Well, it's been a long road to get here. Let me first thank all of those who have supported me in getting to this stage, and also to everyone for your patience so far.
I understand that quite a few of you have been messaging me over the past few months since the Kickstarter failed. I either couldnt respond, or couldn't tell you very much and that was for a reason.
As some of you may already know, the problem is that the manufactuer wanted a very large minimum order quantity of 1000 pieces. This makes it hard for me a small buisness because I don't have that kind of money to pay for 1000 pieces, and I also don't think I would sell that many of them in enough time to cover their costs.
I still can't really say too much, but the short version is that I was in talks with a company to sell the rights to the product so that it could go out for mass manufacture. This way they could get the product out to their private market and then the idea was to get the remainder out to mass market for you all.
This seemed like the best solution all round, and ultimatley, the only option. I simply couldn't afford the cost involved with ordering a minimum of 1000 pieces (the manufacture, the shipping, the import taxes, the packaging costs, the taxes, etc...), and so I thought this was great for everyone! I may have lost ownership of the project, but it would have got out to market.
So, that is what I was working on since the Kickstarter failed. Until, that company just stopped responding to all communication. To this day, I still have no idea what happened. We were half way through talking about the finances involved, and they just stopped responding.
Stuck again! Back to square one, and quite frankly, I was pretty disheartened by the whole thing. I was starting to think it wasn't meant to be, and that this would never happen!
"28th September 2023:
I would like to make an addition to this blog post retrospectivley.
I have since spoken with said company in person about this. Having cleared the air, instead of deleting this blog post, I thought it would be more honest to add that it appears a misunderstanding in communication occured. We hope that moving forward a positive relationship can continue with them."
Some time passed, and I got busy with some things in my personal life. Then the project came back into my mind, and I was determined to find a way to get this over the finish line. And now, here we are! I am now in a position to take pre-orders for the product!
Let me be clear here, the products are currently being manufactured. The order has been placed and money has been paid to the manufactuer already.
The first batch is due to arrive in the UK by the end of April 2023.
Which means, I am hoping to have them tested, packaged and ready to ship to you by early May 2023.
A consequence of this is that we are not able to offer the LCD without the PCB. We can only sell the fully assembled LCD on the PCB. For most of you, this is what you would want anyway, but I am aware that a few people did specifically want the raw glass for their project. To them I say you can unsolder the glass from the PCB if you so wish, but we can only sell and ship them to you as a fully assembled unit.
To celebrate this milestone, I have put the FCU LCD on sale! If you preorder now, you will save £5 from the RRP! Once the first batch of preorders have sold out, they will go back to full RRP.
Also, if you were a Kickstarter supporter, then please check your emails! I had to message you through the Kickstarter website because I don't have access to your emails directly. As a token of my graditude, you have all been sent a discount code to use at the checkout (this can be used ontop of the current sale price). The discount code is specifically linked to your name, and is only valid to be used once! This means that you can order as many of them as you want in one transaction, and the code will be applied to the total sum. But, you won't be able to use the code on a second transaction. I hope this makes sense, but it was the easiest way I could set up the process.
I have done my best with shipping fees, but it is still difficult to ship internationally from the UK.
Lastly, I have checked through the GitHub repo and confirmed that the current version of firmware on there (V2.3.0) is fully working with MobiFlight. There's even a config file for the FBW A320 to get you started! I'll be sure to triple check this again once the products start shipping out to you in (hopefully) May!
I'm really excited about this project moving forward, and I hope you all are too!
Thanks again for the support!
James