Memorial Day
almost 7 years ago
– Wed, May 31, 2017 at 05:58:08 PM
Hello Backers!
Happy Memorial Day to all who celebrate it! We hope everyone had a great long weekend
like we did and a special thank you to all who have served to protect our
freedom!!!
ETL
So we’ve reached a challenging point with ETL recently...Intertek
(Intertek = ETL) has multiple separate companies including Intertek Asia &
Intertek U.S. Since our factory is in Asia we’ve started our work with Intertek
Asia. They have explained to us recently that they can’t find a precedent for
testing a product like ours. As a result they are choosing to test our product
using standards for an RPT (Relocatable Power Tap, also known as a power strip
or outlet multiplier).
Since our product is neither relocatable or a power tap
we’re debating this translation of the standard with Intertek Asia. There are
at least a few requirements that power strips must adhere to that wouldn’t
apply to our product, and are potential show stoppers if the testing must
happen under these standards. We’ve
contacted Intertek U.S. and they are confident that there are in fact
precedents for testing these types of products without using RPT standards and
are planning to help clarify for us. So we’re working to get over this hump at
the moment.
The 50 samples mentioned in our last update are being built now
on June 5th as well. We
delayed the build a bit so we could address some of the discussions with ETL
and not waste resources. Some of those samples are intended to go to ETL for
testing. Depending on where we land with the translation of standards we hope
to get these submitted ASAP.
Surveys
This section will be part of our updates until we’ve gotten
100% of the surveys answered. We’ve still got 27 backers who need to complete
their surveys. If you haven’t gotten your survey please make sure you check
your spam and add [email protected] to your contact list so our email
doesn’t get flagged! You can also enter your email on this
site to have the
survey sent to you again. We’ll send reminders each week to the folks who
haven’t responded to try to get their info setup correctly.
That’s it for this week!
Until Next Time…
theOUTlet Team
Finishing 2016 Strong
over 7 years ago
– Tue, Dec 20, 2016 at 10:09:33 AM
Hello Backers!
We’re getting ready for the holidays (traveling and/or
family members visiting) and are getting excited for the new year. We hope the
same is true for all of you too! Thank you to all of our backers who have
reached out in support of our progress and updates. We’re trying hard to keep
you in the loop with all the details!
Surveys
This section will be part of our updates until we’ve gotten
100% of the surveys answered. We’ve still got 31 backers who need to complete
their surveys. If you haven’t gotten your survey please make sure you check
your spam and add [email protected] to your contact list so our email
doesn’t get flagged! You can also enter your email on this
site to have the
survey sent to you again. We’ll send reminders each week to the folks who
haven’t responded to try to get their info setup correctly.
Tooling
As with the last time we went to tooling we won’t have much
to update on this for roughly 4 weeks. If the factory sends us some pictures of
the progress we’ll definitely send those out in our next update, because those
are just kind of cool to see.
Patents
We’ve officially filed for our continuation, which means
we’ve kept the ball rolling. It feels like it’s just a matter of time before
we’re patting ourselves on the back for having the patent allowed, but we’re
working hard to make sure that happens!
Packaging
With the modifications we made to the back housing and
faceplate, we now have to modify our Gift Box (Retail packaging). With
that, we have had a new sample made and are in the process of tweaking our original
design to fit the new dimensional requirements.
We are also in the process of refining the Instruction booklet and installation
instructions.
Again, our next update will probably be pretty minimal
because we’re in tooling but we’ll send it out in the first week of January to
keep everyone up to speed.
Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!!
Until Next Year…
theOUTlet Team
Happy Holidays
over 7 years ago
– Tue, Nov 29, 2016 at 10:02:04 AM
Hello Backers!
We hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving holiday! For those of our backers in Canada we’re
interested to hear if there are any differences in how you celebrate the
holiday (like we’ve heard it’s celebrated in the middle of October for
starters)? Use the comments section on
Kickstarter to fill us all in J
Surveys
This section will be part of our updates until we’ve gotten
100% of the surveys answered. We’ve still got 31 backers who need to complete
their surveys. If you haven’t gotten your survey, please make sure you check
your spam and add [email protected] to your contact list so our email
doesn’t get flagged! You can also enter your email on this
site to have the
survey sent to you again. We’ll send reminders each week to the folks who
haven’t responded to try to get their info setup correctly.
