October 2025 Opulo Update

Hey everyone, happy October! Here's what we've been doing at Opulo this 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! We're also making some huge changes at Opulo to support this new tier of production that's necessary from our order volume. It's going to take a little bit, but it'll remove most or all of our production bottlenecks and we'll be able to actually make some progress on bringing down our lead time.

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, but we keep it where it is to ensure we're able to stick to our estimate.

Wide Feeders

Since the last update, we've assembled our first EVT unit for 2U feeders. The new revision of the PCB with an updated hole pattern arrived and was spun up, Photon was ported to the new chip, and we had a fully integrated unit. We've been running this new feeder on our production line here at Opulo and it's been performing wonderfully.

We're really excited at the results:

A spring-loaded peel mechanism works exceptionally well for providing a load between the peel gears. The little lip on the back of the peel mechanism allows you to disengage the gears, which lets film be loaded by pulling it through instead of requiring that it's driven by the peel motor.

In the process of putting this feeder together, we've learned a number of things that will help make it easier to assemble. We'll put together a few more, then we'll do the next pass of the CAD which will include DFM updates, along with other small improvements like adding button flextures and adding features that removes the need for support.

After these design changes are done, we'll start production on our DVT units and kick off our Beta program! If you're interested in joining the Beta for 2U feeders, please fill out this form to join the list.

Viagrid

In the last month we've made huge progress on this new method of prototyping PCBs. In short, the idea is to have a bunch of template PCBs in stock with a standardized pattern of vias already in them. Then, using a UV laser, cut traces into the top and bottom side choosing which nets the vias are used for. This allows 2-layer PCBs to be prototyped in around an hour, as opposed to a week-long wait from the board house.

Lots of settings tweaks, experimentation, and a board revision later, and we have made our first working board with this system.

The first hurdle was getting the laser's settings adjusted so that it properly ablates the gold/nickel/copper layers with the resolution necessary for most components. Lots of material test grids later, we found settings that have proven to be consistent.

We also made a number of adjustments to the blanks. The first edit was making the vias spaced much farther apart, giving alignment a bit of headroom. We also added copper brackets around each corner of the work area which helps tremendously when aligning the board.

When the laser hits the board with very low power while framing the design, it'll illuminate the FR4 but is invisible on the gold top surface. When adjusting the board position, simply shift it until you see the gap in all four corners illuminate, and you know you're aligned!

After alignment, bolt down the carrier tray and you're ready to drop in new boards with no further adjustment needed.

I'm working on putting everything I've learned into a GitHub repository, and will hopefully be posting a YouTube video about the whole process shortly. We're all really excited at what possibilities this opens up for prototyping as a whole. I've even started making boards using this method to upgrade some production jigs we use on the manufacturing line!

Job Postings

I'm adding a new recurring section to this update where we share roles that we're currently hiring for! You can check out our careers page to see what we're looking for, but right now we're focusing on:

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