PiJuice - A Portable Project Platform For Every Raspberry Pi
Created by PiJuice Team
PiJuice is the ultimate module for all portable Raspberry Pi projects. Includes many fun maker projects and a solar power version too!
Latest Updates from Our Project:
We love data! Progress update and more
over 10 years ago
– Wed, Jul 29, 2015 at 07:24:36 PM
Hi backers,
It has been a pretty busy time at PiJuice HQ over the last few weeks! We know you are all itching to see our progress so without further ado, here is what we have been up to:
Survey results
As most of you already know, about two weeks after the campaign ended we sent out a link to BackerKit for us to collect information about your pledges which included a survey with some questions designed to help us deliver the best product possible for you.
We want to start by saying thanks for the quick response for this first survey - over 2300 of your have completed the survey so far! We know how much you Kickstarter backers love data and charts (who doesn't) so we thought it would be nice to share some of the information with you. See below for some of the key findings.
Interesting Survey Data
One of the most interesting findings has been that nearly 95% of our backers are male and many of you are computing, software, or electronics engineers. Perhaps this is not a surprising statistic, however it is slightly worrying and does show that we need to do more to engage better with women and people outisde of the computing/software/electronics world - both PiJuice and the whole Raspberry Pi ecosystem. For the projects we've now been able to see relative popularity for each project that will help us inform our guides. What's also been really interesting is finding out about all the specific projects you are planning and these have been great to learn about!
We'll develop some of the popular new applications for PiJuice project tutorials and we will share the results with you in due course. If you are interested to see some of the projects we have already been working on take a look at our instructables page - www.instructables.com/member/PiJuice/
There are still 139 backers who have not completed their surveys. The BackerKit system automatically sends out reminders to those of you who haven't so you know who you are! We would be really grateful if you could fill in the survey and select any additional products you have pledged for as it allows us to order the correct quantities of all the items and to actually deliver your rewards to you. If you have not received a BackerKit invite, or are having any trouble please send a message to us through Kickstarter.
Rugged Weatherproof Case Design Review
One of our favourite stretch goals was to put a portion of the PiJuice funds towards developing a rugged weatherproof case. An easy to use and well designed weatherproof case is not something that really exists yet in the Raspberry Pi world, and is something that a lot of backers (especially those who chose PiJuice Solar) were really excited about.
So as not to distract from our main project delivery on PiJuice, we decided to work with our friends at MindSketch to help us to bring this aspect of the project to life. The initial work on that process has resulted in some very interesting concept designs which you can see below:
Square Concept
Hex Concept
Initial Cardboard Mockups
Case design survey
One of the most awesome things about having 2400+ backers is that we have a pool of incredible people that we can test our ideas on and who can help us to shape both our current and future products.
In your BackerKit survey you may remember we asked if you would be interested in being involved in the development of our software, guides, projects and the design of our rugged case. Nearly 75% of you said yes! If you were one of those people, in the next couple of days you should expect to see an email in your inbox from SurveyGizmo containing a link to the first part in this process. We can't wait to hear your thoughts.
If you answered no to being involved in this process, but have changed your mind - you can either go back into your BackerKit survey and change your response or message us through Kickstarter and we can do this for you. Additionally, we will post the link in an update as soon as it goes live.
PiJuice Development Progress
As part of the stretch goals for the Kickstarter campaign, we introduced a number of new hardware based features including a watchdog timer, I2C address configuration and a magic LED. This meant we needed to change or add to some of the existing circuitry on the PiJuice design.
We started this process whilst the campaign was still running to get a head start, and the work on this has now been completed and we have the first two prototypes of this new design in hand. Here are some pictures for you:
Latest PiJuice Prototype Top
Latest PiJuice Prototype Bottom
As you can see in the pictures, we haven't yet made the new acrylic surround and the boards do not have a stacking header on them. The reason for this is speed - we wanted to get these initial prototypes in-hand as soon as possible so we could begin work on the firmware, GUI and software side of things. This work is now well underway - the firmware is nearing completion and the GUI will follow shortly.
