Shipping Update - boards shipping out around May 8th
about 9 years ago – Tue, Apr 28, 2015 at 05:59:35 PM

Quick update:

First batch boards will begin shipping around May 8th.

I have been working regularly with the factory in China to sort out packaging design, testing procedures, sourcing, and pricing on the other upcoming products we are putting into production. There has been a near-daily back and forth as we work to get this shipment out. I even spent most of my "week off" working, but it was nice to work 3.5 days instead of 6 that week.

So I apologize for the delay. I know I said Q1 delivery and then April, and now May. But I have asked for clarification on the May 8 shipment schedule and the manufacturer says we will meet that. It will take 2-3 weeks for packages to arrive, and we will have tracking numbers e-mailed out to everyone. So that means the first shipment should arrive late May for most people.

We're very close...

Thanks for hanging in there everyone. As always please visit community.flutterwireless.com to help with code, talk about new ideas, or ask questions.

Also, the snap together 3D printed remote control car is really coming along. I've made some improvements to the frame and the vehicle is now simpler and sturdier. Here is a quick video I made of the car going over a jump a few times. Next week I get the production boards back for that controller, which is the first new item not featured on the Kickstarter. I'll also be getting back what should be the final rev of the R/C Shield, which is now called the Explorer. I'll post an update with that stuff once I've got it assembled and tested.

-Taylor

Tiny shipping update - please check your address!
about 9 years ago – Mon, Apr 20, 2015 at 02:32:50 PM

Just a reminder - about 25% of Kickstarter rewards will ship this month. Please make sure your shipping address is correct in Backerkit! In a few days I will download shipping information for the appropriate backers and send the info to Seeed studio for drop shipping.

Please Click This Link and make sure your shipping information is correct.

In other news Flutter Scout got a little design attention this weekend, check out the video. Design files will be available on Scout's Github repo when complete.

Thanks, and that's all for now.

-Taylor

March production and delivery update. We're on track!
about 9 years ago – Fri, Mar 27, 2015 at 08:52:06 AM

Flutter Update

Hey everyone! It's been five weeks since the last update and we have a lot of exciting news.

A very long TL;DR:

The community forum is pretty active now that boards are beginning to trickle out to people. We're using the new open source community board called Discourse which is really, really nice. Come join the discussion and check it out at community.flutterwireless.com. That's the best place to ask me a question too, as I am there pretty much daily and others can chime in when I'm not around.

1000 Flutter Basics have now been made and are undergoing factory testing in China. They will ship out mid-April to SOME backers in the lowest tiers (backers with only Basic boards and breakout shields kits, so "International Hello World" backers and below). Only a small group have had boards sent to them so if you haven't heard anything, just sit tight.

About 40 boards have already been delivered to software developer backers who are helping with code, and all of the source code for Flutter has been posted on our github. See the getting started thread for more info.

The Flutter breakout shield kit is done and will ship with deliveries in April. The Bluetooth Shield and the RC shield are under testing now. The RC Shield, Flutter Pro, and Bluetooth shield will go into production in May.

We will be exhibiting for 5 days straight at MakerCon and Maker Faire in mid-May, so we will be spending most of April preparing for that. If you want to help is with either of those events, go here.

After the Maker Faire we will put the Network Shield into production and deliver the remaining Kickstarter rewards and new orders during June and July.

The final manufactured Basic boards have been tested and achieve at least 1.1 kilometer range at the FCC-tested 20kbps data rate we are starting with. Other data rates from 1kbps to 1000kbps will be available in the future.

I have uploaded a new video of Flutter Scout and the prototype Flutter remote control. We will be making the remote control into an easy to use shield with a simple printable controller design that assembles in minutes without screws. Build your own Scout now.

I have expanded the community board with things like an "Idea Zone", a wiki, and a blog, so check it out. If any of you can do PCB design and are interested in high quality wireless audio, please contribute to the "Audio Shield" project here.

Hopefully I didn't miss anything there. Please check out the board for more info. We need people who want to help with software, electronics development, and more.

Now for the more detailed update

Seeed studio has now made 1000 Flutter Basics! We have done a lot of internal testing with the new hardware, including confirming the FULL kilometer range at our FCC-certified 20kbps with the normal Flutter Basic! These tests are all line of sight in open air so they represent ideal conditions like controlling a drone or point to point locations in a large field, but it's pretty amazing performance out of our $2 radio chip! I know people want to know about non-ideal performance and we will continue to do more testing in urban and wooded environments as time goes on. We have done hundreds of meters through our dense apartment complex.

I mentioned we will begin deliveries to some backers in April, but not all of the low level backers will get shipments in April! I will have more information on that in the next update, but please don't worry if you are in those tiers but don't see anything in April.

