Welcome to the year of the Rooster! Unfortunately we lost the race to beat the Chinese New Year celebrations, but the festivities are over and factories in China are open again. Let’s outline what remains to shipping the Mycroft Mark 1.
Step 1: Components
The component suppliers in China are all arriving back this week from their holiday shutdown. They have begun contacting us as their operations come back online. They are completing the production of the matrix displays we’ve been waiting on since December, testing them, and shipping to us as soon as possible. I’m anticipating two more weeks before we receive those components.
Step 2: Board manufacturing
The board house has done everything they can to prepare for this production run. They have already produced the bare boards and are waiting to receive the components to queue up their assembly line. We have built and shipped them all the test-jigs they need to validate the boards. They anticipate a seven week turnaround to slot in, build, test and ship us the completed main boards and face-plates.
Step 2B: Obtaining final components
While waiting on the board house run, we have triggered orders on all of the other little and big pieces we need for final assembly. Plastics are being pressed as I type. Cardboard boxes are being cut. Screws, power supplies, microSD cards, Arduinos and Raspberry Pis are being delivered to our facility. Showtime is approaching.
Step 3: Assembly
We have decided to handle final assembly ourselves to maintain control and assure quality. Putting together the parts to make a completed Mycroft Mark 1 is fairly quick, approximately 15 minutes. After that we will power on and run each unit through a test procedure for quality control, provision it for its new owner, and pack it up. Repeat this 1500 times.
Finally: Shipping!
The last big question is “when?” Adding up the weeks for these remaining steps, I believe the first box will go out around April 15th. The major hurdles are past. It has been a long and bumpy path. Thank you to everyone who has stuck with us on this journey!
Steve has been building cutting edge yet still highly usable technology for over 25 years, previously leading teams at Autodesk and the Rhythm Engineering. He now leads the development team at Mycroft as a partner and the CTO.