For all of you who love to know about the tech specs, we decided to go with an ARM Cortex M0 based MCU for the main controller IC on board, along with all the power management chips - we will put together a more involved technical look at PiJuice for a future update.
We are currently making preparations for our initial test run of 50 PiJuice boards. As we have to make 3000+ PiJuice boards for the full Kickstarter run we want to iron out any problems or delays in the manufacturing process before they cause any issues, and doing a small simulation of the full process is a great way for us to achieve this.
Keep Sharing
A number of our backers and new visitors have been asking where they can pre order the PiJuice. Well the good news is this is also possible through BackerKit at the pre-order site here - https://pijuice.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders/
There is an opportunity to share the PiJuice and the pre order page at BackerKit after entering your shipping address details - we would be extremely grateful if you could do this as any additional orders will help us to make the PiJuice even more awesome!
You can also just click any of the links below to share the Kickstarter page which has a "Pre Order" link in it leading to BackerKit:
As some of you may know, as well as forming part of the PiJuice team, I (Aaron) am the owner of Pi Supply. Pi Supply have just launched a new Kickstarter project - the PaPiRus ePaper display HAT for your Raspberry Pi - with screen sizes ranging from 1.44" to 2.7".
As our loyal backers, we wanted to give you a heads up about this project so you did not miss out! There are still a number of early bird units up for grabs and we wanted to make sure you had a chance to get your hands on one of these discounted units before they run out. Here is the link - http://kck.st/1KhPAB2
Even if you are not interested in our new project at all, we would still be really grateful if you could help us to spread the word about the project. We have set up a website (PaPiRus.ws) as well as Facebook (www.Facebook.com/raspisupply) and Twitter (www.twitter.com/PaPiRusPi) pages for the project and we would be grateful if you could use hashtag #PaPiRus to show your support.
Thanks, as always, Aaron and the PiJuice team
We love data! Progress update and more
over 10 years ago
– Wed, Jul 29, 2015 at 07:24:36 PM
Hi backers,
It has been a pretty busy time at PiJuice HQ over the last few weeks! We know you are all itching to see our progress so without further ado, here is what we have been up to:
Survey results
As most of you already know, about two weeks after the campaign ended we sent out a link to BackerKit for us to collect information about your pledges which included a survey with some questions designed to help us deliver the best product possible for you.
We want to start by saying thanks for the quick response for this first survey - over 2300 of your have completed the survey so far! We know how much you Kickstarter backers love data and charts (who doesn't) so we thought it would be nice to share some of the information with you. See below for some of the key findings.
Interesting Survey Data
One of the most interesting findings has been that nearly 95% of our backers are male and many of you are computing, software, or electronics engineers. Perhaps this is not a surprising statistic, however it is slightly worrying and does show that we need to do more to engage better with women and people outisde of the computing/software/electronics world - both PiJuice and the whole Raspberry Pi ecosystem. For the projects we've now been able to see relative popularity for each project that will help us inform our guides. What's also been really interesting is finding out about all the specific projects you are planning and these have been great to learn about!
We'll develop some of the popular new applications for PiJuice project tutorials and we will share the results with you in due course. If you are interested to see some of the projects we have already been working on take a look at our instructables page - www.instructables.com/member/PiJuice/
There are still 139 backers who have not completed their surveys. The BackerKit system automatically sends out reminders to those of you who haven't so you know who you are! We would be really grateful if you could fill in the survey and select any additional products you have pledged for as it allows us to order the correct quantities of all the items and to actually deliver your rewards to you. If you have not received a BackerKit invite, or are having any trouble please send a message to us through Kickstarter.
Rugged Weatherproof Case Design Review
One of our favourite stretch goals was to put a portion of the PiJuice funds towards developing a rugged weatherproof case. An easy to use and well designed weatherproof case is not something that really exists yet in the Raspberry Pi world, and is something that a lot of backers (especially those who chose PiJuice Solar) were really excited about.
