MBI: "Thing" - My newest, top secret "the product with no name"

[the_guy_with_no_name]

Re: MBI: "Thing" - My newest, top secret "the product with no name"

You know its tiny when he states, "tweak a couple of dimensions by about a hairs width". Lovely lovely!

Tgwnn, I don't want to derail anything on Things thread, but is there seriously a chance you will make enough Matchbooks that we could have a actually change getting one? It seems there is some serious interest. Of course, don't stop working on a Thing to jump on them.

Hi Str8stroke,

Thanks for the post and question.
Absolutely. I did some tests over the weekend and things worked out pretty great.
I've ordered a new material to test, it's due to land Thursday and in the worst case, it should be pretty darn good.
Once I confirm it, seeings there is more interest than I expected, I'll set up a new thread and order some more of everything

Tgwnn

 

[the_guy_with_no_name]

Re: MBI: "Thing" - My newest, top secret "the product with no name"

Ok, looks like I was able to copy/move posts into the new MBI MatchBook thread

Hopefully I haven't confused you all too and it appears to be fine but please feel free to let me know if something looks weird

Tgwnn

 

[the_guy_with_no_name]

Re: MBI: "Thing" - My newest, top secret "the product with no name"

Update:

I've assembled a few Thing-Os.
Looking sweet as can be and having a few is mesmerising to say the least.

Assembly is in theory going to be simple but I have some "stuff" coming in tomorrow that needs to be tested.
Then I'll have to order some more stuff, maybe make a micro mold of sorts...

There's a powerful li'l magnet inside Thing-O. A battery sits on top of the magnet.
The magnet holds the battery so well though, that for now, the battery removal method is to use a more powerful magnet.
As you won't need to be replacing the battery very frequently, it's not a major issue for beta but something I'd like to solve.

Perhaps you can all help me brainstorm that when you receive your things.

I might need to add a thin layer of solder to one of the contact pads, but I'll work that out after "stuff" lands tomorrow and ideally, I can get that taken care of in PCB production (the pad is almost flush with the PCB, so a little thicker, makes better contact with the battery).

The only other thing is those hairs I mentioned. There's a hole through which light is emitted
I'll need to enlarge that by 0.2mm or reduce the part that fits in the hole by 0.2mm. As the part that fits in the hole is molded, not sure it can be adjusted without making a new mold but I'll check on that tomorrow. Increasing the hole size for beta production is not an issue.
I wanted to make it rather snug to ensure good water resistance, but its just a little tighter than necessary (though you'd probably never notice).

wicky, wicky, wicky, wicked!!

Tgwnn

 

[Tejasandre]

Re: MBI: "Thing" - My newest, top secret "the product with no name"

You forget the pics again...

 

[easilyled]

Re: MBI: "Thing" - My newest, top secret "the product with no name"

Must have a Thing-O. I know it will be irresistible.

 

[Str8stroke]

Re: MBI: "Thing" - My newest, top secret "the product with no name"

You forget the pics again...

Must have a Thing-O. I know it will be irresistible.

Thats a fact jack! You always get the good stuff, this one is a must have. Whatever the heck it is! hehe

 

[the_guy_with_no_name]

Re: MBI: "Thing" - My newest, top secret "the product with no name"

You forget the pics again...

Hi Tejasandre

This time, I purposely forgot

Must have a Thing-O. I know it will be irresistible.

Hi easilyled,

Definitely. As there are a few sub-versions of even Thing-O, having a few is recommended and things go better together.
Like a family of sorts, I can see a few of the usually unusual suspects who'll want 10, 20 or even more.

Thats a fact jack! You always get the good stuff, this one is a must have. Whatever the heck it is! hehe

Thanks Str8stroke,

Of course, I'm very likely biased but for anyone who loves light, and gone as far as signing up to cpf, I would boldly say you'll LOVE things.

The love test: open the package, turn out the lights.... most likely you'll be calculating how many more you want.

:bow:

Tgwnn

 

[the_guy_with_no_name]

Re: MBI: "Thing" - My newest, top secret "the product with no name"

Update:

As things are moving so quickly, there are plenty of small updates to share.

I received photos of the assembled test PCBs earlier today, and they are due to land Friday.
Definitely an exciting package to land as I'll be able to verify the Thing-E form factor for the first time with it's miniature PCB, along with maxing out the thing specs.

My head is starting to spin from all that is going on right now but a good day of dayjob work might resolve that.

Here's a rendering (purposely blurred) of a Thing-E PCB on top of a CR2032 battery (which btw does not power Thing-E)

Now's the time to measure your teeth to see if it will fit (just kidding).

Tgwnn

 

[Newguy2012]

Re: MBI: "Thing" - My newest, top secret "the product with no name"

When do you plan on launching the crowdfunding? Next year?

 

[the_guy_with_no_name]

Re: MBI: "Thing" - My newest, top secret "the product with no name"

When do you plan on launching the crowdfunding? Next year?

