Sun Mar 1 '20 Announcement
over 4 years ago
– Sun, Mar 01, 2020 at 03:01:24 AM
Dear Backers,
despite all news about China these days, we stay positive and in close cooperation with our partners in China. We need to accept further postponements due to the virus situation, but our supply chain manager is currently doing everything necessary to bring our project to shipment soon.
Manufacturing Progress
Main Supplier
The factory was entirely empty until just recently. Hence the administrative workers worked from home, but engineers and workers could not work at all. Now the situation is about to getting back to normal. More and more workers are arriving at the factory.
In the meantime our supply chain manager is discussing the remaining issues with our manufacturer and they seem to be very confident they can solve all open points on our list soon. Still, we have no clearity about the tooling issue, we were writing about in the last update.
Quick reminder: One grip which consists of hard plastic and rubber material did not hold together in too many cases - hence far too high scrap rate and therefore quality cost for our manufacturer.
We are aiming to solve this problem without producing a new tool. This would save us much time.
Premium Ballhead
Our manufacturer informed us, that they are delayed with finishing the ballhead, due to the delayed working start. But they plan to finish the ballhead at March 7th. We are curious to see the batch.
Wheels
The wheel manufacturer just now resumed working again, although only with a smaller group of workers, since not all workers are back yet. This means we have to expect the pre-production samples to arrive mid of March.
Timeline
Some backers asked us in the comments, if they can receive their Lumapod mid or end of May. For now we do not know an exact timeline, as our supply chain manager currently does some tests with the old molding tool, hoping we can achieve a suitable outcome without producing a new tool.
But when we put all currently available facts together, May seems not to be realistic anymore. In case we have to make a new mold, shipping would rather start end of June / beginning of July. But as mentioned above, we are aiming to be faster than this. We certainly will have a more concrete timeline in the March update.
-The Lumapod Team
Fri Jan 31 '20 Announcement
over 4 years ago
– Fri, Jan 31, 2020 at 07:16:03 AM
Dear Backers,
we have almost all 160 parts (including addons) ready for pre-production. Functionality, quality and color meet our expectations - but unfortunately not for all parts yet. Our main supplier gave us feedback on the Grip again and we got some new samples. There is still an issue. It's unfortunate and we don't to like to fudge here. More on this below.
Manufacturing Progress
Main Supplier
Here you see example parts of the grip mentioned above. The supplier said he can not do mass-production with the current tool. ...
... He recommends making a new mold for this part. However, since we have developed alternative solutions, we think that the problem can be solved without a new injection mold. Unfortunately, to resolve this problem, we have to wait for people to return from their Chinese New Year holidays. There are some options: Best would be to solve the issue with the current tool, which would be fast and cheap. In the worst case, we would have to move this part to our second supplier, who is specialized in making complicated injection molding parts.
Aside of this, some of the requested optimizations weren't done yet. The factory was very busy in the days and weeks before the Chinese New Year, but this is not acceptable for us.
To quickly come to the best solutions we will closely work with an engineer from our supply chain partner, who will manage those issues on site.
Go-pro mount
As mentioned in previous updates, we didn’t like the standard parts on the market, therefore we made a custom GoPro mount. We are very satisfied with the serial produced parts we got. Just a small change to the supporting rubber surface and it’s ready to go.
Mini Ballhead and Phone Holder
Delivered to the manufacturer who assembles the mount kit for us.
Wheels
The wheels pre-production samples we got are very nice. Mass production starts after Chinese New Year.
Sub supplied plastic parts
We got further T1 samples of around 15 different plastic parts. Now the color matches our expectations. Only a small (solvable) issue with one part is left. The rest is all close to perfect so we can jump into serial production soon.
Corona Virus
According to the Chinese government's instructions, each sector, school, etc. will be delayed several days in opening. Specifically, the current statement states that people must stay home until February 9th, which is 1 week longer than planned. In the area of our suppliers are just a few infection cases. We hope the situation will settle soon for the wellbeing of all chinese people. As long as it doesn’t get worse, the epidemic will not influence our project a lot.