Prototype
In our last update we mentioned that the factory wanted to
build another prototype to get comfortable before going to tooling. They got
comfortable with all of the changes except one (the locking/release button). We’ve designed the attachment method of the
button a few different ways over the course of our project and just haven’t
quite gotten it to a point that we’ve felt would be strong and reliable for
thousands of cycles. The factory came up with a new design and sent us the
files last night. We’re happy to say
that this round looks very promising. As a result, the factory is going to
prototype just the button parts to retrofit to our current prototype. If we’re all comfortable with the button it
looks like we’ll start tooling again. While
we don’t like adding time to our schedules, we want to make sure we’re shipping
everyone a solid product that won’t fall apart after you’ve used it for a short
period of time. I think you’d all agree that’s worth waiting a little longer
for…
Legal
We haven’t heard back from the patent examiners yet (there
were three on the call, which is part of a pilot program). Our Patent Attorney thinks this means they’re
giving her arguments some serious consideration, which is a good thing versus
just rejecting them for the same reasons as before.
We sincerely hope that our next update will include tooling
start but as we’ve done throughout our project we’ll be sure to provide you
with updates on our progress regardless of what happens.
Until next time
theOUTlet™ Team
Lastest Prototype
over 7 years ago
– Sat, Nov 12, 2016 at 05:23:46 PM
Hello Backers!
Another two weeks has gone by, which means we’re that much closer to the finish line!
Surveys:
We’ve still got 32 backers who need to complete their surveys. If you haven’t gotten your survey, please make sure you check your spam and add [email protected] to your contact list so our email doesn’t get flagged! You can also enter your email on this site to have the survey sent to you again. We’ll send reminders each week to the folks who haven’t responded to try to get their info setup correctly.
Prototype:
Since our last update we’ve received the prototype, had calls with the factory, and updated the CAD once more. We really only had VERY minor tweaks to the CAD this time, which is awesome. We’ve communicated to the factory that we’re comfortable progressing to tooling if they are. They would like to build one final prototype for review on their end, then they’ll be comfortable as well. We don’t want to go through the re-tooling process again so we can’t blame them!
Legal:
Our patent attorney had a call with three of the patent examiners yesterday, made her case for the last remaining topics, and was told that she should hear back from them early next week. Our fingers are crossed that they’ll tell us the patent is allowed! Even if not allowed we have paths to update our claims slightly and file a continuation. If we have any exciting news on this next week we may send an extra update/message to everyone.
We know this is a short update but not a ton of new information to share this time around.
Until next time
theOUTlet™ Team
Tooling and Packaging
almost 8 years ago
– Tue, May 31, 2016 at 07:48:28 PM
Hello Backers!
HAPPY belated Memorial Day!!!! A special THANK YOU to all of those who have
or are serving to protect our Freedom. Your service and sacrifice enable us to enjoy the freedom to pursue the
things we love, like launching theOUTlet :)
A couple of big things have
happened over the last two weeks. We
have passed two milestones in our project and things are proceeding as planned
and on Schedule. (Our fingers are crossed
that our good fortune will continue)
Tooling
As previously stated, we are currently
in the thick of the long and arduous tooling process. Tooling basically happens in three big time buckets. 1) Buying steel 2) Cutting steel 3) Modifying the steel tools for final
production. As of last week, we are
officially entering Phase 2 of this process.
While it may not look exciting, here are some images of a few of the
pieces of steel we have bought that will ultimately be used to mold theOUTlet. Now that the factory has these in their
possession, the next step is cutting (CNC) the cavities into the steel, which will
ultimately be used to manufacture the final production product. These
are VERY exciting times for us as we are getting VERY close to having a Final
product to ship to all of you!!!
Packaging
Based
on your feedback, we proceeded with creating the Retail Box out of Corrugate
with an open “Try Me” window. We have
been back and forth with our design firm several times over the last few weeks
and have reached a point where we had a Mock up sample made of the retail
carton. We are VERY pleased with how the
box is progressing and expect to have it 100% completed within the next 2-3
weeks. We only have a few more revisions
to make, to further improve the consumer communication once on the retail
shelf. Here are a few images of the
box for your viewing pleasure.
Surveys
This
section will be part of our updates until we’ve gotten 100% of the surveys
answered. Right now we’ve only got 48 backers who haven’t finalized their
survey. We’re making progress! If you haven’t gotten your survey please make
sure you check your spam and add [email protected] to your contact list
so our email doesn’t get flagged! You can also enter your email on this site to have
the survey sent to you again. We’ll send reminders each week to the folks who
haven’t responded to try to get their info setup correctly.
Thank you all again for your trust and support in this
endeavor of ours.
Until Next Time
theOUTlet Team
