Gearing up production
over 10 years ago – Tue, Dec 01, 2015 at 11:01:58 PM

Hey Backers!

Parts have been coming in like crazy over here!  Our orders of styrofoam, boxes, circuits and more have arrived:

It’s time to gear up production…

We will start pushing low quantity runs through our production chain so that we can find and fix any problems that might arise. Once Peachy kits are coming off our line smoothly we’ll start scaling up, and soon enough we’ll be sending out our first shipment! We are still shooting to begin shipments in late December, but that will boil down to whether or not our first few runs go smoothly.

We have production time estimates, but they are just that - estimates. Over the next few weeks we will get real numbers on production time per kit. This will inform us of the rate at which we are currently able to produce and deliver. We are more than excited to see the real numbers, and in turn to improve our processes to increase efficiency!

In the coming weeks we’ll be working on a series of updates that focus on the different aspects of our production facilities as we start pushing out printers. We weren’t just twiddling our thumbs while we waited for parts to arrive, so you can also look forward to a couple more development updates!

Until next time,

The Peachy Printer Team.

3D Scanner Software Developments #1
over 10 years ago – Thu, Nov 12, 2015 at 10:54:37 PM

Hey Backers

You may remember in the original campaign video we announced that every $100 Peachy Kit would also function as a 3D Scanner. Well Today we’re excited to report on our recent development progress in that area! Here’s our software guy Mr. Townley talking about where we’re at with the scanner so far, and what the future has in store:

To be clear, this update is not about the Scanner Attachment, which was an add on that we also offered. You don’t need the scanner attachment to use the Peachy as a 3D scanner. The Scanner Attachment is simply an add on that includes a mounting system, a camera, and a motor driven scan platform to make for easier and more effective scans.

The Peachy Printer kit will include everything you need to use it as a 3D scanner except for a camera. Pretty much any camera that you can connect to your computer will suffice, higher the resolution the better.

In other news we’ve received some more parts!

That’s all for today folks. You can look forward to more scanner developments, mount & reservoir developments, and more in future updates.

Until next time,

The Peachy Printer Team.

Shipping Status
over 10 years ago – Sat, Oct 17, 2015 at 11:58:07 PM

Hello Backers,

First off we'd like to apologize for the lower frequency of updates in recent times.  The last little while has been a whirlwind in preparing to deliver products and we've found it difficult to balance those duties and keep you folks regularly updated.  For that we are sorry, and we will do our best to pick up the frequency moving forwards.  Now for the details...

We’ve been hard at work getting ready to begin production! We’ve designed, built and tested multiple production machines to make manufacturing and packaging more efficient and consistent.

Although we’re getting very close, we are not able to start packing kits just yet. We’re still waiting on the arrival of a few components - our main concerns being the first run of circuit boards and boxes.

Up until recently, the arrival of the circuit boards was our hold up. We expect them to arrive near the end of this month.

Unfortunately we ran into a delay in the process of finalizing our packaging. Our styrofoam insert samples took weeks longer than expected to show up, and upon arrival we found that we’d been sent incorrect samples. This resulted in a substantial delay in our ability to finalize our packaging and order the boxes. While our box order has now been submitted, we don’t expect them to arrive until late November. That means we won’t be able to start shipping until sometime in December, provided no other issues arise.

We know that it’s disappointing to hear about another delay, especial when we’re already over a year behind on our original delivery dates...

“I am sorry that I predicted such early shipping dates in the campaign. I was completely naive about the shipping dates, and the amount of time required to really take the Peachy to v1.0. I should have done more research on how long hardware product development takes, having said that I don’t think research would have made me wise enough. I know now that getting a grip on how long R&D takes really requires one to experience it first hand. I do know one thing, I was dead wrong about our original shipping dates, and I posted those estimated dates without having the skillset to really estimate them. I’m also glad we didn’t stick to our estimated shipping dates. When you’re wrong about something its disastrous to not admit it and just stick with the original plan. If we had shipped what we had at the original shipping dates we would have disappointed everyone. The printer didn’t work that well and wasn't designed to be produced in high volume. Today, after a lot of R&D, we have something that we can’t wait to send you.”

- Rylan Grayston

We have read about how it takes a surprisingly long time to get a physical product out the door many times, and now it’s our turn to experience the pains of stacking delays. The delays are frustrating, but at the same time we’re glad to be so close, and it feels good to be working on simple machines that make packing a printer kit quick and easy.

Picture of Some Parts...

In other news, we’ve made some small changes to the hardware design of the kit to make the assembly process easier for the user.  We’ve also made progress on 3D scanning functionality, and more! Stay tuned for details on the topics in future updates!

Until next time,

The Peachy Printer Team.

Software Developments #7
almost 11 years ago – Thu, Aug 27, 2015 at 09:59:09 PM

Hey Backers

Before we get started on the software developments, here’s a note on shipping:

Our circuit has been finalized and an order has been put in. We expect this circuit order to arrive around the beginning of October. We are also waiting for a few more parts to arrive, and are still in the process of finalizing our packaging. That being said, we won’t be able to start shipping until sometime in October provided that our parts arrive within that time.

Today we’re giving you a peek at V1 of the Peachy Printer Software! Check out the video below to hear our Software guy James Townley go through the details:

We are very pleased with the software now - it’s much easier on the eyes and it’s a pleasure to use! Let’s check out some screenshots…

If you’d like to see more you can check out this quick demo video that runs through all of the menus:

The source code will soon be available at www.github.com/peachyprinter

Until next time,

The Peachy Printer Team.

Our Biggest Print Yet!
almost 11 years ago – Wed, Jul 29, 2015 at 02:17:59 PM

Hey Backers,

Here’s the final installment in our update blitz! If you haven’t seen updates #52 and #53 make sure you check them out, they contain shipping details/delivery dates and details about the circuit.

We’ve been eagerly waiting for the right time to really start experimenting with larger prints. A little while ago we took a swing at printing in a 2’ tall build volume, and it went really well! Here are is a video of Rylan talking about our largest print to date:

You may notice that this rocket isn’t very clear or glassy and it has a rough texture of spiraling rings up the print. That is because this print was done with the a pre-V1 printer using an audio circuit. We had a feature called “spiral starting points” which would spread the laser on/off offset around the print in rings, giving it this texture. We are hopeful that with all the improvements that have been made since this print, that we may get much smoother results next time we print this large.

Let's check out some pictures:

In the video above Rylan spoke about the resin cost of the large rocket print being $1.62. We’d like to show you the cost of a couple other prints as well. To date our resin sells for $60/litre and one litre weighs 1052 grams. That means printing costs only 5.7 cents per gram!

Below is the lightest rocket we have printed (that we can fit a model rocket engine into). It weighs 1.17 grams which makes it cost only 6.67 cents per rocket (1.17g*5.7 = 6.67)! That means you could print and launch about 900 of these rockets with 1 litre of resin!

Next up is this purple rocket - it’s about the same size as the rocket we launched in update #51. This rocket costs about $0.14 (2.53g*5.7 = 14.42). That means with 1 litre of resin you could print 416 of these rockets!

Lastly the half-rook print from update #51 weighing in at 3.39g. This little guy costs just under $0.20 (3.39g*5.7 = 19.32). That means you can print 310 chess pieces for 60 bucks! That’s enough pieces for 9.704968944 complete chess sets :)

We hope you’ve enjoyed this update blitz! That’s all for today folks...

Until Next Time,

The Peachy Printer Team.