Dear OpenBCI Backers,
Thank you so much for your patience. We know it’s been a long wait, but the skies are finally clearing up! We’ve spent the last few weeks testing production proofs of the final OpenBCI board designs, and they are passing our verification tests with flying colors! Check out these photos of final prototypes:
This week we initiated the full production run with our overseas manufacturer, which means that we should have your boards in house in 4 to 6 weeks, at which point we will load them with firmware, and ship them off to you!
In the meantime, we will be finalizing the firmware for the boards and the bluetooth link. The great folks at RFdigital, creators of RFduino, have been a big help in getting our wireless link running smoothly. The on-board radio modules are RFduinos, and the newly designed OpenBCI Dongle will have one as well. You’ll be able to reprogram your OpenBCI boards wirelessly, and even upload code to your USB dongle. We also broke out the RFduino module on the dongle to make it pin-compatible with the RFduino line of shields! We heart RFduino! This additional programmability will allow for future optimization of the raw EEG data packets, maximizing the OpenBCI packet size and sample rate.
The OpenBCI website has gone through a complete overhaul, and is in the process of being relaunched. Check it out! If you can’t see it yet, you’ll be able to soon; the DNS settings are repointing as we write this update. Over the coming 1-2 months, the site will be populated with lots of getting started content and we will begin to transition our update protocol away from the Kickstarter page and onto the community page of the new website.
Also, with the launch of our new site we have opened an online store for pre-orders. If you have friends who missed the Kickstarter, they can now get involved by reserving a board from our 1st manufacturing run by placing a pre-order from the store. Make sure to tell them to use the promo code (GOBCI!) to get a $50 discount off the new retail price.
What This Means For Our Backers: You are the foundation of our company. We want to assure you that you will get your reward before any online store pre-orders get sent out. Our Early Bird and Research Partner rewards will ship first, followed by regular backer rewards. Once all Kickstarter rewards are out the door, we will begin processing online store pre-orders.
We can’t thank you enough for your amazing support and patience. It’s been a great ride so far and we can’t wait to get you all involved in the fun!
All the best,
Joel, Conor, and the OpenBCI Team