Production Update

Hey everyone, Ryan here again.

We’ve got lots of exciting updates, but first, anyone who hasn’t confirmed your address and cable selection please do so ASAP.

To confirm your order, look for an email from help@witharsenal.com with the subject "Confirmation Needed" and fill out the survey. We need your response by Monday, May 14 to ship your order on the timeline below.

Not sure whether you confirmed your order? We sent out reminder emails last week. If you previously confirmed and didn’t receive one (check your spam and promotions folders too) you should be good to go.

Production Update

We’re really excited to say that Arsenal production is underway. We successfully completed our pilot run and mass production is happening now. Here are a few photos from the production line:

Arsenal boards in the “Test Rig” that flashes and runs our automated QA tests.

Units moving down the line.

An Arsenal in the final packaging.

The shrink wrap machine.

Arsenals boxed for shipping.

The pilot run was a small production run to make sure all of the processes worked in practice. It was a pretty surreal moment for us. Something about seeing the units go into their final packaging is pretty special and makes it feel like a bigger milestone than it probably is. :-) There were a few issues with our test/flashing rig that we had to work through at the last minute, but overall things went really well.

Manufacturing is just one step in delivering Arsenal to your door. Once each product is assembled, it goes to our fulfillment center for packaging and shipping. Which brings us to…

Shipping Updates/Logistics

Thank you all for your incredible patience and understanding on our delivery timeline. The long wait is almost over, and we’re so excited to get Arsenal into your hands!

The first Arsenal units will begin shipping in late May, two weeks later than planned. In addition, we’ve concluded it will take us longer than we thought to get all orders out the door. If everything goes smoothly, all confirmed pre-orders will ship in May or June.

The team is working extremely hard to ship your order as quickly as possible. Thank you again for your patience as we work through these final steps.

When your order ships, you will receive an email confirmation with tracking info. You will receive additional notifications when the shipment reaches various key stages (out for delivery, delivery complete, failed delivery, exceptions, etc). We’re really sorry, but for a variety of reasons we cannot provide time estimates or updates on individual orders before they ship.

Also, please note we cannot accelerate individual orders -- both because we prepare shipments in large batches, and out of fairness to other customers.

The support team has been doing a heroic job handling all of the customer logistic details involved in shipping such a large number of orders. I was warned by a few people that logistics requires a ton of manual effort, and that has proven more true than I imagined. Thanks to the support team for all of their hard work, especially as they’re also focused on preparing our support tools to help all of you get the most out of Arsenal (more on that below).

Arsenal Manual

We know many of you are itching to use Arsenal and want to familiarize yourself with it before it arrives. The manual and video tutorials are being finalized; we’ll publish them on our website very soon. In the meantime, the walk-through we did in Update #11 is a good place to start if you haven’t seen it or want a refresher.

Regulatory

Arsenal passed all of its regulatory testing a while ago, and we also received all of the paperwork/certifications since the last update. Thanks to Phillip’s amazing electrical engineering skills, the Arsenal board passed emissions testing on the first try.

Software

Most of the recent work on the software side has been debugging and adding polish. The way these uninteresting details are handled is really what makes an app experience great, at least for me.

We did manage to sneak in a few minor features. We built a new connection screen to simplify connecting to Arsenal the first time and switching between multiple Arsenal devices. To help you find exactly the right spot when tapping to focus, Ben added a small magnifier loupe that pops up when you tap and hold. And changing settings using DSLR camera dials will now update in the Arsenal app when the mirror is down. We’re also working through our final round of camera testing to ensure all of the latest Arsenal code works on every supported camera.

After the roll-out, we have a long list of new features on our roadmap. When new firmware is ready, the app will let you know.

Arsenal Inspiration

We’re really excited to see what everyone can do once they have Arsenal, and we’ve also had lots of requests for users to share their work with the Arsenal community.

We’d love for you to tag your Arsenal shots on social media as #withArsenal so that we all can see what you create! We’re going to be doing some giveaways and prizes for those that use the hashtag. More info to come.

We also put together an inspiration board on Pinterest. There you’ll find a number of the shots our beta users or I have taken with Arsenal during field testing. Please follow our boards and share with your friends!

We hope the #withArsenal photos and Pinterest board will help inspire your next adventure!

Wrap-up

A year ago today, before you joined us on this journey, I wondered whether Arsenal would ever grow beyond the one prototype I made in my garage. It’s hard to believe that 12 months later, we now have tens of thousands of Arsenal units rolling through a production line.

As one of our early supporters, you helped make Arsenal possible. Thanks again, and we’ll let you know when your order is on its way!

-Ryan