The Re:load Pro is finally in stock and shipping! All Kickstarter orders have shipped, as have all Tindie preorders, and we’re now fully in stock and shipping immediately from two locations!
If you’ve been waiting to pick one up, there’s never been a better time than now. Get yours here!
Since day one of Arachnid Labs’ existence, we’ve done all our shipping ourselves - strictly a skunkworks operation. We have a Royal Mail commercial account, which makes sending mail in volume easier, but all the stock’s in a dedicated cupboard under the stairs, and everything gets packed and labelled on the kitchen table. At least, up until now.
The needs of the Re:load Pro kickstarter have precipitated a change to using a fulfillment company for shipping, and as of now we’re saying goodbye to the stock cupboard. Going forward, our products - with a couple of exceptions - will be shipping from fulfillment warehouses in the US and the UK via Shipwire.
This has several benefits. Most significantly, packages will ship sooner; shipping orders ourselves has meant we can’t go down to the post office every day, and that’s sometimes led to delays; with Shipwire orders will typically ship the business day after the order is placed.
Packages will also arrive faster for a lot of people. With stock at warehouses near London and Los Angeles, delivery times will go down for anyone who’s nearer the US than the UK, which is about 2/3rds of our orders.
More of our packages will offer tracking. Royal Mail first class doesn’t offer tracking, so we typically haven’t offered it in the past, but of Shipwire’s services, even many of the economy services offer tracking.
There’ll be more shipping options to choose from. Most regions will have economy, standard and premium rates available.
There’s only one downside to all of this: for some people, shipping rates will increase, particularly for people in regions like Asia and Oceania. I’m really sorry about that - but it’s an unavoidable consequence of the shipping providers Shipwire offers. I’ve done my best to keep the increases as small as possible.
To celebrate the new faster shipping, we’re offering 15% off all affected products for the next week using the coupon code A8A346A. You can apply this to the Circuit Patterns Trading Cards, the Re:load 2, and preorders for the Re:load Pro, which will be shipping in about a week!
Also, keep an eye out for the Minishift, which will be coming back into stock soon; it’s in production right now.
Wow, it’s been a while since I updated here with Re:load Pro news!
The Kickstarter, as you probably know by now, was a huge success, hitting over 400% of its original goal. I’ve been posting regular updates to the Kickstarter, and that’s the place to go if you want to keep up to date with it.
We hit a really significant milestone with production today: The first unit rolled off the line at the fab in Texas. Here it is in action:
The next steps entail sending it to me for validation and checking, then producing first the “first off the line” units, then the remainder of the order, for shipping to our loyal backers.
If you missed out on the Kickstarter, you can still preorder yours at Tindie.
In other news, our Circuit Patterns Trading Cards, already available on Tindie, from Adafruit and on amazon.co.uk are now available on amazon.com, too! This is especially good news for those of you who have Amazon Prime - you can now get them with free shipping on Prime, and excellent rates around the world as well.
The Re:load Pro kickstarter has been steaming along nicely through the whole campaign, smashing through stretch goals the whole time. Now, there’s only 48 hours left! If you’ve been thinking about getting one, but putting the decision off, now’s the time to commit!
The Re:load Pro kickstarter is barreling along! We reached the goal after just 32 hours, and after a boost from an article on Hack a Day, we’ve now reached £10,000 and unlocked the first stretch goal: an accessory port. Read all about it in the update here!
With 18 days to go, there’s still plenty of time to back the Kickstarter and get a Re:load Pro for yourself, and plenty of stretch goals still to meet.
One of the primary requirements for the Re:Load Pro was an enclosure and heatsink. The two need to integrate well - ideally with the heatsink taking the part of one end-panel - and the heatsink needs to be sufficiently large for the heat dissipation requirements of the Re:load Pro. After much searching, I came to the reluctant conclusion that such an enclosure doesn’t presently exist, and that my only option was to get the enclosure, the heatsink, or both custom manufactured.
I’ve sourced parts from Chinese manufacturers before, including getting parts, such as the LED matrices for the Minishift and Minimatrix made to order, but sourcing something with high setup costs, such as a custom extrusion, was a new experience.
