April 2024 Update Page
In this months update we will provide you updates on; (1) OTA and Trial Production, the (2) Testing and PCBA, and the (3) Delivery Dates.
OTA and Trial Production:
As many of you are aware, the Over-The-Air (OTA) process has been a lengthy journey for us over the past few months, fraught with numerous challenges. If you refer back to our February update, you'll recall that we outlined two crucial steps for our OTA, and we're delighted to announce the successful completion of both. This achievement ensures that once users receive their safe, it will, their safe will always be able to receive the latest software updates as they become available. This is vital, as without the ability to update the software, users could potentially encounter unidentified bugs. You can view the demonstration video here to see how users can manually check for updates.
Most notably, we have tested this on our devices without any issues, a stark contrast to our previous OTA company and experience. With these new improvements and successful OTA, we can now proceed disbursing our trial production, allowing for the testing and deployment of our safes outside of just our company. The overall timeline for this project faced long delays from our initial expectations because of this. It's worth noting that this new OTA firm has an impressive client roster. Among them are Logitech, Bose, Latch, etc. We are enthusiastic about the positive prospects ahead with our new OTA partner. We appreciate your patience during this process.
Testing and PCBA:
We’ve received the first test results from the testing facility, and unfortunately the results were not as we expected. While some tests yielded positive outcomes, like passing FCC, the tests over the PCBA developed by our Chinese team, unearthed significant issues. These findings have forced us to halt plans for mass production and initiate modifications to the PCBA. Here we will outline just some of the critical concerns:
- Power management issues – the current PCBA configuration limits the amount of power being delivered to the device. What the Chinese team has developed receives too little power to power up all of the electronics. This means that lights and speakers have issues and are not working.
- For the exterior lights specifically, the flawed design mandates that exterior lights draw power solely from the battery since the PCBA’s intake is limited, forcing the battery to deplete its reserves within an hour of being plugged in and once the lights turn on. Consequently, because of it, the safe will become inoperable once the battery is drained. This terrible flaw would leave customers in a situation that their safes would never turn on again because the lights would turn on and the safe would have to use the battery which is already drained.
- During lockdown scenarios, the speaker's power consumption exceeds sustainable levels due to the limited power from the wall, resulting in the speaker to sound like aliens are tapping into your system, and at times has caused the system to crash. While we did increase the DB level and the speaker’s power from 1w to 5w, the poor design has lead to the speaker using too much power.
- At times we noticed the fingerprint sensor would not scan. After the tests came back and having us do some further analysis, there are some scenarios that the fingerprint sensor is not getting enough power and therefore, we are not able to use the fingerprint sensor.
- The real problem is that compounded by simultaneous scenarios, like the fingerprint sensor, the numerous components end up using excessive power usage leading to the overall systemic issues. This is not the type of product we want to put out in the market, and a redesign is crucial.
- Interior USB Port Anomalies: Despite indicating successful charging status upon device connection to either port, both interior USB ports fail to deliver actual charging functionality.
- Faulty USB-C port – The USB-C port enabling a safe power connection to the wall adapter, exhibits structural weaknesses, and testing has proven prone to breakage under moderate force. Once broken, it’s game over and the only way to fix this is to remove the USB-C charging PCBA from the back and use a replacement adapter instead. Again, this is not the quality we want to exhibit to our customers.
Unfortunately, these issues may not become evident to anyone until after a certain period of use or in specific situations, which may explain why they were not identified during the last PCBA development phase. This, combined with other factors, leads to excessive power usage and overall system malfunctions when multiple electrical components are used simultaneously, necessitating a redesign to meet market standards and prevent the safe from becoming completely unusable over time.
What is our plan moving forward to resolve this disaster?
The last PCBA took a very long time to redesign and the Chinese team assured us over and over that it was perfect and that they ran the tests necessary for mass production. Clearly it was not anywhere near perfect and we cannot go to mass production with the current design. Although we have noted just a few issues above, if we did try to go to mass production with this current PCBA, we are sure it would eventually crash the safe causing the system to eventually brick – and none of us want an inaccessible 60lb brick holding our valuables captive.
In response to this critical situation, we've taken some decisive actions. Firstly, we've concluded our partnership with the Chinese team, as they have been the cause of most of the project’s delays. Several months ago we told everyone that we were taking on another team to help us with the OTA. That team has been phenomenal, and we’ve decided to use them to replace the Chinese team in our redesign of the PCBA for mass production. They’ve worked on a number of other things in addition to the OTA for us, and their work has been fantastic. Once we get our files from the Chinese team, the other team will review it and begin the redesign on a new PCBA. Based on our poor history with the Chinese team, we anticipate that it will take 3 weeks to get the files from them. Our apologies for the delay here. We’re really unhappy about the situation and we want to be clear that we cannot and will not go to mass production with the current PCBA.
Why move?
Because we have no confidence left in the Chinese team and they will ultimately keep delaying this project – which none of us want.
Despite these setbacks, our project has witnessed significant strides forward through collaborations with a phenomenal lock company, safe manufacturer, OTA vendor, and this latest team of engineers and developers. Although we’ve had many hiccups throughout the last 3 years, we remain steadfast in our commitment to delivering a superior product and are optimistic about the progress that lies ahead. Once this new PCBA is completed, we will be able to continue to the next steps.
Delivery Date:
We understand that many of you have been eagerly awaiting updates on the delivery of your safes, and we sincerely appreciate your patience and understanding, especially considering that your backing dates back nearly 3 years for many of you. Our monthly updates are intended to keep you informed about the progress until your safes are delivered.
As you have all experienced, providing estimated ready dates in the past has often led to disappointment due to inaccuracies. Therefore, we've refrained from offering estimated timeframes until we're more confident in our timeline and have a clearer understanding of our progress. We acknowledge the frustration caused by the delay in receiving your safes and assure you that we share your eagerness to provide both delivery dates and deliver your safes.
We kindly request your cooperation in refraining from sending emails requesting delivery dates, as we no longer plan to respond to those inquiries. Rest assured, we're actively working to expedite the process and will provide updates as soon as they become available. Your understanding and patience during this time are greatly appreciated.
TLDR - SUMMARY
- OTA process has 2 steps. We finally completed Step 1 & Step 2.
- We must make a new PCBA (adjust the current one). We have fired the team that made the last few PCBAs because of their incompetence.
- We passed some product tests for importation, failed others. Which is why we are redesigning the PCBA with a new team.
- We cannot provide delivery dates at this time, we request that you please stop asking.
Thanks for your support!