Fri Jul 31 '20 Announcement
about 4 years ago – Fri, Jul 31, 2020 at 07:14:23 AM

Dear Backers, 

another month, another update :) ... Overall this update informs you about our pre-production status. 

In the meantime we checked out how the chances are for us to go to China for the mass-production. Currently the government plans to discuss new rules in August. So we hopefully know news about the travel restrictions to China very soon. Till now you needed to have a very convincing reason to enter China. Plus two weeks of quarantine after arrival. We were told, chances are very low, that our reasons to enter China are considered important enough by the responsible authorities.  

Manufacturing Progress

In the last update we said we will do a test assembly, once we received all 100+ parts for the two Lumapod models. We got these samples in the meantime and tested them. Looks good, accept of the rope topic we shared with you recently:

Go120 Leg Slider

The assembly of slider samples was not perfectly moveable without any resistance. Although the supplier will adjust the parameters in mass production, we insisted on receiving further samples. Our manufacturing manager received them yesterday and instantly forwards some of the samples to us. We are pretty sure this assembly works fine now.

Rope

Only the rope issue we mentioned recently is a matter of little headache. We are not satisfied with the maximum pulling force of the overmolding part. Currently 15kgf, which was already much more in the past. The reason is the temperature the rope faces during the overmolding process.

We are working on various solutions in parallel in order to save time: 

Our manufacturing manager works closely with the overmolding supplier to improve the overmolding part in way that the pulling force is increased again. We are also discussing this project with our backup source for this part. And we are designing and testing crimping solutions, so the rope is not heat up during the process. We have made prototypes of these crimping solutions and they are very promising. Very solid solution :)

Pre-Production

Pre-Production will be formally ordered on Monday/Tuesday and a Kick-off meeting of our manufacturing manager with the supplier is about to be scheduled for next week. To avoid any unnecessary risk, our manufacturing manager will be at our manufacturer while all manufacturing steps. This way we do not have to be there ourself but still the production process is perfectly supervised and we are well informed about the progress of the production. 

Mass Production

We are now starting to order more and more raw material (parts) in mass production quantities. Not everything at once, but step by step, as soon as we have confirmed working sub assemblies from pre-production.

Timeline

August: pre-production and assemble pre-production parts with the old Rope solution

September / October: mass-production with new Rope solution

October: start of shipping

Please note, this is still an estimation! We will see how the pre-production works, but you can rest assured, we are putting every effort to finishing mass-production as soon as possible.

FAQs

We decided to copy the FAQs from last update in this update again, since the same questions are asked over and over again :) 

How can I change my address or payment data?

You can change your address or payment data directly in your backerkit account. Log in here: https://www.backerkit.com/backer_accounts/sign_in

Alternatively, just drop us a message and we will send a direct access link.

Refund

For all who ask for a refund, please be aware of the fact that you agreed that you would prefinance this project by buying your Lumapod in advance. After a certain point - when the refund period is over - you are part of this project according to the rules of Kickstarter and Indiegogo. We are on a good way to fulfill our promise despite all the obstacles along the way and all that is going on in the world right now. But in order to remain a stable business partner, even though unexpected further difficulties could come along with the virus, we need to state, that any other refund would put us more in the risk of having problems in the long run. Therefore refunds would be unfair to all other 4,600 backers. In the interest of all we will not put the majority at a higher risk just for some single persons, at least until we have more clarity about the further global developments. We thank you for your understanding.  

Can I buy add-ons without a Lumapod?

Unfortunately this is not possible, as this does not work out with the pricing systems on Indiegogo. But you will certainly be able to order the add-ons later, once we are on the regular market.

Thank you guys! You are great! Stay healthy!

 - The Lumapod Team

Thu Jul 2 '20 Announcement
over 4 years ago – Thu, Jul 02, 2020 at 02:13:58 AM

Dear Backers,

we hope all of you are doing fine! First of all we want to sincerely thank you all for your patience and understanding. You are great and we are badly looking forward to give you very concrete information about the shipping soon. We hope you enjoy the read :)

Some would say it's a nightmare. So long hard work and still there is only an estimated shipping schedule. We did not expect such delay at the beginning, but the positive view on the situation is really great. Only in this way we could find our trusted partners and became aware of details that still needed to be improved. Be it on the manufacturing side or with regard to the product itself. 

