Hey folks, happy March! Check out what we've been working on the past month:
Lead Times
We're still actively looking for more assembly techs to join the team! If you're in the Pittsburgh area and interested, please don't hesitate to apply!
As always, the official lead time on each product's product page is the most accurate metric for when you'll see your hardware ship. There's a good chance we ship early, internally it's about a 2-3 week lead time, but we keep it where it is to ensure we're able to stick to our estimate.
We're actually going to try to keep the lead time the same despite the fact we're bringing it down internally, because we're going to be moving very soon, and a buffer will help let things move along smoothly.
Wide Feeders + Feeder Loading Station
Since the last update, we've mainly been working on sourcing efforts for our PVT build of both 16mm and 24mm feeders, and the Feeder Loading Station. Many of our vendors were closed down for the Spring Festival, so we're getting parts into production now and will have parts for our build soon. We're mainly waiting on PCBs, some new cable harnesses, and a custom double torsion spring which will be used for the pick window in the feeders.
As samples come in for these products, we'll be doing our internal PVT builds and smoke-testing our manufacturing process!
LumenPnP v4.1.0 Release
We've just released v4.1.0 of the LumenPnP! This is a small update that enables the use of the newly released OpenPnP v2.6! The main change is the addition of a secondary fiducial which enables a whole slew of automatic calibrations in OpenPnP.
We're officially shipping v4.1.0 as of this week, and our docs supporting this new version of OpenPnP will be live in the next couple days.
If you'd like to update your LumenPnP to support these calibrations and 2.6, we have an upgrade kit on the web store that's very easy to install without moving your machine.
Spool Holder
I've been working on tuning some prototypes for the spool holder that properly manages component spool mounting and storage, and have settled on something that feels really good and easy to use.
The base is sheet metal with a few countersunk holes and a PEM Standoff. The spool can be mounted to the plate using the standoff, and these pieces on the bottom mirror the interface of a feeder for latching in and out of the base.
Mounting the feeder to the spool itself is a great concept in practice, but it would greatly increase the size and cost of a feeder/spool assembly. Instead, having spools be center-mounted and easily movable on a base allows components to be easily fed, spools easily moved, and minimal space taken up.
After a bit more tuning, we'll start getting a DVT build together and finding vendors for new parts.
The Office
For those keeping up with our previous updates, we've signed a lease on a much larger space! We just got the keys this week, and we're planning to move in just a few weeks from now.
I'm going to give a very quick tour of the space at the end of the attached video at the top of this post so you can see where we're moving, but I'll be posting a proper tour of the old place, and the new one after we get all up and running in a few weeks.
I've made a full scale model of the space and magnetic models of our furniture, which has been very helpful for figuring out layout once we move in. The big move is scheduled to happen in a few weeks!
Job Postings
You can check out our careers page for all the details of the jobs we have available. If you or someone you know would be a good fit for any of these roles, please apply!
Reach Out
If you have any feedback, questions, or comments about this update, please don't hesitate to reach out to us here.
Thanks, and we'll see you next month!
-Stephen