Many of you have asked about other data rates, and we have been a little dodgy due to the uncertain legal ground covering open source radio products. We had first planned on playing it safe by making it difficult to change the wireless behavior, but there are some important things Flutter can do like HD audio that require higher data rates. Sticking with only one data rate unnecessarily impedes the product development, which we have been planning on doing out in the open. We cannot reasonably be expected to pay $10,000 for every possible data rate as Flutter is capable of many distinct data rates that each provide real value to the customer. The laws simply have not adapted to handle this kind of product, as most wireless products do not focus on new protocol development in the open. We want Flutter customers to have the best possible platform though, and that means being able to use more than the one tested data rate.

The solution is to involve Flutter's customers who have an Amateur Radio license. The Amateur Radio license, also called a HAM, certifies that an operator understands how wireless technology works, and gives them permission to use their own judgement on how to avoid using a wireless device in a harmful manner. The real concern of the FCC is the main clause of part 15 of their rules, which says "the device must not cause harmful interference". Devices that interfere with others are harmful, so the FCC has a bunch of rules on how to make a device not harm others in a public space. But when you have a device with 1 kilometer range and you're out in the wilderness tens of kilometers from other devices, all those rules can be unnecessary. A person with a HAM license can recognize this and make their own decision about what will and will not cause harmful interference.

We will work with the HAM community to develop alternative speed options for Flutter, and work to unify the protocol so it can dynamically switch speeds. As the HAM community tests protocols, we will try to determine which additions to the protocol would follow FCC rules, and work to get those running in the official customer branches of the code. If you're a HAM who would like to help, please comment on this thread.

I have also mentioned using Flutter for HD audio. Flutter has plenty of power to build a Free/Libre home audio system, walkie-talkie or intercom system, or more. I want to start working with people who have PCB design skills to get some of that work done as I focus on production and delivery. I am really, really excited about designing a bunch of basically complete products on a 100% Free/Libre platform. If you want to help on our audio project, please see this thread.

We reserved a booth at the Bay Area Maker Faire May 16 and 17, with a day of setup the 15th. I will also be attending and exhibiting at MakerCon on May 12th and 13th, so that's 5 days of almost non-stop exhibiting and sales. It should do wonders for our financial position but will be a hell of a lot of work. If you want to help us run the booth and will be in the area, please see this thread.

I also wanted to let people know I am taking one week off in April, after I have communicated what is needed to our manufacturer. I have been working for two years straight, day in and day out for 24 months, with two separate weeks off because they had been literally forced on me by my loved ones (for me and for them). My grandfather died in the middle of the Kickstarter campaign. Shortly after that my 6 year old cat got diabetes, and after caring for him every 12 hours with insulin injections for six months, he died. Then two weeks later my mother's dog of ten years died suddenly of bone cancer. I designed a brand new microcontroller based wireless system from the ground up twice. I wrote a frequency hopping stack from scratch and risked $10,000 on FCC testing that went flawlessly. I put 1000 boards into production with the help of a bunch of really talented people in China, and put everything up as open source. I started a new online community where our customers can go to discuss the product, and worked with early engineers to bring up the first ever Flutter software revision on three different operating systems. I designed a screwless 3D printed remote control car to demonstrate what Flutter can do. The boards will ship soon, and in two months we will spend a week straight demoing and pitching our product to everyone who will listen at the largest ever DIY hobbyist events in the country. I have to design a booth full of wireless devices that will engage and amaze people, because flyers won't do Flutter justice.

I'd like to take a short break and collect myself for my own sanity's sake. I could use two weeks off but I'll take one. Flutter is an awesome product, the basic software is working well, and very soon it will be hitting everyone's doorsteps. Seeed studio is a global distributor and electronics manufacturer based in Shenzhen, China, and they are handling all of our production and distribution. I will take next week to finish communicating every last thing we need for them for the first major block of deliveries and get them going on pumping it all out. Then I am going to take a short break before focusing on the run up to the Maker Faire as the first 1000 boards arrive at customer's doors. I have some awesome new things I want to design for Flutter but I have to focus on business development for the next three months or so, and then hopefully we can start engineering the cool accessories that will make Flutter really powerful. My goal is to make some serious contributions to open source robotics and automation, so we have some exciting things planned for Flutter after the Kickstarter rewards are all delivered.

That's it for now and I can't say this enough, thank you all for helping me start my dream company. I work every day but when you're working on what you love it's hardly work. I owe that you all of you and the friends who helped me get started before the Kickstarter. Thank you all and look for another update in late April. I have been responding to all emails these days ([email protected]) and you can also catch me on the Discourse board if you have any questions.

Flutter is in production!
about 9 years ago – Tue, Mar 10, 2015 at 10:21:33 AM

TL;DR:

• First 50 boards from the manufacturer look good, 950 more coming around the end of March. We should begin deliveries in early to mid April.
• We need C/C++ developers who want to help with our code in exchange for early boards. Fill out this survey if you want to help. Also see this forum post for more info/
• Flutter Pro and shields will go into production some time in April.
• My 3D printed robotics stuff is coming along. The screwless 3D printed car is looking good, and we are hoping to offer kits for this stuff after all the rewards are all delivered. Pictures here.

