Over the past two months we have been hard at work pushing on the manufacturing and software fronts, and overall things are on schedule. We have finalized and produced the rear I/O plate design, received the mounting frames and drive plugs, updated the Ethernet sub-board to allow for tool-less install into the rear plastic plate, and continue to publish new software features for the FlippyDrive.

FlippyDrive PCBs

On the hardware front, while we were about two weeks ahead of schedule mid-November, our PCB assembler ran into some yield problems with the batch two FlippyDrives. This was somewhat unexpected as we produced the previous batches of 100 prototypes and 1000 batch-one units through them specifically to iron out these types of problems. Ultimately they were able to solve their process issues with minimal actual losses (six of 7,200 units), but it did eat into the schedule margin we’d built up.

I/O Plate

The rear I/O plate and Ethernet sub-boards were modified to allow for tool-less snap-fit installation, which should make the install process easier for everyone. We also tested out the provision for a rear-mounted microSD card that is accessible without opening the cube and otherwise discreet enough to avoid clashing with the cube’s general aesthetics. More info on that in the future.

This rear I/O plate was designed for injection molding, and the vendor has produced molds test shots; and we received all of the finished parts last week.

Ethernet Module

We made another revision of the Ethernet PCB to increase the mechanical margins around the other features inside the ‘cube. After getting the test panels back, we went ahead and produced enough for the remaining pre-orders, and those panels were assembled and have been delivered to us.

Software

We continue to develop Cubeboot and the extra FlippyDrive features requested by users. On our plate for the next release is the remote file management mode, allowing users to add and remove files from the local SD card over the FlippyDrive’s Wi-Fi or Ethernet. For users of the MemCard PRO, Cubeboot has also gained the ability to inform it of the launched title so it selects the correct virtual memory card.

Keep an eye on the software release changelog to see what we’re up to.

January Batch Summary

We’re on schedule to ship January units to Mouser by the end of this month as planned. We’ve updated the estimated ship date to early February, as Mouser will need a little time to process and ship that many units. For some components, like the I/O plates and Ethernet modules, we have produced enough in one run for all pre-orders, whereas we’ll make an additional batch of FlippyDrives for delivery in April.

We are finishing the programming and boxing this week and then all we have to do is ship them off to the warehouse!

April Batch Summary

Our largest risk to the April batch is now the unknown and catastrophic damage that tariffs and trade wars could inflict on our supply chain. Even a relatively simple device like the FlippyDrive is made with components from dozens of manufacturers in about seven different countries including China and Canada, and some of the proposed tariffs would make the FlippyDrive (and game consoles and cars and phones, etc.) nearly impossible to manufacture in the near term. We are moving forward under the assumption that sanity will prevail, and we will not be affected by political squabbling.