resources did not increase, so the team’s speed dropped. In the mail and in lichku on Habré began to receive questions "so where are you?", Comments "Well, as always, started for the health ...", "A cool idea was, sorry" and the like. Perhaps it was the most depressive period of the year, when all that could not go wrong under the worst-case scenario. The problem with the Linux video subsystem that beat us for a month, a negative result for a conversation with all investment funds, zero result for all sources of funding, a halt to work on hardware and the first print run. And against the background of all this, proposals for cooperation from different companies came to us - we just physically could not adequately work it all out. Vzvinchinnost, a sense of a vicious circle of finance-circulation, a huge and rapidly growing front of work - yes, we seriously sparkled within the team. And we cannot go out for a full day - for all families, children, loans. And the project is frankly "stuck." Therefore, spring-summer was held in the mode of titanic overvoltage and internal devastation. But a mixture of anger and powerlessness gave strength. One of the consequences - for the promised fees of the second floor, we were able to take a big delay.

I still consider it a miracle that our team has been involved in the project for almost two years, managed to embody it in hardware and continues to nibble it.

Well, on June 13 we received the first samples of the new series , which became a holiday.

And again to the money - projects, crowdfunds

The production needed money. The first predractional hundred (virtrilka 1.1, “black”) was made from personal funds. I can say that as part of the production of the first hundred, a lot of work has been done in preparation for the main circulation - various one-time expenses. Each virtirlka of this hundredth edition cost us $ 180.

At the end of 2012, the guys came to us with a custom project. According to the NDA, I can’t tell the details except that it weighed 60 kg and was controlled from the tablet. This project brought us funds to support pants, but the issue with the production was not able to solve. Work on the project went on for several months, in parallel with all the events on the production of circulation and the search for finance.
And then we decided to try crowdfunding. The first thought, of course, is Kickstarter. We even started making videos and material. It was embarrassing that in the west they do not know about us, we still “did not make any mistake” (this was before the Bond car). But this tale ended faster than we expected - at Kickstarter we were on the list of banned projects, as they attributed the virtual line to surveillance equipment. That's all.

The next thought was born - wait until the first hundred of the copies arrive, make sure everything is in order - and try to make a crowdfunds on Habré. We also have 2000 pre-orders - and this is already something.

To raise funds, the available online store mikrogonki.ru was uncovered, which was mothballed at the time due to the withdrawal of its main product, micromashins, from production. But the engine worked, so they decided to use it. As it turned out later, the store drank a lot of blood to those who tried to pay for the old age of years and due to the change of technologies and API of the payment aggregator. According to a good tradition, all the bugs resurfaced exactly on the trawl - when the active flow of people willing to help the project and make an advance payment for their virtual music went. Crutches on the move were able to solve some of the problems. In general, we decided to break the vicious circle and try to use the last chance to raise funds for the circulation - in one night the store was repainted, redone, and filled with new content.And on June 19, 6 days after receiving the first five motherboards of a new generation and their tests, an article appeared on collecting pre-orders .

First, we gave the opportunity to make payment to those who left pre-orders. Technically, this was implemented quite simply - invitations to the site were sent to all addresses from pre-orders, and the accounts created in advance were given the right to make a purchase and payment. After some time, when the flow dried up, we lifted the restriction - everyone could pay. In total, in the first wave, about 500 virtual loaders were paid. Those who paid for the order within a week from the moment of launch were asked to choose a bonus board from the list of expected ones.

It turned out that there was not enough money for circulation. If you make less than 1000, then the price increases significantly. In addition, the dollar during this time managed to grow from 27 to 32 rubles, which also added to our excitement. And just at that moment another customized project came to us. Without violating the NDA, I can only say that this piece weighed slightly less than four tons. And the idea of ​​contacting us was born after the “Wheelbarrow Bond” project. This project, which is logical, required a serious distraction of the main development.

And what do you think?Even taking into account the project that came, there was still not enough money. They collected a little more than half. The options to state the community “sorry, we have such a story here” were already quite seriously considered - and to return payments to all. Unpleasant, I tell you, the feeling - they promised, they took it, they prepared the production, and even raised money - and here you are. An emergency enumeration of all possible ways of raising funds began. Happy ending happened by taking personal loans, which did not kill us, but made us stronger. Actually, the circulation began. He came to us on August 28, here is a photo report .

Early followers - on user level and threshold of entry

Remember the fight with Linux video subsystem? On the first 5 boards it broke out with a new force. We were waiting for the circulation, and we had to make adequate software by his arrival. It was assumed that, together with the main circulation (or a little later), the second floor boards will come immediately, and our happy customers will immediately be able to start playing with the virtual line in full force. This battle continues to this day ...

In the article on the virtualka we said that we see several levels of user training - from beginners to experts. And here we had a reason for frustration. There were quite a few people who ordered the virtualka who do not have a serious level of programming, but were inspired by our articles. And they got a virtual tape without additional cards and with software, in which even experienced Linux users tense the brain. This is clearly visible onOur first thread discussion forum . In fact, it turned out that with the level of software development that was at the time of circulation in Russia, a couple of dozen people who bought five hundred could literally work with a virtualka. Very high threshold of entry. We just completed the lower "basic" level of software, which will already have a "user-friendly" toolkit for work.

