It's been a long time since our last blog post. A lot of issues came up during that time, which were mostly detailed as they happened in the ThinkMods Discord server. For the sake of brevity (and of actually finishing the job), I'm not going to recap all of the hurdles except the ones that actually affect the outcome.
The biggest issue is this: The activity LED was poorly designed and implemented in terms of manufacturability, and takes a substantial amount of work in order to produce, for a multitude of reasons. It's a very minor cosmetic detail in an otherwise fully functional product, but is solely responsible for a significant portion of the most recent delays, which is incredibly frustrating.
Because of this, I'm deciding to forego the LED for all orders by default. If you would like an LED on yours, please reach out to me via email (support@thinkmods.store), and your order will have one. I was originally planning to make this an opt-out, rather than an opt-in, but the extent of this delay and labor necessitate otherwise. All orders will include an unsoldered LED in the screw bag so that you can install it yourself, if desired.
In addition, since it's been such a long time since the Indiegogo campaign, I'm sending out a mass email in order to confirm every order's shipping address. It will list what I currently have on file for you. I've gone through every address change that I've seen, and even if I didn't confirm it with you before, your change request should be reflected in this mass email. It is still possible that I missed a request, though. If the address in the email is not correct, please reply to the email letting me know, along with your LED preference. Going forward, you will receive a followup confirmation email if you need a change, prior to your order shipping.
Orders will be prioritized with non-LED orders shipping first, and among those, the priority will be based on order #, lower shipping first.
Please visit the ThinkMods Discord server for further updates.
]]>To recap, while I showed a completed panel in the last update, that was a photo taken at the factory, and it was only of a single panel. While the factory estimated the full production run would be done before the Lunar New Year, it was not, and had to be finished after, which added weeks of delays.
Part of this was due to the fact that there was an issue with a few panels where one of the rideshares broke off, and they asked me if I wanted to continue the order with those panels, or get new ones made - new ones would have guaranteed it would be done after LNY. I was, of course, totally fine with them using those damaged panels as normal, since the rideshares were fairly insignificant compared to the main project. Unfortunately, while I replied almost immediately to tell them this, they didn't confirm the reply until a full day later, and that day may have been what caused the run to slip.
There was also a bit of a delay in shipping due to some issues with customs. The factory tried to fudge the numbers on the invoice included in the package, which had quantities with zero bearing on reality, in an attempt to not pay import tariffs. That was just delightful and required multiple trips to the nearest FedEx office to get sorted out.
Regardless, after all those delays, the panels are now in my hands. I've begun testing them, and so far every single one works, which is really great - it's fairly common for PCBs this small to end up having about a 10-20% failure rate from the factory. For comparison, out of the 5 final prototypes, one had a bad solder job and required manual rework.
So, where does that leave us? Well, unfortunately, I'm still waiting to receive the chassis order. The injection mold company has been overwhelmed since the LNY, and hasn't yet finished my batch. I'm told the batch is being made right now, but I'm not sure when it will be finished. Optimistic predictions would be a week or two. In the meantime, I will continue testing PCBs, soldering LEDs, and flashing SD cards. Orders should start shipping within the next couple weeks. I don't know how long it'll take me to work through the backlog of orders; I have roughly 500 units to process, but will be posting updates on the Discord server as that unfolds.
I've now held meetings with a VAT advisor and am in the process of getting registered for UK VAT. In the meantime, I unfortunately cannot accept new UK mod orders.
Regarding the rest of the world, though - not only have I reenabled shipping, but I've also been able to set up new (cheaper!) shipping rates, thanks to Pirate Ship's Simple Export Rate program. These rates are across-the-board better than the old USPS First Class Package International rates, especially for Asian countries. For comparison, shipping a 16oz (1lb) package to Canada used to cost $20.19, but now only costs $10.49. Shipping that same package to Australia costed $28.26 with the old system, and now it's only $15.49. These are some of the best-case comparisons, but the prices are always going to be cheaper with Simple Export Rate, even if it's only slightly cheaper in some situations - for instance, 8oz packages to Germany used to cost $13.78, but now cost $10.49.
The parts took a lot longer to ship than initially expected. The fab received the final parts in the middle of January, but did not begin manufacturing until the last week of January because they mistakenly believed they were missing another part (ugh), which I had already solved with them back in December (bigger ugh). Either way, assembly is underway, and I have some nice full-panel photos to show:
All in all, they look great! Unfortunately, while production is nearly 80% done at the time of this post, they weren't able to finish before the Lunar New Year began, which is going to be a bit of a recurring theme in this post. This means the panels will not ship until sometime after the 18th, which is when PCBWay returns from the holiday. There's unfortunately nothing that can be done at this point, but it's exceedingly frustrating because it's their fault that they missed that window.
This one, too, slipped a bit, due to the Lunar New Year. The manufacturer actually stopped accepting new orders very early on in anticipation of the holidays. I didn't receive the samples until the second week of Jan. I placed my full order, but they weren't able to begin it before the holiday started. I am expecting the chassis order to arrive shortly after the holidays wrap up.
But not everything is bad! I've got some great injection mold samples to show off!
That's the EC54 chassis, and here's what the mod looks like when fitted into the EC34:
(note, the PCB used here is the R5 prototype; it seems a bit short inside of the chassis because the V1 full version is actually about a millimeter longer, and will fit properly)
Also, for funsies, here's a near-complete shot of what the full product packaging will be:
Everybody will receive a screwdriver, the mod pre-installed in their choice of chassis size, the other chassis size (for swapping to later, if desired), a small bag of screws (not pictured), and a brief instruction guide (not pictured). All mod packages will also include one of the metallic ThinkMods stickers mentioned in the August update.
Early on, people asked about including both sizes of chassis for their order, or making a chassis that could adapt to being both sizes. I tried a lot of different designs for expandable chassis, but unfortunately none of them were really durable or functional enough to my liking. Also, the added time of 3d printing two chassis for each order was going to slow down production a lot, and make scaling in the future very difficult. Once I decided to go with injection molding, however, all of those downsides sort of vanished; it costs me roughly 50 cents to include the second chassis in each order, and for the ease of use and customer-friendliness it provides, I'm more than happy to eat that cost.
Anyway, back to December's stuff:
The M1 inserts and all of the screws arrived. Screws galore!
Unfortunately the insert installation sort of relies on the chassis being done. I am planning to recruit help to speed that process along once they're done, though.
All of these are pretty much at the same stage they were at in December. Most are relying on prior steps, so it makes sense that they haven't begun. The Quick Start guide work actually has begun, but I don't really have anything polished enough to show off yet.
