We wanted to share another update on Bela Gem’s progress. Unfortunately, things are taking longer than we’d hoped in the final stages of production. We’re sorry for the additional delay. This update explains where we’re at, which is very close.

Production and Shipping Update

Due to unforeseen delays in production, we weren’t able to send Bela Gem units to Mouser before the holidays as we had planned. We now expect to ship finished units to Mouser in January, with backer deliveries likely by the end of February. Our sincere apologies for the delay.

The main cause of the delay was an issue with the test jig for the completed PCB assemblies. Every Bela product is tested in operation before it goes out the door. For Bela Gem, we designed a more ambitious test jig than our previous products to test each board after surface-mount assembly is complete, but before the through-hole components are soldered. This jig uses a clamped fixture with spring-loaded pogo pins for fast, repeatable and thorough testing of each board.

We had some teething problems with the production and operation of the test jig which led to a couple weeks where the surface-mount assembly of all the boards was finished, but we could not proceed to the through-hole assembly, final testing and packaging. The manual labour of these last steps is time-consuming, and there is not enough time before the holidays for our contract manufacturer to complete all the units. As a result, the final steps will finish in the new year.

The upside is that the test jigs are now working as intended, and the Bela Gem assemblies themselves work well with a very high yield rate. As always, we will carefully test each Bela Gem board to ensure it is of the quality we expect before it ships, and we hope you will bear with us as this process reaches completion.

Software Testing Progress

Despite the production delay, we have been keeping busy making the Bela core software and IDE the best it can be. Our beta testers continue to put the software through its paces. One example: running eight instances of else/plaits~ (a Pure Data clone of the Mutable Instruments multi-timbral digital oscillator), controlled over MIDI, at 96 kHz / 24-bit with a block size of 32, and achieving excellent performance without any code-level optimisation.

For those familiar with the original Bela platform, you’ll recognise that this represents a substantial improvement in CPU performance and audio specifications.

New IDE Overview

While you are waiting for the hardware, here’s another preview of the new Bela IDE, highlighting some of its recent improvements and new features:

Thanks again for your patience and for supporting us. We’re sorry that the fulfilment has proceeded more slowly than we expected, and we are itching to get this new tool into your hands to see what you create with it. We truly believe it’ll be worth the wait. As always, we can be reached at info@bela.io if you want to get in touch with us with any questions, concerns or feedback.