Manufacturing Progress

Now what happened this month? The rope broke in the plastic overmolding-part. Fortunately our manufacturing partner immediately reacted and solved the problem. As far as it seems right now the ropes are now working well. This event did not cause further postponements. 

BUT now as the shutdowns are coming to an end in most parts of the globe, our manufacturer has a pretty busy time period. He has got more orders than usual. A small fraction of the samples we expected to receive till end of last month will be up to 6 weeks delayed. Updated timeline below. Positive side in this is, that we do not have to fear our manufacturer to economically suffer due to the shutdown. This gives us certainty, that the biggest threat in such times - the supplier going bankrupt - is not a threat to us.

A backer asked us in the comments to share a picture of the current assemblies. The following Lumapod samples were rebuilt over and over with newly shipped samples. Also used for destructive tests, because we wanted to see where the limits are. As mentioned in the last update, we are satisfied with the outcome. After all we are getting happier and happier with the overall product including the manufacturing side, but we are really not happy about the time everything took while the shutdown and still now after the shutdown.   

Test models of Lumapod in different configurations

Lumapod Go120 Travel Sling Pack in use

Go120

Next steps

After a QC check of our recently announced manufacturing manager, we received the most of the latest part samples in Austria mid of June. We are now test-assembling some new samples of Go85 and Go120. Our QC and manufacturing management partner will assemble some further samples. This way our partner deeply gets to know the product and he can directly talk with our manufacturer, in case there are still details to optimize. 

Last samples of our latest changes might arrive in a week or two. Pitty thing here is, that our manufacturer is delayed with some samples. We should have had all of them by the end of May, but some single samples were postponed. We have good chances, our manufacturer will be faster soon. He just hired many new employees.

Quality Check Accessories

Right after packing, the quality of Ball Heads, Quick Change Plates and Mount Kits has been checked. 100% passed … accept of the phone holder, but we got new phone holders free of charge from the manufacturer. After all we got all accessories to our satisfaction. Yeah :)

Packaging of Accessories

Beginning of June, we got most accessories packed and shipped to our warehouse: 

The rest of the accessories are either not yet packed or still in production. For instance the Mountkit packaging needed some external support regarding space-saving packaging method. But we do not have a major focus on this right now. Bringing Lumapod to mass-production is the limiting factor here, so we first do everything possible to accelerate this. Then we still have enough time to care about remaining points regarding add-ons.

Timeline

July: receive rest of the samples and finalize test assembly

start of small scale pre-production / for some sub-assemblies we already start mass-production (to save time)

August: start of mass-production

September: start of shipping 

Thank you guys! You are great! Stay healthy!

- The Lumapod Team

Sun May 31 '20 Announcement
over 4 years ago – Sun, May 31, 2020 at 09:09:52 AM

Dear Backers,

we hope all of you are doing well! 

This month was intense again. We would normally be in China these days, but we have to work differently now that we cannot fly to China soon. Although every coin has two sides. Thanks to this situation, we are now working more intensively with our independent production managers on site, which makes things much more convenient.

Manufacturing Progress

We found out that dimensions are not always the same from one sample batch to the other - hence the manufacturer has to improve the documentation and reproducibility of the machine parameters. Since this is hard to check and control for us and every sample batch takes a few weeks (revision, production, shipping, testing, reporting), we now work more closely with independent production managers on site in Guangdong. This is not as easy as it sounds, because they have to understand all 100+ parts, its function and assembling. Luckily this production managers proved really good manufacturing knowledge and hands on mentality throughout all time we worked with them. We are really happy to have them in our team! 

Now as they do all sample checking and directly talk to our manufacturing partners to instantly solve what has to be solved , this saves us tons of time and will assure a high level of quality. This also perfectly compensates the fact, that due to the corona situation we might not be able do go to China for the next few months.

Here you see pictures of the part that recently made us headache. As mentioned in the last update, this part works fine now.

Preparation for Pre-Production

Currently our Production manager is checking the last samples and will coordinate the Pre-Production then. You probably can imagine, we can’t wait to see the feedback from our manufacturing engineer. It feels like before Christmas. “Are we finally getting what we had wished for so much and for so long?”

Destructive testing

We already did several destructive tests to find out the limits of Lumapod. Plus we made a detailed instruction for multiple tests of the Pre-Production samples, to insure the serial products are perfectly capable for the daily use. 

