[incision]

>"Did they actually ship on time?"

Nope. I'm an "early-bird" backer of this. The last update on shipping says they've pushed to January.

Apparently, there were complications sourcing the 3G modems they intended to use.

From the update:

"Unfortunately, we live in a world where small, African, tech companies don't have the influence to get global component suppliers to meet our delivery deadlines. In particular, we have been unable to secure a timely supply of the 3G modems that are specified for the BRCK. Although it would seem straightforward to simply switch to another modem, the implications of this change effect mechanical design, board layout, and certification - all things that require time to adjust. We are now working with multiple suppliers to find a suitable alternative that we can source in sufficient supply to meet our production demands."

[Ehersman]

This is correct (and thanks for being a backer). We had some issues with the modem supplier and had to redesign the comms board to work with the new modem. This was after going around in circles with the original supplier and losing valuable time. It sucks being small when dealing with some of these large organizations, but we did eventually find a great modem and have been testing it out this month.

I am sorry we had to delay the production, we all so badly wanted to get it out on time...

[incision]

>"I am sorry we had to delay the production, we all so badly wanted to get it out on time..."

No worries. I backed the project as a great idea that happens to provide a reward, not the other way around and I have no reason to doubt your ability to deliver.

[gridspy]

As a hardware manufacturer ourselves we feel your pain.

We made the mistake of using anodized aluminium for the front panel of our units. Then it turned out that the current batch of Aluminium our suppliers were using was trash and couldn't be anodized. That took weeks and weeks to design a workaround for and get quotes and stock in. In the end we had to pay for junk aluminium that we threw in the bin.

Then we had an aerial manufacturer who kept shipping us different aerials every time we ordered the same part, which never matched the sample.

Next we discover that the manufacturer who provides our plastic cases had taken a plastic with a certain safety rating but didn't take into account that the dye that they also added changed that rating and prevented us from using the cases. We were in a shed filled with noxious smoke trying to burn cases (which shouldn't burn) over several batches to get that sorted.

And finally we have a RF system that some customers try to use in a faraday cage and of course it's pretty hard to get working. For example installations in industrial coldstores.

Which product? http://gridspy.com/devices.html

Of course effort and time solves these issues but wouldn't it be nice to just have to ship bytes.

[krsunny]

Your site design choice seems to be taking a lot of heat. How do you personally feel about it? Do you think the cool factor of a "parallax" website outweighs any drawbacks that have been mentioned here?