So what was I working on this month?
Well, at the beginning of the month, I was greeted with the unfortunate news that our landlord would be selling our house, and that we were essentially being evicted. We had to find a new place and begin the moving process. Needless to say, it took a lot of steam away from ThinkMods. That being said, I am very excited about my new place, and will essentially have an entire finished floor to myself, with plenty of workspace to work on modding. Once the move is complete, I expect things to ramp up very quickly.
Also, as mentioned earlier, the Lunar New Year (on top of the move) sort of screwed all of my planning up. I was expecting to be done beforehand, but with a couple of headaches involving certain suppliers that I am very upset with, that just didn't happen. Anyone who has ever dealt with China in the past will understand the headache of the Lunar New Year and its disruptions on international production. For those who don't... the largest country in the world, the de-facto production hub for the majority of companies, has what is essentially two to three weeks of time off for all employees of all companies. Shipping, manufacturing, research, you name it, it's disrupted. Don't get me wrong, they work exceedingly hard and I wish all of the workers the best. We all agree that they deserve to see their families! But it does just kinda suck when you're trying to get a product out the door.
For comparison, PCBWay, my PCB manufacturer and assembly service, celebrates the holidays from Feb 6th-18th, so roughly two weeks, but has impacted service for about a week after as well. LCSC, one of the largest parts suppliers, only celebrates for one week, Feb 9th-15th. They're a bit of an outlier. My injection mold company celebrates from Feb 6th-22th. That one is pretty brutal.
So, while the holidays happen over there, I am completely focused on my move. I want to be essentially done with it by the time production ramps up again, so that I'm able to get to work right when they are.
Now that that long ramble is over I realized I didn't actually get to what I did this month - on top of the move, I've also been trying to figure out the VAT situation. Needless to say, Brexit has really thrown a wrench into my plans. For those who are unaware, VAT is essentially Europe's equivalent to US sales tax, except it applies to nearly everything, and is a much higher rate. Depending on country, it goes up to 27%. Unlike US sales tax, however, imports are subject to VAT. This is because, if you only imposed a sales tax on domestic businesses, it would essentially encourage customers to import everything, rather than buy locally.
I did not charge VAT for Indiegogo backers, and have not charged VAT on thinkmods.store up until this point. In Europe, this is actually fine, for the most part - you are only required to register for VAT and collect it on sales if you meet the thresholds for total sales for a country. Those thresholds are very high ($100000/yr in Germany, my largest demographic) and I don't even begin to meet them. What then happens, if you don't charge VAT at checkout, is that once the parcel arrives in the destination country, the recipient needs to pay the necessary VAT at the time of pickup. This is a bit cumbersome, so it's nice to streamline the process by registering for and charging VAT, but generally speaking, European customers are used to this system.
However... Brexit happened. The UK used to abide by those rules, but they do not anymore. Now, if a package is worth less than £135 (which all of my orders are), the seller has to register for VAT and charge it at the time of checkout, because they are responsible for paying it regardless. Customers can no longer pay for VAT at the time of pickup if the package value is below £135. The standard VAT rate for the UK is 20%.
I have been meeting with a couple of tax consultants over the last few weeks, and have another meeting scheduled for Tuesday (the 16th), with the goal of getting my VAT registration complete. In the meantime, there's a bit of a dilemma...
I did not charge any UK customers with VAT. I need to going forward.
To be safe, I've temporarily suspended all new international orders on thinkmods.store, while I figure this whole thing out and get VAT set up. I'm aiming to have VAT registration done for Germany, but at the very least I need to have it done for the UK.
Regarding orders that have already been placed in the UK: There are 16 of you, and I'm just going to eat the cost of VAT myself, because it's way too much of a headache to try and collect it from everyone. Going forward though, I'm definitely not doing that.
So! That just about wraps this up. VAT is a nightmare, moving is a pain, the Lunar New Year is frustrating, and it all boils down to this: I'm not going to begin shipping Expresscard orders until March. I hate this fact, but it's undeniable. I recognize how many deadlines I've set and ridiculously exceeded in the past. I know how frustrating this is for all of you - trust me, it's crazy stressful and frustrating for me, too. I know this feels like one of those Kickstarter projects that flounders and never delivers. This should have been such a simple product... and electrically, it is! It's been working electrically since the very beginning. But mechanically, this thing was a nightmare. 5mm is just not enough space. Not to mention sourcing old-stock parts for a standard from a decade ago...
Anyway, I know this is frustrating. I know my word doesn't mean much anymore, but I promise that the end product will be good, far better quality than what was originally intended, and far more reliable to boot. It's been a long journey but I am very happy with the end result. I just need to get it in your hands.
As always, you can follow the progress live on the ThinkMods Discord server, where all of this has already been discussed as it happened.
]]>As noted in the last blog, USPS lost the package containing my drive. However, after nearly a month, the drive did eventually arrive. The recovery process was swift and I picked it up in person a few days later. All of the data was recovered flawlessly, despite the shipping hiccup.
Continuing from the last blog post, at the start of this month I submitted the final remade chassis models to the injection molding company. They have been working on the mold for the entirety of this month. I'm expecting a confirmation of the completed mold any day now, but in the meantime, they sent me a WIP photo about a week ago.
As a reminder, once the mold is complete, they'll express ship me a few samples, at which point I'll place the order for the full run, which should have a turnaround of about a week.
Sourcing was my primary headache this month. I mentioned last month about how the PCBs were done, and the assembly line was awaiting a few components before it could begin. One of those components turned out to be a much bigger headache than anticipated.
This is the GL823K:
The GL823K is a fairly simple chip; it's an SD card reader from Genesys Logic. It's used in this mod to provide access to the SD card over USB so that you can run the Clover bootloader, which hotloads NVMe boot support.
The GL823K is part of the GL823 family, which is essentially the same internal guts, in a variety of different packages. The standard GL823 is a QFN chip:
The "K" denotes the SOIC16 package, which is relatively large, and most importantly, easily hand solderable. I went with the GL823K as opposed to the GL823 for that exact reason, since I was originally planning to hand solder all of the mods.
After deciding to have the mods assembled by a factory, I not revisit this part selection, since it would require another prototype. Unfortunately, that came back to bite me in the ass, because when struggling to source the part throughout November and December, I discovered something pretty unfortunate.
The GL823K has been discontinued.
This means that overnight, prices skyrocketed. What was once going to cost ~$300 in total suddenly became ~$1500. But not only that - frustratingly, there were still listings everywhere for the component at its original pricing. I am not exaggerating when I say that I paid no less than 5 separate companies for this single chip, only to have them come back and say the price increased, after they already quoted me a lower price and took my money.