So as not to distract from our main project delivery on PiJuice, we decided to work with our friends at MindSketch to help us to bring this aspect of the project to life. The initial work on that process has resulted in some very interesting concept designs which you can see below:
Square Concept
Hex Concept
Initial Cardboard Mockups
Case design survey
One of the most awesome things about having 2400+ backers is that we have a pool of incredible people that we can test our ideas on and who can help us to shape both our current and future products.
In your BackerKit survey you may remember we asked if you would be interested in being involved in the development of our software, guides, projects and the design of our rugged case. Nearly 75% of you said yes! If you were one of those people, in the next couple of days you should expect to see an email in your inbox from SurveyGizmo containing a link to the first part in this process. We can't wait to hear your thoughts.
If you answered no to being involved in this process, but have changed your mind - you can either go back into your BackerKit survey and change your response or message us through Kickstarter and we can do this for you. Additionally, we will post the link in an update as soon as it goes live.
PiJuice Development Progress
As part of the stretch goals for the Kickstarter campaign, we introduced a number of new hardware based features including a watchdog timer, I2C address configuration and a magic LED. This meant we needed to change or add to some of the existing circuitry on the PiJuice design.
We started this process whilst the campaign was still running to get a head start, and the work on this has now been completed and we have the first two prototypes of this new design in hand. Here are some pictures for you:
Latest PiJuice Prototype Top
Latest PiJuice Prototype Bottom
As you can see in the pictures, we haven't yet made the new acrylic surround and the boards do not have a stacking header on them. The reason for this is speed - we wanted to get these initial prototypes in-hand as soon as possible so we could begin work on the firmware, GUI and software side of things. This work is now well underway - the firmware is nearing completion and the GUI will follow shortly.
For all of you who love to know about the tech specs, we decided to go with an ARM Cortex M0 based MCU for the main controller IC on board, along with all the power management chips - we will put together a more involved technical look at PiJuice for a future update.
We are currently making preparations for our initial test run of 50 PiJuice boards. As we have to make 3000+ PiJuice boards for the full Kickstarter run we want to iron out any problems or delays in the manufacturing process before they cause any issues, and doing a small simulation of the full process is a great way for us to achieve this.
Keep Sharing
A number of our backers and new visitors have been asking where they can pre order the PiJuice. Well the good news is this is also possible through BackerKit at the pre-order site here - https://pijuice.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders/
There is an opportunity to share the PiJuice and the pre order page at BackerKit after entering your shipping address details - we would be extremely grateful if you could do this as any additional orders will help us to make the PiJuice even more awesome!
You can also just click any of the links below to share the Kickstarter page which has a "Pre Order" link in it leading to BackerKit:
As some of you may know, as well as forming part of the PiJuice team, I (Aaron) am the owner of Pi Supply. Pi Supply have just launched a new Kickstarter project - the PaPiRus ePaper display HAT for your Raspberry Pi - with screen sizes ranging from 1.44" to 2.7".
As our loyal backers, we wanted to give you a heads up about this project so you did not miss out! There are still a number of early bird units up for grabs and we wanted to make sure you had a chance to get your hands on one of these discounted units before they run out. Here is the link - http://kck.st/1KhPAB2
Even if you are not interested in our new project at all, we would still be really grateful if you could help us to spread the word about the project. We have set up a website (PaPiRus.ws) as well as Facebook (www.Facebook.com/raspisupply) and Twitter (www.twitter.com/PaPiRusPi) pages for the project and we would be grateful if you could use hashtag #PaPiRus to show your support.
Thanks, as always, Aaron and the PiJuice team
Production problems, survey feedback, weatherproof case updates and more...
over 10 years ago
– Wed, Jul 29, 2015 at 06:39:41 PM
Hi backers,
It’s been a full seven weeks since our last update and there’s lots to catch up on. We are extremely sorry that people have been left concerned and wondering what we’ve been up to. We can only apologise for this long delay and for not keeping you updated.
