The only commercially available Open Source Replica of the "Out of this World" Computer that brought man to the moon.
Latest Updates from Our Project:
Quick Shipment Update
almost 6 years ago
– Fri, Jun 01, 2018 at 11:05:02 PM
Great news:
All shipments for May: $10 & $70 levels and some June: $25 & $40 levels (except for those who did not provide a destination address yet) have left Georgia (or even arrived at destination) in May as promised.
17 backers have not answered their survey yet. Without your address, we cannot ship your reward.
We are happy to report even some June shipments are on their way or already at destination. 45 total packages shipped so far (approx. 25%).
We are well on schedule at the moment to continue and meet each and every delivery milestone.
We are now finalizing (locking) addresses for June and July deliveries of the $200 and $350 levels.
Good news, and... (not so) Bad news.
almost 6 years ago
– Thu, May 10, 2018 at 11:33:30 PM
Always the Bad news first:
Bad news: Last week, our 60 Watt water cooled CO2 laser died in the middle of a huge Button cap cutting job.
Failed Laser Engraving/Cutting job
Good news: James was able to quickly troubleshoot, identify the root cause as a dead high voltage power supply, order a replacement and installed it today and we are back in business roughly a week behind our laser cutting schedule. Not only that, he suggested connecting to Laser cutter via Ethernet may fix random farts/burps that Laser cutter/engraver was experiencing, and guess what... Indeed, now our Laser cutter is totally reliable and has not experienced ANY burps/farts as seen before via USB!
Bad news: After sending a 3D printed pre-production prototype to a client, we realized we had a 3D printer that was producing off spec finished goods. Thank You Jochen for your find!
Good news: We identified which printer was responsible, pulled out the 21 off spec units in stock and are now back producing quality goods, basically losing 1 week of production from 1 of the 4 printers. IF you did NOT order any 3D printed parts AND do not have access to a 3D printer AND would like to receive some off-spec 3D printed components, please message us via Kickstarter and we may be able to send some your ways at no cost to you.
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Bad news: After racking our brains on the frosted window since the very beginning of the Open DSKY development phase, we were thinking that we had finally pretty much nailed down our frosted window, but our beta testers did not agree.
Good news: A collaborator found what could be the ultimate (and simplest!) way of producing these frosted windows (no frosting required), solving multiple problems (sticking, transparency, blurriness) at the same time. Thank you again Jochen! We will share the pdf of the "frosted" window with all kit makers of the Print Pro Package and above.
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Bad news: All survey invites have been sent (over 2 weeks ago) and we still have 10% (20) of our backers who have not answered their survey and we are close to locking the answers and charging the credit cards for the add-ons. We will NOT be able to ship your reward if we don't have your address. Please visit your Backerkit link ASAP if you have not done so already.
Survey Stats
Good news: We will give everyone another week before we lock your answers down and charge the cards which should allow more people to fill in the surveys. Please visit your Backerkit link ASAP if you have not done so already.
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Bad news: We (all of us Open DSKY community) may have caused a temporary Worldwide shortage of the 3D printing filament we use.
Good news: No worries - We had already secured all the filament (and all other raw materials) we need to completely fulfill all Kickstarter backers. We also suspect e-sun will be able to replenish all distributors shortly.
Plenty of 3D Filament for the job!
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The best news? Despite these few setbacks, we are still on schedule for our deliveries and plan on shipping the May rewards very shortly!
Finally, here are a few pictures from the production line:
48 of the 480 3-Segments needed
60 of the 150 Round Keychains
81 of the 130 USB Caps
Video showing Open DSKY Button caps Laser engraving/cutting, 3D printing Open DSKY mid-section, Top plate, and Bezel.
Major update, lots of news
about 6 years ago
– Fri, Apr 20, 2018 at 12:17:45 AM
Yes, we are still alive but we have been busy preparing for fulfillment. Here are a bunch of good news:
SUMMARY:
1- 75% of BackerKit Survey Invites sent so far, with a 60% response rate. More surveys to be sent later. Make sure your BackerKit invite does not end up in your Spam folder.
2- All Add-ons have been added to BackerKit, most of them at reduced prices.
3- 3D Printing moving at a steady pace, building inventory.
4- Early batch of Raw Materials received, looking good so far.
5- In response to backers demand, we now have a 1:1 3D printed "Big Back" option.
6- Shipping should commence on schedule in 2 or 3 weeks.
7- Come see us this week-end at the Vintage Computer Festival SouthEast hosted in the Computer Museum of America and presented by the Atlanta Historical Computing Society.
DETAILED UPDATE:
1- We have sent so far only 75% of the BackerKit Survey Invites and have already received back 60% of responses.
The round keychain is already an overwhelming winner over the rectangular one. More people are interested in a cruise than anticipated. Other surprise: Majority of backers so far have or have access to a 3D printer.
2- Once you receive your BackerKit Survey Invite, you will realize we are giving backers numerous add-on options, including some exclusives.