I was struggling all month to find a vendor for this part, and finally, near the end of December, I did manage to find one, paying roughly twice as much as I originally intended to, but that's much better than paying five times as much.
In future revisions, I will use the QFN version, but I couldn't do that this time because the PCBs and stencils were already done, not to mention the lack of confidence in not having a QFN prototype.
Anyway, that part was finally sourced. There were also a few other mixups with various suppliers for other parts throughout the month, but they've all been resolved. The assembly line is waiting on one other part (which is already in the mail) before getting started, which should arrive within a few days. I don't know what the turnaround time will be on that, but I would expect roughly 2 weeks once they receive the last component.
This is relatively minor, but one of the other things I've been working on this month is figuring out exactly how the product will be packaged. I've had it planned for a long time, but left it in a conceptualized state. Now it's finally time to set it in stone.
Each mod will come preinstalled in your selected chassis, and will be sealed in an anti-static plastic bag. The sealed mod will then be contained inside of the main product bag, alongside a short "getting started" manual, Phillips #000 screwdriver, the other size chassis, a bag of spare screws, and the aluminium ThinkMods sticker badge.
All larger stickers will ship in the same box, but in a cardstock envelope, separate from the mod packaging.
Here's a list of everything that needs to happen before the mods are shipped:
So, all in all, what does this mean?
Barring unforeseen delays, I expect to begin shipping orders this month. I do not expect that all orders will be shipped by the end of this month, but they'll be shipped by the end of next month. Orders will be shipped in the order they were placed (lower order number = higher priority).
If there are any delays, they should not affect the other work involved here. There are a lot of tasks that need to be done once the final pieces arrive, and those tasks will need to be completed regardless of any hangups in other sections.
I have added a star next to each task that I can currently begin work on.
As always, I highly recommend following the ThinkMods Discord server, as I'm constantly posting mini updates there.
]]>Then, unfortunately, the unthinkable happened: during the process of upgrading my computer (Ryzen 5000), the M.2 heatsink from my motherboard (that happened to be DOA) managed to apply too much mounting pressure on my boot SSD, and cracked the DRAM chip, putting the drive into a comatose state where it no longer shows up to the system.
In short, I lost all of my ThinkMods data.
I hastily mailed the drive to Rossmann Repair Group for data recovery, since only the DRAM died, meaning the data should all still be available in the NAND, and should be readable with fairly simple tools.
And then USPS lost the package.
Before that happened, I decided to trudge forward with recreating everything I needed from scratch, to try and minimize delays with the project itself. Here's a full list of everything I still had:
So essentially, I've got my PCBs, a treasure map full of component clues, a rudimentary chassis model that is only useful as a reverse-engineerable stencil, and a decent quality version of my logo.
To clarify, I have since signed up for 1TB of cloud storage and moved everything into it. I am not going to let this happen again. I can't even begin to describe how much personal data was lost as well, not just company data.
It's important to note the progress of everything at the time of this data loss:
My first order of business was getting the chassis in check, because I knew from the get-go that it would be the biggest bottleneck in terms of hitting my desired shipping window, which was getting all orders into your hands by the holidays.
I quickly recreated a lot of the chassis from memory, keeping in mind many of the design changes that it underwent over the many months of development, and accounting for those differences from the beginning. For instance, knowing there's going to be a cutout in the middle when you start modelling the chassis means you can integrate that into the core design, from a modelling perspective, and that makes tweaks much easier later down the line.
Knowing I was also going to be making an EC54 version, I was able to design the two in tandem with a feature I hadn't taken advantage of before; derivative models. In short, the EC54 model is literally the EC34 model with an extra block added to the side of it. Whenever I make a change in the EC34 model, it automatically propagates to the EC54 version, because the two are linked. This saves a lot of headache I had to endure during the earlier stages of development, where I had to constantly implement changes twice between two models, and rigorously check to make sure they were both still the same in the end.
You'll probably notice how much more detailed and refined these models are compared to the earlier model from the Indiegogo campaign. If you're interested, I've been documenting the entire process behind (re)creating these models from scratch in the ThinkMods Discord server.
These designs were made from the beginning with the intention of being injection molded, which involves a lot of tricky requirements (like drafted surfaces) that 3D printed designs don't have to even begin to account for.
So, now that the chassis is finally done being recreated, it can now be sent for fabrication. That's going to happen within the next 24 hours. I think I've found a great injection molding company in China after trying roughly two dozen different companies, and I hope the results are going to speak for themselves. Unfortunately, there is one downside to injection molding: roughly a month lead time.
That means I'm going to miss the holiday window.
I know this sucks. Trust me, it's really frustrating for me too. I want this to be in all of your hands. I want to be done with this adapter and start working on future mods, like the SATA version and Hyperbay.
But I believe in the end that this is for the better. Going with the injection molded chassis will raise the quality bar dramatically.
That being said, the PCBs are currently done, and the factory is just waiting on a few components to arrive before they start the assembly process. I should have the finished boards in my hands within a couple of weeks, which means I'll have a bit of time to go through and rigorously test them all, as well as package them, before the chassis arrive. That means the overall turnaround time between receiving the chassis and shipping out the final product to everyone will be dramatically shortened.
To clarify, once I receive the boards, I need to test every single one of them to make sure the SD card reads correctly, boots, and is able to boot the SSD, and then I need to run a benchmark on the SSD to make sure it's up to par. I also, of course, need to flash all of the SD cards, which is going to be an agonizing process. I'll hopefully show some of that stuff in mini updates, but keep in mind that I document everything that happens in the Discord server, even if I forget to share it in the blog posts.
Speaking of which, I never showed off the SD cards!
I suppose I might as well show off some renders of the final layout. These are WIP renders, as they're missing a few components and the colors are a bit off, but they do accurately represent the final design.
Also, here's what I think is the most important image: The final stackup. In this image, I set the chassis to transparent, so you can see just how tightly packed every single component is. Everything was methodically placed so that the entire stack would be only 4.8mm, just within ExpressCard's 5mm limit.
Also, at the end of the last blog post I mentioned the rideshare program, but never updated the post to show off everything. Here's what that looks like! I set the PCB color to blue for this image just for the ease of readability; the actual PCBs are matte black.
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I'm going to spare the gritty details because I'm actually holding up development by putting this blog post out, but you guys need an update.