Just recently we made another test, where we destroyed the legs, to see the weak point. We applied much more force than ever realistically applied in a normal life of a tripod. The outcome was as expected and satisfying. 

Timeline

In the last update we made the estimation that we would ship mid or end of summer. As we are still awaiting the feedback from our production manager, we cannot make any more concrete estimations at the moment. 

FAQs

We decided to copy the FAQs from last update in this update again, since the same questions are asked over and over again :) 

How does COVID-19 affect the Lumapod project?

• Since we are producing Lumapod in China we have better news than you probably would have thought. Chinese factories are more or less working as usual. There are still some limitations, but they have largely gotten over the Corona crisis. The last factories already started working in the month of April. We were in constant contact with our partners for almost the whole time and we progressed pretty well. 
• Same as in many countries, people in Austria are far more back to normal life now. Children go to school and kindergarten again - more or less. But universities are still closed.
• We are in close contact with our fulfillment partner, and several other logistic companies. The peak in transportation prices is over now. Prices for shipment of goods are dropping again globally. Good news for us :)

How can I change my address or payment data?

You can change your address or payment data directly in your backerkit account. Log in here: https://www.backerkit.com/backer_accounts/sign_in

Alternatively, just drop us a message and we will send a direct access link.

Refund

For all who ask for a refund, please be aware of the fact that you agreed that you would prefinance this project by buying your Lumapod in advance. After a certain point - when the refund period is over - you are part of this project according to the rules of Kickstarter and Indiegogo. We are well on track despite all the obstacles along the way and all that is going on in the world right now. But in order to remain a stable business partner, even though unexpected further difficulties could come along with the virus, we need to state, that any other refund would put us more in the risk of having problems in the long run. Therefore refunds would be unfair to all other 4,600 backers. In the interest of all we will not put the majority at a higher risk just for some single persons, at least until we have more clarity about the further global developments. We thank you for your understanding.

Can I buy add-ons without a Lumapod?

Unfortunately this is not possible, as this does not work out with the pricing systems on Indiegogo. But you will certainly be able to order the add-ons later, once we are on the regular market.

Thank you guys! You are great! Stay healthy!

- The Lumapod Team

Thu Apr 30 '20 Announcement
over 4 years ago – Thu, Apr 30, 2020 at 11:48:24 AM

Dear Backers,

we hope all of you are healthy! 

We are moving forward step by step. We got some more positive news to share with you this time. Plus we can already make a guess, when we can start shipping - although COVID-19 still remains a strong uncertainty factor.   

Manufacturing Progress

Slider Grip 

As you probably remember, we informed you about a problem with injection molding tools, with which we produce a part consisting of two material components. The manufacturing process was not stable enough to ensure reproducibility in good quality standard.

Just yesterday we got the information, that the most recent Slider Grip samples look really good and that the manufacturing process is stable. This is great news guys!! 

Our partners did a good work and we are awaiting the final samples next week.

Telescope optimization

While testing the new versions of the slider on the telescope, we literally tried to break them . This way we found a weak point, which has been fixed already. We took this available time to improve this mechanism for longer durability of your Lumapod. 

After a positive prototyping test, our manufacturer is currently making a serial production alike testing sample. 

Packaging

Meanwhile we got samples for the Retail packaging and the packaging of the add-ons. Take a quick look :)

This packaging almost takes no time for manufacturing and definitely no high priority. But we thought we already order pre-production samples. Better a little earlier than too late :)

Timeline

1. As you can imagine, right now shipping costs with air freight are immensely high. See FAQs.

2. For what we observe now, the COVID-19 crisis comes to an end in many areas of the world. But we do not know how this virus further develops and how the world's politicians react on that. 

These are for our perspective two main reasons, why a time schedule is still hard to make. Nevertheless, we want to give you as much information on this as we can. So here is the plan:

Last Sample check: cw20

Pre-production: cw21-22 

Pre-production sample check: cw23-24 

Serial Production: cw25-31 

Start of shipping: cw32

According to this schedule, we would start shipping end of July / beginning of August. But still some smaller problems can occur and as mentioned above there is still too much uncertainty regarding the global situation.

FAQs

We decided to copy the FAQs from last update in this update again, since the same questions are asked over and over again :) 

How does COVID-19 affect the Lumapod project?