Part of the reason for the delay is the problems we have had with adding the stretch goal improvements and we wanted to get to a better place with getting these working before sending an update - this took a considerably longer time than we had hoped!
In any case, we promise now to give more frequent updates going forward and we’ll aim to do this at least every two weeks or so - more frequently if there is important/interesting information to share.
In this update we’d like to cover some of the challenges we’ve been facing, the progress we’ve made, what’s left to be done and our plan for completing the development and delivering the pledge rewards.
Hardware progress
As you probably know, as stretch goals we added some quite ambitious and useful features to PiJuice - some of which required changing the PCB layout and circuitry. Our engineer, Jurijs, has now integrated all of the stretch goals and promised enhancements however, we need to let you know that we have had issues in advancing the prototyping of these new features as quickly as we would have liked. As the ultimate power module for the Raspberry Pi there has been a lot to get right.
We are delighted to announce that we have now achieved all of the functionality without problems but some specific behaviour has proved tricky.
Jurijs has been putting in long days and also working weekends, and we’ve been grateful to him for his serious efforts. One of the most complex features that we wanted to add was the ability to charge/power the unit from both the onboard microUSB connector on the PiJuice as well as from the Raspberry Pis own microUSB connector (because this allows it to work inside existing cases easily). The complexity comes from the ‘power loop’ part of the design that is able to charge the battery when a power adapter is plugged into the Raspberry Pi's on-board microUSB and even when the Raspberry Pi is in operation. This involves some intelligent dynamic power management. Our initial proposed solution worked perfectly under certain conditions and use cases but not under others, so we have had to extensively test and tweak the design in order to get it working under all possible conditions.
In our last update, we mentioned that we would be shortly running the first batch of 50 units of the PiJuice modules off the production line and extensively testing them. We found the above problem shortly before sending off for this initial order in our final testing and so this first batch has not been produced yet. We are once again at a point where we are performing final, extensive tests and checks on the new design before we release the design files to the manufacturer. We are hoping for this to be complete by Thursday/Friday and to send the files off over the weekend. Once this has been done, we will post a short update to confirm it as well, to keep you in the loop!
Due to the testing we have already completed, we hope that there should not be many, if any, changes to make to the design after the second testing phase of the 50 units - although we can't be sure of this until we have them in hand. The idea behind this first run is really to test our production processes (manufacture, quality checks, operational functionality test etc) and to enable us test our production pipeline and get prototypes to integrate into real-world test projects and more thoroughly benchmark and test the units. Additionally, it will enable us to complete the desktop software (which is already at a good stage, but now requires the hardware in order to finish it).
Games console and maker kit progress
Since finalising the mechanical specification of the final PiJuice boards, we have also been working hard on finishing the ancilliary products for the maker kits and on other projects that we can release as do-it-yourself guides in the future.
Whilst working on the games console we came up with a novel idea to reduce the complexity of the design and the make the end user assembly much easier. As you can see from the picture below, we are using the printed circuit board itself as the mechanical backbone of the device:
New games console design
If you konw anything about PCBs, you will know that the stuff they make them out of (FR4) is really quite strong! We think it makes the end product look pretty unique and cool and means we can even chose from a variety of soldermask colours - it doesn't have to be green (colour suggestions in the comments? We were thinking a dark pink like in the PiJuice logo might look nice)! We are also investigating the potential of using this type of design for all of the "PiJuice Projects" going forward, but this may not be as effective for the other projects.
Updated delivery schedule
The main focus has been on the core PiJuice power module and our engineer Jurijs has been working hard to complete the design for production. Detailed aspects of the product have presented us with challenges and and we’ve been resolving the issues one at a time. Thermal dissipation at high charge rates and getting the right behaviour in low power modes have both been issues for example. Whilst we’ve now resolved these issues it has taken time and we need to update our ETA as a result. We don’t want to rush the development at the expense of quality and we hope that everyone can be patient and support this position. We are driven to get PiJuice to you in good time and we’ll do what we can from here to make this happen.
