Production update #3

Dear PlantHive enthusiasts and IndieGogo backers,

As of today, it has been 4 months since the original shipping target for the Beta and Gamma units. This delay was not our intention, but the time to develop and produce a product of quality was longer than initially estimated. As of now, we already had to put forth twice as much work as originally planned, to iterate on our application, our electronics, as well as our mechanical structure, before we produce the batch and finally deliver you the best possible result.

Our web application is in its final draft and our IT developers are working on the mobile version. Furthermore, we are currently running tests on the whole electronic system to make sure you will get a product that will last as long as possible!

As you can see on the picture bellow, we added a power bank to your PlantHives, so that the embedded computer doesn’t get fried whenever there is a sudden loss of power (during a power outage for example).

We have also been working extensively on our add-on modules, namely our air and water pumps, our humidifier and our temperature control system.

Unfortunately, it is our materials team that seems to need a little bit more time than originally planned.

For the sake of our backers’ joy, we have a very narrow margin for error. Before shipping your batch, we have to make sure that the electronics, materials and software work together in harmony.

Since we do not want to make any promises that we are not sure we can keep, we will not announce another expected date without a clear confirmation from our suppliers, and not before received the first units for assembly! We will share pictures as soon as we receive the first components for assembly. We still consider it feasible before the summer (mid-June), but at this stage the shipping date does not depend solely on us.

Rest assured, we are very, VERY impatient to ship this batch of PlantHive Smart Gardens and we are doing our best to deliver our backers as soon as possible!

Stay tuned for more production updates!