As detailed in August's update, I designed a Prototype 4 board. I also gave a lot of details about manufacturability. Unfortunately, I was not able to solder the prototype 4 boards. I just don't have the equipment necessary for fine-pitch recessed connectors.
This led to me ordering Prototype 5 boards (which are nearly identical to 4), using the prototype assembly service of the manufacturer I planned to go with for full-scale assembly.
These boards took a LONG time to arrive (thanks to parts orders taking forever), but they were assembled and delivered to me. I also designed and ordered some test boards, that I can plug into M.2 slots in order to test their pins for any shorts. I used this to determine whether or not the manufacturer was properly soldering the connectors, or if they had any shorts (like mine did). Everything checked out, so I plugged in an SSD, and...
They work flawlessly. The LED functions, the SD card reads properly, it's fully bootable (using Clover), and everything just works.
Which means it's time for full-scale.
One small downside with my boards is that they have a massive cutout in the middle. This is necessary for double-sided SSDs (like the Sabrent Rocket), but considering you pay for PCB manufacturing by the outer dimensions, not total surface area, it's a lot of wasted space, that could otherwise be put to use for no extra charge.
So, inspired by services like SpaceX's Smallsat Rideshare Program, I decided to open up "slots" to the community, and get some free (small) boards made. Additionally, because I'm already paying for assembly, these boards from other people can also be assembled, for very little extra money.
I'm sorry I don't have a better image of these - I'll update this post with a better one once everything is said and done. I don't want to hold onto this update while finishing it.
It's been a long journey. I know it's been excruciating, but the end is finally in sight.
I'll share more in-depth stuff in the next week or so in another blog post. For real this time.
]]>
I had originally planned to update every two weeks. This month was very busy, and I just never got around to making the mid-month update. It will happen in September.
The sample SD cards arrived from the manufacturer, and I thoroughly tested all of them. My plan was to order 1GB cards, since Clover only really needs ~500MB. The 1GB cards were rated for Class4 (4MB/s) by the manufacturer. Keep in mind that the SD card only loads the bootloader - once the bootloader is initialized, it loads the drivers for the SSD, at which point the SD card goes unused. Even so, I was worried 4MB/s might not be enough for a speedy bootloader initialization, so I also ordered samples of their 2GB (Class6) and 8GB (Class10) cards.
Turns out, they're all Class10. My guess is that they're only stocking 8GB Class10 cards, and reprogramming them to identify as 1, 2, and 4GB cards, when necessary. It's probably cheaper to only buy a single SKU.
All of the cards work well, and boot Clover fairly quickly. I'll be placing my order with the manufacturer once Prototype 4 is tested.
I mentioned near the end of the last blog post that I was ordering a prototype of my SD reader circuit, so I could test it thoroughly before integrating it into the main mod. This is the image I shared with everyone:
This is the actual order I placed:
For those who aren't aware of how PCBs are stacked, this is basically what a 2-layer PCB looks like:
There's a "core" layer, and then above and below that, you have two layers of copper traces. Afterwards, a thick layer of "solder mask" covers the top and bottom, sort of like plasti-dipping. The solder mask is what gives circuit boards their colors, usually.
In the final version of the SD tester, I removed the copper "fill" on the top layer. This is why the background is so dark; there's no copper below the soldermask to give it its distinctive bright blue hue. Normally, the "shape" of the PCB ThinkMods logo would be carved out of just the solder mask; in this instance, I'm defining its shape with both solder mask, and the underlying copper. The goal was to see if the logo would still turn out OK in a worst-case situation. This is a new logo, mind; previous boards used a silkscreen logo, but I thought it would look better if it was etched into the board itself.
Unfortunately, I'm an idiot, and forgot that I was relying on the copper fill as my ground layer. If you compare the two images, you'll see a bunch of pads that are suddenly not connected to anything:
In the image above, I've circled the ground pads in red that are completely disconnected on the real board. When the IC has no ground, it doesn't matter if you're providing +3.3V; power won't flow through it because there's no end destination. Pretty essential.
This meant that my SD tester did not work out of the box. It took me nearly a week of banging my head against the wall, testing so many smaller issues, before I finally realized what a colossal idiot I had been. Once I figured out the issue, it was ugly-ass jumper time:
But, in the end, the board works! And not only that - the SD > USB controller I'm using actually slightly outperforms the one I had tested the cards with originally. It also boots successfully, with absolutely no issues. Hurrah!
I did actually learn something from this prototype though. There's an undocumented pin, #11, labelled "GPIO". It turns out you have to ground this pin with a resistor in order to make the reader actually read from a connected card. If I had simply ordered the production run without testing, the SD cards wouldn't be reading. Very glad I figured this out in advance.
I touched upon this last month, but I ordered some metallic ThinkMods stickers, in the vein of genuine ThinkPad palmrest logos. They arrived this month and look fantastic. As a reminder, these are not for sale separately; one comes with every mod. And yes, they're actual aluminium.
I have placed an order for Prototype 4 PCBs and stencils. Here's the (hopefully) final design:
Key changes from Prototype 3 involve the switch to SD cards, a reworked LED circuit (with proper resistor... RIP prototype LEDs), new LED switch layout, SD GPIO resistor, and new passives (fuses/caps).
These should be here within a few days, by the time this post goes live. I'll be assembling them by hand, and doing final test-fits with the chassis. Speaking of assembly...
This is a topic I've discussed a lot. One of the most important aspects to keeping production costs low (so that this whole project is feasible) is to as much as possible in-house. PCBs definitely need to be outsourced, but chassis production, PCB assembly, packaging, and fulfillment can all be done in-house.
I have been struggling with assembly, however. The only real issue at this point is the M.2 receptacle; I just cannot get this thing soldering reliably. The main problem is that it has a row of recessed pins, which are required because this is a slimline receptacle, which is unfortunately necessary due to ExpressCard thickness limits. These recessed pins are literally impossible to reach with a soldering iron. If they don't solder correctly the first time (with paste+oven), they CANNOT be reworked.
I've tried a number of different tests, with varying designs and different stencil materials and thicknesses, but after all this time, I still always have bridged pins on the M.2 connector.
I believe that I could work through this hurdle if I had more time, but I don't want to push this project any longer. At this point, pretty much every other area of the product is done. It's not right to hold up orders on this.
So I'm outsourcing assembly.
I always anticipated that this might have to happen, so it's actually been a part of the budget for quite awhile. I can accomplish it with the funds that I have.
