Hello, Air Lab backers! As reported in the last update, we are working on getting your Air Lab manufactured, packed, and ready for shipment. Here is a short update on the latest developments.

Certification & Production

Our supply chain is taking shape, and we already began stocking key components for the final assembly at our office. The displays have been straightforward to obtain, as we worked with the supplier before when prototyping the Air Lab.

Getting a battery, on the other hand, turned out to be more complex than anticipated. We initially hoped that we could find a supplier with a matching LiPo pack that already has all the needed certificates. But, we learned quickly that because of our slight customization request (wire length and connector), we need to acquire new fully matching certificates.

Luckily, this also revealed itself as an advantage. By making custom certificates, we’ve been able to lay the foundation for a potential stand-alone sale of the batteries as replacement parts. Now, once the battery certificates are available, we can continue with the certification of the device itself.

Beta Testing Program

We want to thank our beta testers. Hearing from them has been very rewarding. They have shared how they use the device,offered new ideas, and, most importantly, reported firmware bugs they have encountered.

With their help, we’ve been able to quickly identify a major bug that caused a reset loop due to a file-system inconsistency. In response, we developed a "device recovery" tool that flashes the fixed firmware using the browser and a USB serial. We’re happy that this went smoothly and all beta testing units are working again.

Next Steps

We are very excited for the coming weeks. Our last prototype run, which implements important fixes uncovered in the EMV pre-testing, is arriving soon. When that has been cleared, we can work on the final certification and production of the device. Based on the current timeline, we hope to ship the first batch of devices to Crowd Supply by the end of October.

That’s all for now. Thanks a lot, and feel free to reach out if you have any questions.