The current state of development is that everything has now been tested as working. The firmware has been written and we're now actively working on completing the desktop software and GUI interface, which will be fully completed once we have the first 50 units in hand from the production test run. The final testing that remains involves pushing the unit to it's limits and checking that there’s adequate thermal dissipation, thoroughly testing the batteries from our new supplier and the solar panels.
Completed items:
Stretch goal items added
Design specification fixed
New prototype built and tested extensively
Working firmware written
Bootloader written
Software/GUI well underway
Production test/programming rig completed
To do this week:
First batch of 50 PiJuices ordered
Further to do:
Final quality testing and supplier vetting for batteries and solar panels
Testing of first batch of 50
Any final design changes (hopefully none)
Integrating the product into further projects, and writing example guides and tutorials of these
Finalise maker kit item designs and guides
Mass Production
Mass testing
Delivery!
The current best estimate for the delivery date is the middle of August. We will do our best to reduce this where possible, but we want to be honest and open with you about this going forward and will update this timeline as we continue to make progress.
Whilst Jurijs has concentrated on the design we’ve been preparing for the manufacture. We already have a well developed supply chain and contract manufacturer which we have used successfully on many previous projects and are intending to use them for this project, providing the first test batch of 50 goes to plan.
Obviously a key element of the PiJuice design is the battery and we’ve been testing various samples to find the best supplier. We want to ensure that for the 3000+ PiJuice units for the Kickstarter rewards, and all future orders, that we can guarantee the batteries are up to the task of being incorporated into the ultimate Raspberry Pi portable power supply. This is not an easy task and battery sourcing can be a bit of a minefield so we now plan to go out to China this month to meet all of our selected suppliers in person, investigate and audit their factories and ensure the details of the product are delivered effectively to them - something which isn't particularly effective over email for a fairly complex project like this. We will also likely get to watch some of the production process and will hopefully be able to share some of this with you.
Survey feedback
Last month over 600 of you participated in the PiJuice design review and it was amazing getting so much quality feedback and personal suggestions. We've read everyone’s replies with great interest. We’ll now incorporate all the feedback into informing our work going forward. We're pleased that on the whole everyone's valuing the time we're putting into the project creation, development of the weatherproof case and extended software.
How Useful
The survey has also been invaluable in helping use understand your needs from the project better and we can now fine-tune our efforts in completing all the development. This has also proven to be some much needed encouragement for completing the development of the PiJuice stretch goals and getting the best finished product possible into your hands.
Weatherproof case design
We have also been working hard with MindSketch (although this got a bit delayed too, mainly due to focusing on fixing the core design of PiJuice first). We have together now completed the first prototype of the design of the weatherproof case and have 3D printed this in detail in order to get a feel for what it looks like in the flesh. This will allow us to identify any aesthetic or functional problems and improve upon them going forward.
Prototype design render
The next stage will be to test further variations of the box out in real world situations - we aim to do this as part of the project creation and testing of the first batch of 50 PiJuice modules. The main PiJuice project is, of course, our priority, and we will only be working on the weatherproof case when it proves useful to the main PiJuice development. We'll be sure to give a full update of this in due course as well as a final prototype review.
Thanks!
Thanks for reading and thanks for your patience over the last few weeks. We know that a lot of you have become frustrated with our lack of updates and replies to comments (and rightly so) and we want to make sure this does not happen again. We also want to reassure you that we are still working extremely hard on the delivery of the project and that, despite the unfortunate and unexpected setbacks we have had in relation to the stretch goal additions, we are making great progress.
We hope that the work we have put in to fix these problems and add these stretch goal improvements will lead to a better, more useful and more robust product for everyone moving forward, and will also save us time in the following stages of the process.
All the best, Aaron, Harry and the PiJuice team
Production problems, survey feedback, weatherproof case updates and more...
over 10 years ago
– Wed, Jul 29, 2015 at 06:39:41 PM
Hi backers,
It’s been a full seven weeks since our last update and there’s lots to catch up on. We are extremely sorry that people have been left concerned and wondering what we’ve been up to. We can only apologise for this long delay and for not keeping you updated.
