Hiyo Slimes!

Welcome to the 5th official Butterfly Tracker newsletter. Just one more day before the campaign officially concludes. We have lots to talk about this week, so strap in and get ready to read up on the latest Butterfly-related news.

As always, a reminder that we post almost weekly updates on our Discord server about the state of development and production of Butterfly Trackers and our other projects, so join in if you want the latest news fast!

We are blown away by all your support during the campaign, and we will continue working to bring cool VR devices to you all. :3 Even though the campaign is nearing its end, you will be able to pre-order Butterfly Trackers after it ends. However, for orders placed after the campaign we can’t guarantee the August shipping date, so it’s best if you order soon!

Butterfly News

Parts and Design

The first version of our USB cradle that will be shipped as part of each Butterfly Dongle pack has been digitally crafted and printed up by our Cave team. While its only the first iteration, its already close to production ready, and may only need a few minor tweaks or cosmetic adjustments before a mould is made for it, hopefully soon.

Both this cradle and our Butterfly charging dock are designed to orient the dongle antenna vertically, in order to maximise it’s signal strength and ensure your tracking is smooth and uninterrupted.

More good news - After the small fix to our straps we mentioned in our last update, we are confident in the design, so we are placing a bulk-order for tens of thousands of straps. We are also ordering all the tiny little screws used to hold each tracker together, meaning two of the key pieces will be locked in and ready for assembly. Luckily, the Slime Cave is massive and fully equipped to handle the storage and logistics of all the parts we are expecting to handle!

Testing and Assembly

Testing is one of the cornerstones of a high quality product, and we are not cutting corners here. Our new Butterfly Tracker testing PCB is incredibly complex, with 6 PCB layers worth of Butterfly Tracker testing goodness, and will be tasked with making sure each and every Butterfly Tracker is 100% working and ready to ship. This includes a whole variety of tests to ensure each tracker is physically flawless, has its firmware flashed, and works as expected.

Speaking of testing, we have also designed and manufactured a small tester for our Charging dock. This simple little USB key clicks on to each of the docks charging slots to check it gets power and makes sure all the docks we send out are working as intended. Quality assurance is serious business!

Moving on to assembly, we have a prototype assembly jig now! It might not seem like much, but its a crucial step for efficiently turning pieces of trackers into a Butterfly Tracker. A good jig makes assembly faster and easier, and is a key piece to the production puzzle.

Additionally, we are ordering an auto-loading screwdriver to test out if it can make the assembly process smoother. This thing looks like a torture device, but it automatically feeds the incredibly small screws we use onto the end of the electric screwdriver with a button press, so the assembly team can spend less time fiddling with tiny screws and get more trackers out the door, which we hope will smooth the production this time around.

SlimeVR Software

Our server software just keeps getting better, with improvements everywhere constantly being added. This month, we are looking to make sure every version of our SlimeVR software works amazingly, with particular focus right now on improving the Linux experience. This means stomping out a bunch of longstanding Linux stability and memory bugs, and switching our WebUI systems to Electron from Tauri. Not only will this make installing and running on Linux easier and smoother, it will also make future development much faster with the improved dev-tools! Win-win.

Why does that matter to you, though? Well the big news is that we are launching on Steam store very soon! This means auto updates, cloud storage, and all the other good stuff that comes with Steam. Oh, and if you were thinking of getting a Steam Frame when it comes out soon, look forward to one click installs, right on the headset.

Check it out, here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3245490/SlimeVR/

Our new v19.0 server is currently undergoing public testing on our Discord server, and you can expect even more cool stuff to be added in the lead up to Butterfly Trackers being shipped out!

Thank you for reading

You got all the way to the bottom, well done! Have a cookie 🍪

As usual, join our Discord server for weekly updates and other news! If you don’t have Discord or don’t want to join the server, we have started to post updates and other cool stuff to our social networks as well! Follow us on Bluesky, Reddit, and YouTube for regular updates, news, and other cool stuff! We’re also on TikTok, Mastodon, and Tumblr!

See you next time, from the SlimeVR team! <3