3- With 9 3D printers now at our disposal day and night and at least half of them printing something at every moment, we now have a good inventory of 3D printed parts and feel we should be able to make all deadlines.
4- Raw materials have started to come in, we don't expect any shortages. Very pleased with all suppliers so far.
5- We have had collaborators and a few backers requesting a full 1:1 size replica of the DSKY, specifically including what we taught was an overly big, useless back. Well, we created it and indeed, it is big, providing lots on internal storage area. It takes 40 hours to print but it looks fantastic. Our "Big Back" upgrade is now available as an add-on.
Full 1:1 (Big Back) Replica
6- As planned, once we finalize our frosted window process (within 2 weeks), we should be ready to start shipping on schedule.
7- S&T GeoTronics will be at the Vintage Computer Festival South-East in Atlanta this week-end. Come see us!
Now that we have most logistics/production squared away, we will be able to focus full-tilt on software very shortly and expect updates via our Programming Open DSKY Instructables.
Thank You for your support and patience, please be on the lookout for your backerkit survey invite soon and please fill it in without delay.
- Marc and James @ S&T GeoTronics LLC
Record Success and Major update!
about 6 years ago
– Sun, Mar 04, 2018 at 06:20:46 PM
Since this is a rather long update, here is the Executive summary:
- Thank You, we are humbled, this is way more than we expected!
- Kickstarter 2 weeks payment processing period started, then we get the funds.
- BackerKit partnership will help with fullfillment
- Apollo 50th Anniversary Cruise is being considered, need input.
Read below for the whole story:
If $20,000 was launching us in a Low Earth orbit and $50,000 would allow us to reach the moon, this campaign has allowed us to be well on our way to Mars!
THANK YOU to all backers who believed in us till the end. We are humbled as this campaign was way more successful than we expected despite any other actions targeting us.
So now we wait for Kickstarter to collect the funds and transfer them to us which can take up to 14 days as there are always a few credit card payment issues to be resolved. If these few backers do not address and resolve their credit card problem, they will be automatically removed by Kickstarter and we will not build or ship anything to them.
We are extremely proud to inform all o y'alls that we have partnered with BackerKit for campaign fulfillment. They have a very strong platform which should help us in collecting survey answers and fulfilling all orders on schedule. A nice side benefit of partnering with Backerkit is that it provides us an easy opportunity to offer all of our backers some add-ons at reduced prices. When you receive your survey, you will then have options to add to your order at significantly discounted prices S&T GeoTronics items that are related to Open DSKY or not (like Open Enigma at its lowest price ever)... (some items have even never been offered before like our Open VFD).
For instance, we had intended to give each of you our unique solid cherry wood laser cut display stand if we reached $100K. We then received tremendous amount of interest for this unique, simple accessory that displays your Open DSKY just at the right angle so we decided to offer it as a simple low-priced add-on (with free shipping).
ATTENTION!
A supporter/backer/collaborator suggested a Moon landing 50th anniversary themed group cruise/Kennedy Space center tour/vacation to have like minded space enthusiasts enjoy a few days/stories together.
We think it has potential for everyone to have a good time and would like your input and have you express your interest with such an endeavor.
Details:
3 or 4 nights Bahamas cruise on Carnival leaving from Port Canaveral in mid-July 2019 for ~ $500 - $600 /person for average inside berthing quarters. Possibility of adding on a Kennedy Space center custom tour upon return to shore. Reception cocktail meet and greet included, special speaker, auction and raffle. Please comment on this update if this is something you are potentially interested in.
Discounted air fare and hotels also available.
Have a peek for more info:
O.K. We now have over 160 DSKY to 3D Print, 525 3 Segments display to 3D print after soldering 2500 tiny leds on that mini PCB. Plus lots of kits to prep and ship.. Ouch!
Good news is that we are already starting this process, because it will take a while...
Till next update,
- Marc
Important milestone for us.
about 6 years ago
– Thu, Feb 08, 2018 at 09:17:42 PM
This is a special moment for us as this Open DSKY Kickstarter has finally beat our Open Enigma Kickstarter pledge total ($62,054) from a few years ago. Please keep this momentum going by sharing, tweeting, posting, etc. We still need your help. The next major milestone for us is 210 backers...
As we are working on adding more and more functionality to the Open DSKY, we realized that if it had a Ping sensor, not only could you use the GPS like the Astronauts were using telemetry on long distances, making sure in the process that you don't let the Gyroscope (IMU) fall in Gimbal lock, but once you get too close for GPS accuracy, you could do exactly like the Astronauts and switch to the Radar (Ping in our case) until touchdown. GREAT NEWS! We will upgrade every PCB kit for free with this feature when we reach our $150K Stretch Goal.
We are proud to announce that we are now featured on BackerClub.co
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Finally, the link in this other campaign that we like was defective in the prior update, so here it is again. They have now met their initial goal, so on to Stretch goals.
-This is the ONLY watch I would wear going into space:
Incredibly affordable, uniquely designed Swiss powered automatic watches