Part of the reason for the delay is the problems we have had with adding the stretch goal improvements and we wanted to get to a better place with getting these working before sending an update - this took a considerably longer time than we had hoped!
In any case, we promise now to give more frequent updates going forward and we’ll aim to do this at least every two weeks or so - more frequently if there is important/interesting information to share.
In this update we’d like to cover some of the challenges we’ve been facing, the progress we’ve made, what’s left to be done and our plan for completing the development and delivering the pledge rewards.
Hardware progress
As you probably know, as stretch goals we added some quite ambitious and useful features to PiJuice - some of which required changing the PCB layout and circuitry. Our engineer, Jurijs, has now integrated all of the stretch goals and promised enhancements however, we need to let you know that we have had issues in advancing the prototyping of these new features as quickly as we would have liked. As the ultimate power module for the Raspberry Pi there has been a lot to get right.
We are delighted to announce that we have now achieved all of the functionality without problems but some specific behaviour has proved tricky.
Jurijs has been putting in long days and also working weekends, and we’ve been grateful to him for his serious efforts. One of the most complex features that we wanted to add was the ability to charge/power the unit from both the onboard microUSB connector on the PiJuice as well as from the Raspberry Pis own microUSB connector (because this allows it to work inside existing cases easily). The complexity comes from the ‘power loop’ part of the design that is able to charge the battery when a power adapter is plugged into the Raspberry Pi's on-board microUSB and even when the Raspberry Pi is in operation. This involves some intelligent dynamic power management. Our initial proposed solution worked perfectly under certain conditions and use cases but not under others, so we have had to extensively test and tweak the design in order to get it working under all possible conditions.
In our last update, we mentioned that we would be shortly running the first batch of 50 units of the PiJuice modules off the production line and extensively testing them. We found the above problem shortly before sending off for this initial order in our final testing and so this first batch has not been produced yet. We are once again at a point where we are performing final, extensive tests and checks on the new design before we release the design files to the manufacturer. We are hoping for this to be complete by Thursday/Friday and to send the files off over the weekend. Once this has been done, we will post a short update to confirm it as well, to keep you in the loop!
Due to the testing we have already completed, we hope that there should not be many, if any, changes to make to the design after the second testing phase of the 50 units - although we can't be sure of this until we have them in hand. The idea behind this first run is really to test our production processes (manufacture, quality checks, operational functionality test etc) and to enable us test our production pipeline and get prototypes to integrate into real-world test projects and more thoroughly benchmark and test the units. Additionally, it will enable us to complete the desktop software (which is already at a good stage, but now requires the hardware in order to finish it).
Games console and maker kit progress
Since finalising the mechanical specification of the final PiJuice boards, we have also been working hard on finishing the ancilliary products for the maker kits and on other projects that we can release as do-it-yourself guides in the future.
Whilst working on the games console we came up with a novel idea to reduce the complexity of the design and the make the end user assembly much easier. As you can see from the picture below, we are using the printed circuit board itself as the mechanical backbone of the device:
New games console design
If you konw anything about PCBs, you will know that the stuff they make them out of (FR4) is really quite strong! We think it makes the end product look pretty unique and cool and means we can even chose from a variety of soldermask colours - it doesn't have to be green (colour suggestions in the comments? We were thinking a dark pink like in the PiJuice logo might look nice)! We are also investigating the potential of using this type of design for all of the "PiJuice Projects" going forward, but this may not be as effective for the other projects.
Updated delivery schedule
The main focus has been on the core PiJuice power module and our engineer Jurijs has been working hard to complete the design for production. Detailed aspects of the product have presented us with challenges and and we’ve been resolving the issues one at a time. Thermal dissipation at high charge rates and getting the right behaviour in low power modes have both been issues for example. Whilst we’ve now resolved these issues it has taken time and we need to update our ETA as a result. We don’t want to rush the development at the expense of quality and we hope that everyone can be patient and support this position. We are driven to get PiJuice to you in good time and we’ll do what we can from here to make this happen.