Guys, we just did not have time. Not yet in time. In fact, three people are engaged in hardware and software in the team, and this is very hard. But we are trying very hard to cope with it. And cope!

For some questions, we turned to the community on our forum - as a result, there is already a native iOS application for working with the virtual line (the codes are open), for Android, there is a web-driving experience. Made the first article "Virtuylka for Dummies", which deals with the very basics. At the forum, the section “projects on the basis of a virtualka” is replenished, where colleagues share their developments. And we are very grateful to all forum users who help newcomers to the forum!

I must say that both the forum and the wiki have added another front of work - this is community support and content of information resources. And we feel the real help of the community - it's just great!

Total not to provide

As I said, the error in the development of iron is many times more expensive than that in the software. When developing software, you can quickly release a patch and solve the problem. And with iron is another matter. One of these surprises we caught. In the production of the first hundred, we did, in particular, WiFi modules. The module was very simple in construction (relative to a 10-layer virtual part with 400 components). A sample check of the modules showed that everything is fine. When the hundred came and the tests went, everything was fine too. And we did the circulation. To be completely sure, we have fully tested each kit (about this below). And then we got hit by the dead.

It turned out that about 25% of WiFi modules do not work. The meanness was that some started normally, but “died” after a few minutes of work. Due to the complete testing, we eliminated most of the problem modules, but some “leaked” to users. Of course, we change them without problems, but each replacement is a mailing. This time, loss of money and a slight disappointment of buyers. But all we had to do was to allocate time for testing the modules at the factory, which we refused to save time. We are to blame.

About underestimating trivia

Oh, China! How wonderful you are with your low price! This is me to the question of testing and packaging. The virtual line itself, the Wi-Fi module and the camera module came to us in anti-static zip bags, which are fastened with a snap of a white plastic strip. The bag is small, the fastener is strong - after a dozen bags, fingers begin to hurt.

To check the kit, you need to:
- open the latch and pull out the virtual tape from the bag
- open the latch and pull out of the Wi-Fi bag
- open the latch and pull out the camera module from the bag
- unplug the protective red film from the virtual tape connectors (2 connectors)
- remove the protective film from the connectors Wi-Fi (2 slots)
- plug the cable into the camera and the virtual video
- screw the antenna
- insert lace in MicroUSB and stick a flash drive (to test the USB)
- Insert the MicroSD card with the test firmware
- Connect the mini-TV to the AV output
- apply power and wait for the loading and passing tests, results are displayed on the TV
- in the case of failed tests to replace component , not passed the test, and repeat

Test passed? Okay, pack up!
- unscrew the antenna
- unfasten the camera cable from the virtual camera and the camera board
- disconnect the flash drive
- pull out the MicroSD
- remove everything in bags
- pack foam in the box and store the contents
- close the box
- note that it is assembled

For all of these operations, the conveyor system was thought out - while the download is in progress and the test is a mass unpacking or unsticking of the stickers, or an assembly.

Why am I saying all this? This is a valuable experience. For the future, our main conclusion is that absolutely all mass simple operations should definitely be done in China. Let it cost a little more, take more time, let the delivery be more expensive (when everything is laid out in boxes, the volume weight of the delivery dramatically increases) - it will definitely pay off. Without providing such trifles, you can "drown" in the routine. On some days I was finishing the tests and packing by five in the morning, as a result - mistakes in order picking. I did not put the loop, or I mixed up the order numbers and instead of one virtual line I put two.

From fun trivia

Cardboard boxes for Virtu-loles were ordered from a company found in Yandex in 10 minutes. After the photo of the boxes was published, a lot of questions came “Where did you order? They are super! ” The boxes turned out to be more interesting than the virtual.

In the production of foam, we made a mistake with the size - it was 1 cm longer than necessary. Such a trifle led to the fact that each closure of a packaged box led to the “biting” of protruding foam rubber with cardboard. Great loss of time to correct the bite.

When sending by the Post of Russia, an employee swears by packing our mini-box with scotch tape from all sides. The solution turned out to be elegant - they gave me a branded tape that was used to pack all the boxes at home before being sent to the post office.

Note to the hostess: sending 100 parcels at once at the Russian Post will be much more tasty if you do this at the Main Post Office, working around the clock, at night. And with proper diplomacy, you can leave the parcel to the employee, and come in the morning for checks.

Latest news

We assembled and tested prototypes of second-floor boards. Printed circuit boards are already with us, components too. We will collect in Russia, because the circulation is small. We expect readiness in January. Already posted a technical description in our wiki - Motorshild , relay module and debug board for prototyping .

Results in one paragraph, briefly and self-critically

So, for the year we were able to:
+ develop a production version of the board and additional modules
+ find funds for production
+ organize production in China
+ release and bring the circulation to Russia
+ send the virtual string to anyone who wants to - “let the people”
+ make the software environment for work
+ make several projects for order
+ save and even expand our team

Could not:
- do everything in time
- attract third-party tools
- avoid errors when accepting iron from production (Wi-Fi modules)
- make software available to users of all levels of training and
- start working with corporate customers

I will add that the scope of the project work becomes incompatible with the main work. At the moment I’m transferring the case and completely leaving the project for the full time. Team members.

I want you to see the project. And I didn’t have time to answer or “slowed down” during correspondence.

Thank!!!