• Since we are producing Lumapod in China we have better news than you probably would have thought. Chinese factories are more or less working as usual. There are still some limitations, but they have largely gotten over the Corona crisis. The last factories already started working in the month of April. We were in constant contact with our partners for more than a month now and we progressed pretty well 
• We are in close contact with our fulfillment partner, and several other logistic companies. Despite the fact that everything became far more expensive and shipping takes longer, shipping has not become an issue so far. Apart from passenger planes, air-, rail- and sea cargo is still working. We get samples from our partners regularly without any problems.

Refund

For all who ask for a refund, please be aware of the fact that you agreed that you would prefinance this project by buying your Lumapod in advance. After a certain point - when the refund period is over - you are part of this project according to the rules of Kickstarter and Indiegogo. We are well on track despite all the obstacles along the way and all that is going on in the world right now. But in order to remain a stable business partner, even though unexpected further difficulties could come along with the virus, we need to state, that any other refund would put us more in the risk of having problems in the long run. Therefore refunds would be unfair to all other 4,600 backers. We thank you for your understanding. 

How can I change my address or payment data?

You can change your address or payment data directly in your backerkit account. Log in here: https://www.backerkit.com/backer_accounts/sign_in

Alternatively, just drop us a message and we will send a direct access link.

Thank you guys! You are great! Stay healthy!

The Lumapod Team

Wed Apr 1 '20 Announcement
over 4 years ago – Wed, Apr 01, 2020 at 04:35:19 PM

Dear Backers,

we hope all of you are healthy!

For some it is a rough time. As you know we are based in Austria, right next to countries where the situation is really bad right now. We are in a better position in Austria, but numbers of infected people are rising here too. We cannot foresee the future, but we can say for sure, after winter comes spring. This has repeated itself throughout history, and we think that is proof enough.

How does COVID-19 affect the Lumapod project?

-       Since we are producing Lumapod in China we have better news than you probably would have thought. Chinese factories are more or less working as usual. There are still some limitations, but they have largely gotten over the Corona cirsis. The last factories are about to start working again these days. We were in constant contact with our partners for more than a month now and we progressed pretty well (see below).

-       Same as in many countries, people in Austria are encouraged to stay at home. Many companies are not working at all. The rest tries to do as much as possible from home. Kindergartens, schools and universities are closed. We at Lumapod are still working normally, although with little limitations, as our kids are at home and require some attention as well :)

-       We are in close contact with our fulfillment partner, and several other logistic companies. Despite the fact that everything became far more expensive and shipping takes longer, shipping has not become an issue so far. Apart from passenger planes, air-, rail- and sea cargo is still working. We get samples from our partners regularly without any problems.

Progress

Our partners have been back to work for a while now and are doing a very good job. Every day we can see a little bit of a progress. They made some changes to our moulds to optimize the parts and also to solve the issue with the grip (mentioned in the previous updates). We constantly get new samples and are confident the issues can soon be solved without making a new mould for the grip. Also they are making a bunch of tools and fixtures to prepare for serial production assembling.

In our next update, we will share a set of photos. Right now we could only share boring pictures of dozens ofnew samples. Stay tuned.

FAQs

Aside of these topics, there are many repeatedly asked questions, to which we would like to share the answers with all of you

How does COVID-19 affect Lumapod

See above.

How can I change my address or payment data?

You can change your address or payment data directly in your backerkit account. Log in here: https://www.backerkit.com/backer_accounts/sign_in

Alternatively, just drop us a message and we will send a direct access link.

Refund

For all who ask for a refund, please be aware of the fact that you agreed that you would prefinance this project by buying your Lumapod in advance. After a certain point - when the refund period is over - you are part of this project according to the rules of Kickstarter and Indiegogo. We are well on track despite all the obstacles along the way and all that is going on in the world right now. But in order to remain a stable business partner, even though unexpected further difficulties could come along with the virus, we need to state, that any other refund would put us more in the risk of having problems in the long run. Therefore refunds would be unfair to all other 4,600 backers. In the interest of all we will not put the majority at a higher risk just for some single persons, at least until we have more clarity about the further global developments. We thank you for your understanding.

Can I buy add-ons without a Lumapod?

Unfortunately this is not possible, as this does not work out with the pricing systems on Indiegogo. But you will certainly be able to order the add-ons later, once we are on the regular market.

It has to be said again, we are really happy to have such a great community! Stay healthy!

- The Lumapod Team