The current state of development is that everything has now been tested as working. The firmware has been written and we're now actively working on completing the desktop software and GUI interface, which will be fully completed once we have the first 50 units in hand from the production test run. The final testing that remains involves pushing the unit to it's limits and checking that there’s adequate thermal dissipation, thoroughly testing the batteries from our new supplier and the solar panels.
Completed items:
Stretch goal items added
Design specification fixed
New prototype built and tested extensively
Working firmware written
Bootloader written
Software/GUI well underway
Production test/programming rig completed
To do this week:
First batch of 50 PiJuices ordered
Further to do:
Final quality testing and supplier vetting for batteries and solar panels
Testing of first batch of 50
Any final design changes (hopefully none)
Integrating the product into further projects, and writing example guides and tutorials of these
Finalise maker kit item designs and guides
Mass Production
Mass testing
Delivery!
The current best estimate for the delivery date is the middle of August. We will do our best to reduce this where possible, but we want to be honest and open with you about this going forward and will update this timeline as we continue to make progress.
Whilst Jurijs has concentrated on the design we’ve been preparing for the manufacture. We already have a well developed supply chain and contract manufacturer which we have used successfully on many previous projects and are intending to use them for this project, providing the first test batch of 50 goes to plan.
Obviously a key element of the PiJuice design is the battery and we’ve been testing various samples to find the best supplier. We want to ensure that for the 3000+ PiJuice units for the Kickstarter rewards, and all future orders, that we can guarantee the batteries are up to the task of being incorporated into the ultimate Raspberry Pi portable power supply. This is not an easy task and battery sourcing can be a bit of a minefield so we now plan to go out to China this month to meet all of our selected suppliers in person, investigate and audit their factories and ensure the details of the product are delivered effectively to them - something which isn't particularly effective over email for a fairly complex project like this. We will also likely get to watch some of the production process and will hopefully be able to share some of this with you.
Survey feedback
Last month over 600 of you participated in the PiJuice design review and it was amazing getting so much quality feedback and personal suggestions. We've read everyone’s replies with great interest. We’ll now incorporate all the feedback into informing our work going forward. We're pleased that on the whole everyone's valuing the time we're putting into the project creation, development of the weatherproof case and extended software.
How Useful
The survey has also been invaluable in helping use understand your needs from the project better and we can now fine-tune our efforts in completing all the development. This has also proven to be some much needed encouragement for completing the development of the PiJuice stretch goals and getting the best finished product possible into your hands.
Weatherproof case design
We have also been working hard with MindSketch (although this got a bit delayed too, mainly due to focusing on fixing the core design of PiJuice first). We have together now completed the first prototype of the design of the weatherproof case and have 3D printed this in detail in order to get a feel for what it looks like in the flesh. This will allow us to identify any aesthetic or functional problems and improve upon them going forward.
Prototype design render
The next stage will be to test further variations of the box out in real world situations - we aim to do this as part of the project creation and testing of the first batch of 50 PiJuice modules. The main PiJuice project is, of course, our priority, and we will only be working on the weatherproof case when it proves useful to the main PiJuice development. We'll be sure to give a full update of this in due course as well as a final prototype review.
Thanks!
Thanks for reading and thanks for your patience over the last few weeks. We know that a lot of you have become frustrated with our lack of updates and replies to comments (and rightly so) and we want to make sure this does not happen again. We also want to reassure you that we are still working extremely hard on the delivery of the project and that, despite the unfortunate and unexpected setbacks we have had in relation to the stretch goal additions, we are making great progress.
We hope that the work we have put in to fix these problems and add these stretch goal improvements will lead to a better, more useful and more robust product for everyone moving forward, and will also save us time in the following stages of the process.