One little note with this is that the cost of assembly has almost nothing to do with quantity - the real cost is in startup fees (setting up reels of components, sourcing them, etc). Because of this, along with the discount from ordering components in larger volumes, it costs me only ~30% more to increase my initial run from 500 units to 1000 units. So I'm going to eat that cost personally, and do a run of 1000 units instead. For those wondering, there have been around ~330 units sold so far. A lot of people have told me they're waiting on the mod to actually be available before purchasing, and with the original goal of 500 units, there may have not been enough supply to meet that demand. This should resolve that.
I'm going to invest all profits from the extra unit sales towards better equipment, so that I can actually afford to design a bunch of new mods and assemble them myself.
This is a relatively minor topic, but I figured I'd go into detail on something, in case any of you engineering-minded folk enjoy reading about it.
ExpressCard has some vague power limits defined in its specification.
There are three power rails - +1.5V, +3.3VAUX, and +3.3V. My mod only taps the +3.3V rail, which is supplied to both the SSD and the SD IC. This rail has a power limit of roughly 1.3A, which means a total power limit of ~4.3W. Thankfully, almost all SSDs are within this limit, and all 2242 ones are. However, just in case, it's still very important that my mod doesn't exceed the power limit, under any circumstances.
This power limit is enforced by a special controller that actually creates all of those voltage rails. There are a couple of different controllers used by ThinkPads; the T420 uses the TG-Tech BD4156MUV, while the X230 uses the Texas Instruments TPS2231MRGPR. These chips are responsible for enforcing the power limit; both of these chips claim a 2A limit on their +3.3V rails. This actually far exceeds the spec, but just in case, I need to stick within spec. In order to avoid hitting the 1.3A limit, I was originally going to use a special type of fuse, called a PPTC, on the mod. PPTC fuses are resettable - after they trip, they automatically reset, and can be used again. To be clear, PPTCs are much more expensive than regular fuses, but I figured the resilience (and convenience) was worth it.
I originally built my designs around the Littelfuse 1206L075/13.2WR. Unfortunately, while I was working on putting together my final BOM for the PCB assembly RFQ, I noticed a problem... as you can see from that link, they don't have enough in stock. When I originally encountered this problem, there were around 800 in stock; as of writing this blog post, there are now 374. That's nowhere near enough to supply the production run I require. Not to mention, they've already placed an order for 3000 more... and it's expected in November. And this isn't just a problem with Mouser; no suppliers have enough PPTCs in stock. So now I'm going with a regular 3A fast-blow fuse, purely for short prevention, and relying on the controller to enforce the standard power limits.
To be clear, this is not only an issue with this fuse. Parts are out of stock in all areas. Capacitors, resistors, transformers, coils, relays, diodes, connectors.
Thanks, COVID.
It's finally time to commit to some dates.
For those who are still unaware, I've been posting regular (short) updates in the ThinkMods Discord server, as well as keeping an open line of discussion. Some of that discussion has actually led to some updates that I'll be covering below. So, without further ado...
The workshop is now mostly finished. This is where I'll be designing, prototyping, manufacturing, assembling, packaging, and shipping all ThinkMods. Every part of it has has been thoroughly planned, and hopefully that's apparent by how well everything fits together.
I won't go into every little detail, but in summary: The left part is an industrial shelf. The top shelf is a makeshift 3d printer enclosure, housing two Ender 3 Pros, which are fully networked for remote access (OctoPrint + RPi 4 w/ cameras). The enclosure has a transparent plastic screen on the front (not shown here), as well as a powered exhaust duct for fume extraction, as I will be printing ABS. The printers are also connected to an UPS, with a battery large enough for a full hour of combined ABS-temp runtime.
Below the printers is generic storage for cables, hardware, tools, and a bin of assorted padded mailers. Below that, there's a color laser printer (for packing slips), and the rest of the bottom two shelves is purely shipping box storage. There are also multiple stacks of boxes on top of the 3d printers.
Moving to the desk, along the left side there's an SMD oven for PCB manufacturing (T-962, modded), as well as a roll of antistatic poly tubing; mods will be heat-sealed in this tubing inside of their package. I will be attaching this spool to a dowel, which will also hold the spools of PCB components (where the iFixit kit is).
On the right side, I have similar spools containing packaging labels, stickers, shipping labels, and shipping tape. There's a Rollo label printer, as well as a digital shipping scale.
The left side cabinet contains a short shelf, where I'm currently storing a T440p and T430 for modding purposes, as well as pull-out trash and recycling bins. The right side compartment is for various packaging supplies, and the right bottom cabinet contains more rolls of tape, labels, and stickers. Below the desk there are boxes of padded mailers in various sizes. The right wall has a 4' x 12" roll of bubble wrap mounted to it; I have four of these total, for void-filling. There's also a dispenser of kraft paper behind it, for void-filling as well.
As detailed in May, Prototype 2 wasn't designed correctly from the start, requiring me to make a Prototype 3 design. The main difference here was the switch from an LDO voltage regulator (which reduces voltage by shedding excess volts as heat), which can never increase voltage, to a proper boost regulator, which can convert the 3.3V power supply to 5V for the USB chip.
Once the PCB and stencil arrived, I set to work attempting to build the first one. For those who aren't aware, the way this is typically done is by using "solder paste", which has the consistency of thermal paste or toothpaste. Using a stencil, which is a sheet of material with cutouts for all the pads, you spread paste over the board and it fills in all of the pad cutouts. Then you remove the stencil, and you're theoretically left with paste perfectly applied on every pad. You then pick and place the components onto their pads, and then reflow it in a solder oven, and the paste becomes regular solder.
Unfortunately, the first attempt went very poorly. Part of this was due to the paste itself - it's supposed to be stored in a fridge when not in use, and I don't think I let it warm up for long enough before using it. Part of this was due to the stencil; I think I set the pad sizes way too large for the stencil, so I was depositing far more paste than necessary. Another part was probably user error. I also don't think the SMD oven got hot enough; I may have used a profile that was too low, and some of the paste (on the other side of the board) didn't even melt.
Regardless, way too much paste was applied, and so it bridged between pads. On the EC connector, this could be fixed with a soldering iron, but due to the shape of the M.2 connector, if it happens there it's pretty much a ruined build.
After letting the paste warm up to room temperature for a day, I decided to try on another board. This time, it went far better, but again there was just too much paste, so lots of contacts bridged. I also slightly burned the top of the EC connector, although it still probably works just fine. The oven definitely got hot enough this time, and all paste around the board melted correctly.
As evidenced by the above trials, manufacturing these is not easy. The degree of my failures made me seriously look into what it would cost to just have most of the PCB manufactured ahead of time, by the same fab that actually builds the bare PCB. It would be costly, but not prohibitively so, so I'm actually considering it. However, there are a couple of things I can do to improve manufacturability to the point that I might be able to still do it myself.