Timeline
It would not be serious to give any updated timeline yet, because, as you read above, we first have to clarify the issues with our suppliers when they are back from their Chinese New Year vacation. We keep you updated.
We work hard every day to bring you (our backers) the promised product as soon as possible. Thank you very much for your patience, trust and moral support. We are very happy to have you on board !! Cheers!
-The Lumapod Team
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Thu Jan 2 '20 Announcement
almost 5 years ago
– Thu, Jan 02, 2020 at 02:08:01 AM
Happy New Year guys,
we hope you have an awesome start to the new year. This Christmas was not as relaxing as usual, since China does not have these holidays and we used this time to progress as fast as possible. Anyway we still found some days to relax and to charge energy for the next months ;)
Since all projects are on track as outlined in the November update, this Dezember update is a little shorter.
Manufacturing Process
Main Supplier
The telescoping tube holding force improvement is still in process. The manufacturer and Martin were trying several different approaches to improve the functionality, feel and durability. We already got some good results and will soon start pre-production.
A small issue at the gearing has been solved by the supplier. 100 pcs pre-production are getting assembled now.
Manufacturing of the the grip had some issues (as mentioned in our last update). The tooling has been revised and we will get new samples next week.
Ballhead / Quick Change Plate
Ballhead and Quick Change Plate is still in production. Everything looks good so far.
Bags
The serial production of the bags is finished and quality is checked as well. Perfectly made, we are very satisfied with our partner.
Z-Plate
Production in process.
Mount Kit
Mount Kit including the customized go-pro mount is still in process. Our supplier planned to finish this addon set before the start of Chinese New Year.
Bluetooth Remote Control
Production in process.
Wheels
Tool for the wheel housing is in production. Samples promised before Chinese New Year.
Update Timeline
Start of mass production is still planned to start after the first February Week. Meaning we will start shipping in March. We are so looking forward to it, guys.
-The Lumapod Team
Sun Dec 1 '19 Announcement
almost 5 years ago
– Sun, Dec 01, 2019 at 05:28:08 AM
Hey there,
last week was really exciting for us. Martin was in China to meet our suppliers, to see the quality and give some assembly instructions. There were many positive aspects which proved to us once more, that we are on the right way. Nevertheless, there were also details which disappointed us, thus where our manufacturers need to adjust.
Manufacturing Progress
Injection Molding Sub Supplier
We met our sub supplier to check some samples of the very last parts to finish. In general we are very satisfied with the overall quality and believe we made a good choice with this supplier. Their standard is very high. There are some small adjustments to be made, mainly to remove some burrs on the parts and to fit the parts to each other. This should take only 1-2 weeks. Another issue was the color of the parts not matching our reference sample. But we are confident we will have a solution soon. We will get new samples and after approval, the mass production will begin.
One of our tools to be prepared for testing
On these modern machines our parts are made
Meeting our Main Supplier
Although our main supplier is a rather big and very professional manufacturer, we could see our project is something new to them, because Lumapod is not at all the same than other tripods.
Martin taught them some important details to keep in mind when assembling.
For the telescoping tube assembly we agreed before, they will adjust some details for the proper holding force. Unfortunately not yet to our satisfaction, so we could not give approval. We talked about a lot of approaches of how to solve this and now we are now both (Lumapod and the supplier) working on some tasks to improve.
Also they have an issue with manufacturing one particular part - the grip to lock and release the legs, a plastic part, overmolded with rubber. There are distortions because of the low wall thicknesses. They already tried a lot on their own, but couldn’t solve it yet. Together we could find a solution and they will revise the tool again.
We have to say once more, they are making not just a few, but around 100+ different parts for us. The overall performance is really good and the problems are solvable.
This was a bad day of Martins journey. Although Martin thought he would just approve parts for mass production, it turned out there are still some issues to be solved and we have to accept another delay.
Meeting at our supplier
Ballhead / Quick Change Plate
The ballhead looks amazing and serial production is running at the very moment of writing these lines of this update.