All the best, Aaron, Harry and the PiJuice team
BackerKit Surveys and Add Ons - Important
almost 11 years ago
– Mon, May 04, 2015 at 03:08:59 AM
Dear Backers,
It has been two weeks since our last update, and a lot has been happening behind the scenes. At over 1200% funded and nearly 2500 backers we have a lot to do, and we want to make sure we do it to the best of our abilities.
The first thing we did was get the whole team together for a sit down to make a refreshed version of our delivery plan after the end of the Kickstarter, and the emotional rollercoaster that went with it! Since then we have been hard at work getting the latest samples finished, in depth discussions about the firmware, planning the design of the rugged weatherproof case along with our friends at MindSketch and much much more.
We will have way more to share with you in the coming weeks about what we have been up to behind the scenes, but for now the most important thing relates to surveys...
BackerKit Surveys and Add Ons
As mentioned in our previous update, we decided to go with BackerKit in order to make the process of managing our 2400+ backers, surveys, pledge management, add on sales and shipping a great deal easier.
As promised, we now have everything set up and ready to go, but we wanted to explain this in a bit more detail.
The BackerKit process includes three important sections:
Survey - this is to find out more about you and how you intend to use PiJuice. This will really help us complete the development of the project and better serve your needs.
Extras management - a lot of our backers pledged more money than the specific "pledge level" they chose on Kickstarter. BackerKit knows how much extra you pledged, and will allow you to select any additional options that you may want.
Shipping address - we need this in order to make sure your pledges turn up exactly where you want them! You can edit this at any time until we "lock down" the addresses (which will be closer to the shipping date, and we will notify you before hand). So if you move house, made a mistake or anything else you can easily change it.
In addition to the important features above it will also allow you to:
Purchase add ons - this means you can purchase more PiJuice units, batteries, Raspberry Pis, SD cards, power supplies, Maker Kits and more.
Pay for international shipping cost if you forgot - most people have done this already, but for anyone who forgot it is a really easy way to pay the correct amount.
Why do you need all the details on the survey?
We want to hear from you how we can make the PiJuice and PiJuice projects work well for you. As we reached our stretch goals too we'd also like to develop the software and things like a really useful outdoor case for the Raspberry Pi too.
In order to do this in a methodical way, that works best for YOU - our backers - it will help us an awful lot to have some feedback from the people who helped to make PiJuice a reality. This is the great thing about Kickstarter - as backers you can actually help to shape the final outcome of the product and that is exactly what we want to achieve here.
So we are asking you to answer some questions about yourself and what you are planning to do with your PiJuice.
For anyone worried about their data, all data from the survey will be anonymised and will only be used solely for the purposes of making the PiJuice better for everyone. We will not share any of your contact details with any third party and we will only add your email to our mailing list if you select yes to the question within the survey. We value your privacy, and if you have any questions or concerns please send us a message.
We're also really interested to test our design ideas and developments on our backers and we will be sharing design concepts of the rugged weatherproof case and more through future Kickstarter updates. This will include future surveys to capture your favourite designs etc. and we'd be really grateful for your feedback on all of these as things progress.
Didn't receive your BackerKit survey invite?
Hopefully you should all receive your BackerKit survey invite to the email address you registered with within the next 24 hours (if you signed in with your Facebook account, this will be the email address registered to your Facebook account).
If you have not received the invitation email within this time please check your spam folder to make sure it didn't accidentally get caught in there. If you still can't find the email, please send a message through the contact form on our BackerKit page or via the Kickstarter messaging system and we will sort this out for you.
Pre orders - please share!
A number of our backers and new visitors have been asking where they can pre order the PiJuice. Well the good news is this is also possible through BackerKit at the pre-order site here - https://pijuice.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders/
There is an opportunity to share the PiJuice and the pre order page at BackerKit after entering your shipping address details - we would be extremely grateful if you could do this as any additional orders will help us to make the PiJuice even more awesome!
Please note that for existing backers the easiest way to add extra items to their pledge is to do so via the Add-ons purchase method after the survey rather than the pre orders page.