Step one was to design a part and generate a suitable manufacturing drawing from which to quote. I took the dimensions of an existing heatsink, along with various design guides and produced this design:
I found some suppliers on aliexpress who seemed to specialise in heatsink extrusions, and shopped it around to them. I got quotes back from a number of suppliers, with a wide range of prices. Tooling/mold fees ranged from $500USD to $1,300, while per-unit prices ranged from $1.85 each to $3.50, and they all had minimum orders around 500 pieces. Most were willing to negotiate down on the MOQ in order to get a sale, but some additionally had an additional setup fee if you ordered less than a certain weight of aluminium.
I ended up picking a supplier towards the lower end of the price range, though not the absolute cheapest, with a tooling cost of $600, and a per-unit cost of $2.30, and authorising them to go ahead and produce the mould. This was an occasion for some paranoia, since unlike the CNC and 3d printing processes we’re all used to being a bit blase with, any screwups here would necessitate a new mould, and another $600 tooling fee.
The breakdown of the per-unit costs were:
Tooling took some time: nearly a month, though that was interrupted by Chinese New Year, which extended things somewhat. The tooling fee includes production of 3 sample units, which arrived a week later. I couldn’t be happier with the quality of the extrusion, machining, and finish:
These are the exact extrusions you’ll get as part of your enclosure if you back the Re:load Pro.
Although one data point isn’t a lot to work from, I’ve found the whole experience to be surprisingly straightforward and hassle-free so far, though I’ll report back when I’ve ordered the final extrusions for the production run. A few things to bear in mind when considering ordering custom work from China yourself:
Have you had custom work done in China? What was your experience with it like?
I designed the original Re:load to fill a need of my own, and out of frustration at the lack of any good alternatives available to electronics hackers like myself. It turns out that I’m not the only person who found a lightweight and robust active load a useful tool, and the Re:load’s turned into a popular and well-regarded product.
The Re:load fills a gap for people needing a simple way to do electrical load testing, but ever since I launched the original Re:load, though, people have asked for a version that’s higher powered and more flexible - a true piece of precision benchtop equipment. That’s why today, I’m launching the Re:load Pro on Kickstarter.
The Re:load Pro takes all the advantages of the original Re:load, and improves upon them with a robust benchtop case, a good quality display and UI, an isolated USB interface, and an integrated processor - the PSoC 4 from Cypress - that together make it an extremely sophisticated and versatile piece of equipment.
You can do everything you could with the original Re:load, plus much, much more. The Re:load Pro can handle up to 60 volts, 6 amps, or 25 watts with entirely passive cooling - and a forthcoming fan kit will expand the maximum power significantly. The built in processor lets you set precise current limits and get accurate readouts of current, voltage, power and more, and the isolated USB interface lets you safely control and monitor it over USB.
The Re:load Pro goes live today on Kickstarter for £65, or £80 with an accessory kit containing everything you need to get started, and there’s a limited number of early bird units for just £55 with all the accessories. Take a look at the project on Kickstarter to get more details, and to back it!
We’re back from Shenzhen, and the minishift is now in stock and shipping at long last! Backorders will ship tomorrow (Monday). Order yours now!.
Arachnid Labs is going to Shenzhen! I’ll be in town from the 5th to the 9th as part of the digital mission Shenzhen, attending the maker faire, and meeting up with friends and fellow makers from IRC.
Are you going to be in town? Look for me at the UKTI booth at Maker Faire, or leave a comment below!
The Minishift Python library and HTTP interface is now available on GitHub and in PyPi!
Usage documentation can be found here, too.
Finally, videos demonstrating minishift assembly and enclosure assembly are up on YouTube. Expect a full assembly instructions page soon.
Keep an eye out for a tutorial on using the Minishift from your Arduino, and an Arduino library, also coming soon.
And don’t forget, you can still preorder your own minishifts https://www.tindie.com/products/arachnidlabs/minishift/ here, for shipment in a little over a week.