One of those is improving the stencil. I ordered a new one, and it actually just arrived today. This one is made of steel, instead of polyimide (kapton tape) like the first one. It's also thinner, and has smaller cutouts for the smaller-pitch pads. This is still a Prototype 3 cutout, so as you'll read later on, it's actually going to be outdated, but I'll still be able to learn from it whether or not I can manufacture myself.
There's another idea to make self-manufacturing more feasible, but it deserves its own section.
Yeah, you read that right.
One of the most important parts of this mod is the fact that it enables native NVMe booting on devices that long predate the NVMe standard. This is because it acts as a standard USB flash drive, and when booted, it loads the Clover bootloader, which contains NVMe drivers, and is then able to boot NVMe devices as if the host actually supported them. I basically just have to include USB storage containing Clover. My original plan for this was literally attaching a USB UDP chip, the package used for many actual flash drives, to the bare PCB. The problem with this is two-fold; USB UDP suppliers are kind of difficult to work with, in terms of prices and consistency, and the UDP chip uses a normal USB pinout, which means I have to provide 5V. That 5V requirement is what made the Prototype 2 board a non-starter. It's also what seriously complicates this entire product; the voltage regulation circuitry makes up like 80% of the complexity of the board. If I can reduce that complexity, then the entire thing becomes easier to manufacture.
CRImier in the ThinkMods Discord server came up with an idea - why not just use a microSD card instead of a full flash drive? I originally dismissed the idea for cost and complexity reasons, but the more I thought about it, the more it made sense.
MicroSD cards only use 3.3V for power, and a USB SD reader IC would also use 3.3v, so we're fine there. That means no power regulation, which means a simpler board.
What about cost? Well, it turns out it would be roughly equal. This is all about economies of scale. Nobody is manufacturing ThinkMods, they're too niche. But if I can source components that are already cheap in bulk thanks to other industries, I can piggyback off their bulk rates in order to make my own industry feasible. With USB UDP chips, I was piggybacking off the custom flash drive industry, the ones that supply all of those custom-branded flash drives to companies. They just place those UDP chips inside of business cards, key fobs, etc. With MicroSD cards, I'm piggybacking off a much, much larger industry - mobile phones. That means MicroSD cards are actually cheaper, per GB, but importantly there are also a LOT of low-capacity MicroSD cards on the market for embedded applications, whereas USB UDP chips are only available with a minimum of 4GB capacity nowadays.
Ok, so what about the reader IC, or the SD card holder? Certainly those add cost! Well, they do, of course, but not as much as you might think. SD to USB is incredibly simple on the low end - there's a reason you can find $2 USB microSD readers everywhere. They don't cost nothing, but it's insignificant. As for the holder, thanks to economies of scale (mobile phones), they're literally only 6 cents per unit. All told, even considering that a MicroSD card would need a controller IC and a holder, it's still cheaper than a UDP chip + power regulator.
Going with MicroSD also has other upsides, too. It means, in the future, that I can sell a cheaper version of the mod that simply doesn't include a MicroSD card, but still has the reader + socket, so users can buy a cheaper variant if they don't need boot support, and still add it later with their own card if needed. You could even use a large 64GB or 128GB card (or even 1TB if you really wanted) and have the rest for always-attached storage, if you'd like. Also, if the storage dies, you just need to replace the SD card, rather than the full hot air soldering station that would be required for a UDP chip.
Not to mention, custom branding is a cheap service, and wouldn't ThinkMods MicroSD cards look dope?
Prototype 4 involves the switch to SD cards. I cut out all of the voltage regulation circuitry and managed to fit the SD card holder and IC. I was a bit worried about size, but thanks to how the M.2 connector mounts, it's actually all going to fit pretty nicely. The downside is that the SD holder takes up the entire underside of the chassis. This means the founding backers, who had the "name on the back of the PCB" perk, now have their names on the top of the board instead. I don't anticipate complaints.
I also incorporated a new logo style into the board; I think ThinkMods looks better with ENIG (gold) plating, embedded in the board itself, than simply silkscreen. This plating is already going to be used for all of the pads, so I'm not paying any extra, and I think it looks way better.
I have not ordered Prototype 4 boards yet, for reasons below.
After designing the Prototype 4 board, I removed everything SSD-related so that it's just the SD circuit and the EC connector. I added a bunch of test points for debugging, and made a nice little board out of it. It also serves as a test for the new logo design. I sent this off to OSHPark for prototyping, so I can make sure my SD circuit works, and is bootable.
While I was at it, I also ordered the SD holder, reader IC, some caps, and some sample SD cards from the same company I'd like to order custom ones from. I paid a great deal extra for expedited shipping, because I really, truly want to get this stuff done and out of the way, so I can get on with production. I know how long and patiently you all have been waiting.
The holder and caps arrived today, and the SD cards are out for delivery as we speak. The reader ICs are estimated for Friday (7/31). I expect the test PCB to be somewhere between Friday and Monday.
Editor's note: The SD cards arrived just before publishing this post.
I stumbled upon brushed aluminum stickers online, when looking for something else, and decided I just had to get ThinkMods ones.
These measure 16mm x 44mm, which means two things - they can be placed perfectly alongside Intel stickers on the palmrest, and the lettering is exactly 11mm tall, the same as the regular ThinkPad logo on the T430. I want to clarify that this is a real brushed aluminum texture, it's not simply an ink pattern mimicking the style.
One of these will be included with every single mod. They won't be available for sale separately.
The keen-eyed among you may have noticed that there are now Ivyrain (or, more properly, 1vyrain) stickers available on thinkmods.store. I worked with Moon to get these made up months ago - the plan was that he would send them to people who donated to the project. We decided to just sell them directly through my store, instead, with all proceeds going to him. I will say that the holo stickers look particularly amazing.
If you would like to include extra stickers in your already-placed mod order, including for Indiegogo backers, simply use the code ADDSTICKERS at checkout and you won't be charged for shipping. I'll include them with your mod(s), when they go out. Alternatively, if you don't use the code, you'll be charged a relatively low shipping fee and they'll go out immediately. This applies to both Ivyrain and standard ThinkMods stickers.
In the immediate future, I'm going to be testing the SD cards to make sure they're up to par, and building the SD test boards so I can make sure they work on the ExpressCard bus properly, and are bootable. After that, I'll be getting Prototype 4 fabbed, most likely with OSHPark to make it faster, and finally be doing the final testing before placing the main order.
