Still waiting for the PCB to arrive. PCB manufacturer told us they will deliver in March.
And from back in January, it was:
Still waiting for the PCB to arrive. PCB production was heavily delayed by the factory due to low quantity to make way for larger orders.
And early October, it was:
Sorting shall begin next week, PCB should arrive late Oct. For detailed updates, check the last project update post.
The September project update before that:
More
Keyboard housing and accessories:
Metal parts: All milled and finished anodizing in late Aug to early Sept. After inspecting, Some gray parts were around 1-2 pantone code darker, got them back for re-anodizing to match the original gray advertised.
Plastic parts: All milled and done in late Aug, early Sept. Battery chamber, done, CNCed ABS, sprayed black, perfectly textured. Plastic Washer, done, sits between the on/off metal switch and the battery chamber. However, after pre-assembling we discovered that the tolerance was a bit off, rendering the switch wobble more than we could accept. Hence, these two are now being machined again..
Wood Piece: Done.
Package: Done this week.
PCB:
PCB is the most frustrating part. It has not been a pleasant journey working with the current PCB vendor. They promised to deliver in late June and early July. But there are always some minor issues from the post production units that didn't meet our standard.
Revision 1 was the one in the early prototype: in-switch RGB, RGB Strip, USB Type-C, BT, fixed layout. R2 changed the PCB to mother and daughter board to incorporate better with the internal design, changed the side RGB strip configuration, and added multiple layout support. R3 added charging circuit and DIP. Revision 4 fixed some issues detected when testing and has recently been approved. Phase 1 to Phase 2 was a drastic change: tray mount to top mount, 1 PCB to 1 mother and 3 daughter boards (2 high-density SMD LED strip, 1 Type-C port), fixed layout to flexible layout while incorporating in switch SMD. Slowly adding more features to the PCB thus generated many unwanted issue.
BT 3.0 + BLE connection, 4-5m connection (full metal housing, full plate). Delay, not an issue (surely there will be delay, but not noticeable when work and casual gaming) (noticeable delay might occur when you pair many BT devices to a single machine). Could easily switch between (Windows, MAC, iOS) machines via Fn + function short cuts.
That being said, we bear full responsibility for the lack of communication and overall unsatisfactory group buy experience:
Problems we had during this group buy with the designer and factories:
- Miscommunication. Three parties are involved: Elemento, PCB vendor, and zFrontier. Communication were often times unilateral. Demands and feedback weren't clearly delivered.
- Lack of supervision over the production process. Happens when working with larger factories: smaller projects were postponed and bigger projects were prioritized when project managers were not in the place of constantly overseeing the production phase.
- Not taking immediate action when the factory failed to deliver. We put our trust into the said PCB vendor, but they were not able to deliver on time and created more issues. They are competent, in fact. But their attitude towards the project wasn't quite in the right place. We didn't take immediate action to push them or switch vendor, believing they could still make it right. Fact is, yes, they did, but too much time were wasted.
We sincerely apologize for our poor service for this project.
Elemento and zFrontier are pushing the factories to deliver every single day. We do not want to deliver a product that is sub-par to our standard. And thus many parts where rejected and ordered for a re-make.
Again, I am sincerely sorry and feel immense regret for the lack of communication.
What to expect:
•Fr87 by Elemento
Shipping ETA: October
•Regular update on every project
Best Regards,
Alex
What I'd like to know is where the accountability is. Specifically with this:
- Not taking immediate action when the factory failed to deliver. We put our trust into the said PCB vendor, but they were not able to deliver on time and created more issues. They are competent, in fact. But their attitude towards the project wasn't quite in the right place. We didn't take immediate action to push them or switch vendor, believing they could still make it right. Fact is, yes, they did, but too much time were wasted.
If this happened back in September, why is it 5-6 months later now and we're still having issues with the project not being given the priority it needs? Are there ever going to be any repercussions for this, as far as the PCB manufacturer is concerned? And where has Elemento been this whole time - like we noticed long ago, aside from the one pop-in they had here, they've been a silent partner, despite apparently designing the whole board?
I'd like to see ZF come to this thread and interact again - even if they don't have any news, seeing them interacting would be helpful. But what I'd really like to see, is all the cards laid on the table. If the PCB people are to blame, throw them under the bus. Don't take the hit for them. Let everyone see some transparency here, cause a lot of resentment seems to be building up.