Approved master samples
Bags
Within the last month we did some improvements regarding dimensions. We wanted the go85 fit in the bag together with the bluetooth remote control. The bags look perfect and are in mass production as well.
Z-Plate
Approved and ordered. Mass production is running.
Mount Kit
The Mount Kit mainly consists of purchased parts. Only the phone holder and the GoPro mount needed some adoption. I do not know if we mentioned this already, but it was a challenge to find all these parts for a reasonable price. But after all we achieved finding good suppliers for that. Yeah.
Bluetooth Remote Control
In mass production.
Stakes
In mass production.
Wheels
Here we have a rather short lead time, so we took some more time to find and test different types of wheels, as well as to negotiate the minimum order quantity and the price. We found very nice wheels which have a good quality, low weight and are customizable for us. Mass production is about to start a this very moment.
Updated Timeline
Until we can approve the next samples it will be mid of December. Frankly speaking, the closer we come to Chinese New Year, the more unlikely it is to start mass production before Chinese New Year. All suppliers are getting really busy now to finish orders before these holidays.
Chinese New Year (Spring Festival) is officially only a week of holiday in China. But chinese workers stay at home longer, which means production is paused between Jan 18th and Feb 8th.
This is why we expect our mass production to start after the first February week.
We know this new delay is not what you wanted to read in this update, and we are really unhappy about this. We thank you all very much for your trust and your patience.
-The Lumapod Team
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Thu Oct 31 '19 Announcement
almost 5 years ago
– Thu, Oct 31, 2019 at 12:26:29 PM
Dear backers,
Happy halloween guys!
The second round of the first out of tool sample is finished and we are very happy to announce that our supplier corrected all parts according to our feedback. Now the critical tensioning mechanism is save. Hallelujah. The supplier already started the 100 pcs pre-production to set up the production line.
We will fly to China in November in order to control the quality of the Lumapods for the final assembly.
Missing Address and Payment Data
Now as we are close to shipping, we kindly ask to check:
- did you change your address?
- did your payment information change? Credit card expired?
If you are not sure, your address data, or your payment data is up to date, please check!
To update your data, go back to your BackerKit survey by inputting your email here. Or contact us via private message.
Thanks, for your support to make a smooth fulfillment happen :)
Production Status
A lot is happening right now. In September we got a set of new samples (out of tools) for telescope and head, including the gearing. Some parts were missing and some changes had to be made. We got revised parts, so this is the actual status:
Gearing / Tensioning mechanism: This was critical and is perfectly working now.
Head: Aluminum head with painting and rubberized grip is perfect.
Reels / Ropes: Work smoothly
Telescoping mechanism: It’s working, but not yet as smooth as it should be. Optimization is in work.
Leg Slider: Samples will arrive in early November. Since prototypes always worked well, we are pretty sure, there will not be any big problems.
Assembling of Lumapods: The supplier started a 100 pcs pre-production to set up the production line. This will be done without the legs, but these can be easily added when everything else is finished.
Legs: Visiting the supplier in November for checking samples and make quick optimizations if needed.
Ball Head: Samples approved (See September update). Serial production started.
Z-Plate: Made some small optimizations. T1 samples will arrive in early November.
Bags: Samples approved (See below). Serial production started.
Wheels: Suppliers chosen. Production starting in November. (Added to Lumapods after completing serial production)
Bluetooth Remote: Production starting in November. (Added to Lumapods after completing serial production)
Video of setting up the sample
We promised to post a video of the prototype, built partly with out-of-tool samples. A little late, but here it is: a quick, non-professional video of setting it up in our office: https://youtu.be/WZFLrYYyy_Y
(Note: all the white parts are still 3d printed prototypes, what slightly influences the functionality.)
Bag Samples
Visiting Supplier
In November we will go to China again to
- Check the leg samples (including leg extensions). We prepare our supplier to make quick optimizations during our stay, so we can hopefully approve the parts directly
- Taking the leg samples to our main supplier and add it to the pre-production Lumapods. Then we hopefully see the first Lumapods 100% out of tools :)
- Check the ongoing production of the ball heads
- The Lumapod Team
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