Thu May 25 '17 Announcement
almost 7 years ago
– Thu, May 25, 2017 at 08:01:16 AM
Dear Backers,
Apologies for the late update. The good new is that production of the plastics is mostly completed. It was again more complicated than expected to find the right process for the plastic parts. We had to revert to a coating approach, but need to use two types of plastic for the cases in order to support the two different finishes for the limited edition design. Here a few boxes of shells that have been manufactured for the silver units:
The silver units are currently being assembled.
The shells for the blue systems are still in production, they are supposed to arrive in about two days.
Packaging and smaller parts like the button daughter board and cables have also been delivered:
Button daughter board in a “retail” shell.
Outer Box
Inner box with production sample.
Accessories with unassembled production shell.
While things are starting to come together more quickly now, unfortunately we have some additional bad news. The “standard” wired dual stick controller model you see above failed QA. When these controllers are used continuously for several hours, each and every one of them develops an irreversible electronics failure. Our current manufacturer for these was unable to provide a solution and therefore we were forced to source another manufacturer, which we did - unfortunately that means we have to wait again until about 6000 of these are produced. This will take at a minimum 2 weeks and it could take up to 30 days. The overall situation is also delaying less critical areas such as licensor and regulatory approvals.
This means for shipping, the earliest we can start to ship is about three weeks from now, and that is only true for such orders for which we have all components by the time - which means we have to start shipping out of order.
Before we address the updated logistics please accept our sincere apologies for the delays. We don’t currently have someone in China at all times, and that turns out to be a bigger challenge than expected after we were unable to bring in all components during our last trip - at the same time the budget does not allow us to do much about that. While what you read here is just a brief summary of the state of affairs and in no way reflects the daily back and forth that we deal with on some of the issues, that shouldn’t make anyone nervous, especially not the less experienced backers amongst us. We assure you, this project will be completed, and it will be shipped soon (continued in part 2)…
Mon Apr 24 '17 Announcement
about 7 years ago
– Mon, Apr 24, 2017 at 05:13:53 AM
Dear Backers,
As some of you already know, we were planning to green-light the “mass” production of the RetroEngine during a recent Asia trip before Easter. Unfortunately we encountered some problems that turned out to make that impossible. There are quality issues with the color coating of the systems, also some smaller issues like tolerance problems with the Bluetooth controller that many of you ordered.
We were holding off on this update as long as possible to be able to provide you with a final solution (the plan is currently to actually work with pigmented plastic instead of a color coat), a solid timeline and the first pictures of production and assembly, but the latter will need a few additional days. We are now planning to start full scale production on Wednesday. Production images will be shared in a separate update as soon as the machines are running.
In total that means that unfortunately we will not be able to ship the early birds in time. We have made some additional changes to avoid delaying the other perks as well (such as packing and shipping directly from China) and that will hopefully allow us to ship *all* limited edition design units in quick succession, starting May 24th. This includes those originally scheduled for late June (which is the majority of all units). That means that most people should get their units on time or earlier than expected. We will think about something for our early bird backers to make up for the delay.
Here is some additional info about the shipping process:
* Fulfillment of all shipments will take about a week.
* Shipping time is around 7 to 12 days.
* Tracking info will be made available.
* The “retail design” systems will ship end of July, as originally planned.
Finally, some additional images:
Best,
Tue Mar 7 '17 Announcement
about 7 years ago
– Tue, Mar 07, 2017 at 01:13:26 PM
Dear Backers,
Quite obviously, we need to spend more time in the chamber of understanding. We totally, and I mean totally, underestimated the demand for the 1GB upgrade. As of now the upgrade is back in stock (borrowed from the future - meaning part of the board allotment for the actual retail production).
Here some additional answers to questions that came up frequently:
* Is this a self service upgrade that can be user installed at a future time?
- No, the RAM needs to be soldered onto the motherboard during initial production.
* How can I upgrade the "retail"-design system I recently ordered via InDemand?