Regular update follows...

Hello Flutter Backers!

Well, wow, it's hard to really comprehend how amazing it is that I can say this... Flutter is in production! We've got the first 50 boards back this week from Seeed Studio and they just look beautiful. Have a look for yourself:

Just in this photo is more Flutter boards than previously had ever existed, and I feel so incredibly happy and fortunate to be where I am thanks to all of you. This batch of 50 was just a test run to make sure we had properly communicated to Seeed everything that is needed. Well, we must have gotten that right because a random spot check of boards shows 100% success so far for programming and running some simple wireless test code.

Over the next few weeks, while Seeed Studio wraps up their Chinese New Year break, we'll be thoroughly testing these boards.

I started a near-total rewrite of Flutter's code base a while back so I could start with one cohesive plan for how it would be arranged, rather than the mishmash of code I made in spurts over the last year. Last week I got that mostly up and running, and in the next two weeks I will finalize it.

However, I don't want to spend all my time polishing the code when there are shields to finalize and other boards to get into production, so we're announcing a call for developers.

Call for developers

Are you a C/C++ developer who would like to work on Flutter's pre-release code? Do you have time during the month of March to work on Flutter's code? We have a limited number of first-run boards we can send to developers who want to help out. Please complete this survey if you think you can help. Also see this forum post for more info.

Production Schedule

Now that production on the Basic is underway, we're looking towards a move to full production for all Flutter hardware. Next thing we'll send into production is the Flutter Pro, followed by all of the shields. The Breakout Shield is complete and doubles as the Bluetooth Shield when shipped with a Bluetooth module attached. We already have a pile of Breakout Shields here. The R/C shield is in our hands but needs some minor changes before production. The Shield Shield is partially complete and a test batch will be ordered soon. The JTAG shield looks done and just needs to be ordered. The Network Shield has finally been sorted out and we will be testing the first version soon. We're going to work on shields in March and plan to have all the shields done and ready for production by the end of March.

The Flutter Basic will begin to ship in early April as long as production goes smoothly (and it already looks good). The Flutter Pro will begin to ship probably a month later, but we need to schedule this with Seeed when they return from their break before we have any firm dates on that. We expect to begin shipping shields around the same time as the Pro (May), but the Breakout Shield is already done so that will ship with the Basic in April.

That's pretty much it for the update, but in other news, the Flutter 3D printed robotics project is advancing along nicely. I've now got a fully functional 3D printed remote control car that uses minimal non-printed parts. This will be sold as a kit with all necessary components so anyone can use Flutter to learn and have fun at the same time. The very first robot I ever built came from a kit like this and it was an excellent way to learn.

I'm calling the printed car "Scout", and I will be loading the source files and STLs onto Github soon. I'm hoping we can eventually offer a few different platforms, including 4wd and walking platforms. Click the image of Scout below for a gallery showing all the pieces.

Locking down orders next Tues and heading into production.
about 9 years ago – Wed, Feb 18, 2015 at 06:58:15 AM

Happy 2015 backers!

2014 was a critical year for Flutter, so I've written a blog post looking back on the progress we made. But before you read that, please check out the following announcements.

First thing's first: All backers who have added items to their pledge in Backerkit will be charged this coming Tuesday, Jan 13th. This will allow us to get the best volume pricing as we go into production of your pledges. Once we charge your card, you cannot change your order.

If you have not done so  please log in to Backerkit now and make sure everything looks good. Some backers reported issues logging in, so if that happens please email [email protected] and they will sort you out.

We've made some changes to the store. We changed how international shipping works as that was not being correctly calculated. You now need to manually add international shipping as an item to the order, but only if you did not already pay for an international reward (which included the shipping fee). Basically only backers who moved or new orders need this fee. We added a few other items to the store so check that out. A few shields are not available at this time - we apologize for the inconvenience.

The Pro is now available for sale! The Pro is offered as a kit with an assembled board + solderable pin headers, antenna connector, and mini antenna. This offers the most flexibility for professional users working with custom applications. New orders only ship in this kit form, but backers will have the option of receiving their pledges with the headers and antenna connector soldered on. We will send out a survey asking for that information before the Pro goes into production (we are starting with the Basic first).

It is incredibly exciting to finally be moving into production. We will be ordering a small batch of boards from our assembler in China and if all goes well they will be completed and on their way back to us before Chinese New Year starts on Feb 15th. The manufacturer takes a break from Feb 15th to the 25th, but then we will start a larger production run for delivery to backers. If production goes smoothly we should start delivering pledges around March or April.

That's it for the update for now. With any luck we'll be showing off our new batch of boards by next update. While you're waiting, you might want to check out some of the great discussion on our community board.