UPDATE TIME!
I'm back in Canada now, and things are moving faster now that I'm around (communicating process changes was difficult with sporadic internet service).
Here is what has happened:
-Once we realized that there was an electrical problem somewhere in our custom "junction board" (which accepts the standard P2V cable, splits power to the gimbal, and sends a flexible cable to the FC200 camera), I made the decision to halt all shipments until I'm back around and can verify that the problem has been resolved. Thankfully, we didn't ship out hundreds of units, so the problem is isolated to order numbers at/below #XXXXX364. We have a very nice looking pile of gimbals here which have now been tested for shorts, and are just going through the last couple of stages of programming before they'll be ready to ship. We should start rolling them out tomorrow. Once all of these go out, we should push well into order numbers in the 400s... but we still want to be careful, and get more feedback before pushing the gas pedal to the floor.
-We have acquired proper professional cable testing equipment, which automatically tests for shorts across all permutations of connections for a given connector. This test is carried out at 2 different stages of assembly, by 2 different people in the assembly line, so the chance of another short circuit slipping through the cracks has been essentially eliminated.
-I've inserted myself into every step of the assembly process now, and have made some minor changes to how things are done, which should slightly increase efficiency and repeatability.
-Prior to this project, I owned 2 industrial 3D printers. One of them is relatively new, and prints out strong "ABSplus" material, and the other prints out a weaker version. The strong material is being used for components that have threads or require the added strength (camera mount, and gimbal control board case), while the other machine is used for printing less important parts. Having only 1 machine printing the main components has caused a bottleneck for the assembly process, since it is only able to churn out around 50 units per week. However, since my return, I've been working on a solution to double the output, by modifying the second machine to accept the stronger material. This modification is going to be tested for the first time tomorrow afternoon, so if all goes as planned, we'll potentially be able to hit the ~100 gimbals per week mark that we hoped. We're also looking into outsourcing some of the printing to increase production numbers even further.... but one step at a time.
-I'm trying to find someone qualified who can take care of customer support questions locally, but if I can't, then I may have to outsource this... anyone interested?
-Now that I'm back and have a proper studio to work with, we're going to be making the installation videos that everyone has been waiting for (we actually shot an entire installation video more than a month ago, but the design changed in a few ways, so we had to scrap it). I'm also working on other supporting materials as well.
With regard to a few points that I recall from previous posts:
-If you can bolt our gimbal to your future airframe, skateboard, helmet, or donkey, it will work (if you plug a battery into it). And, if you want to buy a different gimbal (like a hand-held rig for land shooting), you can pull out the gimbal control board, which normally costs $150, and use it in just about any gimbal out there.
-We already do have a Hero 3 mount designed, which works very well, but we haven't released it publicly yet (although, those who purchased our gimbals last year already have them!)
-We are working on (among other things) a "universal" camera mount, which will accept small cameras which have a tripod mounting hole. Using the same motors on our previous gimbal, we had many users sending their Sony RX100s into the sky, so we know that our motors can take the significant increase in mass.
Let me know if you have any other questions. And, for those of you who have emailed us, and not received a response, please accept my apologies... with everything else that has to get done, it's impossible to keep up with everything.
Thanks,
Keri