It has been quite a while since the campaign ended and I definitely owe all of the backers of PicoIDE an update! Our original projected ship date for the earliest backers was this month, and we’re now past that. We’re still in the "waiting for things to happen" phase of production so there’s not a whole lot of movement, but I’ll do my best to paint a picture of what is going on. The good news is that we haven’t had any showstopper delays, and things are moving along, just slowly. I appreciate everyone’s patience, and I’m eager to see PicoIDE in everyone’s hands!
Latest production information
Soon after the campaign finished, I prioritized ordering of parts that needed special production or needed to be provided in high quantity relative to their value. That includes the IDE connectors, which differ from commonly available 40-pin 2.54mm pitch box headers in that pin 20 is missing so it can serve as a key. Those kinds of connectors aren’t available off the shelf these days, so I had to have them custom produced. Fortunately I found several suppliers who could custom make these connectors in quantity at a good price and they’re already in the hands of Soldered Electronics, my manufacturing partner for PicoIDE. The custom molded silicone buttons have also completed production and are also at Soldered.
The global spike in fuel prices has kept things interesting, either by just making expedited shipping costs markedly more expensive or cutting off previously available options. Because PicoIDE is being manufactured in Croatia by Soldered Electronics, that does open a few interesting options: for example the OLED screens were shipped by rail, a shipping option from China I’ve never used before!
The injection molded case
The piece that had the longest lead time was the injection mold for PicoIDE’s case, so as soon as the campaign closed I made sure it’d be able to go into production as quickly as possible. After a round of final tweaks and approvals with the injection mold manufacturer with regards to draft angles, feeding gate locations, shrinkage and surface treatments, I was finally able to approve a final design for manufacture.
They estimate that the first samples from the mold will be ready by the end of this month. I can’t wait to see them, and fingers crossed that they come out looking good and fitting well! A lot of work went into the design so I have good confidence they will. As soon as the samples are ready I’ll post an update showing them off. Once the samples are approved with no changes needed to the mold, there shouldn’t be any further delays to starting production.
Keeping busy in the background
Of course, there’s lots to do on the project while I wait for parts to arrive and molds to be manufactured. That includes packaging design, paperwork for certification, and documenting assembly and testing processes. In a future update I’ll go into detail on assembly and testing, and the hardware and software tools I’ve developed to help those processes along.
I also haven’t stopped developing the firmware for PicoIDE, and I’m pleased to announce that it will ship with dual device support! That means a single PicoIDE can emulate two devices at once, and any combination of hard drive and optical drive is possible.
I’ve also included some fun things in the firmware. I added screensavers with the classic flying toasters and bouncing DVD logo:
Come see me at Teardown!
I’m happy to announce that I will be giving a talk at Crowd Supply’s Teardown 2026 conference: Creating Up to Date Hardware for Out of Date Tech! There’s a ton of amazing open source hardware out there for vintage systems so I’ll be giving a tour of the landscape in my talk. I hope I’ll get to see some backers there and I’m also excited to meet fellow Crowd Supply creators. Teardown runs from July 24-26 in Portland, Oregon, USA, and my talk will be on July 24. See you there!