At this point, I'm still not sure whether I'll be manufacturing myself or having the fab do it. If my stencil tests don't pan out, and I still get blobbing on the M.2 connector, then I will probably have the fab handle most of the solder work, and just leave the EC connector for myself, since that's easy to do with an iron.
I am, again, very sorry for the late update. Even when I don't summarize the progress here, though, I assure you that progress is being made every day. I cannot count the number of late nights spent chatting with Chinese part suppliers due to timezones.
I'm going to increase the update frequency from "every month" to "every two weeks", going forward. I hope that the accountability will help keep me on track, and keep the line of discussion open, as well as help with transparency.
I'll see you all in two weeks for the Early August update.
]]>This past month has been split between setting up the workshop (cabinet, desk, vented enclosure, etc) and dealing with IRL stuff, which I've talked about on the Discord server but won't bother going into detail about here. All of that will be wrapped up within a day, so it's all hands on deck for ThinkMods.
Essentially, the past month was spent:
The final component (brass nut inserts) finally arrived yesterday, and I plan to start manufacturing Prototype 3 boards on Thursday.
More details with many photos to come by Friday (6/26). See you then!
]]>Workshop Progress
This month I set about reworking the mud room in my house. It was originally used to store inventory from my mom's ecommerce shop, but going forward I want it to be the ThinkMods workshop, where all of my manufacturing equipment is located, components and inventory are stored, and a full desk exists for designing new mods. The full detailed progress of that is being shared as it happens over in the #progress channel of the ThinkMods Discord server.
To briefly summarize for this post, I've cleared out everything that needs to go, I've built a new shelf for housing the 3d printers, and converted its top rack into a dual-printer enclosure. The printer is just waiting on a wired internet connection before it's fully functional. The necessary equipment for that, along with a second 3d printer, arrive tomorrow (5/14), so I'll be showing that off in Discord when it happens.
Unfortunately, while I know exactly what desk+cabinet I wanted to buy for the second half of the workshop, IKEA is completely shut down in the US due to COVID. I'm going to wait until one of the stores near me reopens for online orders, but if that takes too long I'll just set up a folding table in the meantime.
Chassis Development
I have prototyped a large number of different designs over the past month, including ones using the material that I plan to use for the final revision, black PETG. Some of these have been coming out great, however one of the key problems is print time. I am going to be sending both 34 and 54 variants with every single order; the PCB will only be installed in the chassis you selected when ordering, but you can easily unscrew it and move it over to the other chassis later down the line for use in a different system. This is unfortunately the cleanest way I was able to design to solve that problem.
That means that print time is measured as how long it takes to print a pair of chassis; on a single printer, the estimated time to print 7 pairs (the maximum number I can fit on the print bed) was around 20 hours. That's honestly pretty lackluster; I would be running the printer nearly 24/7, and it would be running while I slept, which is really not great in terms of safety. This, combined with the fact that the original chassis didn't look great inside a T430 (that I had access to thanks to my brother sheltering with me from COVID), told me I needed a better solution, so I set about redesigning the chassis to be easier to print.
For comparison, this is what the chassis looked like beforehand:
And here's what the redesign looks like now:
It still needs some work; for instance, the LED cutout is just a placeholder and needs more closely reflect the original design, and there aren't yet holes for the screws/mounting nut. But overall, this design is simpler, but looks far better on the outside of the ThinkPad where it really matters, and is far easier to print. While 7 pairs of the original would take 20 hours, 7 pairs of this version take just 10.
With 2 printers, that means I can print at least 14 pairs a day. I would be able to print every chassis I need to complete every order I have so far in a little under a month, which I would say is definitely progress.
PCB Design
Unfortunately, before I even got to manufacturing the Prototype 2 boards, I realized a key issue; I made a rookie mistake and hooked up an LDO regulator to convert the 3.3V power rail to the necessary 5V for the USB chip. For those without electrical engineering experience, an LDO regulator very basically reduces voltage by shedding excess volts as heat. It can only reduce voltage; it isn't a buck converter. I basically set it up backwards, feeding its output voltage and expecting it to give me the necessary input voltage.
I can't believe I made such a rookie mistake at the time, but that doesn't really matter now. I've redesigned the PCB around a proper buck converter now, and I'll be placing the order for that in a day or two. I've also gone ahead and revisited other parts of the board; I've changed the LED shutoff from a jumper + header to an actual switch, I've swapped the LED mounting style to SMT rather than TPH, and I've fixed an issue where the LED woiuld be enabled at all times, regardless of activity - for some reason I connected it to the 3.3V power rail instead of the SSD's LED line, because I guess rookie mistakes are my forte. I've also decided to switch to a different mounting nut for the SSD, which necessitates a different hole size on the PCB.
All of this is to say that Prototype 2 isn't really going to work, and I'm going to need a Prototype 3, which will be the design that I ship to testers, partially because of the changes needed and partially because I still haven't received the USB chips from my supplier; COVID has really taken a toll on shipping.
Sticker Orders
As a quick update on this, I mentioned last update how I would be sending these out as soon as I was able to get stamps. Unfortunately it took a long time for USPS to reopen its store; fortunately, I placed that order and they should be here any day now. I've already got envelopes, so I'll be shipping those orders as soon as they get here.
Looking Forward
Needless to say, due to both COVID and a couple of rookie mistakes on the engineering side (though mostly the former), I am in no way going to meet the May-June shipping window given in the original campaign. I could probably start shipping in June if I didn't test any further, but there's a number of issues that I really want to iron out before I ship my first order. I want to make sure the USB chip's idle power consumption isn't too major (online estimates are 400mW, which is too much IMO). I want to make sure everything truly fits together. I also want to test power consumption, heat, and performance under a number of different situations, in a number of different ThinkPads.
Due to all of the aforementioned issues, my best-case estimate at this point for shipping final orders to backers is (very roughly) late July. There are a number of factors at play here; it takes 30 days to get any order out of China, which means that each 'cycle' of prototyping has a 30-day lead time. I've placed orders for all of my changed components, so a little less than 30 days from now I can actually start testing them. At that point, if I place an order immediately for the quantities needed for final production, it will be another 30 days before I receive those and can possibly start manufacturing.
In the meantime, I am going to try shipping out a few Prototype 2's to testers without the USB chip or LEDs, just to make sure the core functionality works in most systems.
I know it's a frustrating norm to have delays in an Indiegogo campaign, but I am going to do my absolute best to make sure it's worth the wait.