- You need to wait for a "backerkit invite". This will be sent automatically after about 10 days. As your systems will be produced later, we have some additional time for ordering parts and we will have more upgrades available after the original backer orders are locked - which is after March 19th. So in case the upgrade sells out again, just wait after March 19th and you will be able to upgrade.
* I do not find the upgrade?
- Go to https://retroengine.backerkit.com. Find your order survey form by entering your Indiegogo account email address. If you see your RetroEngine order (and only then), please add the upgrade via "Add-On" option.
* What if I don't find my RetroEngine order in backerkit?
- You order might be too new. Please wait for the backerkit invite, or use the recovery page again at a later time.
* I already ordered the upgrade as an individual item
- We will reverse all these orders and contact you with information on how to proceed. You will not get charged.
* What if I have more than one RetroEngine design in my order and only want to upgrade a specific unit?
- The upgrades are applied in the order of the units appearing on your order summary page. If that makes no sense to you, or you want to upgrade a specific unit at the end of the list, please contact support at doyodo dot com with your request and we will set up the order the way you want.
* Does upgrading effect delivery time?
- No, luckily it does not. It is factored into the general lead time for production and we already commissioned the production of a larger number of upgraded boards.
Best wishes,
Mon Mar 6 '17 Announcement
about 7 years ago
– Mon, Mar 06, 2017 at 03:17:00 PM
Good News Everyone!
We have just completed a trip to China to meet with our suppliers and make sure everything runs smoothly on the production side - and it does. Here are some images of some of the tools for the RetroEngine Sigma during manufacturing:
Additionally, as a nice side effect of the trip: Some of you have asked for more memory in the RetroEngine(s) and after discussing it with our board manufacturer we are happy to announce the availability of a 1 GB RAM upgrade. The upgrade is available on Backerkit now (as a few of you already discovered) for USD 25. It's available to both original backers as well as InDemand pre-orders. Due to supply chain logistics, for the time being we are only able to offer a total of 1000 upgrades. If you're interested, we suggest you grab it while you can.
In order to make this possible, we have to change a few things around. Originally we planned to lock the surveys yesterday. Instead, we will keep the surveys open until March 19th. Starting from today though, we do no longer accept refund requests.
This also gives those of you who have not yet supplied all required information in the surveys some additional time. Please make sure you supply a telephone number with your address. This is needed for some mail carriers. Also, about 400 backers have never answered their survey. For some backers we don't even have an address. If you didn't receive your survey for whatever reason, or you lost the link, please go to the survey recovery page to recover your survey link:
https://retroengine.backerkit.com/
Of course we will prepare and ship orders for which we didn't receive a survey anyway, with the default options (silver, upgraded controllers) - as long as we have an address :-)
Greetings,
Sun Feb 12 '17 Announcement
about 7 years ago
– Sun, Feb 12, 2017 at 01:02:33 PM
Dear Backers,
There are some of you that donated relatively high amounts but did not select a perk on Indiegogo. We have just sent you an email to verify that this was really your plan. If you have not received a survey yet, please check your spam folders for the survey or other messages from us or from Backerkit.
For all of you that were asking for a way to change their perk to the retail design, we have now introduced the option to change your pledge levels to the Retail version pledge level(s), and here is how it's done.
If you start the survey for the first time choose the circled option:
You can also navigate back to the Welcome page. A second option is to navigate to the questions section and click the reward level option here:
Please be aware of the following side-effects though:
* If you change the pledge level you can not change back.
* You are giving up your original shipping queue position in exchange for a late July shipping date.
* Your original pledge amount is treated as credit voucher towards the retail version plus whatever add-ons you order. Also please note that the retail set has no Bluetooth adapter included and only one controller.
* You will need to pay the difference if there is a higher total. Unfortunately this is only possible with credit card! No PayPal option and no balance refunds are possible.
And that's it for today.
Sincerely,