Hi Newguy2012,

CrowdFunding....

At latest, as soon as I have some working Thing-Ultimates in hand which I do hope will be within this year.
I'm really tempted to do it even as a standalone for Thing-O.

On the one hand, I could hold off making Thing-O available for just a couple of weeks and launch a campaign once confirming Thing-Ultimate (or without it) but I do want to share them with the Tribe asap as a thank you for your trust and confidence without even knowing specifically what a thing is, perhaps only requesting that beta-thing tribesfolk hold off on posting photo's publicly until I launch the campaign.


Minor Update:
I worked out a minor assembly kink a short while ago :sweat:
Fortunately, the solution was simple, and all looks to be perfect :thumbsup:

Another minor stroke of luck in the process of working that out...

I thought I had just a couple of earlier proto PCBs left and had to be cautious, and then I remembered that unless I was dreaming, I should have another 50 or so stashed away... a bit of a search and :twothumbs , found em' !!

That sped up my assembly testing as I could do a micro batch and test for consistency.

Now that little bit is solved, everything is working perfectly, no changes required! Good Good Good!

Was it Shakespear who said
"To glue or not to glue, that is the question"

Tomorrow, I'll give the final go ahead on the silicons, a minor tweak to the Ti and get that cooking.
If I have any time left over, must get to designing a modest package-label-ish-thing.

I need to be getting to the post office by tomorrow. (was planned for this evening but with all the rain and wind outside and my dog going bananas, tomorrow).

If I find a little time, some sleep

Tgwnn

 

[easilyled]

Re: MBI: "Thing" - My newest, top secret "the product with no name"

Guy, thanks for all the exciting developments.

I was wondering if you ever sleep?

 

[th8tredude]

Re: MBI: "Thing" - My newest, top secret "the product with no name"

Awesome update, Guy! Sweet!

 

[the_guy_with_no_name]

Re: MBI: "Thing" - My newest, top secret "the product with no name"

Guy, thanks for all the exciting developments.

I was wondering if you ever sleep?

Hi easilyled,

My pleasure and sure, I'm asleep now

Awesome update, Guy! Sweet!

Hi th8tredude,

Soon soon soon

Tgwnn

 

[eraursls1984]

Re: MBI: "Thing" - My newest, top secret "the product with no name"

Now's the time to measure your teeth to see if it will fit (just kidding).

Tgwnn

You better make hundreds of thousands of these. These will take the hip-hop community by storm. Just imagine 28-30 for each grille. I hope you have a large chunk of gold and platinum handy,haha.

 

[the_guy_with_no_name]

Re: MBI: "Thing" - My newest, top secret "the product with no name"

You better make hundreds of thousands of these. These will take the hip-hop community by storm. Just imagine 28-30 for each grille. I hope you have a large chunk of gold and platinum handy,haha.

Thanks eraursls1984,

That's a great pic

Tgwnn

 

[the_guy_with_no_name]

Re: MBI: "Thing" - My newest, top secret "the product with no name"

Update:

I received PCB samples today for Thing-O and first Thing-E!

Conceptually, looks like Thing-E can work (though it's a tiny bugger to be testing) and though I'll likely need to tweak some values, tis good!

Thing-O PCBs.... none worked as expected
After some careful checking and comparison against existing versions that do work perfectly, I discovered there are 2 parts that were misplaced on the PCB (soldered in the wrong orientation) :mecry:

Gonna hurry to get a new batch made and sent but there goes a 1 week.
Hopefully with a little push, the time can be recovered to be in time with machining.

I was able to garner some idea from the new PCBs but I really won't know for sure until they are done correctly.
My day was going perfectly until then, almost strangely too perfectly....

Fortunately, this is mostly for the purpose of maxing out and tweaking, the circuit itself is working very well in plenty of other versions I have already, just the waiting part... and anti-climax as I was totally excited about checking these...

Tgwnn

 

[Got Lumens?]

Re: MBI: "Thing" - My newest, top secret "the product with no name"

A Bummer indeed, as for this aspect, Day sounds like it went well. :shrug:
I say Tweak & Play with it.
At least until all those others, You are depending upon, make it right .

 

[saypat]

Re: MBI: "Thing" - My newest, top secret "the product with no name"

I'm in....

 

[the_guy_with_no_name]

Re: MBI: "Thing" - My newest, top secret "the product with no name"

A Bummer indeed, as for this aspect, Day sounds like it went well. :shrug:
I say Tweak & Play with it.
At least until all those others, You are depending upon, make it right .

Thanks GL,

Not too big a deal fortunately.
Better an assembly issue than the design itself being the issue.

Hope to have the new batch of these within next week.

I'm in....

saypat,

Welcome back

Tgwnn

 

[Caveman357]

Re: MBI: "Thing" - My newest, top secret "the product with no name"

Wow, sorry I missed this one guy.
I'm down as well.