]]>In last month's update, I summarized the situation at the time with the following statement: "As it currently stands, I do not believe COVID-19 will impact our supply line whatsoever".
I expected small shipping delays, I expected quarantining, and I expected inflated parts prices.
I didn't expect Amazon to shut down.
Needless to say, the situation is constantly evolving. I'm not going to try and predict the future, because the only thing I can guarantee is that my prediction will be wrong. Instead, I'm just going to cover the exact situations in each category. If you look at the initial timeline, I wanted to start manufacturing the final design by late April; instead, I'll be manufacturing the prototype around that time. This does unfortunately mean that, just like most Indiegogo projects, there will be delays. I don't think it will be much of one though; I still aim to be manufacturing the final design by June.
As mentioned in last month's update, I ordered proofs of the clear stickers, but they didn't turn out very well. I also mentioned that the manufacturer offered to send the same design in their clear label variety, to see if those worked better. A few days after the update, those arrived (a whole roll of them, wow) and I tested them on a variety of surfaces. There's still bubbles, because ThinkPads don't have perfectly flat surfaces, but they look much better and are much easier to apply. I'm happy with them and will be shipping these ones. As far as orders go, only 7 people ordered individual stickers; those orders will be mailed out within the next week or so, whenever I'm able to get stamps (USPS's online store is temporarily closed).
I mentioned how I had applied for a business bank account and was receiving a debit card in the mail. It took a little while, but it arrived and I've now placed orders for a reflow oven, solder paste, components, kapton tape (for the oven), a stencil, a 3d printer, and 3d filament. With Amazon no longer being an option, it was surprisingly hard to find decent suppliers for some of these things, but I managed to and most of them have arrived by now.
I expect within a week or two - once everything arrives - to manufacture the first ten prototypes. As a reminder, you can apply here to be sent one (for just the cost of shipping). The prototypes will be fully functional; the only differences compared to the final design are the color scheme and the fact that it will use leaded solder - the final design is RoHS-compliant.
I was originally planning to outsource production of the final design's chassis, and then buy 3d printers for later production runs afterward. Partly due to COVID shortages, and partly due to the delays that happen to be caused by it, I've decided to move the purchase of 3d printers up and actually manufacture the first run's chassis myself, rather than outsourcing it. This will hopefully make production more reliant on my own capability, rather than relying on another source that might shut down at any moment.
That just about covers the month. Hopefully next month I'll have far more news to report about prototype tests and benchmarks.
You can preorder on our store page, chat with us on Discord, or email me directly.
Stay safe!
]]>I'm sure you're all well-aware of the COVID-19 outbreak. I'll summarize the situation by answering a couple of questions.
It's no secret that supply lines in China were majorly disrupted. While ThinkMods sources most of its components from US-based suppliers, those suppliers get some of their components from global sources. That being said, very few of the components in this mod actually come from China; for instance, we use fuses from Littelfuse, a Chicago-based company. Our basic components (resistors, LEDs) come from Pennsylvania, voltage regulators come from Arizona, and the M.2 connector is from Conneticuit. Our capacitor OEM is based in Taiwan.
That being said, a few of our components do come from China: The mechanical components, like brass inserts, jumper pins/caps, and screws all come from China, along with the USB chip, and even the ExpressCard connector itself... You would not believe how hard it is to find EC connectors that are actually in-stock nowadays. My PCB manufacturer is also based in China, but while they were initially disrupted, it seems they're back up to full production now.
As it currently stands, I do not believe COVID-19 will impact our supply line whatsoever; it may be harder to find USB chips, but it shouldn't be impossible.
I live a little over an hour outside of New York City, so needless to say, it's pretty hectic here. In fact, I think I myself might actually have the virus. I picked up two family members from an international trip within the last week, and they're starting to come down with the symptoms, which means it's only a matter of time for me. I stocked up on supplies before I could have been contagious (I did not hoard toilet paper, I promise). At this point, we are completely self-quarantining. This has both upsides and downsides; while it means I don't need to go outside, therefore clearing up my schedule to work on ThinkMods, it also means there's quite a bit of work to do around the house. My attention is mostly the same when it comes to work, at this point.
It took a little bit of time to receive the funds, but once I did, I immediately placed an order for proofs of the final sticker design. They arrived a few days ago and I applied them to a couple of ThinkPads:
Unfortunately, as you can see, these stickers have a bit of a bubble problem. This was not unique to this single application; it presented on a number of devices with different finishes, regardless of surface cleaning and application process.
I reached out to the manufacturer, and they offered to send me free samples of their "clear labels", which use a different adhesive and different finish than the "clear stickers". Those are in the mail right now, and I'll let you all know how they turn out.
As mentioned in the initial campaign, I am doing a second prototype! I will be manufacturing up to 10 of these, and sending them out for free to a select few users to help troubleshoot/torture-test. If you would like to participate, you can apply here; I will select candidates based on their ThinkPad model/setup, not based on personal preference. All you'll need to do is pay for shipping, if you're selected. I haven't ordered the components yet, but the PCBs have arrived. Top is prototype 1, bottom is prototype 2:
The production boards will be matte black with an ENIG finish; I chose a blue soldermask with HASL finish for the prototype because that's what the fab was still manufacturing during the initial COVID-19 influx.
There's a new website! If you're reading this right now, you've already found it. You can now preorder mods if you missed out on the initial campaign!
There's also a new ThinkMods-only Discord server. You can reach me personally for help there if you ever need it, or just talk to the community.
Part of what took so much time this month was filing paperwork so that ThinkMods is actually real. Here's all the hoops I had to go through:
- Register a trade name with the state
- Register a trade name with my county
- Obtain an EIN from the IRS (for tax purposes)
- Obtain a sales tax authorization from the state (I have to collect and remit local sales tax for NJ customers)
- Obtain a VAT # (for EU-based customers)
- Apply for a business bank account (to keep ThinkMods separate from my personal finances)
All of this is on top of the work involved in setting up a website, shipping service, etc. The county-level trade name registration actually had to be done in-person, at my county clerk's office, and I actually managed to get there and get it done the day before they indefinitely closed due to COVID-19. Talk about cutting it close!
When it comes to this campaign, the main holdup was getting the business bank account - I didn't want to start purchasing development materials until all of the money was separate from my personal account, for tax reasons. I've now been approved and a debit card is in the mail, so in the next few days I'll be placing orders for the necessary materials for prototype 2, as well as the necessary equipment for full production.
I will be updating both the website blog and sending Indiegogo updates until all orders ship, at which point I'll transition over to using the website and Discord server exclusively.
Stay safe! Good night, and good luck.