Dear Kelloists,
Another week, another round of development, testing, prototypes and progress.
It’s the little things that matter
10 days ago, we got the first injected sample of Kello, made with the same molds and tooling as the Kellos you will get. This was a huge step forward as we moved from 3D printed prototypes to injected parts using industrial-grade tools.
We called this prototype EVP (Engineering Validation Prototype) 1.0 and we were quite happy with it, but it had its issues.
For instance, under certain angles, the speaker grid could be seen through the fabric...
...the back button was sticking out a bit too far…
...and the screen was too bright to be used in a bedroom, even dimmed at minimum.
We submitted a list of changes to our manufacturing partner last week and yesterday, we received the first version with some of the new mechanical changes, made with the final material and colors. Therefore we’re proud to present you… Kello EVP 1.2!
We’re quite pleased with these prototypes. One of the trickiest parts was nailing the right feeling for the “snooze” button: as you snooze your alarm by pressing Kello’s head, the whole colored shell moves downwards, and it was a mechanical challenge to come up with a design that would prevent the button jamming or being stuck. Our engineers nailed it, and the feeling is very satisfying.
This prototype still has some room for improvement but we’re 90% there. As we still have 2 rounds of iterations to go, we’re confident that everything will be perfect before kicking off mass production in late May.
Moving towards production
For mass production, we’re writing a list of the tests every Kello must pass to be considered “commercial-grade quality”.
Some of the tests each Kello will have to pass
All major mechanical changes have been locked, and the design of the electronic motherboard has been frozen.
Kello's final motherboard
The design of all internal components is finished and we’re now in a fine-tuning phase, making sure each part injects and assembles well by refining our molds.
A Kello ready to be assembled
During the upcoming days, we will start design and assembly testing. We’ll basically take a few prototypes and torture them: check if they can survive multiple 4 feet (1m20) falls, high and cold temperatures, thousands of presses on the buttons... Kello must be durable even under difficult conditions.
That’s it for today. If you have any question or comment, shoot below!
Thanks again for your support,
The Kello Team
